[DIY] - Reward $100 | Antminer S1/S3 Blade on Raspberry Pi

[grn]

6 - 8 blades and its going to cost you $110 to do it. i have tested 6 but not 8

Spill the beans on this one then .... $110 seems a bit steep, does your mod entail scrapping the S1 control boards?

No but it does require additional hardware. I will spill the beans in a week or so

[dance191]

I am a little unclear exactly how this would work.  Is there a way to connect the Pi to the blade of the Ant?  I haven't looked into that, but that sounds great!

If you could use the Pi, then except for the heatsink wouldn't you have everything to run a S3 using the upgrade kit?  In other words, is the reward claimed when someone gets a Pi to run a S1/S3 blade?  If so, I will throw in $100 towards the reward.  If things could get to the point where you have a Pi controlling a S3 upgrade kit, that would be cheaper than buying the S3 by .12 BTC (plus heatsinks). 

Anyways, count me in for $100 if someone gets a Pi running a S3.

[bmoscato]

6 - 8 blades and its going to cost you $110 to do it. i have tested 6 but not 8

Spill the beans on this one then .... $110 seems a bit steep, does your mod entail scrapping the S1 control boards?

No but it does require additional hardware. I will spill the beans in a week or so

Any progress on this?

[allcoinminer]

6 - 8 blades and its going to cost you $110 to do it. i have tested 6 but not 8

Spill the beans on this one then .... $110 seems a bit steep, does your mod entail scrapping the S1 control boards?

No but it does require additional hardware. I will spill the beans in a week or so

Any progress on this?

No considerable improvements from the start.
But it will when the S1 upgrade kits are available.

[chadwickx16]

Is the bounty in escrow or just offered by promises?

[pekatete]

6 - 8 blades and its going to cost you $110 to do it. i have tested 6 but not 8

Spill the beans on this one then .... $110 seems a bit steep, does your mod entail scrapping the S1 control boards?

No but it does require additional hardware. I will spill the beans in a week or so

Any progress on this?

No considerable improvements from the start.
But it will when the S1 upgrade kits are available.

Forgive me, but that sounds like a load of trite! What on earth does the S3 upgrade kit (that you are waiting on) have that the existing S1 and S3 do not have?
I was actually holding out for your solution, but looks like this is real pie in the sky! Shame upon you.

[J4bberwock]

I'm getting an S1 in 2 days as a new toy to play with after the gridseed and zeus.
Considering what is the control board, I believe something can be done, but will almost for sure need custom firmware, and a few components.
I'll elaborate when I'll have the control board in hands, but it's not like splitting the data sent to one board to feed 2 or more boards.
I won't have the software skills to do it, but I'll probably have the hardware ones, if it can be done.

[pekatete]

I'm getting an S1 in 2 days as a new toy to play with after the gridseed and zeus.
Considering what is the control board, I believe something can be done, but will almost for sure need custom firmware, and a few components.
I'll elaborate when I'll have the control board in hands, but it's not like splitting the data sent to one board to feed 2 or more boards.
I won't have the software skills to do it, but I'll probably have the hardware ones, if it can be done.

I've got my ear to the ground on that ma' friend!
I am convinced that those ribbon cables are simply rx/tx lines from a USB chip on the controller board. In my scheme of things, I was actually looking at running the boards without the bitmain controller board and simply powering them up and connecting to my own laptop's USB via a custom USB chip (I am guessing there are going to be at least 4 tx/rx lines per board) that can handle 4 lines then looking at kano's driver (I already have a miner) to run on a windows PC.

But hey, mine is probably more suited to me and will be in the works for a while now, nevertheless I await your results in a couple of days when you get your S1 (I personally want to use the boards from an S1 that I will be upgrading with the S3 kit).

[allcoinminer]

6 - 8 blades and its going to cost you $110 to do it. i have tested 6 but not 8

Spill the beans on this one then .... $110 seems a bit steep, does your mod entail scrapping the S1 control boards?

No but it does require additional hardware. I will spill the beans in a week or so

Any progress on this?

No considerable improvements from the start.
But it will when the S1 upgrade kits are available.

Forgive me, but that sounds like a load of trite! What on earth does the S3 upgrade kit (that you are waiting on) have that the existing S1 and S3 do not have?
I was actually holding out for your solution, but looks like this is real pie in the sky! Shame upon you.

Seems like you misunderstood the thread and its motives.
This is not something who are looking for money, but for those who are real enthusiasts who wish to do hardware hacks.
Its not just a solution from me, any one can tryout.
When S1 owners upgrade with S1 ti S3 upgrade kits they get a lot of S1 controlboards/Blades to play with.
That's the reason for waiting.

[J4bberwock]

I'm getting an S1 in 2 days as a new toy to play with after the gridseed and zeus.
Considering what is the control board, I believe something can be done, but will almost for sure need custom firmware, and a few components.
I'll elaborate when I'll have the control board in hands, but it's not like splitting the data sent to one board to feed 2 or more boards.
I won't have the software skills to do it, but I'll probably have the hardware ones, if it can be done.

I've got my ear to the ground on that ma' friend!
I am convinced that those ribbon cables are simply rx/tx lines from a USB chip on the controller board. In my scheme of things, I was actually looking at running the boards without the bitmain controller board and simply powering them up and connecting to my own laptop's USB via a custom USB chip (I am guessing there are going to be at least 4 tx/rx lines per board) that can handle 4 lines then looking at kano's driver (I already have a miner) to run on a windows PC.

But hey, mine is probably more suited to me and will be in the works for a while now, nevertheless I await your results in a couple of days when you get your S1 (I personally want to use the boards from an S1 that I will be upgrading with the S3 kit).

You are right on the usb thing.
There is only 1 USB line from the atheros chip, and it's routed to some kind of USB hub on the board.
Then, each header is used for temp sensing, fan driving, and 1 usb line.

But the same atheros chip is used in the TPLINK 3020. I guess now, you understand what I'm looking for?

Hacking a TPlink firmware with the cgminer that supports the bitmain chips/boards is the easiest and most cost effective way to do it.

Then, the usb interface can be easily made with a simple and cheap PCB or even a usb cable to whatever pin header they are using.

Controling the temperatures and the fans would be lost if you use a simple usb cable.

I hope my explainations are clear enough so someone on the software side can implement them.
I started to look at this a few hours ago with nothing else than the schematics and a few pics of the board, so I don't have all the details yet, and I need the boards to work.

[J4bberwock]

Seems like you misunderstood the thread and its motives.
This is not something who are looking for money, but for those who are real enthusiasts who wish to do hardware hacks.
Its not just a solution from me, any one can tryout.
When S1 owners upgrade with S1 ti S3 upgrade kits they get a lot of S1 controlboards/Blades to play with.
That's the reason for waiting.

No need to wait for upgrade kits, I bought an S1 to play with the firmware, looking for a way to unbrick control boards, looks like Taugeran did it, so I've found another playground.
I'll give a few updates on the hardware side when I'll finally have an S1 in hands in 2 days.

And if I'm not mistaken, using a RPI's usb or any computer should also work if you use the correct CGminer.
A simple interface board for the USB could do it.
And this interface board would cost almost nothing to produce.

[pekatete]

Seems like you misunderstood the thread and its motives.
This is not something who are looking for money, but for those who are real enthusiasts who wish to do hardware hacks.
Its not just a solution from me, any one can tryout.
When S1 owners upgrade with S1 ti S3 upgrade kits they get a lot of S1 controlboards/Blades to play with.
That's the reason for waiting.

No need to wait for upgrade kits, I bought an S1 to play with the firmware, looking for a way to unbrick control boards, looks like MrTaugeran did it, so I've found another playground.
I'll give a few updates on the hardware side when I'll finally have an S1 in hands in 2 days.

And if I'm not mistaken, using a RPI's usb or any computer should also work if you use the correct CGminer.
A simple interface board for the USB could do it.
And this interface board would cost almost nothing to produce.

Now YOU are talking!
allcoinminer promised something in a week, did not / could not fulfill his promise but rather (cheeky of me) gave another smokescreen. But the initial promise seemed substantial, only now I realize it was nothing!

Back to the hacking, I was thinking of the simple USB interface connected to a computer as the lowest cost (both financially and knowledgewise) because I currently run my S1's in a box detached from their puny temp control. I have their stock fans on one side of the box as inputs and on the other side I acquired a set of 150CFM server fans (for GBP 5.00 @) sucking all the heat out (aka exhausts). On an average hot summer day (I keep them outside under a tree) they average temp of approx 34 - 38 on any unit. Also, I power the fans independently.

So there you have it, keep hacking ma friend, but once I have a look over the Kano driver, I'll be in a better position to say whether I can keep on this hacking path. But I like your approach very much!

[powersup]

I have done a little digging.  It looks like the MCU communicates to the ASIC chips via a simple 2 wire UART.

Looking around, I found that BTCgarden ASIC may use the same communication method with a Rpi using GPIO14 and GPIO15

more info, including a Rpi image for the BTCgarden can be found at http://www.btcgarden.com/faq

I wish I could give more time to this, but I will be on vacation in two days.

[shadow2]

2 wires in the UART  - specifically 3 & 5 (4 is an earth/ground)

I'm pretty sure though by at the cable to the blades it's serial comms

http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/61107G.pdf

it seems to go moving away from the blade

UART - MCU - USB hub

[allcoinminer]

Some of the above posts seems like they are waiting for something from me here.
I was actually have nothing more to give or promise than organising and tempting these hardware hackers to achieve the goal.
My time lines said are all expectations of which some of you will try and contribute.
Hope you guys understand what I meant. If the post misleads anyone somehow, please change your mind in this direction.
Now on I will restrict from responding to those comments just to keep this thread understated from the subject.

[pekatete]

Some of the above posts seems like they are waiting for something from me here.
I was actually have nothing more to give or promise than organising and tempting these hardware hackers to achieve the goal.
My time lines said are all expectations of which some of you will try and contribute.
Hope you guys understand what I meant. If the post misleads anyone somehow, please change your mind in this direction.
Now on I will restrict from responding to those comments just to keep this thread understated from the subject.

Whatever.

[pekatete]

2 wires in the UART  - specifically 3 & 5 (4 is an earth/ground)

I'm pretty sure though by at the cable to the blades it's serial comms

http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/61107G.pdf

it seems to go moving away from the blade

UART - MCU - USB hub

Again, something interesting here. thanks for sharing.

[J4bberwock]

2 wires in the UART  - specifically 3 & 5 (4 is an earth/ground)

I'm pretty sure though by at the cable to the blades it's serial comms

http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/61107G.pdf

it seems to go moving away from the blade

UART - MCU - USB hub

Again, something interesting here. thanks for sharing.

The only thing that I'm still not sure is what happens to the data inside the pic32 chip.
I'll have a look, but my guess is that it's a simple UART>USB that can be replaced by CP2102 or similar cheap chips.
If I'm right, the USB to UART replacement board that will allow plugging the hashing board to a PC/Raspberry or any controller with USB would probably cost no more than 6-8$, but you will need one for each hashing board.
Dedicated "hub" up to 4 boards should cost 15-20$ using a single chip.

All the hashing chips I've seen so far are working the same for the data, it's UART to USB. Made by different chips, usually depending on what you want to do.
CP2102 and similar simply carry the hashing data. <- what we are looking for with this project.

PIC are used to allow monitoring and dynamic change of voltage in some designs.

I have a few AT90USB162 boards that can be reprogrammed as UART to USB. It could be fun.
MR3020 > USB-UART converter > hashing board

MR3020 should be able to handle the same firmware the hashing board uses, worst case, it would need minor changes.
Once it works, a cgminer build with the correct parameters should allow cross platfom use.

Now, back to work on something else while waiting for the S1 to arrive tomorrow.

[bmoscato]

Some of the above posts seems like they are waiting for something from me here.
I was actually have nothing more to give or promise than organising and tempting these hardware hackers to achieve the goal.
My time lines said are all expectations of which some of you will try and contribute.
Hope you guys understand what I meant. If the post misleads anyone somehow, please change your mind in this direction.
Now on I will restrict from responding to those comments just to keep this thread understated from the subject.

Whatever.

I think we are waiting on GRN...

[J4bberwock]

S1 arrived, time for some fun, I'll have a look tomorrow.
"Missing" headers on the control unit added for debug and also in circuit serial programming just in case I'd need it.