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

[J4bberwock]

j4bberwock will soon have a controller board ready.. he is waiting for the pcbs to arrive

its first step, next will sofware
contollers are not a so problem

that is why j4bber is sending out 2 controller boards, one to me, and another one so we can get on hacking at cgminer

Yeah, it finally moved from the post office and should be delivered today.
Fingers crossed, knocking on wood.

I have another package that is stuck somewhere at France airport, but hopefully not related to this project.
10/13/2014 12:00:00 AM    France. Arrive at France Airport
It's only been 10 days, and I live 2 hours from this airport...

[tss]

very curious to see this project's success. would love a controller for multiple blades.  can't wait anymore.  we're running out of time :-)

[HerbPean]

very curious to see this project's success. would love a controller for multiple blades.  can't wait anymore.  we're running out of time :-)

I tried to find some used control board or heatsinks. it is impossible apparently

Anyone know what kind of cables i can buy to connect my future boards to the controller ?  I will be getting one for sure !

I'm also trying to figure out an alternative to the existing heatsink... I will probably underclock at the most possible but i will still need some kind of heatsink i'm sure.

Thanks !

[J4bberwock]

very curious to see this project's success. would love a controller for multiple blades.  can't wait anymore.  we're running out of time :-)

I tried to find some used control board or heatsinks. it is impossible apparently

Anyone know what kind of cables i can buy to connect my future boards to the controller ?  I will be getting one for sure !

I'm also trying to figure out an alternative to the existing heatsink... I will probably underclock at the most possible but i will still need some kind of heatsink i'm sure.

Thanks !

I'll try to offer some cables. we discussed about the connectors earlier in the thread with CHAOSITEC, and I posted the references of the connectors and crimp pins if you want to make them yourself.
The project is meant to be as close to open source as possible.

I now have the revised PCBs in hand, I'll try to work on them tomorrow, worst case will be on monday.

[HerbPean]

very curious to see this project's success. would love a controller for multiple blades.  can't wait anymore.  we're running out of time :-)

I tried to find some used control board or heatsinks. it is impossible apparently

Anyone know what kind of cables i can buy to connect my future boards to the controller ?  I will be getting one for sure !

I'm also trying to figure out an alternative to the existing heatsink... I will probably underclock at the most possible but i will still need some kind of heatsink i'm sure.

Thanks !

I'll try to offer some cables. we discussed about the connectors earlier in the thread with CHAOSITEC, and I posted the references of the connectors and crimp pins if you want to make them yourself.
The project is meant to be as close to open source as possible.

I now have the revised PCBs in hand, I'll try to work on them tomorrow, worst case will be on monday.

Yeah the links were broken for me. (No product)

Great news !

[forpblat]

New user here chiming in. I'm a Linux nerd, and have an interest in Bitcoin from the mining side. I'm not in it to make gajillions, but would like to make ROI. Hopefully we can get the full 90GH from each blade.

I bought 4 S1 boards for cheap, no heatsinks, no controller, just bare blades.

I have on the way 4 PL2303-based UART to USB adapters to interface to a linux machine.

Also have 2 EVGA 500B PSUs to drive the boards.

Still have to figure out the heatsink situation. Probably going to be some scrap hardware I will quickly machine.

Anyways, I'm interested in where this goes, and happy to help with some diagnosing, etc where I can.

[WPlug]

I have on the way 4 PL2303-based UART to USB adapters to interface to a linux machine.

will try to make cgminer on next week with PL2303-based
// For 0x067b:0x2303 Prolific PL2303 - ICA

but for win only

[bspurloc]

BEWARE if anyone is using FTDI for their USB devices....
FTDI's new driver will brick bogus chips.

http://www.zdnet.com/ftdi-admits-to-bricking-innocent-users-chips-in-silent-update-7000035019/?s_cid=e539&ttag=e539&ftag=TRE17cfd61

unbrick steps.
http://www.reddit.com/r/arduino/comments/2k0i7x/watch_that_windows_update_ftdi_drivers_are/

[forpblat]

I have on the way 4 PL2303-based UART to USB adapters to interface to a linux machine.

will try to make cgminer on next week with PL2303-based
// For 0x067b:0x2303 Prolific PL2303 - ICA

but for win only

I'll be interested to hear your results. My blades are in, UARTs still coming and I found heatsinks to use. May need some aluminum for heat spreading across chips, to which I will mount the heatsinks to with fans.

[idonothave]

I have on the way 4 PL2303-based UART to USB adapters to interface to a linux machine.

will try to make cgminer on next week with PL2303-based
// For 0x067b:0x2303 Prolific PL2303 - ICA

but for win only

I'll be interested to hear your results. My blades are in, UARTs still coming and I found heatsinks to use. May need some aluminum for heat spreading across chips, to which I will mount the heatsinks to with fans.

Can You, please, describe 8 pins connector? What is which pin... I would like to try it. Thanks

[CHAOSiTEC]

I have on the way 4 PL2303-based UART to USB adapters to interface to a linux machine.

will try to make cgminer on next week with PL2303-based
// For 0x067b:0x2303 Prolific PL2303 - ICA

but for win only

I'll be interested to hear your results. My blades are in, UARTs still coming and I found heatsinks to use. May need some aluminum for heat spreading across chips, to which I will mount the heatsinks to with fans.

Can You, please, describe 8 pins connector? What is which pin... I would like to try it. Thanks

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=671128.msg8759503#msg8759503

[J4bberwock]

Quick update, the usb hub is now detected as a generic usb hub 
There are still 2 minor issues with the actual design:

-I managed to reverse D+ and D- on the usb A plug wiring when moving its connections on the schematics. Easily fixed using 2 wires instead of soldering the 2 pins direcly.

-The power management chip (TPS2044) isn't delivering the 3.3v to the usb TUSB2036. Because of this, nothing connected to the hub is detected.This one will need debugging tomorrow, since I won't have time to do it today. Worst case, I'll remove the TPS2044 and use wires to connect the 3.3v directly to the overcurrent pins of the TUSB2036. It's supposed to work, and it will reduce the BOM.

[J4bberwock]

Second update, I managed to find a few spare minutes to do the mods on the prototype board, and it now works, at least partially.

Working:
-One of the usb>uart bridges is detected correctly
-The usb A plug works as expected to allow daisy chaining, I tried hooking a single cp2102 usb plug, and it's detected.

Not working:
-The second CP2102 could need desoldering and reflowing, because it was soldered with an homemade "ugly" stencil.
I'll have a look to correct it tomorrow.

Not tested yet:
-The fan speed controller.

I'll take a few extra pics tomorrow and I'll remove the non working schematics from my previous posts to replace them with the new ones when everything will be debugged.

And of course, I'll solder a second prototype to send to the software guys, CHAOSITEC and pekatete.

[Lumanet]

New user here chiming in. I'm a Linux nerd, and have an interest in Bitcoin from the mining side. I'm not in it to make gajillions, but would like to make ROI. Hopefully we can get the full 90GH from each blade.

I bought 4 S1 boards for cheap, no heatsinks, no controller, just bare blades.

I have on the way 4 PL2303-based UART to USB adapters to interface to a linux machine.

Also have 2 EVGA 500B PSUs to drive the boards.

Still have to figure out the heatsink situation. Probably going to be some scrap hardware I will quickly machine.

Anyways, I'm interested in where this goes, and happy to help with some diagnosing, etc where I can.

First I would think about 2 things..... COSTS .... HEAT

So if heat is the issue use an aluminum block 0.5" thick on each blade and get a router to groove out the copper tube and you can run liquid cooling instead of regular.... Idea is picked up from the new Antminer C1

Cost so if your Electric is payed out of pocket swap out the resistors and under power them.... I wrote a long blog on how to do this. Just look around for Lumanet and under-volt Antminer S1.
And get than a aluminum block and apply some passive old CPU cooler .... done deal.

[Lumanet]

Quick update, the usb hub is now detected as a generic usb hub 
There are still 2 minor issues with the actual design:

-I managed to reverse D+ and D- on the usb A plug wiring when moving its connections on the schematics. Easily fixed using 2 wires instead of soldering the 2 pins direcly.

-The power management chip (TPS2044) isn't delivering the 3.3v to the usb TUSB2036. Because of this, nothing connected to the hub is detected.This one will need debugging tomorrow, since I won't have time to do it today. Worst case, I'll remove the TPS2044 and use wires to connect the 3.3v directly to the overcurrent pins of the TUSB2036. It's supposed to work, and it will reduce the BOM.

Let me know when you have a 4 blade or bigger PCB ready as a gerber would be great. I do have great relations with a PCB Compnay in China which I will use to manufacture those. If interrested let me know. I can't wait to see them in action. Also building on a DPS-800BG Power Adapter from PSU to POwer Jacks which is almost done just design right now a voltage regulator with a POT to fit in so you can adjust the voltage a bit better coming out of the PSU.

Lumanet Solar Energy LLC 

www.lumanet.info

[abzalus]

Any update im following this thread since it's begining I have 4 blades who are sleeping right now and I really want them to mine hehehe!

[J4bberwock]

Any update im following this thread since it's begining I have 4 blades who are sleeping right now and I really want them to mine hehehe!

I've been busy with quite nice orders of server PSU breakout boards this week, but to summarize, the prototype boards are working, the software still needs to be worked on to get the full speed from the hashing boards.

[idonothave]

I bought usb cp2102 (idVendor=10c4, idProduct=ea60) for ~8 dollars. Compiled bfgminer from github.com/luke-jr/bfgminer. Connected blade pin3 to rx, pin5 to tx. Bfgminer detected AMU and run ~4GHs, power consumption was ~72W. I tried cfgminer with the same result (https://github.com/ckolivas/cgminer), it worked only if compiled with --enable-icarus option. I will try it with another usb device and will see and let you know.

[CHAOSiTEC]

I bought usb cp2102 (idVendor=10c4, idProduct=ea60) for ~8 dollars. Compiled bfgminer from github.com/luke-jr/bfgminer. Connected blade pin3 to rx, pin5 to tx. Bfgminer detected AMU and run ~4GHs, power consumption was ~72W. I tried cfgminer with the same result (https://github.com/ckolivas/cgminer), it worked only if compiled with --enable-icarus option. I will try it with another usb device and will see and let you know.

for now, refer to this page, https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=671128.msg8827014#msg8827014

ill know more when i get home (tuesday), since ive ordered some 2102's and also waiting for j4bberwocks prototype, then i can do some work on it

[sobe-it]

My one blade has been running for days with out any heatsink on the back. The chips just have the little stick on ones. 40-50 ghs (solo mining) using ~60 watts. It seems the hashing speed depends on the clock/chip command. The blade is undervolted, still trying ti figure out how my one blade fried.