Just to elaborate on ManeBjorn's point, here's the plan:
Instead of building these adapters from scratch, I'm looking for an existing USB-UART using the CP2102 which I can adapt (essentially the only requirement besides being a CP2102 USB-UART is having a LED tied to RXD- let me know if you have one, and post a couple pictures so I can find a clone for sale more easily). Once I find a good cheap option, I can make a professional looking USB-UART adapter suitable for tubes and prismas by switching only a couple of surface mount parts. This will be faster to make than buying everything from scratch, especially PCBs, and cheaper too unless I'm making at least several hundred.
In about a week or so I should be getting in some adapters which I will test for suitability (Not all of them would necessarily be just a simple SMD swap, it might require a through hole jumper/resistor hanging off, which I would like to eliminate). Once I know what adapter to use I will have a price and know what changes are required. For now, a crude price estimate is about $4-$7 plus shipping, depending on what quantity the batch is and how cheaply I can find good adapters. No promises yet, everything is up in the air. ManeBjorn has been working/discussing with me to try to improve the tubes since they first came out, especially with regard to the BE-controller debacle.
The only reason I am even considering a production run is how bad of a job ASICMiner is doing at shipping adapters / selling to existing tube owners. If they step up their game this becomes fairly pointless.
So let me know if you're interested! I will update as I have more info.
--
novak
Topic: [DIY] Tube/Prisma USB Adapter from USB Blockerupter - page 2. (Read 10316 times)
We would like to hear from you all. He can do a run of UARTs for this.
If there is enough interest I will get him the funds and he can get them going. I know they are hard to get and depending on the amount needed we can get the run going.
I have been working with him behind the scenes to get project going. Novak is a talented guy that is for sure.
So everyone let us know here if you are interested and we will get it going. I will give him what ever help he needs.
Thank you.
If there is enough interest I will get him the funds and he can get them going. I know they are hard to get and depending on the amount needed we can get the run going.
I have been working with him behind the scenes to get project going. Novak is a talented guy that is for sure.
So everyone let us know here if you are interested and we will get it going. I will give him what ever help he needs.
Thank you.
Keep the updates flow 
Wow - you are good.
Excellent job and good way to find a new use for the old block erupters.
Nice guide as well.
Nice guide as well.
I wanted to reverse engineer the USB adapter from ASICMiner for
Tubes/Prismas so I built one out of an old USB Blockerupter. The
Blockerupter, like most (all?) USB-controlled bitcoin hardware makes use of
the CP2102 USB-UART adapter, just like the adapter from asicminer. Here's
a picture of the adapter, showing which pins are which.
To use the blockerupter, you want to get rid of anything potentially using
the BE100 chip, or communicating on the UART. Here's the blockerupter,
showing what I removed. Some of this is optional, but I wanted to reuse
the inductor pads for wiring so make sure to get rid of big caps as well.
Once you've got a bunch of the stuff pulled, plug it into a computer and
check if it works. The SI labs website has a handy tool for checking if
CP2102s are in working order. Everything on the chip should be factory
defaults.
Now you need to wire the UART RXD and TXD pins to output wires. Find the
smallest wire you can. I used single strands from a stranded 24 AWG wire,
and it worked pretty well. The RXD pin on the CP2102 goes to the topmost
left pin of the microcontroller, an Atmel 2313 AVR, and the TXD pin goes
to the leftmost top pin on the micro. I jumped them from these tiny pads
to the inductor pads. You can jump them where you think best, but don't
short to something which would interfere with the signal. There is one
more issue. If you look closely at the RXD pin on the ASICMiner adapter,
you'll notice that it is tied high (to 3.3V, not 5V) through a 1K
resistor.
We need to run a 1K resistor from 3.3V to RXD. C5 and C6 are the output
capacitors from the internal regulator for the CP2102. Jump from them to
RXD. Here's a picture showing where all the wiring on the blockerupter
needs to go. Remember, leftmost top pin, and topmost left pin from the
microcontroller.
It should function as a USB-UART adapter now! Hook up GND, TXD, and RXD
as shown in the first picture and fire up your miner! The final product
should look something like this. I added some hot glue to keep the tiny
wires in place.
It seemed to work as well as the ASICMiner adapter, here's a screenshot
from a single prisma board hashing:
You should theoretically be able to use any CP2102 USB-UART with
a 1K pullup resistor from 3.3V to RXD in this fashion.
EDIT: Moved pictures temporarily so they will load. I might mess with resizing them later.
--
novak
Tubes/Prismas so I built one out of an old USB Blockerupter. The
Blockerupter, like most (all?) USB-controlled bitcoin hardware makes use of
the CP2102 USB-UART adapter, just like the adapter from asicminer. Here's
a picture of the adapter, showing which pins are which.
To use the blockerupter, you want to get rid of anything potentially using
the BE100 chip, or communicating on the UART. Here's the blockerupter,
showing what I removed. Some of this is optional, but I wanted to reuse
the inductor pads for wiring so make sure to get rid of big caps as well.
Once you've got a bunch of the stuff pulled, plug it into a computer and
check if it works. The SI labs website has a handy tool for checking if
CP2102s are in working order. Everything on the chip should be factory
defaults.
Now you need to wire the UART RXD and TXD pins to output wires. Find the
smallest wire you can. I used single strands from a stranded 24 AWG wire,
and it worked pretty well. The RXD pin on the CP2102 goes to the topmost
left pin of the microcontroller, an Atmel 2313 AVR, and the TXD pin goes
to the leftmost top pin on the micro. I jumped them from these tiny pads
to the inductor pads. You can jump them where you think best, but don't
short to something which would interfere with the signal. There is one
more issue. If you look closely at the RXD pin on the ASICMiner adapter,
you'll notice that it is tied high (to 3.3V, not 5V) through a 1K
resistor.
We need to run a 1K resistor from 3.3V to RXD. C5 and C6 are the output
capacitors from the internal regulator for the CP2102. Jump from them to
RXD. Here's a picture showing where all the wiring on the blockerupter
needs to go. Remember, leftmost top pin, and topmost left pin from the
microcontroller.
It should function as a USB-UART adapter now! Hook up GND, TXD, and RXD
as shown in the first picture and fire up your miner! The final product
should look something like this. I added some hot glue to keep the tiny
wires in place.
It seemed to work as well as the ASICMiner adapter, here's a screenshot
from a single prisma board hashing:
You should theoretically be able to use any CP2102 USB-UART with
a 1K pullup resistor from 3.3V to RXD in this fashion.
EDIT: Moved pictures temporarily so they will load. I might mess with resizing them later.
--
novak
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