Topic: GekkoScience Compac BM1384 Stickminer Official Support Thread - page 131. (Read 268030 times)

Yeah, he's a great guy with a great product.

I'm running Minera on three different Pi's, but they're all variants on the Pi 1. I don't know if Minera works on a Pi 2. That's a good question.

Can't wait to see image!  Sounds like a good guy to allow it.  And thank you for doing it.

Will it work on raspberry Pi2 or just Raspberry PI 1.  I am new to Minera.

michelem has given me permission to post the Minera mod. What a great guy! I'll try to get it cleaned up and posted today.

I've also been talking to him about directly supporting the Compac by including cgminer-gekko in a future release of Minera. It would be nice to have a built-in specialized mining alternative to the general solutions like bfgminer (which is already included with Minera, but currently is not the right version for Compac support).

Also if future products were based on the same cgminer-gekko fork, then having a foot in the door with Minera for the Compac could lead to more streamlined support for future Gekko products under Minera.

I'll get the mod posted then step out of the way. Maybe if novak wants to follow up regarding Gekko product support under Minera he could talk directly with michelem.

EDIT: Just read some other posts that indicate that Compac support will be included in the official cgminer release. If that's the case, then Compac support under Minera will naturally happen in future updates without requiring the inclusion of the Gekko fork. However it would still be nice to have a Compac preset in Minera (maybe it would set the lowest frequency as an example). That would be something that michelem could add.

The current rating on the inductor is 17.5A, which at 400MHz (22GH) at 0.8V you should see less than 12.5A. I don't know where the breaking point is because I've never pushed one farther than 450MHz, which was drawing 2.5A from the USB jack. I bet if you could run about 850mV and 500MHz you'd see around 17A at 27.5GH and run a serious risk of your ASIC bursting into flames before the inductor does. But it'd be pretty fun. You'd also be drawing well over 3A from your jack, especially if the voltage was sagging.

Turns out keeping some stuff is a good idea.  I kept a few hubs from old day's I found in my parts area.  Trying just a few at first. 

But I have a feeling will be buying a few more.  Started to map out an idea to hold my hubs and some fan's to keep it all cool.  Should work good in the end.

A few questions:

How would we go about REALLY pushing these sticks? The BM1384 datasheet says that these chips can do 22gh/s @ 10W--I'm pretty sure some of those dipo hubs that klintay was selling could actually handle the current for that. Is there a bottleneck for current in the stick (if that makes any sense)?

I also noticed that max operational temp of the chip is 125 degrees celsius. That seems quite high to me, do you know the actual max/recommended chip temps that the stickminer can handle?

Link for the lazy:
https://www.bitmaintech.com/files/download/BM1384_Datasheet_v2.0.pdf

Thanks everyone!

OK I got them to work ..here my  2 gekko dust miners at work set at default 150mh (no idea what a good GH speed is) here is my Eligius address below for anyone interested
they are running on Unbuntu 12.04 using the fixes (which I added to the list for Novak's help) he can post this someplace so folk can use it for probably unbuntu but at least
my version for sure of 12.04 LTC version on some older laptops (not the latest unbuntu but still supported with upgrades FYI) ..again prob will work with newer versions too.

anyway my Eligius Address to watch them mine below

http://eligius.st/~wizkid057/newstats/userstats.php/1PbhCD56EE1ur45UvTca5wEUkAPpTi25oq

below is a pic of them mining (no idea if these are good speeds at 150mh or what but anyway its a pic)




here is my full imgur album to look at my knc shrine to titan(s) etc notice the KNC Jupiter 550gh used now as a gravity assist device to keep the miner bench grounded

http://lostgonzo.imgur.com/


Here is the modified list to be used for the above with Novak's additions from the previous post


REVISED FIXED STEPS FOR UNBUNTU 12.04 LTC (and probably will work with newer versions)

If you want to run the sticks on linux, you'll need either bfgminer or cgminer.  Either way you are probably going to have to compile them, but I've had little trouble with this so it's probably just a matter of running a few simple commands.

Here's what you'd do to get cgminer on linux going:
1. Open a terminal.
2. wget http://gekkoscience.com/misc/cgminer-gekko.tar.gz            

This downloads the file- you can save it from your browser instead, it's the same thing.

3. tar -xvzf cgminer-gekko.tar.gz

This extracts the files. which are compressed (like a zip file for linux)

4. cd cgminer-gekko
 
Enters the cgminer-gekko folder you just extracted.

5. sudo apt-get install build-essential autoconf automake libtool

You need to install the dependencies for cgminer.

6. ./autogen.sh

This will generate a configure script for you which will set up compiling for your system.

7. ./configure --enable-gekko

7.1 ADDED FIX (#1) (See below) just run this

sudo apt-get install build-essential autoconf automake libtool pkg-config libcurl3-dev libudev-dev

7.2 ADDED FIX (#2) just run this

sudo apt-get install build-essential autoconf automake libtool libcurl4-openssl-dev pkg-config libncurses5-dev and libudev-dev

This will configure the build.  This is the most likely place to have anything go wrong, if it does, let me know exactly what's up.  Odds are it would be some package that you should have installed.

8. make

Performs the build.  If you get an error there- again, let me know details.

You are ready to run cgminer.  This should look something like:

./cgminer -o stratum+tcp://stratum.mining.eligius.st:3334 -u 1BURGERAXHH6Yi6LRybRJK7ybEm5m5HwTr --compac-freq 150

Although if you don't have permissions setup you may have to become root or use sudo, eg,

sudo ./cgminer -o stratum+tcp://stratum.mining.eligius.st:3334 -u 1BURGERAXHH6Yi6LRybRJK7ybEm5m5HwTr --compac-freq 150

cgminer should now detect any compacs plugged in while it is running.  Obviously you'll use a slightly different command to launch cgminer, if you use that one you'll be mining for us!  Most pools even post example commands, let me know if you need help figuring it out.

--
novak


ok works just fine ...anyone can tell me if the speeds are ok etc at 150mh and I can also tweak that later as I wish...but chugging away just fine (pretty lcd lights)

i also have a orico 10 port hub here that says windows and mac but works plug and play just fine with unbuntu 12.04 LTC w/o issue

here is a previous bitcointalk post with pic

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.12348793


so all is well ...anyway the above listing (revised) works fine for anyone in need

thanks for the help Novak and Sidehack like the toys and appreciate the help (man prob should get more .....the grin of getting them up was worth the ROI)

but for use as a laugh on my 2 old no longer able to be used compaq evo N800V laptops on my Titan to monitor my Titan(s) this will be some pretty slick "bling"
for them to run too LOL

anyway later I'll prob be asking how to rev them up some ZOOM ZOOM

again thanks all for the help


additional: er by the way it says 54 MONTHS before I make enough to payout....er maybe I don't want to use Eligius huh?  lol

anyway other way to do this on a pool and at least get paid out in dust once every 2 months or some such? (or i guess i can just solo/lotto mine them
or NOVAK would be  like BUY MORE USB'S from them lol

just got a laugh off my page above with the 54 months to payout (edit: now it shows 17 months...progress)

Crap I left off a step, where I said "you have to install the dependencies for cgminer," I didn't actually tell you what those where or how to do so.

Run this command:
sudo apt-get install build-essential autoconf automake libtool pkg-config libcurl3-dev libudev-dev

The error you see is the configure script checking to make sure it has everything needed to compile and failing because it does not, specifically libcurl-dev is missing.  

I don't run ubuntu myself so I hope that the package names are accurate here (they're from the README).  If not... Let me know what packages it can't find.

EDIT: Package names may be as Jake36 posted:

build-essential autoconf automake libtool libcurl4-openssl-dev pkg-config libncurses5-dev and libudev-dev

so run:

sudo apt-get install build-essential autoconf automake libtool libcurl4-openssl-dev pkg-config libncurses5-dev and libudev-dev


--
novak

The voltage wasn't maxed out quite yet (since he was testing on a V0.3 prototype where the dead zone on the pot could fry your ASIC but at 450MHz the effective hashrate was lower than at 425MHz. The production-version V0.5 doesn't have that problem (the dead zone sets voltage to minimum, 550mV) so overvolting is not an issue. If you need more voltage at the top end (more than 800mV) I think dropping the resistance on the unmarked resistor above the pot can get you there. It's 34.8K but taking it down to about 32K will give you 850mV top end. Note this would be like running an S5 off 12.8V supply.

At 450MHz the stick was pulling 2.5A and we haven't tested further. Yet.

Searing - try "sudo apt-get install libcurl-dev" and see what that does. Not sure if that's what you need but the answer is of that form. You know, like what that guy there just posted.

You beat me to the post... LOL

Try what I just posted, should be the same for unbutu as it is for raspbian.

I got the cgminer-gekko onto my Pi running raspbian, had to add a few things to get it to compile right, and don't have my sticks, so don't know if it will work yet.

For anyone compiling on a Pi running raspbian, on step 5 above I added:   libcurl4-openssl-dev pkg-config libncurses5-dev and libudev-dev (guess their not in raspbian and it came up with some errors)

So step 5 was: sudo apt-get install build-essential autoconf automake libtool libcurl4-openssl-dev pkg-config libncurses5-dev libudev-dev

Then step 7. ./configure --enable-gekko --disable-libcurl  (raspbian will show an error if libcurl is not installed, but cgminer doesn't need it)

Step 8 I just did: sudo make install

Tried to run cgminer (with nothing plugged in) before adding the other dev packages and it wouldn't start, added the dev's and it started up looking for miners.

Then copied from http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/  readme

The long version:

On linux, the direct USB support requires no drivers at all. However due to permissions issues, you may not be able to mine directly on the devices as a
regular user without giving the user access to the device or by mining as root (administrator). In order to give your regular user access, you can make
him a member of the plugdev group with the following commands:

sudo usermod -G plugdev -a `whoami`

If your distribution does not have the plugdev group you can create it with:

sudo groupadd plugdev

In order for the USB devices to instantly be owned by the plugdev group and accessible by anyone from the plugdev group you can copy the file
"01-cgminer.rules" from the cgminer archive into the /etc/udev/rules.d directory with the following command:

sudo cp 01-cgminer.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/

After this you can either manually restart udev and re-login, or more easily just reboot.  Thanks ck

This should save everyone else planing on running the sticks on a Pi some time (if it works when my sticks arrive).

Has it been attempted to push it until the point where the HW errors exceed the GH gain? 225, 250, 300 etc?

error from your instructions above on #7 step (as you said the likely error point) I got this

configure: error: Missing required libcurl dev >= 7.18.2 

I'm using an old Compaq Evo N800v Laptop that can't run XP anymore (to monitor Titan(s)) and is running the latest patches that it can run of (just updated) Unbuntu 12.04 LTS (still supported with updates etc and again updated today all up to date) this is the most upgrade of such my little laptops can handle for unbuntu versions (topped out) FYI.

anyway just need more of your UNBUNTU command line magic to continue (I only installed unbuntu 12.04 LTS on these laptops because not useful for xp or above ....to monitor Titan(s) so
my extent of Linux is managing to install the install CD originally and get on the store and get putty.exe (free) to ssh into Titan(s)

So this oh so zoom zoom terminal scroll spiffy install stuff was pretty cool ...no idea wtf is going on but again cool... ..the installs/ build up to the point it choked in command line etc all
very MATRIX like scrolling away merrily ...looked like it was compiling SKYNET to a linux newbie like me...all very spiffy)

anyway just looking at what monkey see monkey do commands I need to type in next to continue this process

again thanks for the help

Novak do you intend to push your changes back to cgminer once they are final?

Yeah, probably.

A thought for Novak and sidehack: Should you guys add the Compac as a product on your website? I just noticed it isn't there.

Yup.


Yup.


It really won't affect performance.  I built and tested it on 64 bit windows seven.

--
novak

My simplistic understanding is that cgminer is what requires the "zadig dance", and NOT the specific miner being used.

I also believe that bfgminer is still "zadig free", regardless the specific hardware.

Is your version based off the latest 4.9.2 release?  Has ck chimed in about including the compac stick in future cgminer releases?

Do the compac sticks need to be zadig'd to for cgminer to see them?

I use both bfgminer and cgminer in different applications, so I will likely continue to use both when my compac sticks arrive.

I have kind of an odd/simple question. I will give my Compac a try on a Win64 Pro environment initially. While I would be inclined to try a win64 version of bfgminer, Am I just as well served by a win32 version of cgminer (or bfgminer)?

Ultimately I'll fiddle with my Pi enough, but thought I would make sure all is well with Windows to start.

Thanks for any comments and insight.