Topic: GekkoScience Compac BM1384 Stickminer Official Support Thread - page 22. (Read 268078 times)

Find out what version of Windows you are running then use the correct one. There is plenty of info in this thread and most of it on the front page. Also Google and YouTube have a vast array of knowledge (that's where I learnt about zadig) 

Hello,
I just got my first GekkoScience USB miner. I'm trying to run it on a windows machine but I cannot figure out how to install the Zadig driver for cgminer. The only version that I was able to run on my PC is zadig_xp_v2.0.1.161.exe. Can someone please help and give me a few steps? Thanks in advance.

The best thing you can do when it comes to alt coin mining is to do a great deal of research.  I'm not saying this to pass you off or ignore your question, but the reality is that no one here knows specifically what you have, your power costs, your time allotted to mining, your control setup, etc...  See what I mean?  There's tons of variables just in a single stick mining setup that would have to be accounted for.

Now, as for the ASIC's themselves, they'll mine anything that supports SHA256 but sadly, most coins that use that algo are either going to be tough to mine or so cheap on the return that you won't get much of anything for them.

Here's what I would suggest to you though.  Do you have a GPU you can spare?  Have you heard of ZPool and Miner Control?  Do you get excited when it comes to editing conf files?  If you answered yes to most of this, then alt algo mining is most likely the answer for you.

In the interest of trying to be helpful though, if you tell me about your setup, I may be able to help but I make no guarantees.

Here's what I need to know:

What's your power cost per kilowatt hour?
What are you running your stick(s) on and how many are you using?
What are their frequencies?
What software are you using to drive them?
How much time during the day do you spare for mining?

This should at least give us a good grounding and we can go from there.

Hello,
i am a noob in mining cryptocurrencies and used my compac bm1384 to grind some Gridcoins on Bitcoin Utopia. Sadly, Bitcoin Utopia has been voted out of the whitelist so that this doesn´t work any more. Now i am searching for an alternative currency to mine on the compac bm1384. Mining Bitcoins with it is a loosing deal, because of the power costs (at least where i am).

So what is your recommendation ? What currency is best to grind with the Compac ?

Regards,
impact79

So is mine, oddly.  When I tried a USB 3 port, it made no difference but I think that would be the case regardless as the sticks themselves are only capable of USB 2.

i doubt it. i believe sidehack gave the numbers a few pages back but i think it would take many of these.. ( more then 100?) to saturate the 480mbps of usb.


one thing to not, my usb hub is plugged into a usb 2.0 port not a 3.0 port.

Yes, that's roughly the same Amperage but again, I can lower each stick to around .5 amps and if I stick on more than 3, they all die.  This is why I said originally that I was curious if it might be a memory caching issue or a USB bandwidth issue.

maybe ill try 3 and see if i can get them to run more then 250..

it might be the power is at its cap. if you are running 1.66a per stick and running 3, thats 5a. and im running 5 at .9a which is the same?

Well, that's what is so odd.  They ARE running 1.66A per stick on that hub.  I'm currently running all 3 of them at around 305 clock speed and they're fine.  If I add a 4th, it makes no difference what speed I run them at, they'll all keep resetting.

that hub you linked is the same hub i have, and this hub can NOT supply 1.5-1.6a per port.. only the charging port can do more then .9a.
the other 9 shut off (the blue light will blink) if you hit it with too many apms..

In that case I would refer back to the place you bought it (if new). If not then Sidehack or Novak MIGHT be able to help if you ask nicely  But it is totally at their discretion.

Tried this a number of times. Cgminer hotplugs the miner; it detects it in all different USB ports, but the miner itself is not reset and does not restart ("fails to respond to restart"). White led continues to be on all the time.

I have 2 of the following:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005NGQWL2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Something else that makes me think it could be a memory bandwidth issue is that if I put 3 sticks on one hub and 2 on the other, connect both hubs to the usb interfaces on the PC, I'll get the same results.  Not really sure what the deal is with this.  I know the hubs can supply upwards of 1.5-1.6 amps per port (so long as you don't go over 5A total, you should be fine) but even adjusting the sticks to fit well underneath the cap, I get the same results.

i have 5 on this hub

https://www.amazon.com/Upgraded-Anker-SuperSpeed-Including-Charging/dp/B005NGQWL2/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1471631131&sr=8-2&keywords=anker+7+port+usb+3.0+hub+60w

they wont go past 225 tho.. because its limited to 900ma.. the ports switch off if you draw more amps. its about 62 ghs.
i was thinking about making usb bridges for it and seeing if i cant use 2 ports per usb miner..

not sure what anker hub you have?

I'd change the hub to be honest. I use a d-link h7 hub which works fine for my two gekkos (yes I know you have an issue with more than three at a time). Get a cheap powered one and see how you get on.

As I said, I've run the gambit from 150-300 and if there's more than 4 sticks, it doesn't matter what the clock rate is set at. They simply fail.

Do you think it might be an Anker thing?  Maybe since it's coming from a USB 3 hub??

The ceiling on my 49-port hub is about 280GH, so however many sticks at whatever frequency to do that.

Ok, so a little more testing and I think I may have found a weak point with the USB mining.  Seems if you string more than 3 in series on an Anker hub, they'll all start resetting and this is regardless of the speed you run them at.

In my case, if I have just 3 of them on the hub, I can push 315-317 frequency and they'll hum along nicely.  Add a 4th one and they'll start dropping all over the place.  I'm assuming this has something to do with the bandwidth of the bus architecture itself as I can't see another reason for it.  I've checked power, it's not that.  I've lowered clocks down to factory or even lower (90-150) and it's the same results.

Do the Gekko chips not have any kind of memory caching built in?  I realize that it might be bit extreme for a USB miner, but it never hurts to find out.  I imagine if these chips has some sort of memory management, they wouldn't need to poll the USB port so much and you could probably fill a hub up and run like crazy, but I'm not an expert in this area.

SO, am I just configuring them wrong or is this more or less the ceiling for the Gekko sticks (2-3 per hub)?

My mistake. Ive always run everything on the gekko version 

I think all versions of cgminer support hot plugging devices, it was one of the things I used to have to do to get my U3 to hash.