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Topic: GekkoScience Compac BM1384 Stickminer Official Support Thread - page 40. (Read 268030 times)

hero member
Activity: 2534
Merit: 623
CjMapope, did yours have a green or black heatsink? Id like to stick a second one on the back of my bitshopper gecko if I can as shes now running 275m and getting 15ghs but shes a bit hot even though shes ontop of my psu fan with a nearby arctic breeze fan.

I have 6 spare green heatsinks.... since I upgraded mine...

Although I do like the green zOU I will have to kindly pass on the offer as I'd like to keep it to at least black like the one it's got already Smiley
zOU
hero member
Activity: 728
Merit: 500
★ these are stars ★
CjMapope, did yours have a green or black heatsink? Id like to stick a second one on the back of my bitshopper gecko if I can as shes now running 275m and getting 15ghs but shes a bit hot even though shes ontop of my psu fan with a nearby arctic breeze fan.

I have 6 spare green heatsinks.... since I upgraded mine...
hero member
Activity: 2534
Merit: 623
CjMapope, did yours have a green or black heatsink? Id like to stick a second one on the back of my bitshopper gecko if I can as shes now running 275m and getting 15ghs but shes a bit hot even though shes ontop of my psu fan with a nearby arctic breeze fan.
full member
Activity: 135
Merit: 100
If you've got a volt meter, measure the voltages on the testpads on the back. Measure the core voltage when it's first plugged in, and then when cgminer tries to start mining with it, and see if it changes. That'll let you know whether it's an ASIC issue or a power issue.

Just purchased one in Amazon. I'll report back what I find. Hopefully it's not an ASIC issue.
legendary
Activity: 3374
Merit: 1859
Curmudgeonly hardware guy
If you've got a volt meter, measure the voltages on the testpads on the back. Measure the core voltage when it's first plugged in, and then when cgminer tries to start mining with it, and see if it changes. That'll let you know whether it's an ASIC issue or a power issue.
full member
Activity: 135
Merit: 100
Ive got a bitshopper version of the stick and I occasionally have the same problem. I have to hotplug it sometimes upto 10 times and restart cgminer before its recognised. But once it is will happily run 250m.

Strangely enough ive found its most tempermental when its cold. Once its warmed slightly, even if you hold it in your hands, it starts up the first time the majority of the time.

Interesting. I'll try leaving it in my garage for awhile, it usually warms up in there compared to the rest of the house. See if a "warm start" can get things going again.

General question, if the light is green, and it pops in cgminer enough to get the serial and start cycling (reset, zombie, no hash, reset, zombie, no hash, etc), is that generally a sign there is hope it's not dead? Is there any other way to probe it or check to see if there is any hope?
legendary
Activity: 1820
Merit: 1092
~Full-Time Minter since 2016~
There shouldn't be any resistors capable of blowing on the stick. I think the highest resistor draw is about 5mA and that's temporary on the LED flash. If it still enumerates the device in cgminer but gets zero hashrate the CP2102 is probably fine, so the issue would be in the power circuit or the ASIC itself. Even though the ASIC is heatsinked and the power is not, without additional cooling the ASIC would blow first. At 400MHz you would expect about 13A into the ASIC; the inductor is rated for 17A and the FETs for about 100 with adequate cooling. If you heard a pop but don't see any damage, I'd take the heatsink off and see if there's some nice blackening around the sides of the ASIC.

PS the next version of the Compac will have an even stronger power circuit, not because of more extreme overclocking but because new ASIC technologies are running lower voltage at higher current and I want the same overclocking headroom.

heya sweet haha thanks for the info, ya i was totally guessing it was a resistor ;p
taking off the heatsink i don't see anything obviously blackened, bit o what looks like thermal paste on there but about it ;p
ill upload a pic here to see if theres anything i missed. its 4k resoulution so may be able to see something ;p
legendary
Activity: 3374
Merit: 1859
Curmudgeonly hardware guy
I believe both Bitshopper and I started from zero. I have bitshopper number 051 (currently running on vh's test cgminer), so 031's even older. Sweet. But my bitshopper stick has never been pushed past 200MHz to my knowledge.

My first batch started at zero; the second run started at 2000 and 2200 was the first made with pulled chips. The third run will start at 3000. New version sticks, I'm not sure. I might preface the 10K's place with the major version number, which means the new batch would start at 30000. That only becomes a problem if I make more than 10K of a particular stick, which seems unlikely.
hero member
Activity: 2534
Merit: 623

she's stuck on zombie mode, but in case someone ever makes a graveyard thread so see where these sticks are i got the batch # Wink
10000895   


Ive got 10000031 but shes still alive  Wink (not sure if the serial is specific to bitshopper or across the whole gecko market). Cant get her past 250m without her throwing a wobbly and not starting up. But shes happy at that so I leave her be Smiley
hero member
Activity: 735
Merit: 500
★YoBit.Net★ 350+ Coins Exchange & Dice
yea i still have to find some time to get back out there to the shop hack to get this one stick worked on from phil
legendary
Activity: 3374
Merit: 1859
Curmudgeonly hardware guy
There shouldn't be any resistors capable of blowing on the stick. I think the highest resistor draw is about 5mA and that's temporary on the LED flash. If it still enumerates the device in cgminer but gets zero hashrate the CP2102 is probably fine, so the issue would be in the power circuit or the ASIC itself. Even though the ASIC is heatsinked and the power is not, without additional cooling the ASIC would blow first. At 400MHz you would expect about 13A into the ASIC; the inductor is rated for 17A and the FETs for about 100 with adequate cooling. If you heard a pop but don't see any damage, I'd take the heatsink off and see if there's some nice blackening around the sides of the ASIC.

PS the next version of the Compac will have an even stronger power circuit, not because of more extreme overclocking but because new ASIC technologies are running lower voltage at higher current and I want the same overclocking headroom.
legendary
Activity: 1820
Merit: 1092
~Full-Time Minter since 2016~
Any one tell me plz how to set up gekkoscience compac USB BM1384 for ltc or xmr mining and tell me full detail how to set in Windows 7 64 bit .I will try in bfgminer but it saw no device found so what can I do? Tell me please

hi. the gekkoscience stick chip ONLY runs the SHA256d algo.    it CANNOT mine ltc or xmr (ltc is scrypt algo and xmr is Cryptonote algo, a cpu algo)
if you read the OP here it has dedicated instructions, best of luck! Wink
*note* look into a "multipool"  (google it) for sha256, you may find alternate algo coins you can get paid in Wink
newbie
Activity: 2
Merit: 0
Any one tell me plz how to set up gekkoscience compac USB BM1384 for ltc or xmr mining and tell me full detail how to set in Windows 7 64 bit .I will try in bfgminer but it saw no device found so what can I do? Tell me please
legendary
Activity: 1820
Merit: 1092
~Full-Time Minter since 2016~
Impressive to get it to hash at that without cooling   Shocked Grin

See if sidehack can do a repair for you for a btc donation  Wink

ya i don't recommend running them above 400 ;p
i have this FrankenRig made from an old desktop that runs usb hubs and such that i use to test these little guys
i am not sure if i will bother with a repair, tho maybe the chip might be worth saving, as i mean their just hobby miners and i don't really want to put another shatoshi into them, my plan all along was to max them out till they literally burn, just to see what happens and what they can do Wink
tho i changed that to taking better care of them, as i grew attached heehee

she's stuck on zombie mode, but in case someone ever makes a graveyard thread so see where these sticks are i got the batch # Wink
10000895   
hero member
Activity: 2534
Merit: 623
Impressive to get it to hash at that without cooling   Shocked Grin

See if sidehack can do a repair for you for a btc donation  Wink
legendary
Activity: 1820
Merit: 1092
~Full-Time Minter since 2016~
Well i killed one of my Gekko Sticks today ;\
if i can get it to register long enough to give me the batch number again maybe we can make a graveyard thread ;p
i believe i let it get too hot, total noob move.
i have 2 sticks that run on a powered hub with fan (16.5gh/250mhz), but last night i decided to see what i could get out of tweaking my 3rd stick
needless to say at about 450mhz and 20+gh/s i heard a long whine then a sharp "POP!"
she's dead. took all of 3mins without proper cooling, let that be a lesson ! ;p
can't find a burn mark or any noticeable damage on the stick, but she's dead alright lol (my guess is resistor blew, would that sound right?) ;p
green light, but "no devices found" for cgminer now lol
R.I.P little guy, you were the shit!
hero member
Activity: 2534
Merit: 623
Ive got a bitshopper version of the stick and I occasionally have the same problem. I have to hotplug it sometimes upto 10 times and restart cgminer before its recognised. But once it is will happily run 250m.

Strangely enough ive found its most tempermental when its cold. Once its warmed slightly, even if you hold it in your hands, it starts up the first time the majority of the time.
full member
Activity: 135
Merit: 100

its your hub.. at 200M you are right at the .9A most hubs can put out..
try going down to 196.88


Sorry, I should have mentioned. Now that I am troubleshooting, I'm running at 125mhz, just to se if it'll perk up. Doesn't matter, on the hub or direct connected to A PC, it just want start hashing.

The other unit runs fine, at 200 MHz still. Both were running for weeks with no issues until the reboot.

Try plugging the one in after cgminer is running (hot plugging it).

Tried that just now. Tried starting with nothing plugged in, and then plugging in the stick, but got the same error (No valid hashes for over 10 secs, attempting to reset). Tried starting with the stick in, and after it failed, tried unplugging and replugging. No luck.

I'm going to try compiling VH's versions of cgminer, and see if that shows anything different.

Is there anyway to check/debug whats going on?
sr. member
Activity: 331
Merit: 250

its your hub.. at 200M you are right at the .9A most hubs can put out..
try going down to 196.88


Sorry, I should have mentioned. Now that I am troubleshooting, I'm running at 125mhz, just to se if it'll perk up. Doesn't matter, on the hub or direct connected to A PC, it just want start hashing.

The other unit runs fine, at 200 MHz still. Both were running for weeks with no issues until the reboot.

Try plugging the one in after cgminer is running (hot plugging it).
legendary
Activity: 3374
Merit: 1859
Curmudgeonly hardware guy
I'll see about SSHing into the test machine at the shop. It's currently running several test Compacs, one Bitshopper stick and a U2. Give me a bit to set things up and I'll let you know what happens.

[EDIT] Took a bit to compile, I forgot the ./autogen.sh part and had to double back through some errors. Anyways, I can see that it's detecting Compacs and the U2, but it's not detecting all the Compacs. I have nine plugged in; five run on cgminer-gekko without issue, but only four were detected in yours. Of course I can't tell which four because only the useless part of the serial number ID is displayed, instead of the full length or just the digits that are actually in use. I'll do some playing when I'm out at the shop tomorrow and see what I can find out.
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