Topic: [GENERAL SALES CLOSED] GekkoScience 2PAC - 2x BM1384 USB Stick Miner - page 13. (Read 56202 times)

Awesome! Keep us updated, I don't know too much about miners and how they're made but I'm always willing to learn more about em. Sounds like it'll be business as usual with the miners.

Stencils arrived this morning so we got started on surface-mounting. By tomorrow I'll have about 600 sticks with ASICs mounted, and will have started on the topside components. All heatsinks are drilled and tapped and ready to be installed. Overall, we're right on schedule.

I also happened to fetch some materials to play with anodizing a bit if I get some spare time in the next couple days.

will be showing review with direct comparison to a 1 pac.

2Pac PCBs arrived today, actually earlier than expected instead of the other thing. I got ahold of them because I was trying to order solder paste stencils as well, got that taken care of but I don't expect them before Monday. I should have time tomorrow to get the robot set up to run a full panel so Monday we can dive right in. One minion drilled out about 300 heatsinks today, and another helped me strip about 1200 chips from S5 boards, so that's pretty well on pace.

Proof 2Pacs will be sent out tomorrow, to CrazyGuy, HolyScott and MacEntyre (the big resellers) and one to philipma1957 since he offered to do a review.

I need to get the sales queue updated, since a few more orders have come in this week.

Thanks for the feedback.    I'll check if I can replicate that this evening.   

Thanks for the hard work and support for this project.

I have been running your cgminer 4.10.0 build with original Compac sticks for a few hours now.
Sticks are running at the clock speed of 343.75.
At this clock speed, they should reach around 18.9G. However, they average around 17.6G instead.

Just sharing what I've noticed so far.

A fairly stable version of the gekko driver I've been working on has been released in my repository for early adopters.
git clone https://github.com/vthoang/cgminer.git

The 2Pac(s) are not shipped yet, but feel free to compile it and run it against the original compac(s) if you feel brave  .

For detailed instruction on compiling and running it, visit the new 2Pac thread here:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/gekkoscience-2paccompac-bm1384-stickminer-official-support-thread-1764803

No, I don't have good tools for that. What I do have is a cheap case fan capable of cooling a couple dozen sticks.

The BF16 stick will have an onboard temp sensor, but not this one.

Hello Sidehack,

Do you have any temp reading yet ? I would be curious to know what is the chips temp at 200 and 300MHz.

Best,

Finally got around to building a test 2Pac with good chips and ran a quick efficiency test, only up to 300MHz because my USB power meter is only rated for 3A.

Freq	GH	Vcore	Power	J/GH
100	11.00	1.26	3.67	0.33
125	13.75	1.26	4.48	0.33
150	16.50	1.26	5.27	0.32
175	19.25	1.26	6.12	0.32
200	22.00	1.32	7.43	0.34
225	24.75	1.36	8.73	0.35
250	27.50	1.40	10.11	0.37
275	30.25	1.46	12.25	0.40
300	33.00	1.50	13.98	0.42

At 300MHz, the total device efficiency is only about 15% worse than the datasheet chip-level efficiency, which I think is pretty good for a stick miner. It also puts up over 30GH, which I think is pretty darn good for a stickminer. Note this is about the same power draw the original Compac expected to see at 22GH, so we're seeing a 50% improvement in hashrate. If the stick could be pushed to 400MHz you'd see it drawing about 23W for 44GH, but I don't want to test this until I have a bit stouter measurement tool.

I'll copy this table into the OP for reference.

Most of the additional tools I needed to work up heatsinks have arrived. The heatsinks are only 6 fins instead of 8, but should still work well enough. I still need to build a jig for drilling, but my power tapping head arrived today so a bit more testing to dial it in and we should be in business.

I finally got around to checking out the robot program, making sure all the feeder alignments and parts rotations were correct. Tomorrow I'll have to run through it to check the actual parts placement calibrations but that takes a lot less time. Tomorrow I should get all of the prototypes built and start testing. Hopefully I'll be getting sample sticks out Friday, including one for philipma1957 to review.

I'm assuming that the PCBs will be delayed a bit, partly because they were expected to ship today but I just confirmed the panelized gerber layout yesterday so I doubt they've been made yet. Shouldn't affect much in the long run.

I still haven't gotten out BW sticks, parttly because they're entirely manual placement and that kinda sucks and partly because I've been juggling a lot of other stuff. Yesterday's workload didn't finish until 1AM. I took Sunday off instead of making progress but that's because I'd worked the previous 13 days. Anyways, once 2Pacs are rolling off the line I'll be giving a free 2Pac to the people who bought the BW sticks to help make up for the delay.

Once Chinese New Year ends and the cheap-but-easy prototype PCB house gets back to work, I should get some Biggie prototype PCBs to play with. I probably won't get around to building them until at least the middle of February because the robot and I will be quite busy with 2Pacs. There won't be a lot of retooling for parts feeders, but it will take a full day to get the placement program made and calibrated. I don't have the numbers offhand, but there are at least 40 parts per node and 5 nodes in the chip field, plus the fan control, USB interface and core power. Looking at around 250-300 components to verify placement and rotation on.

Apology accepted

As for the file from the message - it seems obvious from the message text that it's a backdoor virus/miner Either way, good call to check it before running.

I sincerely apologize! I was referring to a member by the name of PmToC who sent me a PM right after my post. The PM linked to a file which comes up as a "backdoor" virus when I scanned it with Malwarebytes! I just assumed it was a "fix" for the problem I had with CGMiner shutting down as described in my post. See screenshots below:

To View Larger Image: http://imgur.com/VMucM4E

I never sent any files, what are you talking about? :/

this is very useful, thanks
typically, I don't even use windows with sticks. Both raspberry pi and Linux seem to have very stable configs for mining.

I found a MUCH easier solution for Windows - All you need to do is add CGMiner as a Windows Service & then tell it to restart if/when it closes! Not sure what the file was that you sent me ppetrovic68 PmToC, but it came up as a "backdoor" virus..

Anyone wondering how to have CGMiner automatically restart if/when it shuts down, here's how:

Run Command Prompt as administrator & type the following (quotations needed):
sc create cgminerservice binpath= ""

• for example: sc create cgminerservice binpath= "C:\Users\cgminer-gekko-win32\cgminer.exe"
• if done properly, you should get the result "Successful"

Now you will need to open Windows Services (one way is to click start and type services.msc)

Lastly, locate "cgminerservices", right-click, select "Properties", then click on "Recovery" tab & select "Restart the Service"

Larger Image: http://imgur.com/a/fak5f

I've seen this with all versions of cgminer I've used, both on Windows and RasPi. "fixed" it with a simple shell script that restarts cgminer whenever it stops...

This is GREAT news - THANK YOU!

The original build of CGMiner for windows found in the original compac thread does work on Win 10, although it acts up more often than I would like (which is why it's great to hear we will have a newer version soon). Thanks again for the update - keep chugging along doing what you're best at sidehack! Choo-Chooo..  


That is the problem I currently get the most frequently Phil - very erratic individual stick behavior as you begin running 2 or more. The most annoying thing is when CGMiner just decides to randomly shutdown on its own. Especially when you're away for a 2 week Holiday, & it decides to shutdown right before you board your flight after you spent a TON of time setting everything up in preparation! (true story)

That's good news.

I have the Linux build for the 1 chip stick.

The windows build worked for both 7 and 10 but as you added sticks they ran worse.
I had and still have monster usb hubs. And the issue left with the Linux build.

So I need to look for the the new build and test the 1 pac with the 2 pac.

Someone provided a Windows build of cgminer-gekko back when the first Compacs rolled out. I know it worked because I bench-tested the first couple thousand sticks with it. Check the early pages of the support thread.

I also don't know how well it works on Windows 10. I don't know how well anything works on Windows 10, or if Windows 10 even works. I probably never will.

VH said he'd put up download links and a software support thread or some such by the time the proof 2Pacs have gone out to reviewers. I should have had those out already but I've been seriously backed up, but that'll probably happen by Tuesday.