Topic: My Block Erupter Cube experience (Read 1530 times)
In the past when the cubes were in high demand, getting them to work on a single PS is a very common problem. The rule of thumb is that a PS must supply a single rail on the 12V line with at least 70A to power two cubes. You have to look carefully at the specifications for the power supply, many people don't do this and only look at the watts for the power supply. The symptom that the cube(s) will display is that they will "click" off a few seconds of being powered on. Also, the power supply may not turn back on right away, you may need to unplug the power supply for 5-10 seconds. When I ran 2 cubes on a single PS, I would use a Thermaltake SP-850M PS which supplies 70A on a single 12v rail. If you don't have a jump start block for the power supply and you use a paperclip, use some electrical tape on it. Because the cubes pull a lot of amps through both the PCI-E connectors and the power cable, make sure you use power cables rated for 10A or higher and keep some type of airflow over the PCI-E cables. Some people bundle them together tightly or in a cable loom but the heat builds up and can short out or cause a fire, so do be careful.
The other issue that cubes have is a board will become loose in shipping, so you may need to take apart your cube and reseat a loose board. The third issue which I haven't run into, but others have is that the 120mm fan will die.
The other issue that cubes have is a board will become loose in shipping, so you may need to take apart your cube and reseat a loose board. The third issue which I haven't run into, but others have is that the 120mm fan will die.
If you're in EU buy my Bitfury Hex16B miners 45GH for 70W (on an 82% eff. PSU) so much less hassel and power bill than a block errupter cube. 
Take-away points:
* ATX PSUs need a bridge across the fat power plug. These are cheap and IMO better than a paper clip but hey that works also.
* Try a netscan to find the Cube's IP if the default 192.168.1.254:8000 doesn't work
* Some ASICs can be dead without massively affecting the rate (for me) but disappointing it is not at 100% rate.
Paper clip is fine. NO need for anything else.
If you've got a bank of dead ASICs, then your PSU isn't good enough. Simple as that.
I respect your honesty as a newbie, follow the guide at
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/guide-dogies-comprehensive-asicminer-cube-setup-hd-352658
if you have any other issue let me know,
P.S
psu cx 600 is enough to run it but on low clocking, and be sure to hit the reset button and connected to your computer by the usb at the 1st time
if this Info was useful, please donate:
183Mk1RySPVtvLbjc3bzdBhyFtM3j28TAS
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/guide-dogies-comprehensive-asicminer-cube-setup-hd-352658
if you have any other issue let me know,
P.S
psu cx 600 is enough to run it but on low clocking, and be sure to hit the reset button and connected to your computer by the usb at the 1st time
if this Info was useful, please donate:
183Mk1RySPVtvLbjc3bzdBhyFtM3j28TAS
Not trying to be funny, but it sounds as though you didn't really understand what you were buying in the first instance or how it works. For example although it is possible to mine through Bfgminer etc, its primarily designed to be a standalone miner, so you don't try and connect to it through USB with a PC running cg or bfg. Secondly it uses the old Getwork protocol as you have no doubt now found out, which means you can't mine directly to stratum servers, hence the use of a proxy.
Also, when it arrived, as well as opening it up and checking heat sink screws were tight, blades were in place properly etc, you would have probably been better off first off to factory reset the cube (I'm assuming it was a used cube, not new?). This would have saved you the trouble not being able to find the cube as it would have reverted back to the default 192.168.1.254.
The 8 chips not functioning sounds like a common fault I have read about in many threads here. Usually means that one of the voltage modules on the affected board has a fault and is not supplying enough voltage, are the X's all together on one side or the other of the board as displayed in the control panel?
Also, when it arrived, as well as opening it up and checking heat sink screws were tight, blades were in place properly etc, you would have probably been better off first off to factory reset the cube (I'm assuming it was a used cube, not new?). This would have saved you the trouble not being able to find the cube as it would have reverted back to the default 192.168.1.254.
The 8 chips not functioning sounds like a common fault I have read about in many threads here. Usually means that one of the voltage modules on the affected board has a fault and is not supplying enough voltage, are the X's all together on one side or the other of the board as displayed in the control panel?
I bought a Block Erupter Cube for fun and had a mixed experience to say the least. Just thought I'd write it up here in case anyone is considering one. Yes: I should have prep'd more.
Bought from HADsystem.de who delivered in a pretty decent time (ordered 25th Jan 2014 and delivered 10th Feb). Already had a 650W Corsair ATX and ethernet cable to hand. So yeah, ATX power units need a PC-ON bridge otherwise they provide no power when switched on at the mains. Right.
Tried a paper clip as per web which seemed to work except for the power cutting out so was cursing a bit. Meanwhile, I ordered an ATX bridge socket to cover the main ATX power plug.
The Cube draws a load of power on startup - so much so that the PSU cut out. I thought this was due to too much power so I got a 450W Corsair. Same thing. Now cursing a lot. As a workaround I provided one feed from the 450 and one from the 650 and now the Cube starts with no cutouts. Still had only one bridge though so I had to paper clip the other ATX. Great.
Not done yet! I was trying a Windows XP machine as the host (it already mining at 4Gh with a USB Bi-Fury) but could not get cg or bfg to find the Cube even after proper drivers (silabs VCP) or swapping to WinUSB with zayit.
Did I mention the Cube's web interface? The instructions (repeated pretty much on every web page the internet has) say the Cube has a default IP address of 192.168.1.254 port 8000 but nothing I did could get any PC or laptop to find it. I tried changing my hub gateway IP from 254 to 253 to avoid IP collision but no joy.
So I tried a netscan. And there the Cube was at 192.168.1.152. Right. I set up the unit to hit a pool (mining.bitcoin.cz) but was getting 100% rejects. I opted for mining_proxy but it doesn't seem to run on XP. Right.
So, no joy with USB on the XP machine but at least I could find the Cube on the network (and reverted hub to .254). Eight of the ASICs are dead which kinda blows but oddly the Cube reports ~29Gh at slow speed and currently ~35Gh at high (overclocked) compared to a reported rate of 30Gh and 38Gh respectively. Would be nice to get the final squeeze out of it and an email has been sent to HAD to see if/how the faulty board can be replaced. I tried a reseat and several power cycles.
Then after another power cycle I realised I had only the 650 Corsair actually powering the Cube on one feed; the 450W with the other feed was still switched off. That's odd. The Cube seems happy though.
I have had the Cube running now for a few hours and it is battering mining_proxy on a Win7 PC. I do not want to run two pcs so I might switch the Bi-Fury to the Win7 box and power down the XP.
Cube works though! Eight dead ASICs is annoying and I'm being realistic about any fix for that. The instructions were wrong and I could have saved a ton of time messing with USB drivers and hub gateway IP changes if I had just run netscan first!
Take-away points:
* ATX PSUs need a bridge across the fat power plug. These are cheap and IMO better than a paper clip but hey that works also.
* Try a netscan to find the Cube's IP if the default 192.168.1.254:8000 doesn't work
* Some ASICs can be dead without massively affecting the rate (for me) but disappointing it is not at 100% rate.
* XP is probably going to cause some tears. And a lot of effing cursing.
I hope this helps someone!
*edit: typos
Bought from HADsystem.de who delivered in a pretty decent time (ordered 25th Jan 2014 and delivered 10th Feb). Already had a 650W Corsair ATX and ethernet cable to hand. So yeah, ATX power units need a PC-ON bridge otherwise they provide no power when switched on at the mains. Right.
Tried a paper clip as per web which seemed to work except for the power cutting out so was cursing a bit. Meanwhile, I ordered an ATX bridge socket to cover the main ATX power plug.
The Cube draws a load of power on startup - so much so that the PSU cut out. I thought this was due to too much power so I got a 450W Corsair. Same thing. Now cursing a lot. As a workaround I provided one feed from the 450 and one from the 650 and now the Cube starts with no cutouts. Still had only one bridge though so I had to paper clip the other ATX. Great.
Not done yet! I was trying a Windows XP machine as the host (it already mining at 4Gh with a USB Bi-Fury) but could not get cg or bfg to find the Cube even after proper drivers (silabs VCP) or swapping to WinUSB with zayit.
Did I mention the Cube's web interface? The instructions (repeated pretty much on every web page the internet has) say the Cube has a default IP address of 192.168.1.254 port 8000 but nothing I did could get any PC or laptop to find it. I tried changing my hub gateway IP from 254 to 253 to avoid IP collision but no joy.
So I tried a netscan. And there the Cube was at 192.168.1.152. Right. I set up the unit to hit a pool (mining.bitcoin.cz) but was getting 100% rejects. I opted for mining_proxy but it doesn't seem to run on XP. Right.
So, no joy with USB on the XP machine but at least I could find the Cube on the network (and reverted hub to .254). Eight of the ASICs are dead which kinda blows but oddly the Cube reports ~29Gh at slow speed and currently ~35Gh at high (overclocked) compared to a reported rate of 30Gh and 38Gh respectively. Would be nice to get the final squeeze out of it and an email has been sent to HAD to see if/how the faulty board can be replaced. I tried a reseat and several power cycles.
Then after another power cycle I realised I had only the 650 Corsair actually powering the Cube on one feed; the 450W with the other feed was still switched off. That's odd. The Cube seems happy though.
I have had the Cube running now for a few hours and it is battering mining_proxy on a Win7 PC. I do not want to run two pcs so I might switch the Bi-Fury to the Win7 box and power down the XP.
Cube works though! Eight dead ASICs is annoying and I'm being realistic about any fix for that. The instructions were wrong and I could have saved a ton of time messing with USB drivers and hub gateway IP changes if I had just run netscan first!
Take-away points:
* ATX PSUs need a bridge across the fat power plug. These are cheap and IMO better than a paper clip but hey that works also.
* Try a netscan to find the Cube's IP if the default 192.168.1.254:8000 doesn't work
* Some ASICs can be dead without massively affecting the rate (for me) but disappointing it is not at 100% rate.
* XP is probably going to cause some tears. And a lot of effing cursing.
I hope this helps someone!
*edit: typos
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