Upcoming:
- G-Blade VMOD1 is now available here. I am working with the guys at Seven Gnomes to improve the current version and will let you know more details about it soon. In the meantime here are a few pics I was able to snag for ya'll. More to come!


- Miner software, software environment (including raspberry pi), and Litecoin pool comparison + step by step setup guide.


Changelog:
- Coolant pad option added
- Reversible VMOD3 added (Courtesy of ZiG)

Hey all  

I know there's been a great demand for a clear guide on how to mod your Gridseeds with clear high quality step by step images, what to do, what not to do, and actual expected results of each mod. Basically, the ultimate Gridseed modding guide for dummies. I can't promise I will succeed, but I'm sure going to try! In this guide I will cover VMOD1 and VMOD3 which essentially allow for the Gridseeds to run on average weekly (so far) speeds of 405kh/s to 510kh/s, respectively.

I will make the greatest efforts to talk in a simple and clear language as if it is your first time picking up a soldering iron. This is a work-in-progress guide and I am open to questions and comments for improvements so please feel free to PM me any time!

Prep 1) Here is what you'll need (links to demonstrate the correct supplies at the end):

• Soldering Iron
• Soldering Tweezers (VMOD3 only) (optional)
• Regular Tweezers (VMOD3 and rVMOD3)
• Magnifying Loupe
• No-Clean Solder wire
• 47k 1% 0402 resistor (VMOD3 only)
• 47k 1% Axial resistor (rVMOD3 only)
• Liquid Flux (VMOD3 only) (optional)
• Thermal Grease (non-conductive AND non-capacitive) (optional)
• Lighting
• 1 Heat resistant glove (if you buy lead wire, safety first)
• A comfortable chair and a desk at chest level (when sitting). Make sure the desk is a flat stable surface with a decent amount of friction so the G-Blade or Gridseed doesn't move.

Prep 2) Decide which mod is for you. (DO NOT TRY TO PERFORM ANY COMBINATION OF MODS ON ONE DEVICE, IT WILL NOT MAKE IT RUN FASTER AND WILL RISK DESTROYING YOUR DEVICE, YOUR HOME, YOURSELF, OR YOUR CONTINENT)

VMOD1: Up to freq=963 @ 9 +/-2 watt. Average weekly speed of 405kh/s. Can run fanless in a cool room (but not recommended). Difficulty: Medium. http://i.imgur.com/ktMpVIi.gif VMOD3: Up to freq=1175 @ 30 +/-4 watt. Average weekly speeds of 510kh/s. Can NOT run fanless. Difficulty: Hard (you will be dealing with components the size of a leg of an ant). [see Figure 0] Reversible VMOD3: Same as VMOD3 but allows you to easily revert back to Factory speeds & power draw.

http://i.imgur.com/OeDnlq2.jpg (Figure 0)

Things to take into consideration are kilohashes, power consumption, and heat. You want the mod you select to be efficient keeping in mind the costs to power up and cool down the devices. Keep in mind these mods are reversible but choose wisely because you do not want to have to work on the same G-Blade or Gridseed twice, trust me.

Prep 3) Decide on a hand that handles the wire, put a glove on it, and start pulling out some wire. There are stations that dispense the wire for you but if you do not have one of these you will need to use your hands, and wires containing lead are toxic for humans. You should not need to touch wire with more than the one glove-protected hand. Important: Lead is supposed to only be toxic if you consume it or inhale it so please make sure to wash your hands very well after you are done and avoid inhaling any fumes released from soldering. Also, apply the same common sense in the matter to avoid doing any modwork on dinner tables etc.


Getting Started


Disclaimer: Although I have attempted to provide accurate information in this guide, I do not warrant or guarantee the accuracy of the information provided herein. Third party product descriptions and related technical details provided in this document are for information purposes only and such products are not supported by me. All information provided in this guide is provided “as is”, with all faults, and without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied or statutory. I hereby disclaim all warranties related to this guide and the information contained herein, whether expressed or implied of statutory including, without limitation, those of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and noninfringement, or arising from a course of dealing, usage, or trade practice.

Step 1) Disconnecting The Gridseed (if connected) When disconnecting your Gridseed from the power supply and USB hub, make sure to disconnect the USB before removing the power plug in case of any mistakes [see Figure 1]. The mistake which I refer to is one where the power plug, when connected or removed, touches the heatsink, and in some power plug models, can cause for a short which risks board components and possibly anything connected to the usb plug (usb hub usually). If you are using cpuminer make sure you close down the miner window so that you can later reconnect your device without issues. Cgminer & BFGminer can generally stay on in hotplug mode or equivalent. http://i.imgur.com/ktMpVIi.gif ↓ Next Step

http://i.imgur.com/qFebN7tl.jpg (Figure 1)

Step 2) Opening Your Gridseed Orient the Gridseed so that the fan is on the bottom of the device and unscrew (4x screws) the top half of the heatsink [see Figure 2]. The Gridseed, in some cases, will not remove easily because of the adhesive property of the thermal pad. Make sure to remove it gently, slowly increasing the pull strength, and lift it straight up off of the bottom of the device to prevent damage to the circuit board. tip: If you flip the top upside down the screws will fall all over the place, so watch out! http://i.imgur.com/ktMpVIi.gif ↓ Next Step

http://i.imgur.com/Gxqe4eQl.jpg (Figure 2)

Step 3) Let The Games Begin Orient your opened Gridseed in a way where the Modzone is the closest part of the device to you [see Figure 3]. http://i.imgur.com/ktMpVIi.gif Select: ↓ VMOD1 or ↓ VMOD3 or ↓ Reversible VMOD3

http://i.imgur.com/Xy0nwOml.jpg (Figure 3)

VMOD1 (up to freq 950 @ 9 +/- 2watt. Average weekly speed of 405kh/s): Step A) Find the two metallic points within the blue circle [see Figure 4]. This should be located 3 down from the northeast corner of the Modzone resistor square and should be bare without a resistor on it (that is, with two metal points only). http://i.imgur.com/ktMpVIi.gif ↓ Next Step	http://i.imgur.com/308fsEdl.jpg (Figure 4)
Step B) using your soldering iron, apply some soldering wire to them until their two metal points are connected. [see Figure 5] Step C) Make sure the wire does NOT connect to anything else in the region. If it does, it is ok, just take your time, focus, and carefully begin removing it with the soldering iron. http://i.imgur.com/ktMpVIi.gif ↓ Next Step	http://i.imgur.com/wGs7aIml.jpg (Figure 5)
Step D) Repeat Steps B through C for the two points within the yellow circle if you want permanent voltage=1 setting [see Figure 6]. Voltage=1 is necessary for your Gridseed to work in the overclock mode that this mod is designed to enable you to use. If you are not sure if you should apply this mod then please read below. It is strongly recommend you perform this mod as well if you expect to only run the gridseed on the highest frequency it can run on. *Just to clear up any confusion, not performing the yellow circle mod will require you to set option voltage=1 on your miner as the second set of points which you solder together is the only way to make this a permanent hardware embedded configuration. This also means that if you do not solder together the two metal points of the yellow circle you will have the flexibility of assigning voltage=1 when wanted, but the responsibility to make sure you use a miner that supports that command whenever you want your device to work in overclock mode. http://i.imgur.com/ktMpVIi.gif ↓ Next Step	http://i.imgur.com/SosdkK2l.jpg (Figure 6)
When done you would have soldered a connection between two points twice, once for each circle (yellow and blue) [see Figure 7] or only blue if you wanted to assign voltage=1 through your miner software for this mod to work. http://i.imgur.com/ktMpVIi.gif ↓ VMOD3 or ↓ Reversible VMOD3 or ↓ Final VMOD1 steps	http://i.imgur.com/ZiQ4G0sl.jpg (Figure 7)

END -VMOD1-
 

VMOD3 (up to freq 1175 @ 30 +/- 4watt. Average weekly speed of 510kh/s): Optional: You may choose to use a 49.9k resistor instead of a 47k as in some instances it allows for better performance at frequency 1175 and for some even decent performance at frequency 1200. The heat and power draw levels will increase however. You must use a fan and expect a power draw of 33 +/- 4 watt (is it really worth a 25 frequency increase best case scenario? You decide!). Caution: You must not perform this mod in a windy environment. If you even feel like sneezing you must look away or you will literally blow away the resistor into oblivion. Step A) Locate the R52 resistor, which can be found immediately below a vertically printed 'R52' Label on the southernmost point of the Modzone square [see green circle on Figure 8]. Step B) If you have soldering tweezers: pluck out the R52 resistor at 700F If you don't have soldering tweezers: heat one side the resistor while pulling it off with a regular tweezer. Repeat the same for the other side of the resistor. Note: If you want to reverse this mod keep the original R52 resistor somewhere safe for later use. Step C) If you made a mess, clean the mess. http://i.imgur.com/ktMpVIi.gif ↓ Next Step

http://i.imgur.com/ttCYsxel.jpg ( Figure 8 )

Step D) You'll need a 47k 1% 0402 resistor [see Figure 9]. Make sure sure the resistor is face up before picking up with tweezers. Note: other resistor sizes will work but I recommend to avoid using anything larger than 0402 as from personal experience I have seen them producing several issues, namely the "will not submit shares anomaly" and the unnecessary constriction of airflow. If you have soldering tweezers: Get solder on both ends of your tweezers and pick up the 47k resistor. Place the 47k resistor with solder directly on top of R52. Reduce the heat of your tweezers and when the melted solder wire closest to the resistor solidifies gently allow the tweezers to to open up again. If you don't have soldering tweezers: Place the 47k resistor on top of R52. If you have liquid flux, apply some to both ends of the resistor as it will act like an adhesive and hold it in place. Otherwise you can immediately begin to solder both ends of the resistor to permanently connect it to the circuit. http://i.imgur.com/ktMpVIi.gif

http://i.imgur.com/cPFCPuVl.jpg (figure 9)

When done your Gridseed should look like [Figure 10]. Step E) If you made a mess again, clean the mess again. Step F) Make sure the wire does NOT connect to anything else in the region. If it does, again, it is ok, just take your time, focus, and carefully begin removing it with the soldering iron. http://i.imgur.com/ktMpVIi.gif ↓ Final Steps or ↓ Reversible VMOD3

http://i.imgur.com/yMQEAtHl.jpg (figure 10)

END -VMOD3-

Reversible VMOD3 (up to freq 1175 @ 30 +/- 4watt. Average weekly speed of 510kh/s): (Thanks ZiG!) This mod is actually a wee bit easier because we use what is called an axial resistor. Keep in mind using resistors of this size constricts airflow more than the original VMOD3's 0402 resistor size. [see Figure 13] Step A) Remove the connection on R46 which is located on the southeast point of the Modzone square just as shown [in Figure 14]. Step B) Solder one point of the 16.9k Axial Resistor to the bottom part of R46 which is located on the southeast point of the Modzone square and the other half to CON3 pin 3 (DGND) just as shown [in Figure 15]. Want to go back to Factory Setting? Remove the resistor and solder together the two points you made on R46. Want to go back again to rVMOD3? Put back the resistor and de-solder the connection you made on R46. http://i.imgur.com/ktMpVIi.gif ↓ Next Step

http://i.imgur.com/DgTDDb9l.jpg (Figure 13) Coming Soon (Figure 14) http://i.imgur.com/2PeiatKl.jpg (Figure 15)

Step 4) Coolant Paste or Thermal Pad (Optional) Optionally, once you finish your mod you may apply coolant paste [see Figure 11] or a thermal pad [see Figure 12] to the top of the chips in the center of the circuit board. If you decide to apply coolant, and you chose thermal pad, keep in mind the black square is where the thermal pad should be placed until you reach the red area (thanks nemercry). Step 5) Reassemble The Gridseed Replace the top half of the heatsink making sure not to cut any of the loose wires coming out of the Gridseed board and screw it back tightly.   Step 6) Reconnect The Gridseed Connect the power first, and then the USB. You are ready to go! http://i.imgur.com/ktMpVIi.gif ↓ Supply Links, G-Blade VMOD1, & Final Words

http://i.imgur.com/nO83vxkl.jpg (Figure 11) http://i.imgur.com/wrG8R6Hl.jpg (Figure 12)

Supply links:

Soldering Iron - I recommend Hakko, Weller, or Metcal but any cheap solder will really work.
Soldering Tweezers (VMOD3 only) (optional) Buy Here.
47k 1% 0402 Resistor (VMOD3 only) Buy Here.
49.9k 1% 0402 Resistor (VMOD3 only) Buy Here.
16.9k 1% Axial Resistor (Reversible VMOD3 only) Buy Here.
Liquid Flux (VMOD3 only) (optional) Buy Here.
Regular Tweezers (VMOD3 only) Buy Here.
Magnifying Loupe Buy Here.
No-Clean Solder Wire Buy Here.
Thermal Grease (non conductive AND non-capacitive) (optional) Buy Here.

If you are looking to buy Gridseeds modded already you can get them from here.
If you are looking to get expedited Gridseed modding on existing devices you can get that from here.

I am working with the guys at Seven Gnomes on G-Blade VMOD1 and will release information on how to do this as soon as I have stable performance that also seems safe to run for over a couple of days.

Many thanks to Andareed, Nemercry, ZiG, happydaze, & everyone else who contributed to the development of these mods.

And I suppose that's it folks so good luck and if you liked it drop a thanks and if you need help or have any questions feel free to message me any time!

To running faster than ants carrying seeds
or flying faster than mosquitoes carrying resistors, whichever
- Jesse