Anyone over here interested in doing some software development work for some new Scrypt hardware?

Bitmain stopped releasing datasheets with the BM1385. Any information from BM1387 on has been collected from repair materials and reverse engineering.

Also hey Phil, since we started lapping heatsinks (removing the yellow anodize and smoothing any striations or lack of flatness in the surface), we've been able to run 525/1060 on every unit that's gone out with Noctua fans. Still annoyed at 2-point mounting but the heatsink surface is the biggest problem with heat transfer on the unit you received.

We used a pretty high quality thermal pad on the R909 to help with contact and thermal expansion issues. Got along quite well.

Single chip, just gotta make sure the heatsink mounts flat to it and stays flat to it. Two-point with a tiny chip gives a lot of room for swing. Can't wait until we have the new heatsink samples in hand with four screws and a nice solid base for better lateral heat transfer away from the central hotspot.

Phil, sorry yours went out with an unlapped heatsink. It was one of the very first production units after the five samples I built to test thoroughly. We started sanding the heatsinks smooth a day or two after yours went out. Wish I'd thought of it sooner.

But rock it does. Northbridge heatsinks are designed for chips with large packages and/or integrated heat spreaders, more like 25mm square than 8mm square. With that much area, a 2-point mount is okay because there's no leverage to rock it. A small chip in the middle might as well be a single point fulcrum. It's super easy to upset.

We're already designing an improved heatsink (more dissipative surface area on the fins) with 4-point M3 screw mounting, like what's been working on our stickminers for most of the last decade. Might have samples in the next week.

Phil, I think yours went out before I started lapping the heatsink underside. The ones we got in were not exactly smooth either, and the smoother and flatter the mating surface, the better.

You are a little bit mistaken, Phil. I'm working on designing an internal controller for proper GekkoScience gear, not for the Bitaxe or OSMU. You are correct though that the ESP32 is fairly inadequate.

Check your thermal paste. I don't trust these two-point heatsinks very far and it probably wiggled in transit and jacked up the paste.

It's a Bitmain chip, and we've already got systems for interfacing to them, so I replaced some of their circuitry with what we've already been using. I also moved some things around, simplified some things, beefed up some things. The goals were to tighten up some sloppy work, improve efficiency, improve stability, and improve manufacturability with our existing parts and processes. Also the ability (enabled by a solder jumper) to power the board from screw terminals instead of the barrel jack.

Sales are live on our website now. I need to button up some admin and post our files for license compliance (doing that later today) but product listings are up. The first run was short, around 100 units, but the next big batch is already in early stages. We'll have Supras in a few weeks as well.

Okay so what actually happened is GekkoScience will be manufacturing Bitaxe Gamma and Supra models. But because I am who I am, I redesigned the board from scratch and made some changes to the circuit in ways I believe are better instead of just copying the stock files. Should still be physically compatible with the baseline version.

Sales should go live tonight. I got GekkoScience Edition Gammas in hand.

Should be possible but the speed's gonna suck, likely under 100GH.

We announced it at the Nashville convention just a few days ago, in tandem with a couple other products and the new website with a store. The convention pricing will be good for another few days and then everything goes up to retail.

Mein Coffee should be shipping in October.

IAmGPIO and I did some playing with it day of and found out some fun facts. He's still parsing the wireshark output to get a sense of how much hashrate goes to dev fees.

Electronically, it's a Braiins S19 controller running two Compac A1s. Made fast and dirty, probably for advertising purposes with minimal engineering.

(I was at the Prague show and took one apart yesterday )

I'm not sure of the specifics of running a solo node, but you should be able to point cgminer at your local for work generation. I tend to solo using a solo pool (like kano's solo) but I know mining entirely to a local node is possible.

Instead of looking specifically for information for this miner, look up information for cgminer in general and go from there.

ahem gimme a few months

It also means increased complexity and therefore increased likelihood of failure, which increases the likelihood that you'll have to replace it sooner and/or more often, which spells profit.

Hello all. I hope you've been HALVING a good time mining lately!

(yes, it wasn't funny; no, I won't apologize)

Your old pals at GekkoScience are rolling out more stuff. Our new product for 2024, the first of many if everything works out, is a new stickminer. Of course it is; we always start with new stickminers.

This fellow is called the Compac A1.



If you have figured out the nomenclature of our company and products, you know it's all an homage to Eureka Seven, in which the Amita Drive was attached to Renton's Compac Drive, expanding its abilities. In the same vein, we've added our own Amita Drive of sorts to the Compac A1 (get it?) in the form of built-in telemetry and software control. No longer will you need to reach for a tiny screwdriver to tweak the voltage; it'll be done in software via cgminer commands or the API. And you'll be able to watch the temperature! And the USB bus voltage! And even change how the blinky light blinks! It should be possible to adjust the voltage on the fly, making tuning easy. Should be pretty fun.

There's also an optional 2-pin fan jack for snap-on fans without tying up another USB port. That's a new feature. Resellers will probably have add-on fan packages utilizing this. Please note that the fan jack is spec'd for fan loads only and CANNOT be used as an external 5V power input. You will burn things up by doing this.


This stickminer is built around S19 chips for good efficency, approximately 30% better than the Compac F. Samples have marked Compac F stock speeds around 260GH from under 8 watts.

Another benefit over the Compac F is low-end stability. It's built to handle high speeds, but unlike the F, it won't choke up at low speeds, so you don't have to overclock it on a juiced-up hub just to make it work.

But you can if you want. I've clocked samples running over 550GH on stock Smart Hubs, with a bit beefed up cooling of course. The main regulator on this stick is built to handle high power, up around 20W without blinking. The LEDs will blink of course, but power won't. Power will be fine.

And as always, these guys are Designed And Built In America.


*May not come in fancy retail packaging


The Compac A1 will be shipping in May. We're working on our own website for limited direct sales, but in the meantime confirmed resellers include:

AltairTech in USA
Bitshopper.de in Germany
The Solo Mining Co in England
101 Crypto in Australia
MineFarmBuy
Eyeboot (under construction)
BitcoinMerch

Once during testing, I had a pod that dropped a chip and cgminer started to misbehave, which pegged the CPU use. I mentioned the bug to kano and his preferred fix was "stop using hardware that fails". That's about the only time I've seen one of these guys not running smoothly so could be related to your issue. My test guy ran 40 days uptime with no problems before a power outage forced an unplanned restart.

Everything from 2Pac to the present are mechanically compatible, so if it fits a Compac F it should fit the 2Pac.

Unless you lucked into the batch where our main heatsink provider was out of stock and we had to use a backup with slightly different dimensions, but the vast majority are identical.

I know altair tech has snap-on fans, might check out that site.

The cgminer install supports all Gekko devices. Power comes from 12V 6-pin or barrel like the regular hubs and Terminus pod miners.