Hello There,

I'm getting headaches again.. The stability of the miners lasted so far. Everytime I install updates on my Raspi the whole farm crashes. After the current Raspbian update I only can get one of my miners up and running the other 3 goes straight into zombie mode if I plug them in. (Doesn't matter if all at once or one after the other.) Sometimes CGminer says can't find the miners, than it suddenly finds them, ramping up beginns but suddenly stops and the program disables, resets them straight away and turns them into zombie.

I haven't changed anything on my setup (miners, miners's settings, fan, hub, PS etc.). The only thing has changed is the software (either RPi op sys or CGminer) so it must be the black sheep. Not being a programmer cannot define what component is causing my and others "instablility-problems" but I'm 100% sure now, that - as I suspected - the software is the scapegoat.

I'll wait a few days and start again, maybe it'll be fine by than, as it happened to be a week ago after the previous update as well...

Sorry for the late reply. Your troubleshooting and setup steps were the first I read, because I don't wanted to mess something with the stick up and/or spam here. It was super useful and everyone should read it!!! In my opinion, there are some other very important "soft" variables one has to consider as a little amendment along your tutorial (if you have to make adjustments and the factory settings wouldn't be good enough)

This post might will be a little long, but it worth to read, if someone has adjustment issues like I did.

I got some new miners and I started everything from scratch by observing the new and good-running ones. Than:
 
1) I unplugged all the miners and I took a look at the little "Vcore-button" of the new ones after doing an hour testrun with them, to see if their factory settings are ok. They were stable so I compared the Vcore settings of all these good miners. Most of them was almost set identically at 17 min.

1.1) I copied this Vcore setting (17 min) and started the problematic at this point but it didn't worked out. It kept crashing.
1.2) I set the Vcore as I mentioned in one of my earlier post at ca. 25 min. (example from the NewPac thread: http://23.108.83.14/images/NewPac-0006.png).

2) Than I plugged the problematic stick in a usb tester in order to see the amperage.

3) I plugged the usb tester with the stick in the gekko hub and started CGminer with my erlier compac F settings. (+ Fan of course)

4) I let it ramp up and it stablized itself almost. I had to make a tiny adjustment turning the Vcore counterclockwise just 1-2 millimeters. But all this very-very slowly. I saw the amperage slighlty decreasing but the stick got up from 94-95% to 100%.

5) I waited and observed the hashrate, amps etc. The hashrate gone up until the point it had reached earlier.

6) I waited and after 5-10 min the hashrate begun to climb further higher (instead of crashing) and stopped at a point. I'd say 3/4 way through compared to the others' at 420 MHz.

7) I've turned the Vcore slighlty observing closely the amps, the hashrate and WU-value. As I turned it in one way or the other the amps changed along with the other rates. BUT it is very important that it took some time I saw the stick's reaction. So turning just a 0,1 mm, yes, "0,1" mm in one direction and waiting 5-10 sec to see the reaction. If someone turns it like 2-3 mm or more at once you can forget it and won't work. You'll see the stick's reaction of course but you cannot fine-tune or adjust it but it can crash due to the quick change. It was my expreience at least. It is like jumping in a tub full of hot water. If you emerge yourself slowly, little by little it won't hurt, but jumping... The same happens with the stick reducing or increasing the Vcore (Amps) like crazy - I reckon.

8.) I saw the hashrate climbing up almost until to the point (2-3 GHs less) where the others were running. With this maybe "rookie" method I managed to fine-tune my miner in 4 hours.

9) Along the road I've noticed that this stick got somehow hotter than the others and thus the cooling was an issue though. Hence I had this only stick to cool down I could point the airflow much centered at the heatsink and this solved the problem.

What have I learned?
1) Mark your factory Vcore setting before you want to make any changes.
2) Always start at the 25 min. mark (see point 1.2 above), if you turned the Vcore far away from its factory setting or you don't remember this one anyomore.
3) Be very-very-very patient and slow with the adjusment. (Only begin it if you have time and you're not in a rush.)
4) Do it with only one stick in a hub at once and use a usb tester.
5) Have a super airflow.

You can find all these infos in one way or the other in the other posts before but I wanted to sum all those up here in one and stepwise. I hope it'll be helpful.

Using multiple sticks in one hub

0) Before using a stick in a pool be sure it is running smoothly alone. If not please see above.
1) Start CGminer only with 2 sticks in a hub at once.
2) When they are runnig smoothly and are stable, plug in one more. If stable, one more and so on. Don't start with 6-7 sticks at once. Maybe all of your sticks' setup is fine but the "stronger", slightly more stable sticks can destabilize the weaker and vice versa. ...and you end up thinking there is something wrong with the stick even if there isn't.
3) In the meanwhile be assured they get enough air, what can cool them down enough. A fan from above spins in one direction and the last stick(s) in case of 5 or 6 may not gets enough air, gets hot and crashes, although there isn't any problem with its settings at all.

He made a typo I guess and he's using "2 Gekko hubs", if I'm right.

this one is restarting with a reduced T until it gets to a point where the T is in the (-) minus range...
[/quote]

I am running 7 CompacFs right now on t2 Gekko hubs and my 8th stick does the same as yours.  I have played with it and I am not able to get it stable.  I finally got fed up with it and I am just runnign the 7 sticks and it is humming along no issues.  It just must be silicone lottery.

yettihead
[/quote]

Good for you. I haven't paid €300/stick just to put one aside accepting "this is how it is"... I rather try to find an explanation why is one behaving so weird. There's a solution for everything. And yes, this is lottery and has to be fun not a struggle.

Hello Kano,

Thank you for your reply.

I've got a gekko usb hub with 120W PS and a fan running beside this miner. The power consumption of these can't be more than 5V/3A=15W + 5V/2,5A=12W, Sum: 27W, which is covered with the 120W PS abundandtly.

If I run two other miners + the fan there are no problems. They are running rock solid so the PS can't be a problem.

If I put this problematic miner in usb-port-pair with the others, it kicks the others out and they restarts automatically in about every 2-3 minutes.
If I run it beside them - not in a port-pair -, the two are running stable and this one is restarting with a reduced T until it gets to a point where the T is in the (-) minus range... Than it kicks the others out as well and they stop working.

I'm starting cgminer with the following line:

--gekko-compacf-freq 420 --gekko-start-freq 350 --gekko-mine2 --gekko-tune2 85

Now I lost nerves playing around with them days long without any success and let the 2 unproblematic without the other one running. 

You're right...
I try other, maybe lower start frequencies and the dialing up method as well. Go-go-go!!! 

Thanks guys!
I've been playing with it as you described for more than 2 weeks now. I started with the same angle the others are in (17-18 min and 25 min). Then I've found this post (see below). The picture shows the factory Vcore. The NewPac is the same in this regard as the F, I suppose, therfore I was playing in this area to hit the sweet spot without success until now. I have a feeling as the miner would need a memory reset or so and then the problem would be solved.


I've tought about the heat too, but if it was an issue why are the others performing well?! ...even at 500 MHz? I'm afraid if I set a higher MHz at this stick and turns out to be the heat the real problem, I'm melting down the whole stick in a blink of an eye...

Anyway, I won't give up. I'm still trying to find the right position, but it's getting to be really annoying to waste so much time on this.

I labeled the sticks and I know their numbers because I had to adjust one already, which is running fine now.

The problematic stick shows this behaviour either way: running alone in a 6A-double-slot, running in pair with another stick in a 6A-double-slot, or running all alone in the hub (no other sticks). I tried every single slot and variation (alone or with the other sticks) as well, without any improvement.

I have a current tester and it pulls at 420MHz ~2,4A. The flat side of the "knob" is almost in this position: _. If I turn it like / or | can't reach 100%, gets sometimes super hot and stops around 76% max 88%, than "collapses", restarts at a lower frequence. I tried more than 420MHz i.a. 450, 470, 500MHz without success. I think it should work at 420 just fine, because it is definitely above the 200-300 "instability" threshold.

I'm starting it at 350MHz, but tried 380 or 400 with the same outcome.

@NotFuzzyWarm: Thank you. I must have overseen it, because I've read the entire readme and looked explicitly for the "P", but found nothing. Plateau makes sense now.
I'm cooling the stick with the same 10 cm diameter fan, what I'm using for the other 2 sticks as well. The fan is placed directly above the sticks, if they run together. If the miner runs alone the fan is placed before the alu-heatsink so it blows the heat away and cools the heatsink down. The fan mustn't be a problem and its air-troughput is adjustable. The problematic stick isn't hotter than the others.

Hello fellow miners

I've got 3 miners, one of witch is acting weird. I have a gekko usb hub with 120W PS and active cooling of course. I run the miners with the following start line on cgminer's 4.12 version: --gekko-compacf-freq 420 --gekko-start-freq 350 --gekko-mine2 --gekko-tune2 85

Two of the miners running smoothly and stable on 420 MHz with an avg. of 275 GH/s.
The 3rd miner however was stable for a good while on this frequency but than it begun to destabilize itself.

Example line from CGminer for the "healthy" sticks:
0: GSF 1005xxxx: BM1397:01+ 420.00MHz T:420 P:420 (30:15) | 100% WU: 100% | 313.1G / 273.7Gh/s WU:3823.6/m

Example line from CGminer for the problematic stick:
2: GSF 1005xxxx: BM1397:01+ 420.00MHz T:420 P:384 (30:15) | 100% WU: 100% | 274.1G / 237.5Gh/s WU:3274.1/m

The first Mhz value and the "T" (I assume it means target value) lines up with each other, but the "P" (I have no clue what it could be, maybe power or performance?) never reaches the first two anymore and remains always below them. The "P" comes to a halt either around at 384/386 or sometimes at 404/416. (The performace depends on this, therfore the reduced hashing power.) Both percentages are sitting on 100%.
The stick must be okay, because it can reach the "healthy" sticks' hashrate within the 5s time window, otherwise it couldn't get to it at all.

I've noticed, if I put this problematic miner in pair (gekko USB-port-wise) with an other, it may destablize the one I put it in pair with. Sometimes, after several restarts (hotplug-out and plug-in back after waiting 10+ sec/or hours, or complete cgminer restart) very-very rarely the "P" value reaches the "T" but some times later it restarts itself and never reaches the "T" again.

I've tried every single angle with the slightest turns of the little knob in the right bottom of the stick, every single usb-port or variation but nothing helps. I fresh and re-installed, both the CG-miner and RPi op.sys several times, no changes there. I tried different pools, just to see whether the pool's algorythm has any effect on the performance but this wasn't the answer either.

This isn't rocket science, even so cannot solve the problem.

Can you please tell me what "P" stands for and how could I get this value lined up with the others?

It really would be great if I could get this stick working again. Thanks so much for your suggestions in andvance.

I'm getting a hard time by figuring out why the performace of 2 of my compac F sticks drops constantly from 100% to 90% or 67% after it reached - if it could even reach - 100% at all. Than the target performace of 450 MHz drops down to 440 as well and so on..

I researched all related topics and read this forum but found no solution to my issue. I tried various targets such as 420, 450, 500 MHz with the same outcome. I've put the sticks in different ports of the usb hub but nothing has changed.

Cooling can't be an issue nor the USB Hub since it's a gekko one with a 120W PS. I'm running cgminer's current version (4.12.0) on a 8GB raspi, so I have no clue.
The other sticks are running smoothly on every frequencies only the mentioned 2 are messy.

I'm starting cgminer with the following line: sudo cgminer [...] --gekko-compacf-freq 450 --gekko-start-freq 300 --gekko-mine2 --gekko-tune2 85

The 0: and the 3: are the problematic ones.

 0: GSF 1005xxx2: BM1397:01+ 450.00MHz T:450 P:415 (28:14) | 93.6% WU: 92% | 215.7G / 218.1Gh/s WU:3046.5/m
 1: GSF 1005xxxx: BM1397:01+ 450.00MHz T:450 P:429 (28:14) |  100% WU:100% | 364.4G / 268.7Gh/s WU:3753.8/m
 2: GSF 1005xxxx: BM1397:01+ 450.00MHz T:450 P:448 (28:14) |  100% WU:100% | 285.2G / 284.2Gh/s WU:3970.9/m
 3: GSF 1005xxx3: BM1397:01+ 450.00MHz T:450 P:324 (28:14) | 74.1% WU: 80% | 204.1G / 189.4Gh/s WU:2646.0/m
 4: GSF 1005xxxx: BM1397:01+ 450.00MHz T:450 P:449 (28:14) |  100% WU:100% | 240.3G / 250.5Gh/s WU:3499.3/m

message:
0: GSF 0 - 222.99GH/s low [302.40/241.92/674] reset limit 450.00MHz -> 440.00MHz
3: GSF 3 - 171.92GH/s low [302.40/241.92/507] reset limit 450.00MHz -> 440.00MHz

 0: GSF 1005xxx2: BM1397:01+ 440.00MHz T:440 P:270 (29:15) | 78.4% WU: 86% | 220.4G / 197.6Gh/s WU:2759.8/m
 1: GSF 1005xxxx: BM1397:01+ 450.00MHz T:450 P:450 (28:14) |  100% WU:100% | 211.6G / 288.6Gh/s WU:4031.3/m
 2: GSF 1005xxxx: BM1397:01+ 450.00MHz T:450 P:450 (28:14) |  100% WU:100% | 325.5G / 286.1Gh/s WU:3997.2/m
 3: GSF 1005xxx3: BM1397:01+ 440.00MHz T:440 P:358 (29:15) | 91.6% WU: 87% | 274.1G / 201.6Gh/s WU:2816.1/m
 4: GSF 1005xxxx: BM1397:01+ 450.00MHz T:450 P:445 (28:14) |  100% WU:100% | 249.6G / 272.4Gh/s WU:3806.0/m

message:
0: GSF 0 - 185.22GH/s low [295.68/236.54/577] reset limit 440.00MHz -> 430.00MHz
3: GSF 3 - 211.21GH/s low [295.68/236.54/643] reset limit 440.00MHz -> 430.00MHz

 0: GSF 1005xxx2: BM1397:01+ 430.00MHz T:430 P:398 (29:15) |  100% WU: 91% | 224.0G / 204.6Gh/s WU:2857.9/m
 1: GSF 1005xxxx: BM1397:01+ 450.00MHz T:450 P:450 (28:14) |  100% WU:100% | 348.9G / 294.6Gh/s WU:4117.0/m
 2: GSF 1005xxxx: BM1397:01+ 450.00MHz T:450 P:450 (28:14) |  100% WU:100% | 302.8G / 284.4Gh/s WU:3973.6/m
 3: GSF 1005xxx3: BM1397:01+ 430.00MHz T:430 P:396 (29:15) |  100% WU:^91% | 192.2G / 205.1Gh/s WU:2866.4/m
 4: GSF 1005xxxx: BM1397:01+ 450.00MHz T:450 P:445 (28:14) |  100% WU:100% | 275.3G / 271.8Gh/s WU:3797.7/m

...and so on..

3: GSF 3 - 226.06GH/s low [288.96/231.17/712] reset limit 430.00MHz -> 420.00MHz

3: GSF 3 - 226.06GH/s low [288.96/231.17/712] reset limit 420.00MHz -> 410.00MHz

 0: GSF 1005xxx2: BM1397:01+ 430.00MHz T:430 P:398 (29:15) |  100% WU: 97% | 317.1G / 219.1Gh/s WU:3061.3/m
 1: GSF 1005xxxx: BM1397:01+ 450.00MHz T:450 P:450 (28:14) |  100% WU:100% | 317.5G / 296.0Gh/s WU:4134.5/m
 2: GSF 1005xxxx: BM1397:01+ 450.00MHz T:450 P:450 (28:14) |  100% WU:100% | 309.8G / 289.7Gh/s WU:4047.1/m
 3: GSF 1005xxx3: BM1397:01+ 300.00MHz T:410 P:283 (42:21) | 95.5% WU:100% | 177.9G / 206.2Gh/s WU:2880.6/m
 4: GSF 1005xxxx: BM1397:01+ 450.00MHz T:450 P:445 (28:14) |  100% WU:100% | 249.8G / 271.9Gh/s WU:3799.2/m

aaand reset again

3: GSF 3 - 149.56GH/s low [201.60/161.28/401] reset limit 300.00MHz -> 290.00MHz

3: is worse than the 0:

Am I doing something wrong, or did I forget to setup something or is something with the sticks wrong?
They are all brand new from bitshopper.


Thank you for any ideas and helping me:)


P.s.: And as an addition 4.12.0 cgminer doesn't recognise my blockerupter at all (I used --enable-icarus when I installed cg)

I see your point, but I think it is to some extent. It already can melt with an usb-a connector, than with a usb-c it is preprogrammed to melt. Since, usb-c chargers and hubs handles a higher amperage --> higher wattage. To be able to get a higher current out of a usb-a you have to educate yourself. You cannot go to a general store and buy the first hub you see as it is with usb-c.

A bit longer explanation:
With a regular usb-a the average input lies at around 5V/1,4A=7W and the cup is around 5V/2,4(3)A=12(15)W. Usb-c starts from here. Usb-a was meant firstly for data transfer, usb-c for fastcharging and data transfer. The cable is important as well, however, we don't use any cables to usb miners, therfore would be theoretically irrelevant if usb a or c. But the charger types/hubs were designed to cover the above described power demands, that's why we hardly find any usb-a hubs, which can support not 3A but even 2,4A.
We can consider this kinda involuntarily built in protective mechanism. If you don't do your research and you don't understand electricity a bit, cannot overclock or even use your miners properly.

Let's assume, there would be a hipothetic Ferrari2 with usb-c connector and 2 BM1397 ASIC Chips. It could draw ca. 30W or more. Anyone who has a common 30W+ usb-c hub can without any research and understandig easily just plug the thing in and it would run. But for what a cost? If a compac F melts at 15W, what could do 30W or more (e.g. 120W) with a device without any super active cooling? There wouldn't be enough 1 fan for sure.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but safety first. If someone can start a device without any deeper education, no matter the consequences it'll do so, because people tend to be comfortable and lazy. 

Even than if it worked, I would find these kind of miners with usb-c highly dangerous. People, who doesn't know much about electricity or doesn't make some research in this topic can easily burn their homes down only by plugging a usb-c miner in a hub and letting it behind running without any super active cooling. They would/could think, it's a small n cute, noiseless device - which it is -, compared to a 1000W+ asic miner, so what wrong could possibly happen?! Well... The thing is, in my opinion, that people are broadly used to using fastchargable and other devices, what support 20-60-120W input capacity. They, in most cases, only see the number and think the bigger, the better and don't even know, what it in fact means. It's a hell of a load. Maybe I'm wrong and way too precautious but even 12-15W is enough dangerous, if you don't know how to handle it.
With usb-a miners, though, there can be theoretically no problem regarding heat. I mean, you can cool them down with a fan or two and don't need any uber extra knowledge. However, if you want to use usb-a miners on high frequency (aka high amperage) and max them out, you must do some research beforehand, in order to accumulate a level of understanding what's going on in the background. Otherwise, you're stuck with the idle, "safe" frequency, or with older usb miners, which are safe to use and almost PnP devices compared to a compac F.

If someone want to mine for a living won't buy any low hashrate, unefficient usb miner and additionally geather the pieces they need to get them work, but a robust 1000W+ asic. For hobby miners and DIY fans should a usb-a compac F or something similar be enough to play around with. It's rather about fun, possibility of solving a block in this case, than being profit driven. I'm not saying usb-c would be a dead end or would be bad, I only find it risky and a bit too dangerous. That's why I reckon usb-a miners are enough. Who knows what kind of super-chips the future and the developer misterminds bring us. 

Even than if it worked, I would find these kind of miners with usb-c highly dangerous. People, who doesn't know much about electricity or doesn't make some research in this topic can easily burn their homes down only by plugging a usb-c miner in a hub and letting it behind running without any super active cooling. They would/could think, it's a small n cute, noiseless device - which it is -, compared to a 1000W+ asic miner, so what wrong could possibly happen?! Well... The thing is, in my opinion, that people are broadly used to using fastchargable and other devices, what support 20-60-120W input capacity. They, in most cases, only see the number and think the bigger, the better and don't even know, what it in fact means. It's a hell of a load. Maybe I'm wrong and way too precautious but even 12-15W is enough dangerous, if you don't know how to handle it.
With usb-a miners, though, there can be theoretically no problem regarding heat. I mean, you can cool them down with a fan or two and don't need any uber extra knowledge. However, if you want to use usb-a miners on high frequency (aka high amperage) and run them on max, you must do some research beforehand, in order to accumulate a level of understanding what's going on in the background. Otherwise, you're stuck with the idle, "safe" frequency, or with older usb miners, which are safe to use and almost PnP devices compared to a compac F.

If someone want to mine for a living won't buy any low hashrate, unefficient usb miner and additionally geather the pieces they need to get them work, but a robust 1000W+ asic. For hobby miners and DIY fans should a usb-a compac F or something similar be enough to play around with. It's rather about fun, possibility of solving a block in this case, than being profit driven. I'm not saying usb-c would be a dead end or would be bad, I only find it risky and a bit too dangerous. That's why I reckon usb-a miners are enough. Who knows what kind of super-chips the future and the developer misterminds bring us.

Yeah, cooling can be a huge issue as far as I can see here from the comments. Good to hear, you could fix yours. I'll be very cautious, but thanks for the warning. I've already bought a 10 cm (diameter) fan. It'll turn out really quickly if it's enough or have to buy a bigger one. Hopefully will do it

I've made some research and this forum is a real gold mine! Firstly didn't know which version to use and after comparing them decided to rather go with Kano's cgminer. It seemed the most up-to-date with some extra Ferrari adjustment possibilities, but now I'm sure this is really the right one to run with. Thanks for the tip!! Can't wait to start the engine though

Hi guys, I've got mine too. I haven't tried it yet, because I'm waiting for my raspi to set it up. I've noticed however,  that the stick's layout has slightly changed compared to v8.1. Did you see it? Has it anything to do with its performance?

I'm unfortunately not allowed to attach any pictures, maybe because I'm new here, but found out the way how to explain what has changed:

https://www.419mining.com/wp-content/uploads/20211012_184638-600x800.png

The black regulator (?!) with 14 legs on the right hand side, directly under the screw has gone and it was replaced with an 8 legged one, which is ca. 1/5 of the original's size.