So, sidehack’s 2pac usb stick is out and available for purchase now.
I thought it’d be cool to kick off a thread about usb hubs.
Feel free to drop a link where you bought yours and share a pic or two of your setups using sidehack sticks.
I’ve got this usb hub.
It’s a beast, but it’s just usb 2, kinda old school.
Picked it up from eyeboot klintay from this forum.
He’s got this one below in black and usb 3.0.
(Reflink)
Mine's in silver and usb 2.0.
Old picture but this is still what I'm running. 10 Compacs on a single 10 port A-300 hub I believe it's a relabeled https://www.amazon.com/Sipolar-USB2-0-Bitcoin-Indicator-Powered/dp/B01K4LYX7U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486327095&sr=8-1&keywords=sipolar+A-300
$5 Purex 120mm case fan using a home made dc barrel to molex adapter 12vdc wall wart powering a $5 evercool single fan controller.
RasberryPi3 is now updated with Pixel and I followed Jake36 post to install novak's cgminer-gekko-rev2.
https://i.imgur.com/CbzwIRM.jpg
superbpag USB 3.0 70 watt hub. 7 ports, 10 watts/port.
https://www.amazon.com/Superbpag-Portable-Charger-Transfer-Samsung/dp/B013OK10YM
old pic, eventually ran 5 overclocked compacs and the artic fan on it.
works great. even with a rPi model B
I heard those hubs broke pretty easily some time ago (don't remember when or where I heard that). Good to know that someone on the forum runs one of these hubs, once I get a few 2pacs and bit fury sticks I might consider this or the superbpag. Voltage is a little low on each port (5v600ma) compared to the superbpag but otherwise good; these also sell on eBay.
I can't even remember when U2s were still available, I started mining actively back when the U3 was still on sale and when you could easily get a Block Erupter for five bucks and shipping. Those were the old days.. Looks like a nice hub, illl consider it once I get my sticks
No pics at the moment, but I currently have this Anker USB 3.0 hub:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EYXZI4M/
Works fine, but won't work with RPi, I would like to switch over to a different hub that I can run on the RPi. I currently have four compacs running at 275mhz and I have two 2Pacs ordered.
I was thinking of getting this:
https://www.amazon.com/Superbpag-Portable-Charger-Transfer-Samsung/dp/B013OK10YM
Hoping to find something to work with the RPi and be able to provide enough power for the 4 compacs and 2 2Pacs. Hoping to crank these things up 300+mhz.
You should be able to. Superbpaq supplies 2A for each port and works well with RPi.
You can push an original compac to somewhere around 340Mhz under 1.95A.
somehow, I was not able to run more than five overclocked Compacs on one Superbpag, but I did not try too hard.
For biggie(s) I am planning to use 300W PSU from my old HP500 tower that i upgraded to 500W.
It got PCie and biggie will get at least one PCIe connector. Should be easy peasy, I hope.
they sell on ebay for $25-28, great value, IMHO
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-500B-MT-300-Watts-300W-ATX12V-Power-Supply-PSU-570856-001-HP-D3006A0-REV-05-/381680445389
I know I saw one picture of a Hub that had been opened up, and and additional +5V and GND wire had been soldered on top of the thin trace already present on the PC board. The idea is that the thin trace would have too much resistance and would cause a larger voltage drop when more current is drawn.
There were a lot of posts on this in the latter half of 2013 and early 2014 when USB miners were popular.
I think thats what ive already seen. It was to a standard hub which had the unsusd +5v and GND. Just wondering if you could modifiy an existing powered hub to "beef it up" powerwise. Where woild the most likely bottlenecks be to stop it drawing the maximum current possible?
My attempt at upping the power to my soon to be arriving 2pacs on the cheap. I'm reusing stuff I already had on hand. I am waiting on my Block Erupters to sell on eBay to reclaim a 5v 40 amp led "meanwell" power supply. My plan is to use Monoprice usb extenders and some 18GA wire to hook up the power of the meanwell and data of a cheap 10 port hub (also hooked up to the meanwell) I hope to get these guys running at 3 to 3.5 amps per.
I slice the jacket and remove the red and black wire (verifying that they are the +5 and ground on the usb ports) Cut the red wire and cap the side coming from the usb hub. Solder in the new 18GA wire +5 and ground cables. Verify no shorts and wrap the solder joints on opposite sides of the usb cable.
https://i.imgur.com/fMiqMC5.png
https://i.imgur.com/HFSVzpa.png
I cut some 3/4 wood dowel and using a saw and 1/2 drill bit made usb "Holders" they are spaced 2" apart to allow cooling.
I plan on attaching these to the board that my power supply is mounted to and using hot glue attaching the usb "holders" to the wood dowel.
And then attaching cooling fans.
Will Post more pictures when I get it completed. Just wanted to throw this out in case it helps others.
What gauge are those USB wires?
I know it is a short distance, but will they carry the 3.5 amps without getting too hot?
I would guess they are only 28awg or 24awg.
I started looking for some cables to do this with and the biggest wire I can find is 22awg:
https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-22AWG-Extension-Cable-Female/dp/B017XVCK7O
Thinking about just getting some of these:
https://www.amazon.com/Uxcell-Female-Socket-Connector-Pieces/dp/B00H51E7B0/
and making my own wires/hub assembly.
They were the "gold" series of usb extenders. 24GA if i can remember. They don't have them on the site anymore. I am pretty sure they are under rated for the job at hand. but I'm going try my luck. Like you said it's a short run and my worry is more of the usb connector than the wiring. I thought about building my own connections but couldn't work out something robust enough. I may have to if these fry.
Yeah, I think I am going to try to keep things less than 3 amps. I don't think the little extra hashrate will make up for the additional cost to construct something that can handle more than 3 amps.
Keep us updated. Hoping to get my 2Pacs by the end of the week.