Posts Tagged ‘Gridseed ASIC’

The Gridseed 19.2 MHS Scrypt ASIC Miner is Not Real… Yet

23, Mar 2014

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Do you remember the 19.2 MHS Scrypt and 520 GHS SHA-256 Dual Mode ASIC that we have reported about being available for pre-order form a Chinese seller. We have expressed our doubts about that product and it turns out it will not be available by the end of this month, though the seller claims it is something that Gridseed is currently working on. So we might actually see the product in some form available in a bit of time, but for now you can be rest assured it is not going to hit the market anytime soon. If we see the 19.2 GHS Scrypt mining ASIC in a few months however it might be a bit too late as other ASIC manufacturers are already promising shipping date for more powerful Scrypt miners to be out before the end of the year…

Below you can read the official quote from the seller as a response to the user interest in the 19.2 MHS miner that they have listed for pre-orders:

Dear customers,

Thank you so much for your interest in the super miner (520GH/19.2MH) shown at our store before, we decided to take it down before more information is available.

We got this product info from an agent of Gridseed. And we were told that the miner would be available at the end of March. So we put it at our store. Unexpectedly, it has generated a lot of interest and doubts alike in the mining circle. And we have received messages from a lot of customers, who are both interested and doubtful, which is very understandable, because the information was limited and no one has actually used this product yet.

And we have to clarify one fact: WE ARE NOT SCAMMERS. Firstly, we didn’t take any order of the product. None. Secondly, we have been receiving very positive feedbacks from our customers. Anyone who has worked with us knows that we are an honest store. Thirdly, it was not intended as a marketing ploy either. We saw new products coming, we put them at our store, that’s it.

So under these circumstances, with the attitude of being responsible to our customers, we decided to take it down until more information is available.

At the same time we are requesting for more info and wait until we know better.

Thank you so much.

Updated Guide on How to Mine Both BTC and LTC on Gridseed 5-chip GC3355 ASIC

22, Mar 2014

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When we’ve made our previous guide for dual mining BTC and LTC on a Gridseed 5-chip GC3355 ASIC we’ve only had an earlier revision of the miner that used CP2102 USB to UART Bridge Controller. Now that we already have a newer revision with the STMicroelectronics Virtual COM Port we have decided to update the guide with information on how to Dualmine on these ASIC devices. Note that we do not recommend using these devices for dual mining mode, but for Scrypt only mode instead, but you are free to decide for yourself. The advantages of using Scrypt only mode are the low power consumption and heat, the ability to overclock higher, including with a voltage modification and a choice of multiple more up to date software miners. Note that the only way for the moment to use the Dual Mining mode on the Gridseed 5-chip GC3355 ASIC devices is to use the special version of cgminer 3.8.5 for BTC mining (SHA-256) along with the special modified version of cpuminer for Gridseed for LTC mining. Due to the way that the Dual Mining mode is realized on these ASICs using a more recent version of cgminer or bfgminer for LTC (Scrypt) mining on these devices along with the cgminer for BTC mining is not possible at the moment.

gridseed-driver-com-port-number

– Open up Windows Device Manager and go to the Ports (COM & LPT) and note the COM port that is written behind the STMicroelectronics Virtual COM Port driver
– Download and run the latest version of Zadig
– From the Zadig interface select Options and choose List All Devices
– From the Dropdown list of devices select STM32 Virtual COM Port and click on Replace Driver with the WinUSB driver selected
– Download the dualmining package that we have prepared for windows that contains cgminer 3.8.5 for BTC mining and cpuminer for LTC mining
– Edit the BAT files for the two software miners included in the archive with your settings for BTC and LTC mining pools
– In the LTC-START.bat file you will see an option “gc3355=\\.\COM4”, here you need to change the COM port number to the one you have seen in the device manager before updating the driver with Zadig to use WinUSB
– First you need to start cgminer 3.8.5 for BTC mining, wait a few seconds until the software starts up and connects to the pool and starts working
– Then start the cpuminer for LTC mining, note that you will need to wait for some more time here before the miner connects and starts working, but it it takes more than a minute maybe something is not right

If you still haven’t used cpuminer for Gridseed you should know that the software does not report local hashrate, so the zeroes you see are normal, it is actually working and sending shares. Also note that when in Dual Mining mode you will not be able to overclock the device as high as when only in Scrypt mining mode, so it is normal to be getting lower hasrate. As we’ve already said, we do not recommend the Dual Mining mode and suggest to use these ASIC devices for Scrypt mining mode only, especially if you want to run multiple devices.

– Download the DualMining package for BTC/LTC mining on Gridseed 5-chip GC3355 ASIC for Windows…

Where You Can Order Gridseed 5-chip BTC/LTC ASIC Miners From

22, Mar 2014

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We’ve been getting quite a few questions about where to order Gridseed ASICs from, so we have decided to compile a short list of places that offer Gridseed 5-chip BTC/LTC ASIC miners. Note that we cannot confirm the reliability of these distributors and resellers of Gridseed, simply because we have not ordered from all of them, so do treat this list with caution and be careful where you order from. A good idea is to start with a small order to test the seller first and then make a larger order for more units if you are happy or go to another seller. The best option would be to go for a company selling in your Country or Region, even though you might be able to get better prices with Shipping directly from China. The idea is that you could be able to get the miners faster and with less possible problems, especially if ordering from a seller you are not sure you can trust!

Gridseed, the official manufacturer’s website where you can order directly for the best price. Note however that they accept minimum order quantities and the quoted official price is about $158 USD per unit. The shipping is done from China, so it will be more expensive to ship to Europe or USA an there will be extra taxes to pay. This is a good option if you want to become reseller of Gridseed, not something a normal user would do due to the very high MOQ.

MinerEU, this is the only company we have personally tested so far and can confirm that we have received our order without problems and on time, exactly as promised. This seems to be the best place to order if you are based in Europe as they Ship from London, UK, however they do also ship overseas with orders dispatched from China to US and Asia. Currently out of stock with a new shipment expected to arrive soon, $235 USD per unit and lower prices for orders of 10, 30 or 50 units.

Miners World, a Netherlands-based online store selling ASIC devices (Europe) that has in stock only 10 miners package with all accessories, the price for the kit is € 2499 EURO. The site is not in English, so you might have trouble ordering from there, unless you are based in NL.

Hashra, claims to be a UK & Hong Kong based company, but is shipping only from China. Currently has on stock 10 miners pack with all accessories for $2425 USD and 20 miners pack with all accessories for $4835. Their website lists positions for only the miners in packs of 10 or 20 without extra accessories, but these are currently out of stock.

JustASIC, apparently a USA-based company shipping only to US. Claims to have one of the best prices for Gridseed ASICs at $165 USD, but you cannot order a single unit, you can only order packs of 20 units for $3300 USD ($165 per miner) with no extra accessories included, currently with available units on stock.

Zoomhash, apparently based in LA, Califronia, USA with local stock available. They do seem to ship worldwide as well, but they are probably a better choice if you are based in US and not somewhere overseas. The price per single unit is $214.99 USD without any accessories (we’ve seen a photo taken by us posted on their website of our early revision unit). You can also order 10 devices with accessories for $1999 USD, or 20 devices with accessories for $3899 USD and their store also has some other mining accessories such as PCI-E risers.

Hash Master, another company that seems to be based on Los Angeles, CA, USA. Apparently they do also ship internationally, not only in USA, but information about international shipping is posted in product pages. Price per single miner is $238 USD and you get only the miner with a USB cable, no PSU, but they do sell accessories separately as well, and for a single miner with all accessories including a PSU you will have to pay $330 USD. They also offer packs of 10, 20, 50 and 120 miners that include all of the necessary accessories to make them run without the need of a PC.

GAW Miners, a East Longmeadow, MA, USA-based company selling both the mining hardware and ASIC hardware and hosting services as their location. Also what makes them different is their 5 Day Delivery Time Guarantee and the fact that they claim to offer 24 hour support service to customers. No clear information about international shipping, though apparently they do support it. We were actually contacted a few days ago by the company’s CEO, who sent us some nice photos of their custom multiple unit miners in action – you can see one of these photos in the top of this post. The price per single miner they sell is $189.95 USD for a single miner with no accessories, a 10 miners pack with accessories is available for $1999.95 USD, and you can go for their custom miner packages consisting of more devices that are ready to provide you with 15 MHS, 25 MHS or 42 MHS of hasrate that include everything you need to setup and run the devices.

Helixminers is a Deerfield Beach, FL, USA-based company though it seems they also have a distribution center in Sao Paulo, Brazil, but the good news is that thy ship worldwide. For the moment the company sells only Gridseed ASICs, though they let us know that they will be reselling the ASIC hardware of many of the other companies that have announced to be working on such devices with shipping dates set of later this year. A single 5-chip miner currently costs $175 USD, ad the company also offers larger packages with 8, 16 and 24 miners including all accessories required to start mining immediately and you can also buy accessories separately if you wish to.

EyeBoot is a Hong Kong, China-based company that sells both Bitcoin and Litecoin ASIC miners. The prices of most SHA-256 ASIC devices are not very attractive, besides the ones of some USB ASICs, but the ones for Scrytp miners are lookign better. They do offer the single chip GC3355 Dualminer devices for $80 USD, the 5-chip ASICs for $140 USD fr a single device along with packs of more devices that provide you wiht a better per unit price. There is not much details about the shipping of products, but we presume they do ship Internationally.

UBERASICS is a Netherlands, Europe-based company that may seem like a good choice for ordering from Europe, though unfortunately they do seem to ship only to some Western Europe contries only and there is no option to pay with crypto coins. A single 5-chip Gridseed miner will cost you 189 EURO or 199 EURO with all the needed accessories, there is also an option to buy a 10 pack kits that will be a bit better in terms of price per unit and accessories separately.

USBMiners is another Netherlands, Europe-based company that sells not only Gridseed products, but also various other mining hardware in the form of SHA-256 ASICs and even GPU miners. They offer the single CG3355 chip DualMiner at a price of 79 EURO and a single 5-chip Gridseed ASIC will cost you 124.95 EURO and yo have options for multiple unit packs that should normally give you a better price per unit, though the prices for 10 and 20 unit packs are actually higher that for the same amount of units with the single unit price. The company does seem to ship Worldwide.

There are probably quite a few more resellers/distributors offering Gridseed ASIC devices that we did not cover here, we don’t know about all of them. Do note however that we have not personally tested any of the listed sellers, unless otherwise noted above, so we give no guarantees about these companies whatsoever. So regardless of where you decide to order proceed with caution and do not start with a big order directly, test with a small one to confirm that everything is Ok, before ordering more miners. We do recommend to use a local seller if possible and not order from overseas as this can be more expensive, cause delays and bring other issues as well, even if the price seems more attractive often the end result might not be worth it. Feel free to share your feedback if you have used any of these sellers and if you can recommend another one that is not listed yet.


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