USB BLOCK ERUPTER FOR LITECOIN HOW TO
USB BLOCK ERUPTER FOR LITECOIN SERIAL

I pushed it too far and too hard using a 20 MHz crystal, that is 560 MHz. I ended up destroying my Block Erupter in the end.Lastly I added a mini heat sinked 5v fan to the back held on with thermal grease and a few small dabs of hot glue on the sides. I also soldered in a pin that I could connect my oscillator circuits to. This way I could just solder a small wire to it to get the default clock back to test if I did any damage at any time. I then removed the clock gen and put it on its side. Trick is to set the trim pot to 1.2K ohms before you solder it in place then you can just make slight adjustments to home in a stable voltage. Voltage pin probe on the asic core voltage line to monitor with my volt meter. Removed R1 and installed a 10k ohm trim pot. I put a capacitor on the main usb voltage lines to filter out any noise it might have picked up. This one gave me more trouble and wasnвЂ™t too stable.Д¬loser view of my modifications. I found 2 different schematics on Google images.Д¬loser view of the board.

I used a simple machine pin style female header so I could easily swap out the crystal. To the left and right of the Block Erupter are my 2 different clock gen circuits I used. I mostly did changes with the Block Erupter connected to my bench power supply with the current limited to prevent any mishaps. You should be very careful if you use my method and always have a volt meter on the asic core voltage line. I used a 10K ohm pot to adjust the core voltage with a volt meter on the pin I soldered to the main asic core voltage line. To get a higher voltage you can change R1. R1 is conveniently the same as R1 in the datasheet for the Regulator and the same applies to R2 :)

Lastly the resistors you will need to modify to change the core asic voltage. Here is a list of oscillators on Digikey you can experiment with if you dare. The core asic clock speed is this crystal times 28. Please note the 3.3v is very important here, as this may be the thing that ended up frying my asic.

USB BLOCK ERUPTER FOR LITECOIN HOW TO

Here is the datasheet, become familiar with it as you will need to know how to properly modify the core asic voltage. You will learn to hate this chip :D as it will be the source of many of your hardware error issues. Moving along we get to the fun parts :) This is where your soldering skills will take place.Д«ehold the asic voltage regulator and all its glory. Not only does it do the proper conversion, It coverts the 5v usb to 3.3 that powers the AVR chipДЄgain you would be stupid to put a heat sink on this. Next we have the Silicon Labs Uart вЂ“ usb adapter. If it does your doing something wrong.В I have seen sales on ebay of heat sink kits for the block erupter that put a heat sink on this chip You would be stupid to put a heat sink on this as it will never get warm.

USB BLOCK ERUPTER FOR LITECOIN SERIAL

This contains the firmware that bridges the usb вЂ“ serial adapter chip to the asic. If you go this route: USE A NON CONDUCTING THERMAL GREASE!!! or Heat transfer pad!!!! Artic silver may short things out and leave you with a mess to clean up, if not a dead board. I did this with a dull Exacto knife and very little pressure slowly scraping across the surface. To maximize heat transfer I suggest you carefully remove the solder mask on the back of the board where the asic lies on the other side. The 4 large 2 pin wide traces are all the main + voltage to the asic. You are better off with changing the stock heat sink on the back of the board, or adding on to it as I will show you later. Please note: putting a heat sink on top of this chip will have little if any effect as the heat side of the chip is soldered to the board. The heart and soul of your Block Erupter. Lets start off first with a simple overview of the board Here is how I got my block erupter overclocked to 56o MHz briefly before it died.

Usb block erupter for litecoin