Overclock Pogoplug V4 and Mobile

Sergeanter post this HowTo overclock the Pogo V4 at Arch site:

http://archlinuxarm.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=53&t=9627

Pretty cool!

-bodhi
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/22/2015 12:00AM by bodhi.

I hate to have noticed the resistor looks photoshopped. Wishing the guy could have at least posted some benchmarks for a comparison in performance....I would have. If it's legit, that's awesome.

IIRC, Sergeanter has visited this forum before. He might have the "after" picture for us.

If it can run at 1Ghz, I guess we can run a 1Ghz box to see roughly what performance gain looks like.

-bodhi
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if this really is a legit hack - then i for one will be doing it

are there any requirements to modify anything else in uboot etc ??

Gravelrash Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> if this really is a legit hack - then i for one
> will be doing it
>
> are there any requirements to modify anything else
> in uboot etc ??

I believe that it is. There was some discussion a while back at Arch site, but I was not interested because Pogo V4/Mobile was expensive for its capability. It is cheap enough now that I think it is sensible that you might get one or use your existing Pogo Mobile for this hack.

I don't think u-boot needs adjustment, but let see if one of us can implement this oveclock and we'll go from there (it is easy to build a different u-boot for it).

-bodhi
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It's REALLY hard to solder SMD resistors with young eyes, I wouldn't even try with my eyes with glasses and a magnifying glass to boot. I had enough trouble soldering the serial wires to one of my V4-A3's that I had bricked after screwing up the env's. More power to the one who gets it done and posts the proof.

Now they're saying 2.7KOHm. Hey does the Pogo4 (with USM under the lid) accommodate a 3.5" hard drive? Or just 2.5".

As for soldering, it's no big deal to make it easy on yourself and position a resistor so it isn't as politically correct as the Photoshopped tiny resistor. Take solder iron to the grindstone and grind it to an icepick point lol Plenty of light soldering on the kitchen table next to the window at noon... deep breath...

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-= Cloud 9 =-



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/23/2015 02:17PM by JoeyPogoPlugE02.

JoeyPogoPlugE02 Wrote:
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> Take solder iron to the grindstone and
> grind it to an icepick point lol Plenty of light
> soldering on the kitchen table next to the window
> at noon... deep breath...

Problem with a Pogoplug is they use a high heat solder (more environmentally freindly) when they dip the circuit boards. It requires a hotter iron tip which is made harder to wield when the tip gets smaller which means you risk damaging the components when attempting to replace or modify them and the risk only gets worse when the components get smaller. Throw in my intermediate advanced beginner soldering skills and the risk of a FUBARED board is better than half if I were to attempt the mod myself. IOW, I don't have the SKLZ :)

LeggoMyEggo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It's REALLY hard to solder SMD resistors with
> young eyes, I wouldn't even try with my eyes with
> glasses and a magnifying glass to boot.

I guess this would help?:
http://www.amazon.com/Magnifier-Upgraded-Version-Illuminated-Magnifying/dp/B00SR6EB2C

I am soldering challenged, so I know I would not be able to do this :) So I just tthought if you guys try this, and find that you need to run the box properly with new u-boot then I could help in that department!

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/23/2015 03:28PM by bodhi.

yeah high heat can be tricky, I've done a lot of silver soldering and have a vacuum syringe and braid to mop up a bad solder point.

Having learned to solder at age 4 by a ham radio dad, my processes go something like this, to get a resistor and clip the leads 3/4" from the resistor, drop a tiny blob of solder on the ends, heat sink clip right before the ends, then push end one at a time to position, high heat iron, be quick and let the solder bead roll to VICTORY lol. Not even so much any bead but just the tack. And you could use lower heat solder, it's just two tiny points.

Yeah those lenses bodhi pointed out look fantastic. Menards has a nice magnifying glass on an arm but it's like $50

Lastly, I get it, Pogo 4 is for 2.5" so I'll have to pass, not ruling out anything in the future, but if Adorama ever has another sale like last spring, I'd get two P4s and definitely cash the rebate check this time lol

-edited- Happy New Year you all, and I'll edit that afterwards like I did for Merry Christmas lol

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-= Cloud 9 =-



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/26/2015 09:40PM by JoeyPogoPlugE02.

im back home in the new year and have a temperature controlled iron im bursting to try out - nice cheapo unit from Mondo Maplin, so it will be nice to put it through its paces.

I do like the glasses that bodhi shared, i wont be buying those as i dont think they will fit over my other spectacles and im sure i look like a mad scientist enough as it is - will be sticking with my trusted soldering aid with built in magnifying glass.

in terms of heat, thanks for the heads up Leggo - what i intend to do is run a couple of ply leads from the pin points using some old ide drive cable and then solder a proper sized resistor to the ends of this,


if it works then it should only be necessary to stick some tape over the solder connection on the board to act as strain releif or some hot glue and then insulate the exposed ends on the resistor, this should then allow for setting values between 10k and 20k ohm to find the best/most relevant value.

ill post back if it works or if i fry the board!

call me giddy but i just ordered another couple of plugs from the uSA in casei do damage to my existing ones :)

Gravelrash Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 10k and 20k ohm to find the best/most relevant
> value.

Be careful, the OP at Arch recanted and said the value was now 2.7k ohms and he was going to update his post to confirm the value and that the mod worked. Be great if it does.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/24/2015 08:17AM by LeggoMyEggo.

Gravelrash Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> call me giddy but i just ordered another couple of
> plugs from the uSA in casei do damage to my
> existing ones :)


Mind if I ask how much $ you found to be an acceptable exchange?
Yeah if I had 2.5" hard drives I'd snap up a couple too. This winter I'd expect to see great deals on the kind of hard drives I'd most like, which are anything between 30 GB and 500 GB. Keep the 2TB + on 3.5".

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-= Cloud 9 =-

Another successful attempt:

Quote
spooky2012

Hi Sergeanter,

I've tried your "hack" using a regular 1/4 Watt - 2.2 kOhm resistor soldered on the top side of the PCB.

More easier than soldering a SMT resistor on the bottom side.

Now I get a 996,14 BogoMIPS instead of 795,44 BogoMIPS on a cat /proc/cpuinfo (25% increase!).

Thank you!

I think it's easier to solder on the other side? or it does not matter?

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/24/2015 03:52PM by bodhi.

@ Leggo - thanks again for the imformation - i will try first with teh 2.7k then

@bodhi - i cant say for certain which will be easier till i rip mine apart and have a look

@Joey - I cant get them for anywhere near the price you chaps in the USA enjoy - i consider a price of less than £15 a unit to be an acceptable price - i found a chap based in the USA who will post me two for a nudge under £25 the pair

current exchange rate as set at xe.com is £1 = $1.49

just gotta wait a couple of weeks till they land on my doorstep

EDIT - it would be cheaper and easier to play with an orangepi - but wheres the fun in easy??



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/24/2015 04:39PM by Gravelrash.

Yeah enjoy. Acquiring Pogoplugs I see are like Pringles: once you pop you can't stop. I'd be heavily tempted to get a spare E02 before thinking about an OrangePi too. This somewhat older article with comments from Qui, reflects stock Pogoplug 4 processing and likely isn't quite as specifically true now that it's clocked higher.

The E02 performed mostly better, but since the SATA II speed of v4 was stuck at SATA 1, I wonder if there was another "drive' plugged into the same internal bus at the same time, or an Arch Linux SATA piece missing, but it should have performed at SATA II speed. Secondly, it seems there's a threshold CPU speed where it all works right, and stock is just a hair too slow.

Gents, I can't help but ask what you think if there's a similarity in clocking a v3 Pro in the same manner as the v4?
Here is a convenient chart showing, probably not, the v4 and E02s use Kirkwood processor and v3s, again, are Oxnas.

I used to feel, in the early Windows days that higher clocking was the answer to low RAM because with the right settings you process and get it out of the way, but in Windows that meant kicking DLL remnants out of RAM right when they were finished, and probably other tricks I can't remember.

So my former strategy would have hoped to turn my two v3 PogoPros into faux v4s, but no, different hardware altogether. So until inspiration strikes, my Pogo 3s can be 4-watt nightlights and e-Cigarette chargers ;-/

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-= Cloud 9 =-



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/25/2015 11:42AM by JoeyPogoPlugE02.

Joey,

> Gents, I can't help but ask what you think if
> there's a similarity in clocking a v3 Pro in the
> same manner as the v4?

It's already overclocked. The stock frequency was 700 MHz, but you are running it at 850Mhz thanks to the new u-boot. The good thing was WaheadsSE and kref figured out how to overclock this box in the u-boot SPL so no hardware mod was needed.

> So until inspiration strikes,
> my Pogo 3s can be 4-watt nightlights and
> e-Cigarette chargers ;-/

Good :) but are you not running a full blown Debian NAS box with this Pogo V3?

-bodhi
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Now that you mention it, no I guess I never did go through with complete testing! Wow.

- I edited-out lamentations about cheap and good hard drives, but for those in the States I've just re-discovered an old haunt that treated me well ages ago. It's called PriceWatch.com. Here are the hard drive listings, and for many including me, all of sudden Pogo hard drive alternatives are easy to manage: Here's the hard drive list.

There is a 2TB Hitachi UltraStar I've got my eye on, $48 new from Ohio rated over a million hours and with power saving that can take sleep modes to 1 watt!

Back to your regularly scheduled soldering action...

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-= Cloud 9 =-



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/26/2015 09:51PM by JoeyPogoPlugE02.

@all

just been doing some visual inspection of where will be easiest to mount the resistor and if i am not mistaken top mounting will be the easiest, im basing this on not being near my plugs and on examining the pictures on this post

http://mhassan.me/2012/11/17/pogoplug-v4-disassembly-and-attaching-serial-cable/

it looks as though there are holes that go through the board which have been filled when the device when through the soldering phase at manufacture. if you look closely at the diagrams the bridge is from the TX line to voltage.

http://mhassan.me/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/pogoplug_v4_top_removed1.jpg

http://mhassan.me/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/pogoplug_v4_board_bottom.jpg

SO.... im really looking forward to doing this and i dont see it being a really dificult job, clean the solder holes out, pop the resistor through the holes and then solder to the pads on the other side. should be fairly straight forward and not necessitate the pain of using an SMD resistor



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/26/2015 03:02PM by Gravelrash.

looks like this is the one to go with

http://www.maplin.co.uk/p/metal-film-06w-27k-ohm-resistor-m2k7

Gravelrash,

It would be important to solder the serial header/pins first, or at the same time? you dont want to loose serial console.

Suppose you already have serial console, how would you approach this? solder the resitor on the top side where the pins are?

-bodhi
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bodhi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Gravelrash,
>
> It would be important to solder the serial
> header/pins first, or at the same time? you dont
> want to loose serial console.
>
> Suppose you already have serial console, how would
> you approach this? solder the resitor on the top
> side where the pins are?

Thats a question i also had with myself - i couldn't see a sensible way to have both. other than that in the end you would need to solder to the leg of the resistor



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/26/2015 04:27PM by Gravelrash.

Gravelrash,

> Thats a question i also had with myself - i
> couldn't see a sensible way to have both. other
> than that in the end you would need to solder to
> the leg of the resistor

Actually, just thoughts that I have. You don't actually loose serial console, but it is just a little inconvenient without the pins. In the past, for emergency purpose, I use the box shirt pins (small pins that keep the shirt fold inside a box) to connect serial console temporarily :) by pushing them into the solder buttons, and they are held by 3 testing clips-wire to connect to the serial module long enough to unbrick a Pogo Mobile.

-bodhi
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bodhi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Actually, just thoughts that I have. You don't
> actually loose serial console, but it is just a
> little inconvenient without the pins. In the past,
> for emergency purpose, I use the box shirt pins
> (small pins that keep the shirt fold inside a box)
> to connect serial console temporarily :) by
> pushing them into the solder buttons, and they are
> held by 3 testing clips-wire to connect to the
> serial module long enough to unbrick a Pogo
> Mobile.

OR, you could always use a tool with the proper name :) POGO pin probe

bodhi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
, I use the box shirt pins
> (small pins that keep the shirt fold inside a box)
> to connect serial console temporarily :)
-------------------------------------------------------

I cant remember when i last wore a shirt - lol

LeggoMyEggo Wrote:

> OR, you could always use a tool with the proper
> name :)
> POGO
> pin probe

:)) but I couldn't tell how do you connect 3 wires using this tool?

I also recall somebody also found a perfect fit header that you can clam on those 4 pins on Pogo board temporarily, but unfortunately I lost the link. I think it's somewhere out there, if you google hard enough, I would be thrilled to find where to get that header (I have too many plugs to bother putting permanent serial header on all of them).

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@ bodhi

you mean something like this? plug them both together and clamp them on the pin contacts?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-JST-2-0mm-PH-5-Pin-Connector-with-Wire-X-10-Sets-CG-/161810871630?hash=item25acadf54e:g:~s8AAOSwT6pV48d4

or this

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-Micro-1-25mm-T-1-4-Pin-JST-Connector-with-Wire-x-10-sets-/171367175199?hash=item27e647941f:g:sZAAAOxyYYlRxxII

depending on the spacing of the pins on the board will determine the one to get.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/27/2015 06:04PM by Gravelrash.

Gravelrash Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> @ bodhi
>
> you mean something like this? plug them both
> together and clamp them on the pin contacts?
>
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-JST-2-0mm-PH-5-Pin-Co
> nnector-with-Wire-X-10-Sets-CG-/161810871630?hash=
> item25acadf54e:g:~s8AAOSwT6pV48d4
>
> or this
>
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-Micro-1-25mm-T-1-4-Pi
> n-JST-Connector-with-Wire-x-10-sets-/171367175199?
> hash=item27e647941f:g:sZAAAOxyYYlRxxII
>
> depending on the spacing of the pins on the board
> will determine the one to get.

No, these are JST permanent headers, and I did install them on a few of my plugs There is a another type (black color) that you can make into a clip on header (iirc, you have to modify it a little). I came across that long time ago and forgot to save the link properly so it's gone from my phone's browser.

-bodhi
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/27/2015 07:22PM by bodhi.

Masters, for those who are so inspired to have bought a v4-3 or two, would you say -fresh out of the box- it's best to solder the resistor on before anything else, or prep it a certain way?

-and an admission I'm not even good at basic math, previously (their fault first) it was said speeds beyond SATA 1 weren't reached, when in fact the Gigabit limit wouldn't pass SATA 1 anyway right? Doh!

Don't get me wrong, I still want to raid your pizza boxes :-D

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-= Cloud 9 =-



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/29/2015 12:14AM by JoeyPogoPlugE02.