The Lucky Miner LV06 is a 500 GH/s cheap BM1366 based SHA256 miner that is available on Aliexpress and other websites.
For the money, it is just ok, not great. Considering you can get a Bitaxe for not much more money, the choice is abundantly clear. So how did I end up with this one? Well it was on special from Aliexpress for dirt cheap, so I had to have a go! Straight out of the box it has an OS that is based on AXE OS, the Bitaxe OS, that has been closed sourced. That absolutely has to go. Without even running with the stock OS it was straight into the mods.
So I followed instructions from Christan Workshop to install AXE OS 2.6.0 on the LV06. https://christanworkshop.com/post/779980817879482368/hacking-lucky-miner-lv06
This worked out good for a few months, but I noticed that temps were settling in the 55-58C region on a 25C day, This is too high for my comfort level. It has been said that ASIC's are comfortable in that region, but the small case for the unit was physically hot. The airflow vents as shown below are just too restrictive for good cooling. And the stock fan was running at 6000 RPM and had a rather annoying high pitched whine, I could not stand that anymore.
So it was decided to take inspiration from the Bitaxe and go open frame with this one, and get those temps down. First came disassembly of the dusty LV06. Pics are below.
So with the LV06 now disassembled to board level, it was time to choose a heatsink. Aliexpress strikes again with this cheap heatsink which suits an Intel LGA2011 footprint. It has an integrated 12 volt fan which means it cannot be plugged into the LV06's 5 volt rail. For this, a USB-C to 4 pin fan converter is the solution. It steps up 5 volts to 12 volts and has a variable speed knob also. It must be powered from an external 5 volt USB source.
This heatsink is massively overrated for the task, but it was cheap and I am going to make it work. At least I will never have to worry about overheat situations again!
Next was to design a base plate in Fusion 3D. A lot had to be taken into consideration for this work, including clearances for heat and components, strengths and flexing and strength of material. This is the end result...
This was printed on an Anycubic Kobra Neo 2 3D printer with regular white PLA, 50% infill
(for strength) and supports enabled (for the heatsink tab arms). PLA is sufficient as the radiant temps from the PCB are now quite low and have cooling airflow. You could print in ABS or PETG if you want greater heat ratings.
Now, to construction. You can reuse all the original screws except the OLED display ones. Use IPA alcohol and a wipe to clean the old heatsink compound off the ASIC and the board firstly.
Start with the main PCB and screw down. Then move onto the OLED. Put a really good blob of heatsink paste on the ASIC. I'm a fan of too much is good, not enough is just crazy.
Now fit the heatsink, remembering to pull off the safety label first or risk instant ASIC burnout. Plug in your fan controller and OLED and it should look like this.
All finished and plugged in, it should look like this:
Logging into AXE OS, I immediately noticed that with the fan control on the three quarter setting, the idling temp was 36C, down from 58C with the stock heatsink and fan.
These are the power specs. I am running stock frequency and ASIC voltage, as overclocking seems to do little but heat up the standard power brick to an unacceptable level. The power brick runs warm with stock settings, so you would definitely need an uprated PSU for overclocking.
The hash rate sitting at a nice 490 GH/s at 36C. Can't ask for much more than that.
After the upgrade, a much nicer GUI and slightly more stable performance. But much of the same.
So what I ended up with was something resembling a Bitaxe with a huge heatsink, massively overcooled, 500GH/s and quiet as anything. The stock LV06 fan really was annoyingly loud, and had no PWM speed control either. the new fan is whisper quiet.
As mentioned, overclocking the LV06 does practically nothing except heat up the power supply brick so it is red hot. No overclock = warm brick. No appreciable increases in hashing speed were seen when overclocking over a period of days, it always settled down to about 450-490 GH/s.
Use at your own risk! I take no responsibility and this is for educational purposes only.
Happy mining!
