Custom FPGA Board for Sale! - page 5.

Karmicads

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Quote from: mb300sd on August 28, 2011, 11:48:44 PM

Current capacity is negligible, all it has to do is overcome an internal pull-up resistor in the PSU. A little electrical tape should take care of insulation. No need to buy any kind of dummy plug just to turn on a PSU.

In that case why not just pop the cover and bridge the pads with a bit of hookup wire. Alternatively, I think there are two wire bridging crimps you can use with normal pliers. They fold over the two wires and have little metal jaws, that cut through the insulation and make contact with the wires inside. Neat, simple and cheap.

Edit: I found a Pic:

mb300sd

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Quote from: newMeat1 on August 28, 2011, 11:44:14 PM

About using an external power supply to power our FPGA boards--

Quote

Quote from: makomk on August 28, 2011, 09:42:53 pm

Quote from: xurious on August 28, 2011, 12:44:26 am

Or for about 1/1000 the price of one of your PSU dummy plugs you could cross the green and any black wire with a paperclip.

Alternatively, you can buy the connector and a crimping tool and build your own. (Plus, that way if you're electronically inclined it should be fairly trivial to rig up remote power-cycling - an Arduino, a NPN transistor and some simple software ought to do the trick.)

Can anybody please explain what the objective of this is? I have an excellent crimping tool and reasonable electronics knowledge, but I don't get what the problem is or what this dummy plug is supposed to do.

I was confused about what that jumper does, too. It just sends the PSU a signal, telling it to turn on. Usually the motherboard does this. If you run the power supply externally, the motherboard isn't around, so you need to have a jumper to another source. (or, well, ground in this case...)
http://www.overclock.net/faqs/96712-how-jump-start-power-supply-psu.html

*Disclaimer: Paper clip method not recommended, due to lack of insulation and possibly not enough current capacity.

Current capacity is negligible, all it has to do is overcome an internal pull-up resistor in the PSU. A little electrical tape should take care of insulation. No need to buy any kind of dummy plug just to turn on a PSU.

newMeat1

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About using an external power supply to power our FPGA boards--

Quote

Quote from: makomk on August 28, 2011, 09:42:53 pm

Quote from: xurious on August 28, 2011, 12:44:26 am

Or for about 1/1000 the price of one of your PSU dummy plugs you could cross the green and any black wire with a paperclip.

Alternatively, you can buy the connector and a crimping tool and build your own. (Plus, that way if you're electronically inclined it should be fairly trivial to rig up remote power-cycling - an Arduino, a NPN transistor and some simple software ought to do the trick.)

Can anybody please explain what the objective of this is? I have an excellent crimping tool and reasonable electronics knowledge, but I don't get what the problem is or what this dummy plug is supposed to do.

I was confused about what that jumper does, too. It just sends the PSU a signal, telling it to turn on. Usually the motherboard does this. If you run the power supply externally, the motherboard isn't around, so you need to have a jumper to another source. (or, well, ground in this case...)
http://www.overclock.net/faqs/96712-how-jump-start-power-supply-psu.html

*Disclaimer: Paper clip method not recommended, due to lack of insulation and possibly not enough current capacity.

Karmicads

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Quote from: makomk on August 28, 2011, 04:42:53 PM

Quote from: xurious on August 27, 2011, 07:44:26 PM

Or for about 1/1000 the price of one of your PSU dummy plugs you could cross the green and any black wire with a paperclip.

Alternatively, you can buy the connector and a crimping tool and build your own. (Plus, that way if you're electronically inclined it should be fairly trivial to rig up remote power-cycling - an Arduino, a NPN transistor and some simple software ought to do the trick.)

Can anybody please explain what the objective of this is? I have an excellent crimping tool and reasonable electronics knowledge, but I don't get what the problem is or what this dummy plug is supposed to do.

EDIT: Wait! It's a female isn't it? so you don't have to plug the PSU into a motherboard. Now I think I get it. Er.. but then again, what's the Arduino, transistor and software stuff for? Undecided

Maybe I'm still lost. Roll Eyes

Quote

That reminds me - one of these days I keep meaning to write some deeply-embedded mining control software for ARM microcontrollers.

And then I might kiss your boots. Kiss

Quote

For your purposes something like a Fonera 2.0 or some other hackable routing hardware with a USB port might be better. Depends what the developers come up with and how hard it is to communicate with.

I'll check that out. Otherwise I might have to collude with these guys and see if they can come up with some custom design for me. Trouble is, my skills/knowledge aren't meeting in the middle. I know a little of programming/computing/networking and a little of electronics theory, but all the microcontrollers & hardcore digital system stuff is getting me in over my head. I'm just working it out and learning as I go.

Karmicads

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Quote from: Pipesnake on August 28, 2011, 03:37:48 PM

Quote from: fpgaminer on August 28, 2011, 02:24:36 PM

Quote

No probs. This baby's going to be bolted to a set of solar panels. So low voltage from go to whoa.

If you hook some of these mining boards up to solar panels, I definitely want pics Cool

Very cool.

Or better yet sell us a kit to replicate your setup

Well, I could do that I guess, but the whole thing is intended for a larger product/service package deal, which I can't go into until I have some non-disclosure agreements written up. It's a standalone unit just for the solar powered mining part though, so I don't see why a separate kit couldn't be feasible. Thanks for that idea Pipesnake, I'll look into it. You'll be the first to know. Wink

Karmicads

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Quote from: fpgaminer on August 28, 2011, 02:24:36 PM

Quote

No probs. This baby's going to be bolted to a set of solar panels. So low voltage from go to whoa.

If you hook some of these mining boards up to solar panels, I definitely want pics Cool

Very cool.

It'll just be the one for prototype/demo first up. But yeah, I post some pics for sure.

fizzisist

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Quote from: makomk on August 28, 2011, 04:42:53 PM

Quote from: Karmicads on August 28, 2011, 11:34:22 AM

Egad! That's a bit of overkill isn't it? I meant the motherboard of course. Undecided

I don't need a PCI slot, or video, or most of that stuff. Just enough processing power and memory to run whatever the X6000 software requires and a USB serial interface. Can you think of anything else I'd need on-board? I was thinking more along the lines of an ARM embedded system or something minimalistic. For that price I could buy a tablet PC running android. Don't mean to be difficult, but this isn't likely to be a one off thing. I rather fancy the idea of running the software remotely on a server if possible.

That reminds me - one of these days I keep meaning to write some deeply-embedded mining control software for ARM microcontrollers. For your purposes something like a Fonera 2.0 or some other hackable routing hardware with a USB port might be better. Depends what the developers come up with and how hard it is to communicate with.

I'm working on testing out the software on a Dockstar in the coming days. If it works, I'll definitely write up a guide on how to do this.

makomk

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Quote from: xurious on August 27, 2011, 07:44:26 PM

Or for about 1/1000 the price of one of your PSU dummy plugs you could cross the green and any black wire with a paperclip.

Alternatively, you can buy the connector and a crimping tool and build your own. (Plus, that way if you're electronically inclined it should be fairly trivial to rig up remote power-cycling - an Arduino, a NPN transistor and some simple software ought to do the trick.)

Quote from: Karmicads on August 28, 2011, 11:34:22 AM

Egad! That's a bit of overkill isn't it? I meant the motherboard of course. Undecided

I don't need a PCI slot, or video, or most of that stuff. Just enough processing power and memory to run whatever the X6000 software requires and a USB serial interface. Can you think of anything else I'd need on-board? I was thinking more along the lines of an ARM embedded system or something minimalistic. For that price I could buy a tablet PC running android. Don't mean to be difficult, but this isn't likely to be a one off thing. I rather fancy the idea of running the software remotely on a server if possible.

That reminds me - one of these days I keep meaning to write some deeply-embedded mining control software for ARM microcontrollers. For your purposes something like a Fonera 2.0 or some other hackable routing hardware with a USB port might be better. Depends what the developers come up with and how hard it is to communicate with.

Pipesnake

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Quote from: fpgaminer on August 28, 2011, 02:24:36 PM

Quote

No probs. This baby's going to be bolted to a set of solar panels. So low voltage from go to whoa.

If you hook some of these mining boards up to solar panels, I definitely want pics Cool

Very cool.

Or better yet sell us a kit to replicate your setup

fpgaminer

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Quote

No probs. This baby's going to be bolted to a set of solar panels. So low voltage from go to whoa.

If you hook some of these mining boards up to solar panels, I definitely want pics Cool

Very cool.

li_gangyi

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Hi all,

We've decided to temporarily halt pre-orders at this time. The response has been huge, with close to 70 total pre-orders! This exceeded our expectations, and we now need to focus on filling all of these orders and keeping you guys (and ladies) happy.

Stay tuned for us to get the first working prototype running. Once we get the technical details and logistics settled, we'll get back to you with a firm price point.

For those who haven't pre-ordered yet, watch this space. As soon as the pre-orders are handled, we'll let orders come in again.

Karmicads

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Quote from: newMeat1 on August 28, 2011, 10:17:53 AM

Karmicads- check out this earlier post:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.469658

He had a similar question. I'm *pretty sure* his board choice would work, but nobody has tried it yet.

Egad! That's a bit of overkill isn't it? I meant the motherboard of course. Undecided

I don't need a PCI slot, or video, or most of that stuff. Just enough processing power and memory to run whatever the X6000 software requires and a USB serial interface. Can you think of anything else I'd need on-board? I was thinking more along the lines of an ARM embedded system or something minimalistic. For that price I could buy a tablet PC running android. Don't mean to be difficult, but this isn't likely to be a one off thing. I rather fancy the idea of running the software remotely on a server if possible.

Quote

Keep in mind you also have to get 5-12V power to the board somehow.

No probs. This baby's going to be bolted to a set of solar panels. So low voltage from go to whoa. Wink

newMeat1

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Karmicads- check out this earlier post:
https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.469658

He had a similar question. I'm *pretty sure* his board choice would work, but nobody has tried it yet.

Keep in mind you also have to get 5-12V power to the board somehow. Using an external computer Power supply would work pretty well, you just need to cross a wire or use a dummy plug like Cablesaur is selling (see above)

Karmicads

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Quote from: inh on August 28, 2011, 07:54:44 AM

The wifly just takes data and pushes it over wifi, that's all. You would still need something else to communicate with the wifly and the fpga.

Thank's inh. Thought the thing had processing power of it's own. Just don't understand how it can run an OS & software without a processor. Undecided

Have to look at something more substantial I guess.

inh

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Quote from: Karmicads on August 28, 2011, 01:42:55 AM

Quote from: newMeat1 on August 27, 2011, 12:02:12 PM

I'll try to have somebody else get back to you about the minimum computer

See, I was thinking of pairing your unit with something like this for WiFi:

[center
WiFly GSX Breakout.[/center]

I can't figure out what processor is on there (ARM perhaps?), but it must have one, because is says it's running the eCos - OS. Unfortunately as far as I can tell, eCos only allows for the running one process. On the WiFly, that would be the TCP-IP stack. If I can somehow get away with a hack to use only the WiFly, that would be very cool. Cool

I'm now wondering if given the advantage of WiFi, if my standalone units, could simply run the software process, server side over the network (The WiFly does do telnet). Therefore I'd have no need for a processor other than the one in the WiFly unit. Thoughts?

The wifly just takes data and pushes it over wifi, that's all. You would still need something else to communicate with the wifly and the fpga.

Karmicads

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Quote from: newMeat1 on August 27, 2011, 12:02:12 PM

I'll try to have somebody else get back to you about the minimum computer

See, I was thinking of pairing your unit with something like this for WiFi:

WiFly GSX Breakout.

I can't figure out what processor is on there (ARM perhaps?), but it must have one, because is says it's running the eCos - OS. Unfortunately as far as I can tell, eCos only allows for the running one process. On the WiFly, that would be the TCP-IP stack. If I can somehow get away with a hack to use only the WiFly, that would be very cool. Cool

I'm now wondering if given the advantage of WiFi, if my standalone units, could simply run the software process, server side over the network (The WiFly does do telnet). Therefore I'd have no need for a processor other than the one in the WiFly unit. Thoughts?

Dexter770221

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About speedsters...
I can't find it now, but I saw somwhere a price for their development kit. It was way beyond 1000$...
Intel just starts manufacturing in 22nm 3D gate process, so speedsters22i won't be avaible until 1Q 2012...

QUOTE:
"The SPD60 is currently available to customers. Achronix says that volume pricing for the Speedster FPGA family will range from under $200 for their smallest part (the SPD 30) in high production volumes to $2500 for their largest part (the SPD180) in low volumes. Given that the SPD60 is in the middle of the size range, it’s fair to assume that, depending on volume, it will probably cost between $800 and $1500."

SPD60 have 47k LUTs, and it comes in FBGA 1285 package...

Dexter770221

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Quote from: newMeat1 on August 27, 2011, 05:20:46 PM

If we used an LDO and somebody powered the board with 12V, it would only be 2.5/12= 20.8% efficient. And all that extra waste heat wouldn't be pleasant.

True, true...

Quote

Besides, our new regulators are cheaper than $20.

That is a knowlage only you poses

Karmicads

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Quote from: newMeat1 on August 27, 2011, 12:02:12 PM

I'll try to have somebody else get back to you about the minimum computer

Thanks.

Quote

EDIT- And thanks for your order!

No Probs. If it does the job, the pleasure will be all mine (get it? - MINE)

mb300sd

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Quote from: newMeat1 on August 27, 2011, 04:41:18 PM

It's hard to say about those achronix chips. They don't give any prices or even much data about them. I guess they are probably really high-end chips. Like, "If you need to ask the price, it's too much" kind of thing.

Heres the other post I was referring to,

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.472048

Those two articles I linked are the only place I can find the price mentioned. I'll try emailing them using my university email and see if I can get a response... If these FPGAs are as fast as their advertising leads you to believe, $200-400 depending on which one might be a very good deal.

Topic: Custom FPGA Board for Sale! - page 5. (Read 91678 times)