Topic: DIY PCB with AVALON: "The Quarter Stick" - Needs Help! - page 17. (Read 89499 times)

Has anyone seen more info on how the daisy chaining works yet? I noticed on the pin info that there is SIN, SOUT, BYPASS twice for each chip. So this seems to imply there may be two hash engines in each chip. I wonder if it's something like this,


MPU OUT -> SIN#1 .. BYPASS -> SIN#2 .. BYPASS -> etc etc -> SOUT #N -> MPU IN

I know when I looked at the Icarus design he had designed it like this so that multiple fpga could chain together, though it was never implemented past 2 chips/board. So I'm thinking this kind of chain is likely how 10 would connect together on one board. Maybe 10 chips connect as a long shift register and a nonce is pushed into the chain all at once.

Anyway, I'm just guessing based on Icarus stuff I saw and I haven't seen details on Avalon yet. But I'm sure interested in how they connect as I want to design a 10cmx10cm board based on a PIC18F86J65 Ethernet microcontroller (which I happen to have here). There is a TCP/IP stack for this chip and I'm thinking of making the miner in the chip with an HTTP manager interface (and/or API). Then you could just hang these off a LAN switch with no additional computers needed.

I've heard some good things about this pcb site for making small boards in small qty. 10cmx10cm Qty 10 for $25, from China. Seems a lot like Ngzhang student style business as they feed into some bigger pcb fab over there.

I believe AlexBBB is stating that if you provide the PCB design file(EAGLE file, etc) then you can have it reproduced cheaply. When Avalon releases their designs you will be able to hand over the PCB design files and have them mass produced if you wanted. Same goes for this project if they are open sourced.

Hi Alex, you mean to say bring the exact pcb to china and ask them to produced exactly the same and pcb costs is only $0.6 to $1.00? wow that is quite a bit of saving.. compares to the BOM .

Yes, easy. Lot of China facility's will be happy to do 10*10 cm2, 2 layers PCB for .... $0,6...1,0 each with QTY of 100x
It's standard price.

2 layers, is it easy to copy?

" I will announce a definitive price for my 10 Chip Module when Avalon opens up the Specs in early May.
Expect about 80Eur Assembly cost per Modul "

The above includes all the BOM plus labor? so 282 x 10 = 2.82gh/s for 80Eur per module? if you need 60gh/s , you have to pay 80Eur x 21 =1680Eur the chips is $5.3 each x 21 = $1113 + $2184 =  $3,297 ?? for a 60gh/s

Do you have warranty on parts?BOM and labor?

If they are 500 orders from the members would the costs  be cheaper? from the BOM it says the more parts you order the cheaper it gets.

would be great if you could lower the costs somehow for those who order multiple modules ..?

Actually, cheap 2x layers PCB - more then enough.
P.S. Just ordered 40x A3256-Q48 's.
Lets looks what we can DiY

im interested too...  i am buying 36 chips in the other thread, so not sure best way to work with you on this

are you selling chips too?  or just putting together boards if people send you chips?

I'm really excited to see this coming together. Burnin what you are proposing sounds excellent. If you are taking reservations now let me know 

Thanks for the info Burnin!

Put me down for 20 PCB boards with assembly

Also, thanks again for being totally awesome with helping to develop this (and others too) - you guys rock!

Have been watching this project and am interested to see where it goes. Would love for it to hit the market in the next few months. Who knows, may still beat BFL to the market.

Interested in making a purchase as well. Probably a nice PCB w/ the 10 chip setup once available.

Keep up the good work.

I bet what happens is as soon as you have boards ready to ship at a known price, a whole bunch of people will suddenly cancel their BFL pre-orders and churn over.  Could be quite entertaining on the forums.

Kudos!

Assembly cost can be paid in BTC or Eur, Chips BTC Only.
I will reserve a number of chips from Zefir for small orders.
For bigger orders buy from Zefir or participate in the other Group Buy thread.
I will announce a definitive price for my 10 Chip Module when Avalon opens up the Specs in early May.
Expect about 80Eur Assembly cost per Module.
That Price is on par with BFLs current price Model.
Like a said before, delivery could begin about a week after i receive the Chips from Zefir.
Production Capability 500+ Modules / Week.


You confused Alltens single Chip USB powered design with my modular 10 Chip Design.
You will need 50 Modules for 500 Chips.

I have updated my earlier post, but repeating it here to solve my confusion!

OK, I am now confused.
How many PCB's for 500 chips ?
I looked at the BOM again and it looks unlikely that 1 PCB contains enough 'stuff' for 10 chips ?!

HELP!

couple questions:

Once the chips arrive from Zefir in 8-10 weeks - and then send to you Burnin - how quickly could we expect them to be assembled to the PCB and sent back so its ready for use?

what is the approx timeline when the PCB boards will be ready for assembly?

what is the approx timeline when the software / hardware programming will be complete from now?

Need to weigh up the timelines with other projects!

This! I hope its easy enough to get to the ready made product.

Joining the party with my chips! 
Is there a place where we can get just the chip soldered? That's the only thing I'm worried about screwing up... Though it's probably more cost effective just to get everything soldered while you're at it.

burnin-will you be accepting fiat for your offerings?

with BTC in such flux I wouldnt think it wise to commit to a price in BTC...unless of course you are getting all your components for BTC.

and a BIG THANKS to Zefir,Allten and Burnin and anyone else involved with this project.There are not a lot of us with the BTC to spare for such a huge order and it really awesome of zefir to put out the BTC for this.Considering the small(IMO)resale fee he is charging it is an incredible thing hes doing.The network willl be a more secure place because of people like Zefir and Burnin.Thanks Again.

I'm in and ill have my 50 chips forwarded to you when they're ready.