Topic: DRILLBIT SYSTEM Miners - Avalon range available - Now $104.99! - page 119. (Read 273816 times)

Good news! Bitfury chips are shipping on time for small EU buyers!

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.3043629

Also this has gotten burnin interested    https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.3043629

The bitfury chips won't be goig there, looks like They will be sent to Australia instead.
Getting stuff made here isn't too bad as its still All done by machine still.

Great to see those cooling options If a water cooling version could be done, that would be great also! (more silent)

About assembly, why not doing it together with PCB manufacture in China? Wouldn't that save cost and time?  

Hey man thanks for the nice words.  And I also appreciate your open source clarity on the programmers and code.  

Good choice on the ceramic.. looks like you have all the size choices you could need for the 8 chip.

If I may present a question.  What does everyone here think about the Babyjet and the Cointerra TerraMiners 28nm that are supposed to be coming online the same time as these older gen 55nm bitfury chips are supposed to ship.

If i cared about ROI i'd be like ohh snap!

If I only cared about open source and the fact bitcoin will be worth more than your child's life in ten years i'd be like pssh..

Regards!

I have sent payment, and email for two of the USB Thumb Miners, Great job. Looking forward to next big board offer!!!
GoF

If you decide to make some of those sticks into 8-chip systems, let me know. I'd take 5-10.

Hey all.

Great to see this thread positive and exciting again! Even some nice productive stuff from you Voxelot  . Its great to see. Thank you all for your kind words. I really do appreciate it.

'It's all about sharing' put it really well in saying its exciting to be a part of one of the largest social experiments of our times, and potentially the beginning of a major upheaval of the corrupt money systems of the world today. It feels big and it feel exciting, and i think it will be very cool to look back at these times and tell our kids, friends, families that we were right there in the thick of it. Very well said IAS.

Loving all the heatsink porn. We're gonna play around with a bunch of options and see what gets the best results. We were also looking at these: http://www.tglobaltechnology.com/datasheets/XL-25.pdf . In the end, if you are desiring to crank these up into overclocking crazy mode, heatsinks and fans will be crucial. The boards are built to have heatsinks attached and when we find the ones we like the best, we'll make them available as an added extra.

Thankyou jlsminingcorp for the cost comparison. It's nice to see it all laid out like that.

And thankyou Voxelot for the offer of assistance with coding. If i can think of a way to put you to work i will. 

In terms of the open sourcing, once we have done our main board spin, everything will be open sourced and available to the community. On this topic, we will also be offering blank PCBs for a substantially reduced rate soon if anyone out there has chips of their own and wants blank boards. We have been getting some much better quotes on the boards lately, and if we do enough they will come out reasonably cheap.

Creatine, here's some answers to your questions:

You stated in your OP what the name of the dude was who designed your PCBs. Can we get some extra info on him?

The board designer is Dan Stocks. He is a highly skilled and experienced electrical engineer, and an awesome dude. He's been doing this stuff for a long time and really knows his shit. He currently works for Rode microphones. He has been a great guy to work with on this project; always calling me with new crazy ideas for things we can do with these boards. His enthusiasm is contagious. This project would be nothing without his skills and expertise. I know that's not really much more info than what is on the front page, but i'm not really sure what else to say. If you have specific questions, ask away. 

Who is responsible for writing/compiling/flashing the microcontroller ROM?

Our programmers name is James Nichols, who as it happens just handed in his Mathematics PHD today! As soon as i finish writing this post, i'm going to go meet him for celebrations. A fine occasion indeed. He is a great programmer, again, has been doing it for years and knows his shit. We will also be getting Kano, one of the Cgminer Devs to help us out with the Cgminer side of the coding. We've already been in touch and he is itching to get his hands on the proto.

Are you including JTAG on the PCB so that we can recompile/reflash the microcontroller?

This one i'm not sure about. I'll run it by Dan. I'm pretty sure you will be able to reflash the microcontroller if you want to.

Will the microcontroller Binaries have open source so we can have a look/fork our own versions?

Yes, it will be open source.

Who are you using to manufacture/mount the PCBs?

We are getting the PCBs manufactured in China. The assembly will most likely be done here in Sydney, but we are also looking at possibly getting the manufacture done in the U.S. We are getting various quotes and  still weighing up the different options.

Where geographically are you assembling/shipping from?

See above.

Hope those answers give you a bit more info. I know some of it is a bit vague, but we haven't got everything locked down yet. Getting there though. 

Now off to the pub.

 

Hey Barn! As always cool thread!
I'm super excited about this project and I really love knowing all there is to know about these kinds of things so I have some questions:
You stated in your OP what the name of the dude was who designed your PCBs. Can we get some extra info on him?
Who is responsible for writing/compiling/flashing the microcontroller ROM?
Are you including JTAG on the PCB so that we can recompile/reflash the microcontroller?
Will the microcontroller Binaries have open source so we can have a look/fork our own versions?
Who are you using to manufacture/mount the PCBs?
Where geographically are you assembling/shipping from?
I don't mean to be nosy, and I understand if you don't want to give out your trade secrets, but I'm just really personally interested!
Thanks man, hope this causes some extra buzz!

You also see this... maybe longevity is not the most important aspect of an ASIC miner.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/New-5pcs-11x11x5mm-adhesive-Aluminum-Heat-Sink-For-Memory-Chip-IC-/400552781940?pt=AU_Components&hash=item5d42ce6874


Lot's of these things cheap from China in aluminum or copper.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/8-X-Copper-Heat-Sink-For-DDR-DDR2-DDR3-RAM-Memory-RHS03-/200575255713?pt=AU_Laptop_Accessories&hash=item2eb33784a1


Most are self adhesive.

I probably wouldn't order any until you know exactly how much cooling you need.

I wonder if these little ones would be enough?

Haha I remember reading about a PC that first hit the 1GHz and used an aircompressor to blast the CPU. I then turned to my Pentium 75MHz and nearly cried

i had one like that strapped to my old pentium 2 so it'd overclock better. what a weapon. power supply wouldn't fit in the box, had to put that on top of the box and borrow a hole saw to feed m/b and hdd power cables through.

reminiscing now, those were the days...

You can see in the CAD software snaps in the OP that there is a file they were working on for the USB Thumb called Heatsink.  I would assume Barntech is working on a solution for a heatsink for the 8 chips board as well.  Interested to see what he and his team come up with.

Regarding firmware development on Cgminer.  This is a great piece of open source software and I am confident that Barntech will be able to get a really solid firmware created in a short amount of time (If he has not already simulated his boards).  I saw posts that he may even program a GUI to make integration even easier for those who may not know USB protocols.

If at anytime Barntech needs additional PIC firmware coding, Cgminer API, or GUI support.  He can feel free to send me source files and I will share everything in this thread.  I am not sure how open source Barntech is but rest assured it would be worthless to steal source code for hardware I don't have 

Regards

maybe something like this?


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Large-Aluminium-Heat-Sink-Power-Amplifier-Power-Supply-Transistor-IC-FET-PA-/180723793904?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item2a13fa3ff0

I would ALWAYS put on heat sinks. It just dissipates heat so much quicker and the cost is negligible. Not sure how Barntech got the units to 2.7Ghash/s.
I've researched heat sinks a lot and aluminum seem better and cheaper than copper as copper holds heat more. If you fan dies and you have copper heat sinks, in theory, they might not get rid of the
heat as quickly as aluminum. (Though if the temp gets too hot I believe you can shut things down automatically.) All that I read seemed to point to this.

Barntech talked about adding heatsinks as an option and I hope he does. They really make a big difference, are very inexpensive and a deadly combo with fans.

IAS

IAS,

Sorry I meant these.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3-x-SelfAdhesive-Premium-Heatsink-Cooler-1YearWarranty-Ideal-for-Raspberry-PI-/251299995579?pt=UK_Computing_Servers&hash=item3a82a59fbb

I think 2.7 was the absolute highest and it wasn't quite stable there (if I remember correctly). Perhaps 2.5 with fans is more realistic. You also have to adjust for changing conditions (e.g. a hot day.)
Running something that is water cooled doesn't have anything to do with the OS that is controlling the rig, I don't believe. That is just the cooling system. I'm not sure if water cooling is also dynamic like a fan.

A raspberry Pi is an Awesome way to control these. But you have to learn how to run linux and that isn't for a newby (if you are one). If you don't know a little linux, I would just get a netbook running windows that is cheap and efficient. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

IAS

I hear you. I am a group 6 SebastianJu buy participant (only spent 4.2 BTC's in an auction, Might get 3BTC's or so back) and a June 2nd Jalapeno Victim ;-)   (And I'm a PT teacher, not some rich boy - not that I have anything against anyone.)
We all know there is risk involved and as stated before, where there is money to be made,... problems will surface.

I want to help the network and be a part of the biggest social experiment of all time (at least one not involving governments!). eheheh
I would love to tell my daughter one day when she is older and can understand, how I was an early pioneer in something that helped to adjust a corrupt monetary system. (Not the answer mind you, but an answer. A pointer in a better direction.)

And props to all the people you mentioned and on. Really, what will it be like looking back at this moment in 1yr, 2yrs, etc. from now?

The smallest risk and largest return would just be buying BTC's. But this isn't an "investment" to me. It is about being part of something.
We are all taking a chance. Barntech said it nicely at the start regarding not really making much (if any money) and doing it for the hobby/love/passion/etc. My feelings exactly.
If I get back more than I put in, perhaps it absorbs the losses from the before mentioned (at least I also hadn't yet paid for Burnin's assembly). But it's not about the money, at least in large part.
It's about... you know  

Ok, so I`ve been looking at the boards and other threads re cooling the individual boards for bitfury chips. Would something like the Raspberry Pi things you get on ebay (plus fans of course) suffice or are we talking a full on noctua cpu cooler in order to get 2.7 gh\s per chip?