Fully Assembled Unit:
The fully assembled unit, including all necessary hardware, is $133.5, to be paid in BTC.
Does this price reflect per 16 chip unit? Or per any amount of chipped unit?
You have to have your own chips or have participated in one of the group buys on this thread. That price is only for assembly with YOUR chips.
On another note Steamboat, I'm assuming that the dollar amount for the assembly (whichever one) service will be based on the Mt. Gox price for the day we send you the BTC?
Or as the time gets closer are you going to just call it 1
BTC or 1.1
BTC (or whatever)?
The K16 is currently the only complete unit offered. The price reflects the cost for a K16 unit fully assembled.
How the payment will be structured is still being resolved.
Looking at the pricing it seems the only testing optional will be with the fully assembled miner. I find this odd because most manufacturers will test a PCB assembly before fitting all the heatsinks etc to reduce the cost of rework. They'll also use a jig to test. I guess the issue here is that this board is hard to test without a heatsink? Perhaps two levels of testing can be offered, a sanity test (power, trace continuity etc but no mining) and a bake in test? Perhaps we can write some code to just mine one share and shutdown the clocks, this could be ok without a heatsink?
Every assembly option includes a fully functioning, mechanically tested, PCB. The testing protocols for the firmware have not yet been created. Ideally it would consist of plugging the board in, running the firmware check, and running a cycle and checking the output.
If I want the hosted option, will I have to pay for assembly as well? Also, do you assemble and start running it the moment it arrives? If at any point I change my mind can you ship it out after hosting it for a bit? Has anyone used the hosted option yet?
If you would like us to hold the parts for you, that can be arranged. If you would like us to assemble the parts for you, that service is offered as well. Each order is processed in a first in, first out queue. Orders at the beginning of the queue will be processed first. The unit is the property of the customer, and may be requested at any time.
Is there a possibility of buying just the components un-assembled? Meaning, just the chips, the PCB, and all the associated capacitors/connectors/resistors, so we do all the soldering ourselves?
Even better, is there an option of just the asic's and the PCB un-assembled so we purchase all the passives and whatnot ourselves and solder it together ourselves??
This
may be a possibility. Creating full DIY kits requires a considerable amount of time, and depending on the option chosen for parts sourcing, may not be an option. All requests are being taken into consideration, but ultimately the most cost effective, quickest solution for the majority of the orders will take precedence.
The best way to do this would be to roll the whole thing yourself. The circuit will be stable long before the chips arrive. Get a set of boards made for $25 at iteadstudio, order all the parts from Mouser or Digikey and you have a kit. Someone might even create a BOM at one of these two so you can order in just a few clicks. It really isn't worth the hassle of assembling kits, the large online component sellers do a much better job for much less.
I don't think anyone is going to write instructions for assembly but perhaps I'm wrong. If you can mount the ASICs yourself, the rest is a piece of cake.
*edit* I would do this except I don't want to screw up the mounting of the ASICs. I'm planning on making some K1s by hand with my extra chips if they aren't used up.
He would still have to deal with the massive logistics with ordering all the components and whatnot from digikey/mouser, but that is why I also asked about the possibility of just buying the chips and PCB from them, since they obviously can get the price per square inch much lower than OSHPark's 5 dollars/sq inch. Also, I love OSHpark as well! Used them for some of my projects, and I have nothing but the best to say about the service as well as the person doing the ordering.
Since that was a maybe, I also want to verify what I have just seen, I can purchase the ASIC's from you guys now, and at a later date if you implement the ability to have just the PCB thrown in, I can add that to my order?
Also, lastly, if I believe this has been answered already but for the life of me I can't find it for some reason. What are the approximate dates for when the IC's would arrive? Before September?
Component sourcing from Digikey and Mouser has already been completed. When purchasing wholesale parts, they do not come in kits. They come prepackaged and ready for assembly on a line. To create kits, each of the 300+ parts would need to be manually added to each. Additionally, the parts would be shipped directly to the assembly house, which may or may not be open to hosting the kitting process. Bare PCBs may be a more viable solution, with the BOM available for purchase from a third party such as Digikey or Mouser.