My DIY Avalon-based mining board (Davalon)

ProfMac

legendary

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Quote from: dentldir on June 28, 2013, 08:04:04 PM

Good stuff man.

Do any of the online PCB places sell short runs of custom boards that others have designed? I've seen sites like 4pcb.com and pad2pad.com, but they seem to only make boards if you design it in their software.

Olimex will, if the original designer gives them a permission letter.
I have not checked lately what the limits of their trace size are. A few years ago, I think 8 mil was their limit.

danattacker

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Quote from: dropt on June 28, 2013, 06:41:54 PM

Is there a reason you're using a 20A regulator vs something bigger?

I'm just using the cheapest 20A regulator module on DigiKey.

Quote from: fasmax on June 28, 2013, 07:28:06 PM

How does heat get from bottom of the ASIC chip to the heatsink?

There is a 5x5 array of thermal vias of 0.3 mm hole diameter on each chip. You can't see them in the image because the image is taken directly from the gerber files which don't show the holes.

Quote from: dentldir on June 28, 2013, 08:04:04 PM

Good stuff man.

Do any of the online PCB places sell short runs of custom boards that others have designed? I've seen sites like 4pcb.com and pad2pad.com, but they seem to only make boards if you design it in their software.

I know of iteadstudio and seeedstudio.

dentldir

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Good stuff man.

Do any of the online PCB places sell short runs of custom boards that others have designed? I've seen sites like 4pcb.com and pad2pad.com, but they seem to only make boards if you design it in their software.

fasmax

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How does heat get from bottom of the ASIC chip to the heatsink?

dropt

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Quote from: danattacker on June 28, 2013, 06:11:35 PM

Quote from: ryepdx on June 28, 2013, 06:05:13 PM

Quote from: danattacker on June 28, 2013, 06:00:38 PM

If you mean to ask if my board can handle additional power load and heat from overclocking, that is yet to be seen.

Do you know how much overhead your components have...?

The regulator module I'm using is 20A. Assuming that each chip uses 2 watts, that is ~16.7A under normal operation. So, I have ~3.3 more amps to work with.

Is there a reason you're using a 20A regulator vs something bigger?

danattacker

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Quote from: ryepdx on June 28, 2013, 06:05:13 PM

Quote from: danattacker on June 28, 2013, 06:00:38 PM

If you mean to ask if my board can handle additional power load and heat from overclocking, that is yet to be seen.

Do you know how much overhead your components have...?

The regulator module I'm using is 20A. Assuming that each chip uses 2 watts, that is ~16.7A under normal operation. So, I have ~3.3 more amps to work with.

ryepdx

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Quote from: danattacker on June 28, 2013, 06:00:38 PM

If you mean to ask if my board can handle additional power load and heat from overclocking, that is yet to be seen.

Do you know how much overhead your components have...?

danattacker

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Quote from: ryepdx on June 28, 2013, 05:51:47 PM

Very nice! Can your board handle overclocking?

Overclocking is done by the firmware. If you mean to ask if my board can handle additional power load and heat from overclocking, that is yet to be seen.

ryepdx

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Very nice! Can your board handle overclocking?

danattacker

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Board design is pretty much finished. Check OP for details.

evilscoop

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Quote from: ryepdx on June 22, 2013, 04:59:26 PM

I'm interested in this. Right now there are only two real options when it comes to Avalon PCB designs. If we can get some of the demand for miners spread across more designs, we will all probably have fewer problems with deployment when the chips finally ship en masse.

3 actually not including this one :p

danattacker

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Quote from: ryepdx on June 22, 2013, 04:59:26 PM

I'm interested in this. Right now there are only two real options when it comes to Avalon PCB designs. If we can get some of the demand for miners spread across more designs, we will all probably have fewer problems with deployment when the chips finally ship en masse.

Thank you for your interest. The project is still moving along and I hope to have the new board done by the end of this month. I've just been messing around with my BFL miner for the last few days.

souliouz

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Quote from: innovation on June 19, 2013, 04:15:29 PM

Original innovation is been encouraged.

I love novelty accounts

ryepdx

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I'm interested in this. Right now there are only two real options when it comes to Avalon PCB designs. If we can get some of the demand for miners spread across more designs, we will all probably have fewer problems with deployment when the chips finally ship en masse.

innovation

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Original innovation is been encouraged.

danattacker

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I don't think I'm any less capable of designing a functioning PCB for the Avalon chips. The problem is I decided to take an unconventional approach and announce that I was making a homemade single layer (mostly) board and I received some negativity from the community and it made me look like I was completely incompetent and that I didn't know what I was doing. Ok, I get it. I'm not making a homemade board anymore due to the various challenges pertaining to thermal vias and all the jumper wires I would have to solder. I already follow the Klondike and Bitfury projects closely.

Anyway, if anyone out there wants a real update on this project, I pretty much know how I'm going to get my board communicating with cgminer now using the Icarus protocol. It's nice and simple and I was able to get cgminer into detecting a microcontroller as a miner. And, I'm still working on the new board design. I'm hoping to have it ready for manufacture by the end of this month.

souliouz

newbie

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I think you can have lot of fun doing it like pros

Klondyke https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/reference-klondike-diyers-thread-227186

Bitfury https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/ann-bitfury-is-looking-for-alpha-testers-of-first-chips-free-money-here-228677

evilscoop

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*stalking*

J35st3r

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Quote from: danattacker on June 11, 2013, 03:33:58 PM

Quote from: J35st3r on June 10, 2013, 04:37:04 AM

PS, just saw "single layer with jumper wires". NO, just NO! You won't get proper power distribution and decoupling, so even if it works at all its going to be unreliable as f*uk. Stick with the experts folks, don't DIY!

First of all, I will admit that I'm not an expert. Of course, a homemade single layer board is not going to be ideal. But, I'm going to have to ignore your suggestion of "don't DIY". Electronics is my hobby and I live for DIY. I bought the chips fully expecting that I will make my own board for it. I am selling nothing to the community and it's your own choice to use my designs or not. In fact, it will go out and say that you probably should not use my designs. I will use this thread to show the progress of my board whether it be a failure or not.

Sure, sure. Don't get me wrong, I dabble myself (but not going as far as full size SMT boards). It was more of a warning to other forum users who may get the idea that they can just plonk their chips down onto a DIY board and get excellent results. Not only is there the risk of burning their precious chips, but power supply is critical to getting these high performacne chips working at full speed. Take a look at BitFury's Alpha Testing thread https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/ann-bitfury-is-looking-for-alpha-testers-of-first-chips-free-money-here-228677 ... lots of very relevant info there.

Good luck with your efforts, at least you're having fun Wink

danattacker

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Quote from: J35st3r on June 10, 2013, 04:37:04 AM

PS, just saw "single layer with jumper wires". NO, just NO! You won't get proper power distribution and decoupling, so even if it works at all its going to be unreliable as f*uk. Stick with the experts folks, don't DIY!

First of all, I will admit that I'm not an expert. Of course, a homemade single layer board is not going to be ideal. But, I'm going to have to ignore your suggestion of "don't DIY". Electronics is my hobby and I live for DIY. I bought the chips fully expecting that I will make my own board for it. I am selling nothing to the community and it's your own choice to use my designs or not. In fact, it will go out and say that you probably should not use my designs. I will use this thread to show the progress of my board whether it be a failure or not.

Topic: My DIY Avalon-based mining board (Davalon) (Read 4908 times)