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First of all, I am not a Newbie in this forum even if I do only have a few posts. As long as PMs do not count I probably will never get another status.

I made an arrangement with sidehack from GekkoScience to license his Compac design for manufacturing and sales in Europe.

Everything is ordered or in production so it's time to make an official annoucement for sidehack's 8-16GH BM1384 USB Stick Miner sales in Europe.

This is the topic I am talking about:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=995675.0 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=995675.0)

Officially tested and approved by some serious forum members:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1086011.msg11817067#msg11817067 (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1086011.msg11817067#msg11817067)

I'll offer the GekkoScience BM1384 USB stick miner first via https://www.bitshopper.de (https://www.bitshopper.de) and later proably as well on Amazon Europe (DE, UK, FR, ES, IT).

What's the difference to GekkoScience's original stick:

• it's manufactured in Europe (incl. PCB) and comes completely in black with a white custom labeling to cover EU legal requisites (CE & WEEE)
• it comes with a different heat sink with a smaller footprint but providing a very low thermal resistance from 17.8 °C/W (natural convection) up to 3.5 °C/W (at an airflow velocity of 4 m/s). The same type which successfully transferred heat from the six chip NanoFury NF6.

The stick will be sold for 49,95 EUR including shipping to the following countries:

• Austria
• Belgium
• Bulgaria
• Cyprus
• Czech Republic
• Germany
• Denmark
• Estland
• Finnland
• France
• Greece
• Hungaria
• Ireland
• Italy
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• Luxemburg
• Malta
• Netherlands
• Poland
• Portugal
• Romania
• Sweden
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• Spain
• United Kingdom

To qualify for free shipping, use the following coupon when ordering via the webshop: bitxo-compac-free-shipping-2015

Buyers in Switzerland and Liechtenstein don't have to pay VAT but have to cover shipping cost and customs clearing, which is 15,79 EUR. The shipping procedure outside the EU is "delivered duty unpaid" (DDU). This means that the carrier will charge customs duties, VAT and customs clearance fees directly when they deliver the parcel.

Sales will start around August 25, 2015 if everything will arrive in time. Product will be unlocked in the shop when everything will be ready. I don't take preorders or advance payment. I'll finance everything in advance by myself.

Shipping will be performed by Amazon as fulfilment provider - don't wonder if you receive a parcel from Amazon even if ordered via webshop.

So far for the moment - feel free to PM me if you have further questions.

Sales is finally open now.

After a delay of almost two months I have the first batch available. Sales is open via https://www.bitshopper.de (https://www.bitshopper.de) and in a few days as well via Amazon Europe (DE, UK, FR, ES, IT).

The price via Amazon will be slightly higher compared to the one in our webshop in order to cover Amazon's commission.

To qualify for free shipping, use the following coupon when ordering via the webshop: bitxo-compac-free-shipping-2015

https://i.imgur.com/A2tGYDwl.jpg

nice good luck.

https://www.bitshopper.de/shop/usb-miner-bitcoin-en/gekkoscience-compac/

will it have more photos with heat sink etc?

Thanks. As soon as the heat sinks will arrive, I'll provide some updated imagery. Shipment of the heat sinks is expected around August 7.

looking forward to it.  I had I lot of the ice fury sticks I always liked the look of them.

Just wanted to know what makes up for the difference in price between the US made ones and these. I assume it's not only the heatsink :) Probably the US ones are without VAT? So that would bring it down to 40 each?

I'm interested in a few to play with but theres a bit of a gap between both sides of the lake ;)

I expected exactly this question. I even thought about adding a statement in the original post. Then I decided to start a stopwatch and see how long it takes until the question comes.
The main reasons for the price difference are:

• VAT of 19%
• Parts cost: (I didn't replace quality parts from sidehack's parts list with cheaper equivalents. Quality first. Just for example: only parts cost (without ASICs, PCB, Screws and Heat sink) are 10 EUR (+ VAT). For small lots like the 800 one doesn't get much discount. Significant discounts start from quantities > 3000.
• Manufacturing in EU: The biggest advantage of GekkoScience is: they manufacture by themselves. This is indeed the biggest cost factor, programming, stencils, pick & place, setup costs. Btw. I refuse to order PCB and assembly in China. Why? Quality first and I strongly believe that we have enough problems in EU which we don't solve if we order cheap and even cheaper crap in China. Stencils are from France, Heat sinks from a reseller in Italy (originally from Japan), as well as PP boxes.
• Including shipping: Shipping of 1-3 pcs. is ~ 9,79 EUR to most EU countries. Pick and place fee + volume charge + country charge.

The price is fair, I simply can't keep pace with GekkoScience's in-house production (and the VAT factor, of course).

I bet that you don't get it in hand for 49,95 EUR if you import it by yourself from the US: International shipping charge, customs, customs declaration service of the shipper, import sales tax and all the paperwork and mess around. I did it some times in the past and it was always a mess and made a 30$ product a 70 EUR experience in hand (and I had a much better dollar rate then).

If you think you can do it cheaper (under the same conditions) - do it and then come back and we discuss it.
If you think that you can import it for less that 49,95 - do it! I won't nail sidehack on a cross if he'll ship some of the original GekkoScience batch ones to customer in EU.

VAT is a bitch. Especially with the new rules that ask to apply different rates depending on the destination country and stuff. Would probably order a few through employer so that would skip the VAT :) Would have to do a thorough calculation to know whether I could fix it for under 49,95, unfortunately I don't have time for that tonight ;)

Cost of production is clear now. Wouldn't it be cheaper then to buy complete units (maybe without the heatsink for weight reasons plus importing is cheaper as it's not a finished product)  from Gekkoscience and add the last bits locally? Or do they have a hard limit in production capacity?
I mean, you're not trying to be the cheapest in the market since that will always be the big players with their 14 trillion Gh/s machines with the latest 0,14 nm chips, but getting price down a bit would be one of my concerns, from a commercial point :)

I did some quick numbers.  I got 20 for 500 usd .  So that is 25 usd a stick.

   So I put 3 in a us post office  flat rate box 75 usd and 26 usd to ship = 101 usd= breakeven for me to sell at 101 for 3

your price would be 150 euro from 'Mac'

 So if a UK guy buys from me and wants 3 sticks  I need to lie about the value.  If I tell the truth the vat and the import brings it close to  145-165 usd for 3 sticks

165 usd = 150 euro  

     So to do this from the usa  3 sticks for 101   and I lie for you then you save a few bucks.  

 And I sold them at cost 101 I make no money plus I lied on the forms.


Euro's vat and import duties are really tough on selling.

If MacEntyre wasn't manufacturing PCBs and all parts placement in Europe but sending it to China instead, I would not have licensed the design to him.

I'll sell to folks in Europe (now with his blessing) but I will not lie on the customs forms.

The substantial price difference attributed to our in-house assembly explains why we're broke all the time. Low margins. I didn't realize his cost would be that much different. It's pretty surprising.

  I used to tear down new mac minis back in 2006-2009 the white plastic top models.  I sold a lot to Europe and to Israel  over time shipping overseas became more difficult and costly. UK rules got worse US post office rules got worse and basically I ended my mac mini upgrade business first over seas and now in the usa.  Unfortunately Europeans pay a lot for vat and import. 

I'm probably one of the few people that wishes the US had more import taxes. As inconvenient as it would be, that would help shift supply toward domestic production and ease government reliance on income taxes for funding. Sounds like a win for wage-earners to me. And anything to help stem the 5/1 trade defecit we have with China is okay with me.

Just checked the formal rules, up until 150 euro it's only VAT, no import. But if it would be over 150 you still wouldn't have to pay since it will probably be classified as computer parts which don't have import duties on them.

So 75 USD + 20something% VAT + shipping. 90 USD + 26 USD shipping, 116 USD which adds up to 106ish euro.

 Not to argue as I have sold a lot of 4gb ram sticks to about 35 or 40 overseas buyers.  Parts get import duties in many countries. Not sure they should be called a part.

I do not what country you are in , but it may be a 3 or 4 stick order from a usa person could be better then a 3 or 4 stick order from Mac.  I can tell you I no longer sell to europe due to the rule changes since the turn of the century.

    I used to be able to send a small flat rate usa to uk with tracking and insurance up to 400 usd for 12.95 .   Now it is 26usd with both  tracking and insurance  limited.


   I think maybe you could do 4 sticks safely in the US PS flat rate box  maybe  pay no import duty and you save a few bucks.  No usa reseller will do it since all these numbers I gave are based on no

markup.
So the only person that could do it for you in the USA would be sidehack.

Once you go over 4 sticks I think you need a medium flat rate and  you pay import duties.  Also I am not sure if sidehack's sticks will have  the ce tag  IIRC which allows an electronic device to be shipped to many european nations.  Not sure it is needed since it plugs into a usb hub.

All in all if I were a european I would most likely buy 'local'

You need to add shipping cost before VAT is calculated. And if the shipping cost is not written on the invoice, they are using arbitrary high shipping rates to calculate the total.
That's how you end up paying 15-18€ for the paperwork plus 10€ VAT on an item with 30€ declared value and free shipping...

But sidehack is right on one thing, for small businesses, those high import taxes and VAT are making you think about making things locally.
When possible, it's better to pay someone to do the job here than to pay 20% cheaper from China and add 20% VAT / taxes.

Unfortunately, it doesn't help keeping the work local for large companies that have a lot of taxes exemptions.

Oh, is it possible to order a stick without VAT? Of course with a valid EU VAT number of course, but is that possible?

If you have a valid, registered EU VAT number, this will be possible. You can enter your VAT number during checkout.

Today the heat sinks arrived. The blue pad is a custom 3M adhesive tape (electrically non-conductive) which covers the BM1384 surface and surrounding parts.

https://i.imgur.com/5L91l14.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/vYMtCqZ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/yMJi7CB.jpg

And this is how the EU version of the miner will look like:

https://i.imgur.com/lqqpkmZ.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/6n0TnJI.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/kuflsJQ.jpg

Are your boxes tall enough to fit like that?  I suspect I won't be able to use the boxes I'm using for the U.S. versions, but then you said you do intend to include boxes anyway, so I can just skip all that for yours :)

I have already 800 sth. of these boxes in hand, waiting for the miners.  ;D
The total height including screws and fins is 18mm and the box is good for ~19mm.
This box wouldn't fit the U.S. version anyways cause the original GekkoScience miner including their heat sink is significantly longer.

Maybe I will get one of yours for fun to complete my set of them.

I will have:

 A) the original tester
 B)  1 of the  second set of testers
 C)  20 of the USA prototype
 D)  one of yours.

Yeah, that's the problem I ran into when I looked at this style of box :)  Glad to hear it'll be a (snug) fit :)

This week my assembly house noticed me that they had to order PCBs again (at their cost) due to a mistake in their ordering process.   >:(
This means that I get Compacs in hand the first week of September earliest. So I have to postpone the opening of sales for ~ 2 weeks.
New expected sales opening date is: September 3.

Will it be possible to get one or two WITHOUT heatsinks attached ?

I've been experimenting with running USB miners immersed in a Mineral Oil tank with some success and would be interested in trying out one of these new sticks in that environment.

Of course. I'll let you know when I have the PCBs in hand.

Thanks.... I'll actually just go for one unit w/o heatsink and will also buy 1 w/heatsink to do some rough comparisons which I will make available to you..

Are orders still on track to open tomorrow?

Unfortunately not.   :'(

My fab house informed me yesterday that the PCB manufacturer again failed doing the multiple. Quality check showed that one out of ten (bottom left) is broken. They will have to redo it again.
They will manufacture it with high priority but that means again a delay of at least some days. It's a mess.

But behind every bad news there is a good news. Sidehack announced me sending an updated version which addresses the issue mentioned here (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1126705.msg12309955#msg12309955).
I already sorted out with the fab that they will use it for the redo version. So we don't need to manually tweak the miner with a knife (probably better if one wants to use it as a gift).

Yeah, I definitely forgot to send you updated files. In my defense I spent all of twenty minutes in the office today, and the other twelve hours going between the robot and the workbench. I'll take care of it first thing in the morning - likely within ten hours from now.

Is the PCB made in Germany  ;)

Yes. And the QA of the fab house is very strict. This is why they let the manufacturer redo the job instead of working with just some more waste boards and more multiples.

Random question; are you planning to try updating to the BM1385 chip at some point in the future ?

Start reading here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=995675.msg12183588#msg12183588
tl;dr: they'd like to - though not necessarily for a StickMiner - but at the moment Bitmain isn't really offering the chips.

Any update on the production/shipping dates?

Any news on the EU sales ?

You are right, it's really time for an update.

Unfortunately the PCB manufacturer has a delay of about 10 working days. My fab house already opened a complaint case and I expressed my utter disgust but the chances to accelerate the process are very low.

In fact they had to newly manufacture the PCB for free due to a mistake they did with the multiples. In fact, I pushed them to fix their issue together with the one mentioned here (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1126705.msg12309955#msg12309955).

This is why they obviously decided to remove the batch from the express lane.  :(

Here is the new schedule: PCB are scheduled to be ready on 28/09/15. Assembly in fab house will be two days for the first 200 pcs. In short: I expect to have assembled miners in hand end of next week. Then flashing, packaging and sales will be opened.

Good to hear, is the price likely to hold or is it liable to change ?

There will be no change in pricing.

Great! Looking forward to placing an order this week..

Will orders be opening this weekend ?

So has this fallen through? I've now had to order some of the US versions, which I'm playing with now :D.

After a delay of almost two month I received today the first 200 boards. Now testing, flashing, packaging and shipping will open very soon!
Holy crap!

https://i.imgur.com/Z2muyeOl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/MLoWVJnl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/V8LeTuZl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/JDCGnQdl.jpg

Dang. That is a sweet stickminer.

Ooooo, they do look nice they'll look good together with sidehacks some green and black sticks side by side. Out of interest what colour are the LEDs?

Thanks for the update MacEntyre, just let us know back here when you open orders and I'll be getting some of those?

Any idear how soon? I've been looking at your site for a couple of months now, and i would be interested in purchasing one or two  :)

Will your amazon listing or any others possibly ship to US?  I am interested in getting one to complete my set once you start shipping.

Just wondering what my options are as far as possibly getting one of these.

LED colour is the very same. First 50 are flashed and currently in test. Shipping will open tomorrow.

You can wait for the Amazon.uk listing or alternatively I'll send you an individual offer via PM incl. shipping (preferably UPS). Hope sidehack won't kill me if I ship one to US...  ::)

Now the first 50 are flashed nicely. Thanks to novak for his super professional preparation.

Here are some impressions:

https://i.imgur.com/XREfmcdl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/n4vehVsl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/HUA2rLxl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/ZEClY42l.jpg

Testing rig:
https://i.imgur.com/D16GNNUl.jpg

I can assure you it's just 1 for completing collection.  Personal use and I will not sell it.  So should be no issues.   I have the black prototype, gold reviewer, green production, I need this to complete my personal collection :).

MacEntyre didn't raise any stink about me selling a stick to TheRealSteve over in Europe to complete his collection. I'm not gonna fight anyone anywhere in the world that wants one of MacEntyre's sticks.

Great news!  Thank you sidehack it is for personal collection and will not be resold by me.   Just want to complete my collection.

And I appreciate MacEntyre on you being open as-well.  Will be great to get 1 for my collection.

Sales is finally open now.

After a delay of almost two months I have the first batch available. Sales is open via https://www.bitshopper.de (https://www.bitshopper.de) and in a few days as well via Amazon Europe (DE, UK, FR, ES, IT).

The price via Amazon will be slightly higher compared to the one in our webshop in order to cover Amazon's commission.

To qualify for free shipping, use the following coupon when ordering via the webshop: bitxo-compac-free-shipping-2015

https://i.imgur.com/A2tGYDwl.jpg

And for the curious ones: One in high resolution: https://i.imgur.com/llQl9Fh.jpg

Just ordered mine... Thanks for the free shipping!

Btw, in the english version of this site, the link to the revocation policy gives a 404 :)

Thanks for the hint. Fixed, but still in German. Damn problems with the WPML plugin...

Hi. Just ordered one to play with after reading sidehack's blog.
Congratulations to both of you for making it happen.

Sent you a PM. If you could get back to me once you have time.

Thanks!

He got a hold of me seems like great person to work with.  Was very nice and on my sale went above and beyond for me to get one.  I give him very high marks in customer serve rice to say the least.

Thanks!

PM sent.

Like the black color, kind of half tempted to buy one just to put in the middle of the green ones.

@MacEntyre, your store seems to be having some problems. I tried to make an order for one of these and got through to the confirming orders page and then on clicking to "Confirm & Place Order" the page hangs and eventually loads a server error 500. This is when trying to pay with bitcoin, so I imagine this is what it is trying to do at the point of failure.

Tested it and it works fine, even with bitcoin payment. Send me a notice if it will happen again.

Odd, I still had some trouble with Chrome and bitcoin payment, had to use firefox. I've now made an order, could you check you PMs as I've made two separate orders?

received mine, working perfectly  :)
by the way ordered 2 more, hope you have still stock?

Your order is on its way. Still enough in stock. Will receive the next 200 end of this week.

Sales is now open via Amazon DE and UK as well:

amazon.de (http://www.amazon.de/dp/B0174YL454)

amazon.co.uk (http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0174YL454)

France, Spain and Italy will follow this weekend.

The price difference to our website can be explained by their hefty commission.

When I sold refurb'd LCDs on Amazon I always had to jack up the price for their 10% commission, and because they underbid shipping by about half (and then took 10% of that too). I hope it's not worse than that for sticks.

To all those who try to order with obviously hacked Paypal accounts:

I never will ship an order where the invoice addressee and the shipping addressee have different names or (even better) where invoice countries and shipping countries are different.
All these orders will be cancelled, even if payment is successfully transferred. Payment from these hacked accounts will be refunded.
Take another one for a ride.

 :-[

In case you have issues with your EU version Compac miner, it's most likely a driver or mining software issue.
I do a complete burn-in test with all devices after firmware flashing. All devices shipped via the webshop https://www.bitshopper.de or via Amazon are tested working devices.

Send me a PM if you have issues getting it running or post a message here to get indiviual support.

I want to thank  MacEntyre he was amazing on helping get me a Europe to complete my set of compacs without paying a small fortune on shipping to us.

I got it plugged into my RPI and its working great!   I plan on taking some pictures when I get some time.  But very neat design if your into collecting I suggest getting one for the fun of it.

Puh! Finally you got it. Thanks for the feedback. I just started to worry about the shipping cause the tracking was not updated by USPS several days.

Thanks to Compac USB Stick miners Bitcoin mining is fun again: https://www.nicehash.com/index.jsp?p=news&id=49

;)

Hello Guys,

Recently I have just received the stick from you! Great packaging! and thanks alot!
Though, I have been trying to setup this miner. I thought it would be my problem of not knowing how to use cgminer with drivers?

I have tried the modified cgminer and normal cgminer from their main website in ubuntu, macosx, windows 7 vm and windows 8.
But all say the same  where it cannot detect any USB devices. (I can see the usb being detected in lsusb or device list in windows).

Can anyone give me instructions in how to use this usb miner?

I still want to say, great initiative MacEntyre!

Thank you!

Have you looked at the official support thread?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1173963.0

Sidehack is right there is ton's of great info on install, running, etc in official support thread.   It really should be asked in there.

I do have one of the Europe Compacs as I like to collect.  I can confirm I plugged it in my RPI just like any other compac and it ran perfect.

I am interested:) I want to try hobby mining

If your in Europe give it a shot. I like to collect :) OP was amazing on helping me get one in US.   So now I have all the compac versions (at least public ones I think).

But they are the perfect miner for learning mining.  My only suggestion is get a RaspberryPI and good hub and you will really enjoy it without having to use a full computer.