Bitcoin Forum

200 Ghs/ 50w ?!?!?!

That would sell! Quite well.

And hopefully it won't be another steaming pile of shit like the U3 was.

I hope they do.  And also take that minimum order you had to do.

I don't see them stopping making the U models.  Then again I though all odd miners of theirs would have two blades.  So they might surprise me.

More likely around 130 GH, given previous U series form factor - but they've changed things up before.

 They'd have to price them VERY low to sell any though.

So take 8 x BM1385 in a string. 0.6V Core Voltage, 5V supply.

Chips will take about 31W, add a bit for LDO and other electronics, say 40W total. Would Give 170GH/S

Or is this a U5, U4 having the BM1384?  :)


Rich

I doubt they'd move to 5V power supply.
12V is far more common and available.

 I doubt they're going to be building anything else based on the BM1384, they apparently made the S5+ units at least in part to clear out their remaining supply of those chips.

I suggested 5V as BM1385 is designed for string supply with built in level shifters, and has the benefit of lower cost with no need for a Buck Converter. 5V gave a convenient number of chips.  :) We will see, however I have this feeling that the only "Home" product we are likely to see is the Mining Router.

Rich

Making it with BM1384 would be silly.

But if it makes the profit I doubt they care if it sounds silly.  They are going to care more about what it makes.

A lot would have said keeping 28NM for S7 was silly but they did it anyways as more profit.  Likely they could have went down in NM and had even more efficiency.  But they know the 28NM made more money for them.

Making the S4+ with BM1382 was silly, but they did it anyway and made serious profits.

When it was announced I really liked 'the idea' of the U3.  

When the MOQ was ridiculously high, I decided I would not place an order myself.  I got a single one off a reseller who I willingly
overpaid, knowing they had to deal with selling 20 of them.  

What struck me was that the U3 was over half the going rate for a used S3 at the time.  The S3 which had more of the same chips, could be ran just as quietly ( by lowering the voltage of the fans ) and had a built in controller.  Most of all it didn't need to be babysit.

So I began to examine what it was about 'the idea' of the U3 I had liked.

1. With a small device; miners are more likely to solo mine.  I believe the reason for this is 2 fold; the miners electricity cost is low and the cost of the miner itself is low.  The promise of the U3 was a $50 miner.  So long as a miner is below a threshold ( maybe the cost of eating out ) most miners will not feel the need to be concerned with ROI.

2.  A sub $50 miner is within normal gift pricing and can be used to introduce people to mining, who otherwise would never try it of their own initiative; it is a mining vector.

3.  ASIC miners are boring.  These have the possibility of getting the blood flowing a bit, with custom pi images, custom scripts ect.


IMO a 4 chip pod such as U3 or proposed U4 that requires a controller has a problem with my 2nd point:  Even if it is priced at $50 most people who receive it as a gift will not already have a pi or similar low power computer to use as a host.  They may run the miner with their computer as the host for a month; but once they see the electric bill from running their pc 24/7 for a month they will probably stop using it; rather than getting a pi for it.  

The crux is this: the cost of the controller must also be included in the consideration of gift pricing.  If the overall cost is above $50 the device fails as a mining vector.

For current miners a usb stick makes more sense as it enables points 1 and 3 at a lower cost ( thank you sidehack and novac ).

A lot of people leave their comps running 24/7.

I think a lot of us do on this forum.  I have one that normally is on so and I can access my network when I'm away.   I am going to move some of my lotto miners to a RPI in a day or so.

But the full machine will still be on so most likely some running there.   With or without miners it would be on.  I am new to lotto mining (small scale solo mine) but I really enjoy it just as a fun time.  And it cost a heck of a lot less then my main miners.

Most forum members probably have a computer on most of the day if not 24/7; I was referring to the they, the public. 

It's not clear which spazzdla is referring to. 

In the case of the latter; I thought I had a good handle on most peoples computer habits, but I could be entirely wrong.  People may be too lazy to turn off their computer. 

I don't think the general public is the market if there was a U4.   Mining has not hit mainstream as far as general public setting up a miner, still need lots of adoption from many I think.

So I think the U4 would have much more to do with people like forum members, then general public.  But I could be wrong.

So was I... most people I know don't turn their comps off.. they also lack the ability to create a file folder soo ya...  It will probably only be for people on the forums that are only going to spend a few hundred on gear and not thousands.

A lot of computers ship out with a power savings mode as far as windows.  It is kinda a "dummy mode".  But if you leave it on with no activity it goes to sleep.

So for most it should do this.   Which makes it not to big of an issue for that type of user.

Bitmain stepped up their game quite well with s7, it'd be nice to have something more accessible though. But I don't think it'll happen very soon, they'll have to ROI out of S7 production first.

I don't think so the S7 and U series are really completely different target audiences.   Them having a S7 or what ever big one does not really factor in.

These miners are not meant for ROI really.  More for fun on the U series.

Bitmain still has U3's for sale.

I don't think there is any chance of them making a U4 until they sell their remaining U3.

Especially as they are making an AntRouter.

You do make a good point about antrouter that is kinda in the same space as U series.    I did not think about that.

But most likely we will see AntRouter.   U3 is hard to order off them as you have to order 20.  I think when they finnaly want to sell quick they will lower that min order.  Or maybe it's not worth their time for less and will not lower it.

I wonder if just selling one board and you have to make your own enclosure and cool it your self would be viable.

Strapping a board to some wood and pointing fans at it is quite easy for anyone.  Would reduce the cost massively for shipping and production as bitmain would only have to ship boards.

They tend to like to sell products that are fully built.  Some have bought chips for projects.   That might be your best bet if your wanting a board to do all this stuff DIY.

I don't see them selling boards where you make your own enclosures though.   I see them focusing on finished products for the most part.  They also make the most money this way.

It's not just a money thing, it's a support and warranty thing. As soon as the product is not complete there are so many more variables in the equation and things that the customer can mess up.

Rich

Ahh good point.

They have tightened down on warranty at this point.  As of my S5+ you have to get permission from them to do pretty much anything or it voids warranty.

They could sell chips to others we saw a little bit of this for the compacs made.  I hope they continue that but not sure they will at least for a while since new chip.