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So I have a crew working on development for 16nm miners intended specifically for consumers. This includes a single-chip stickminer, a 10-chip pod miner and ~400W S1-chassis-compatible boards. But dev costs money and to help raise money I'm auctioning off some of the test setup stuff from previous miner design work.

This includes three prototypes of a BW LK1402 Compac for which drivers are currently being written. The chip manufacturer has opted not to sell ASICs so no more will be made, but the software was already well under way when this was found out. The original plan was to pay the coder a percentage of sales, but if there's no production there can't be sales. The proceeds from the auction of the three LK1402 Compac prototypes will help make up for that; he plans to finish out the driver which means these sticks should be functional miners.

Here's a list of what I've got up for grabs, in what quantities.

http://gekkoscience.com/img_stash/large_lot.jpg

A3218 Compac - Unpopulated PCB x 12
   These are some test PCBs for Compac stickminers designed around Avalon's A3218 ASIC. Unfortunately there wasn't enough available information to really get things to communicate properly. One complete prototype was assembled and sent to the programmer but it never went anywhere.

BM1385 Compac, fully assembled x 1
   This Compac is built around a Bitmain BM1385 ASIC harvested from an S7 miner. I could never get the chip to talk, and since it's a 0.35mm pitch QFN and the chips suck to harvest anyway I wasn't too upset about it. I only built the one. It did successfully test a new power layout, so that's handy.

BM1385 Compac - Unpopulated PCB x 4
   The above-described miner, just bare PCBs.

Populated V1.1 Amita x 4
   The "Amita" is the pod-miner product line I want to actually exist someday. I did go through multiple BM1384 prototypes with varying levels of success, but since the BM1384 is painfully outdated I gave up on it. The platform mostly became a testbench for power, stability and manufacturing precision. These boards are built around 8x BM1384 ASICs in a bucked string topology and are, for the most part, populated with all node-level components and a functional power circuit. They probably don't work for one reason or another. Some were rewired to scab onto an S5 controller.

Unpopulated V1.1 Amita x 3
   The Amita is intended to have a USB connection and built-in microcontroller for fan speed and voltage adjustment. However, we didn't get around to writing the code for that part. All the footprints are there on this initial version, except I screwed up one of the jacks.

Unpopulated V1.3 Amita x 8
   The original (V1.1) test pod was designed for USB but that part was never implemented. On this second version I was more focused on just having a closed solution that worked, so I redid the power layout and removed all microcontroller stuff in exchange for an 18-pin jack, simulating an 8-chip S5 board the S5 controller would work with transparently. Ideally it would have been mass-producible but I still had some problems with stable voltage levels at the ASICs. Couple that with the BM1384 being a year old at that point and it wasn't really feasible.

Assembled V1.1 Amita x 1 (starting bid 0.1BTC)
   This is an initial-test-version Amita which has been fully assembled with a proper cooler. I completed two of these but am keeping the first for my own archive. This one was wired up a little more stably to function off an S5 controller. The original concept was to make it compatible with Intel LGA1155 CPU coolers and with Freezer7 coolers that a lot of people might have dozens of laying around after the Technobit HEX4M debacle. This board is assembled with one of those.

Assembled V1.3 Amita x 1 (starting bid 0.1BTC)
   I'll be giving up on CPU cooler compatibility on future Amita projects because it wastes a lot of board space trying to fit arbitrary standards, but the BM1384 Amita in both prototyped versions still used that concept. The ASICs are compressed into a 3x3cm square to fit under a Freezer7 cooler base or inside the center billot of a standard Intel cooler. This V1.3 Amita is fully assembled (including 18-pin jack and S5-compatible temperature sensor) but I don't recall offhand how functional it actually was.

Hacked S5 8-chip test board x 1
   This was my original bucked string topology test. It was a concept Novak and I came up with right around the same time ASICMiner (remember those guys?) announced the BE300 test specs, which was really what got us interested in miner design. We spent a full two days discussing the features and attributes we'd like to see in a miner. We wanted to combine voltage adjustability with the reduced parts count of string topology, so the obvious result is a high-voltage buck converter on a short string (like the S7 and S9 now use in a fixed-voltage form). My initial test of this used a hacked TPS53355 circuit rewired for variable 2.4-3.2V (instead of fixed 0.8V) powering a rewired section from an S5 board, which worked pretty well once some power kinks were ironed out. This became the basis for the Amita prototype boards.

http://gekkoscience.com/img_stash/large_lot_2.jpg

Unpopulated 18-chip string test board x 2
   The eventual goal of my miner design projects is to bring to market an S1-chassis-compatible board kit using modern chips. Thanks to Bitmain's early (and subsequently abandoned) leveraging of interchangeable parts, a board that'll fit on an S1 will also work on an S3 and an S5. These chassis have been tested to dissipate upwards of 500W without a lot of the reliability concerns which have plagued their later high-density designs, and they can be found for pretty cheap on the secondhand market. Our initial idea was to make each S1 a four-board kit (two boards per heatsink) where each board could operate as a ~100W standalone, not unlike what RockMiners did with several miner chassis designs based around the same PCB. This concept survives in a few half-S1 prototype PCBs designed for external power, basic UART signaling (intended for an external USB adapter) and 18 chips in a 3p6s string configuration.

Lemon BM1384 Compac x 12 (minimum bid 0.16BTC)
   I'd like to sell these as a single unit if possible. I've gone through something like three thousand of these stickminers from start to finish - all our manufacturing is done in-house - and I've had a few that I just got tired of fiddling with. Some might have PCB issues, some might just be boneheaded oversights on my part, but most are pretty much fully populated (though none have heatsinks, since those aren't installed until they pass initial testing). I don't know how many someone industrious could get working again.

Amita V1.1 stencil
   This is a 30x40 stainles steel stencil for the Amita V1.1 stencil. Darn thing had enough pads (several hundred) that it was well worth buying a proper stencil instead of trying to grease by hand. Most of the parts were in the same place on the V1.3 so it was reusable.

BM1385 Compac stencil
   This is also a 30x40 stainless steel stencil, for the BM1385 Compac prototype. I ended up reusing the power layout on a couple future versions so this one was reusable as well. The Compac has few enough parts that I didn't really need it that much though.

http://gekkoscience.com/img_stash/bw_stick.jpg

BW LK-1402 Compac Prototype x 3 (minimum bid 0.08BTC)
   The software is still in the works on this - an initial cgminer version already exists, but we're having trouble getting the initial prototype to hash on all cores. Even with all the overhead, right now it's still more than twice the hashrate of a BlockErupter at less than half the power. When it's working properly it should top out around 50GH at maximum overclock. Hopefully we can make that happen.

BW LK-1402 Compac unpopulated PCB
    I only had 4 sample ASICs and will keep the first prototype for my archives, which means at most three more functional sticks will be made unless BW decides to open up sales. That leaves me with a single unpopulated PCB someone can have.

Of course I always have regular power supply gear and custom cabling and other things available for sale over here (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=940317.0) and I really like selling that stuff because it's my actual income. But if this auction is a success it'll greatly help to fund dev efforts on future miner projects. Especially the BW sticks, which will pay the programmer for the work he did on 'em.

I've put minimum bids on things I'd like to get at least that much for, probably because of the materials and stuff in 'em. Shipping will have to be arranged between me and the buyer, shipped from MO, US 65401. Sales must be paid for within 24 hours of the auction ending, paid to address 1GekkosciLeaey8Na9siC8oD5HcMtLnWwd

The action will end Monday 10/24 at 5PM CST. Any bids submitted after that time won't count. Standard rules apply - quantity @ price in a post on this thread counts as a submission. If the highest bidder doesn't take 'em all the next-highest bidder can match price. Any items not paid for within 24 hours of the auction will be offered to the next highest bidder. Alright guys, be civil.

I assume the price is for 1 of the 3 available right?
I'll start the bidding for 1 of them @ 0.1 BTC

BW LK-1402 Compac Prototype x 3 (minimum bid 0.08BTC)

I'll start the bidding for a second working stick at 0.15BTC

I'll go ahead and bid:

0.16 BTC for Lemon BM1384 Compac x 12

I enjoy tinkering with these units n particular.

Well I am not clear if I am bidding on 1 stick or all three sticks.

But I only want 1 stick not three so I bid .125 btc for thre third stick.

So

 .1 not fuzzy warm
.125 philipma1957
.15 gt_addict

Are all one stick bids.

First of all thank you all for your support. We all rely on it.

I've never had a reason to post, before now.

I would like to take home a part of history, but perhaps one I can at least stick somewhere on solo.

Not to rock the boat but .15 BTC for a functioning BW miner

Then I raise my bid for 1 stick to 0.15BTC
Sorry Phil....

That puts bidding for 1x stick of the 3x available to:
Eagleone  0.15btc
gt-addict 0.15btc
NotFuzzyWarm  0.15btc

so if I bid .16 the standings go to
phil .16
gt-addict .15
Eagleone .15

NotFuzzyWarm .15 but bumped>

and Not FuzzyWarm gets bumped  since he bid .15 after the other two bids of .15

NOTE I did not bid this .16 yet but I am asking for clarification of bidding rules.

Good thing no edits are allowed here.

So I did not bid the .16 yet waiting on a ruling.

Then I enter a bid of 0.175btc for 1x to be well ahead.
Now leading the pack.

I bid same 0.175 for one

so

NotFuzzyWarm 0.175
philipma1957   0.175

gt-addict 0.15
Eagleone 0.15     

since there are 3 sticks    and no ruling on ties  I am assuming  gt_addict  is leading Eagleone  since gt_addict bid 0.15 earlier then Eagleone

 still need ruling but pretty sure that is correct.

Seems reasonable. Tie bid goes to the earliest bid.

I bid 0.18 for x1 BW LK-1402 Compac Prototype

In that case I bid 0.18 for my one aswell.

 so

rockmoney  ---------  0.18
gt_addict ---------     0.18
NotFuzzyWarm  ----- 0.175


philipma1957 ----- 0.175     I am knocked out on tiebreaker rule.


and this is for the working bw  usb stick bidding.

I bid 0.2 for x1 BW LK-1402 Compac Prototype

So bids are now:-

irritant ----- 0.2
rockmoney ----- 0.18
gt_addict ----- 0.18

NotFuzzyWarm ---- has been knocked out.

My final bid is 0.2 BTC

So now the bids stand at:
irritant ---------- 0.2
NotFuzzyWarm -- 0.2
rockmoney -----  0.18

Ill increase my bid to 0.185.

So now the bids stand at:
irritant ---------- 0.2
NotFuzzyWarm -- 0.2
gt_addict -----  0.185

I will increase my bid to 0.2 for x1 BW LK-1402 Compac Prototype

I'll up my bod 0.21 for a working BW USB stick

Then I'm out. cest la'vie

So now the bids stand at:
gt_addict -----  0.21
irritant ---------- 0.2
rockmoney ------ 0.2

Looks like people really like those BW sticks. Won't do much for dev funding but the software guy will get paid, so that's good news.

Sorry NotFuzzyWarm  :'(

I'll bid .22 for bw usb stick.

@sidehack. If no one bids on rest of your equipment hit me up with a take all price. We can figure out shipping later. I'll be home later this evening to get you squared up. Also if I need any controllers for this and you have them to spare include them as well. Also I need 2 of the 900 watt psu. Can I get them one with all 6pin pcie and one with 8?

Best Regards
d57heinz

PM me with whatall you're wanting, because I'm not quite sure what you're asking for so we can discuss it elsewhere.

So now the bids stand at:

d57heinz ---- 0.22
gt_addict -----  0.21
irritant ---------- 0.2


rockmoney ------ 0.2     <----drops from the auction.



Sidehack, we are bidding the above amounts for a working BW 1402 usb stick. (one each)

Raginglikeaboss, is bidding on the Lemon Compacs to tinker with. His bid is further up.

Rather looks like a stick based on the BitFury chip might be in order later on eh? ;)

Maybe. Depends on a lot of factors, only one of which is continued cooperation with Bitfury.

Also, looks like bidding is over.

@sidehack. Will do.  I'll be home around 7 cst

The one who bid on the compac sticks is more than welcome to them. I'm going to purchase whatever doesn't get bid on

Best Regards
d57heinz

'Twas fun and at least helped pay yer coder ;)
If BF stumbles again, wonder if  - gods forbid - Canaan Creative (Avalon) will eventually come out with something...

I am going to auction off two compact sticks  I will keep my other two.

proceeds will go to sidehack.


here is thread.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1660572.new#new

So, here's the results:

RaginglikeaBoss - 12x lemon Compacs - 0.16BTC
irritant - BW stick - 0.2BTC
gt_addict - BW stick - 0.21BTC
d57heinz - BW stick - 0.22BTC
d57heinz - everything else - something?

Reckon I'll get ahold of everyone tonight for address and payment info. Y'all got payment address already but I'll need shipping addresses to figure those costs. Pretty much it'll be about $7 for anything Compac within the US.

Sidehack,  I've PM'd you about payment and delivery etc to the UK. I may be unavailable as I'll be flying to New York early tomorrow morning (7am GMT) for 5 days but will be able to contact you after I've landed.

Just a heads up as I don't want to lose out on the USB stick  ;)

At this point everyone who won a bid has been contacted.

May I ask how much funding your in need of?  Would you consider taking a funding partner on?

Not if at all possible. I don't like being in debt, and I don't like the idea of someone buying the right to make decisions. I'm trying to get ahold of Novak right now to discuss progress; if I don't hear good news soon though I might need to redo some of my plans.

my auction is done.  you have been sent .161616 btc


  https://blockchain.info/address/1GekkosciLeaey8Na9siC8oD5HcMtLnWwd

has anyone received their stuff?

The lemon Compacs were never paid for, but d57heinz made an offer for "everything that didn't get sold" so I tossed them into his lot.

My schedule the next few days is dedicated to miscellaneous assembly and testing, including among other things BW sticks, some Compacs and 2Pac prototypes and Friday I'll be doing a lot of shipping. So they're later than late but will be out soon.

thanks for the update , keep up the good work :)

Hello

Any progress on the bw sticks?

Best Regards
Doug