Bitcoin Forum

Newest update - https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2474532.msg42630173#msg42630173

I have 2Pac factory seconds available again, at $16. Laura's also back in treatment so she'll be getting $10 of every sale and the rest is basically the value of usable parts were I to strip them and recycle the rest. Not even looking to recover cost on these, just utility and donation.

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So probably a lot of you are familiar by now with my 2Pac USB stick miner (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1718358.0).

I closed general sales in June because I was finding it increasingly difficult to keep up with both communication and manufacture.  Bulk sales are still accepted and resellers are taking a whole lot of the load off my back. Between that and improved infrastructure, the weekly output of 2Pacs from my "factory" has more than doubled.

For anyone wondering, non-bulk "individual" sales accounted for roughly 15% of early-batch sales, while communication for individual sales (plus aborted order requests) accounted for roughly 95% of communication. So by offloading those sales to resellers, my overall sales volume was basically unchanged but I was able to reduce my "wading through emails" time down to a fraction of the total.

So some of you guys also noticed that in the past I've sold "factory seconds" 2Pacs. A stock stick has to pass bench testing before final assembly and then a two-step test at no higher than 1.26V before shipping; a "seconds" stick will have failed testing (due to HW errors and/or instability) at stock voltage but will have passed at no higher than 1.40V on the dial. This reduces the baseline efficiency and overclockability but, as far as I can tell, they're still fully functional.

I started selling them in part because I had a lot stacking up - earlier batches of chips weren't as good as what I'm using now so I had up to 10% failures, most of which became seconds. The numbers are better now, but they still stack up, and I like at least getting some of the parts cost back. The other and more significant reason is, all profits from the sale of 2Pac seconds goes to a particular GoFundMe account (https://gofundme.com/lauras-eating-disorder-recovery).

The beneficiary (Laura) is a friend I've known for going on 12 years who's been going through some rough times and is in treatment for an eating disorder. Which ain't cheap, even with insurance. Inpatient treatment kinda keeps you from having a job, and her folks are both teachers (don't even get me started on how undervalued educators are these days) so the whole family could use some help.

So, I'm going to use this thread as a central gathering place for all the as-of-yet scattered and varied information about 2Pac Seconds sales.

I sell them for more than, but not less than, $32 $16 apiece plus shipping. I say "more than" because anything extra you pay will go straight to the fund. Any $32 $16 sale automatically puts $10 in donation, but you're more than welcome to add more to it if you want.

In order to help her out even more, Laura will be taking on the job of "sales rep" and handling customer communication for small orders. We're going to start off with 2Pac Seconds as something simple to iron out the kinks. So instead of contacting me for purchasing, you'll contact her. Which is probably good because she's a lot nicer than I am.

I take PayPal and BTC. Shipping is $10 for any order within the US. Know before you buy that you are buying something DISCOUNTED and NOT AS GOOD AS STOCK and with LIMITED SUPPORT. Supply is limited.

To place an order: Email to sales at GekkoScience.com:
0) that you specifically want 2Pac Seconds
1) desired quantity
2) expected payment amount (don't forget to add shipping)
3) preferred payment method (BTC or PayPal)
4) shipping address

Also, I have Rohs-compliant sticks but they're all bitshopper-branded and marked with his WEEE registration so I can't really sell them to other people. Bitshopper's okay with them being put in general circulation as seconds outside Europe but not within Europe because he could get in trouble with WEEE reporting. Which means I can't sell seconds sticks in Europe without breaking some rule or other.

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2Pac Seconds sales to date have donated: well over $6215

interested in some, sent PM.

interested as well, sent PM.

PM sent, hoping not too late.

Not sure if I was late as well but have not heard back. He's a very busy person so it's understood.

Added this to the first post, to help ease the communication payload.


We've been a man down at the shop last couple days so I'm pulling triple duty instead of double trying to get the week's shipments put together. As such, communication has taken a back burner. I should be caught up with everyone here soon, but in the future it'd be handy for people to provide all the above info in the initial request.

Sorry to hear that, pm sent.
Thank you.

Ah, moved. I had intended this to take over for any residual interest in the Group Buys thread instead of disappearing into the netherworld of altcoin miners and junk, but oh well. Guess I'll just have to make sure it gets bumped every day or so.

[bump] I PM'd the info you requested. Just need to know where to send funds.

Same, waiting for payment address as well.
He's very busy person so have to be patience.

Emailed with requested info.

(bump) I am getting my 2pac in today   cant wait   i want to see them work first and see how many i can run on my usb hubs and i will put a order in for 2nds.

Also, if you've messaged me once already and I haven't gotten back to you, I'm probably just busy so please be patient. Unless it's been a week or so, in which case the message could be lost. But if it's only been a day or three, chalk it up to being busy.

Note that it's 10PM right now and I'm just now leaving work. Christmas is coming.

pm'ed you, just want to make sure my message didn't get lost in the abyss  :)

Thanks

Everyone who's paid, your sticks are shipping out today. PM me with your ZIP code if you want tracking.

Thank you Sidehack

Very much appreciate your time.

bump for today

Just got my 12 seconds in today! I had some questions though.

1. Will the black euro ones work? I got 2 of them.
2. What is the voltage set at pre-shipment? Do I need to adjust the dial for them to work?
3. I keep getting an error message on the raspberry pi. Im running all the latest software with raspian and CGminer. This is the error message on CGminer. Any tips of how to fix this?  https://ibb.co/eg2APb

2Pac support thread (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1764803.0) - read the first post. If you ask any questions there that are already answered in the first post, you'll get made fun of.

Received my order yesterday, fiddled with it all evening and ran it all night through a USB 3 power-compatible extension cord. Performs wonderfully at stock 100MHz, around the expected 10+ GH/s. Made about a thousand "cashatoshi" running it overnight. Today, I started messing around even more, pushed the frequency up and added a fan through my case.
https://realityripple.com/omnIMG/KqJYBPh.jpg
Just used a drive tray from the front with a spare fan lead and an old 80mm, testing the temp with an ir temp monitor, can't believe how quickly it cools... Went from around to 180° F when running at 140MHz+ to just over 100° at 175MHz. Happy there 'cause I'm getting a decent 20 GH/s from it. The case even closes nicely, as you can see.
https://realityripple.com/omnIMG/vpHPp9h.jpg https://realityripple.com/omnIMG/MdIitZh.jpg

It's very entertaining to mess around with, and I haven't even touched the voltage regulator. Gotta say, being on solar without a grid connection, this low-wattage toy is fantastic. It does stop responding now and then if you push it too hard, but it seems to be fairly resilient, especially for second-tier stock.

Very happy with my purchase; all the best regards to your friend.

I would like to get some of these, PM sent. Thanks!

I received my order today, very easy to set up and hash away. Very happy with my purchase as well and Thank you sidehack for everything you do I truly appreciate it!

Ok, just so i understand i believe these seconds have HW errors at stock speeds (pot at 2 oclock and 100mhz) but work with no errors at overclocked speeds like 200 to 250?

The speed isn't the issue, it's the voltage. It just requires a little extra oomph to function as expected, but increasing the voltage does not inherently increase the speed on these little guys.

I want to get ten but im trying to understand the baseline can you guestimate the hash power against stock would you say they are 70% 80% 50% efficient ? considering not only clock speed but hw error %?

As you can see I am registered as a newbie but at a closer look you can tell my account is quite old. I tend to lurk but not make comments I want to first start off saying that I commend the support for anyone and everyone in need this is a noble cause and I would like to support it. I am not traditionally interested in ASIC mining equipment because I deal strictly with GPU systems and the Folding at home project. I took particular interest in that project because I felt it offered something that I could do to help as many people as possible. With that being said I literally have no idea about the ASIC mining space other than they are used to effectively and efficiently solve SHA256 hashes. I would like to talk to you about getting a couple of these and getting some more support for Laura. If nothing else I get to tinker with new hardware and she can can get more funds for her recovery/expenses. I will PM you with details on an order I wish to make for second sticks thank you.

The only rejected hashes I get are due to ping response because of my internet connection; no hardware errors in the last three days here. No idea on higher-voltage, higher-frequency settings, but between 100-200 MHz, I'd say they're at least 90% against stock. Running ten of them, you should be able to get up over 200 GH/s without altering voltage on any of them, long as you cool 'em down a bit. The one little 80mm fan in my photos above is enough to keep the one I got at literal room temperature, cool enough to touch. Absolutely no idea what happens closer to their limits, though.

Stock sticks run about 1.26V, which for BM1384 puts it chip-level roughly 0.25J/GH

Seconds run between 1.3V and 1.4V, 0.26 to 0.34J/GH chip-level.

According to Bitmain's BM1384 efficiency charts, that's what can be expected. It's worse efficiency, but still reasonable. If it won't go stable at 1.4V or below, I won't sell it. Strip the chips and start over.

Also, everyone who's messaged in the last week and I haven't gotten back to you yet - we just finished the "Christmas rush" assembly last night about 7:15PM. Three months ago we pushed past 400 units per week for the first time. We shipped almost 2100 units in the last three weeks to get stock to resellers to ship before Christmas. Today I finally have some breathing room so I'll catch up with everyone.

Seconds orders to date nearly exhausted my seconds supply. They only appear when a stick fails to perform during stock testing, something I actually try to avoid; only about 5% of sticks fail and become seconds candidates, so now I have about 100 standing by to be tested as seconds. I expect about 70% of them to pass seconds testing. Gonna start on that today.

Seconds testing happens about once a month, when I have a free day available and enough candidates stacked up to make it worthwhile. Testing for these is actually more extensive than for stock sticks because I always start out the voltage in the lowest range and adjust upward after every failure. Some sticks get run through four times before they pass. Takes a full day to get a batch of 100 out, where with stock sticks we can test 400-500 in a good day.

That's the basis for the "limited supply" statement in the first post.

PM sent

I also received my order and I'm very pleased!  Devices work great at a slight overvoltage, and it's a ton of fun to tune them and mess around.

Now I just need to get a logic analyzer on it to start learning a bit more!

Running into some zombification as of last night. Tweaking frequencies and the voltage dial to see what's up, but for now it seems happier at 150 MHz than 175. Also, it apparently doesn't like a voltage much higher than what it was set to originally, but I did get it to 200 MHz for a brief period. I think it also might no longer like the USB 3 extension cable I'd been using, but for that, I need to do some difficulty adjustment tests, since I'm not sure if it stopped mining or timed out finding shares in that instance.

Still, I'm impressed with the device's ability to recover. It's nice working with something that's volatile-memory-only again.

Even though the purchasing request instructions are given in big bold letters in the very first post, I'm still getting a lot of messages from people who ask how to purchase stuff. Often they're not even very clear about what they want.

Normally I'd ignore them outright because, while I like money, I really like not dealing with idiots. However, since this is for the good of someone I care about, I'll suspend that policy and give a response. However, since it's still my policy to be a cranky jerk to anyone who asks me to do his homework for him, the best you'll get is a dry response indicating you should acknowledge the clear instructions given in big bold letters in the very first post of the sales thread. After that you're on your own.

Hello Sidehack!  Just emailed you on a request for a couple.  Thank you!!

As of right now, I'm out of stock on seconds. It'll be a couple weeks before I have more.

If you've paid in the last couple days, your order will ship tomorrow.

Please DM me with the information. I would love to help out also interested in you upcoming products.

Not really sure what you mean by that. There's no information to share that hasn't already been given.

Received mine today. Quick shipping. Delivered on xmas eve! They're working well. Thanks!

Just received my order as well. Thank you!

Pm'd you sidehack  :)

All y'all still asking for these need to take note of two things - the part in the first post which says SUPPLY IS LIMITED and the recent post by me saying they're out of stock for several weeks.

Just curious, did you raise the necessary funds to help your friend?

Seriously? I literally just said I'm out of stock, have been for a week and will continue to be for several weeks.

Anyways the first post also says I don't ship to Europe.

I think you posted to the wrong thread. I was confused as to the reason behind your anger at first haha.

Naw, looks like the guy I was responding to deleted his post.

Anyways it wasn't anger so much as incredulity.

With the questions I've seen you be asked in this thread, incredulity (and even a bit of anger) is justified.

Sent you a PM. Interested in 2Pac Seconds (when you get more) and the pod.

Okay. PM me again when I have announced stock of either of those things.

Will you be announcing it on this thread? Or do we need to keep our eyes peeled on the forums at large for a new post?

I need these as well - I am having my class explore cryptos, build RPi miner projects and monitor the efficiency of the miners and profitability of pool vs solo. The kids are really excited about this.

So I've got some more 2Pac seconds available. Not a final count right now, but I'll get more tested over the weekend.

BTC's boom has driven up the cost of ASICs to ridiculous levels. My general sales price has gone up, and the minimum selling price for seconds will go up the same amount. The new minimum is $32.

We're going to change things up a bit. I am employing Laura, the recipient of donated funds, to handle customer communication for small orders of things. We're still ironing out the kinks so gonna start off small, just 2Pac Seconds for now.

So instead of messaging or emailing me, you'll be contacting her - email address Laura at Gekkoscience dot com

Be polite, and don't forget to let her know the essentials:
0) that you specifically want 2Pac Seconds
1) desired quantity
2) expected payment amount
3) preferred payment method (BTC or PayPal)
4) shipping address

I'll update the first post with these changes as well.

Email sent.

Out of curiosity. Do you do anything with the dead sticks or ones that completely fail the first test?

Not sure exactly what you mean by "fail the first test". Sticks that completely bomb out get tossed in a box to figure out later, sticks that don't run well enough to ship as stock get re-tested as seconds, and sticks that fail seconds testing get their chips stripped and replaced and run again.

I've had this feeling that the pcb design is robust, so it is most likely the BM1384 failing if anything?

Most likely. If the sticks pass my bench testing and move on to assembly and product testing, about the only way they fail later tests in ways unrelated to ASICs is if parts have been broken off the board. Getting to seconds testing is due to mediocre chips, failing seconds testing is due to very mediocre chips.

Bumpitty bump, got about 16 sticks now and another hundred to test. Last chance for a month or so.

For sure interested in at least one. I emailed Laura, so I hope to hear back soon and help out her recovery!

PM sent, email sent yesterday.

um Email sent no reply yet? do I need to bump the offer or something?

Email from laura@gekkoscience in my inbox this morning.  Yuss!

Payment rendered, shipping info sent.

Good way to start the week.

Thanx to sidehack and Laura!

sidehack, i've emailed Laura about purchasing some 2pac seconds (no reply yet), but what ever happened to the USB hubs you were thinking about making?

Funny you should mention the hubs. I picked that one back up over the weekend with a bit of a concept change that should make everything better. I intend to start prototyping sub-circuits as soon as I get more time to run out a board layout.

awesome news!  (though Laura told me that 2pac Seconds were sold out ATM this morning...  :( )

I would love a nice USB hub that doesn't cost an arm and a leg!

Thanks Sidehack & Laura! Just received my 2Pac in the mail today! Super quick shipping, packed well, and seems to work great!

Will look forward to working with you guys in the future as well!

I think we're sold out right now. There's one left in the box but she might have an order pending for that.

I think she's making a list to let people know when we have some more, which likely won't be for at least another 3 weeks.

My little order of 2Pac seconds just arrived.  ;D

One stick generates a lot of HW errors. I think this little guy is going to be the test mule on the USB project I'm starting next week (parts were shopped today). If this kludge works, I'll post some pictures. Otherwise, I'll wallow in my failure silently.  ;)


Thanks to @sidehack for the great service!

Received my order! Whoo Hoo!

Now I just have to wait for my blasted USB Hub to show up :(

I don't suppose anyone has any hub recommendations when I get above 10 sticks??

This is what I use for 10 2 pacs at 200mhz, its a bit pricey:

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01KPOEX9O/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Hey Zillions.  Check out www.theminingoutpost.com  They have a couple high powered USB hubs.  I have the 20 port one and it works great!

3 week calendar reminder set!

I updated the first post with new information about sales, including how to contact Laura about purchasing and interest.

We've also got some stock of regular 2Pacs (not seconds) available.

By the way, I have 2Pac Seconds in stock again.

Also regular stock sticks are available for immediate shipment.

Also the Terminus 8-chip pod miner, got some of those.

Email sales@gekkoscience.com or PM me for purchasing.

Thanks for the great work and to support your efforts I purchased two seconds a few days ago. I did have a question about shipping and if you are doing bulk shipping after a certain number of orders are reached or shipping  them as orders are received.

Thanks Again and look forward to see what you come up with next.

Everything's in stock right now, so orders get shipped as early as it's convenient for me to do so.

I received my two seconds one was DOA and the other one is crazy unreliable at any voltage or MHz. I'm kind of bummed but know the money is going towards helping someone in need.

Thanks.

DOA? That's weird. They're tested thoroughly before shipping out. PM me to discuss options for resolution.

So, Laura's had to go back into treatment. As it happens, I have some 2Pac Factory Seconds available again. It's a coincidence though, and we were all hoping she'd never be in this situation again.

If these don't sell, they'll be stripped for usable parts and recycled. So I'll sell them for $10 over the value of usable parts and that extra $10 will go to help her cover costs, same as always. Current going rate is $16 plus shipping. Once they're gone, they're gone.

I'm really sorry to hear about Laurie.     PM sent.

Still have some of the Terminus pods available?  How much?

Nope, hence why there's no mention of them in the original post, original post's update or the update post. Pay no attention to stuff from three months ago. The R808 is gone and it's not coming back.

Any Still available?

Buckets.

How much for a bucket LOL

$16 times however many fit in the bucket of your choice, plus shipping.

Hey sidehack,

Really sorry to hear your latest update about Laura going back in for treatment, hoping for the best for her. I'd be very interested in buying some 2PAC's off you and helping with the medical bills.

How much would shipping to the UK be is my only concern? Happy to bulk buy to make the shipping worthwhile etc?

Fuzzybear

Shipping is $10 Flat Rate Unlimited or up to a number of sticks? I'm thinking of getting one of those Eyeboot 49 Port Hubs and filling it up.

These 2nds should have no problems running stock rate but it's overclocking where they run into issues.. right?

Flat shipping within the US, yes. Small orders would be negotiable, but for big'ns I'll cap it at a flat ten bucks.

The sticks are all tested at stock speed, but notably have higher-than-stock power draw. You'll want to take that into account.

What would be the estimate for 5 of them to the Aussieland?

Funny you should ask, because I sold the last ones about seven hours ago.

Ha! never mind then,looks like the buckets were sold off then! Good work, onto the next project then?

I still have stock of regulars, and they're going pretty cheap. Working on the next thing, still ironing out some reliability kinks before I'll have anything to sell. Don't want another R808 fiasco.

Hey there, how can I contact you for the 2pac usb stick?