BARNTECH I believe you are having the bare PCBs made in China, and the assembly will be done in Sydney ? That might prevent some of the problems punin has seen with his August batch http://m.imgur.com/a/t3AKxYes PCBs will be made in china and Assembly will happen in Sydney or the U.S. This is mainly so we can be present for the manufacture, also to avoid potential dodgey assembly like in those pics you sent. Also, none of us speak Mandarin. get their boards done in Thailand. Also I think BkkCoins mentioned he has contacts for quick turn around boards in Thailand. You might want to PM him. Interesting choice given that Thailand is the one country in the world that has completely banned everything related to Bitcoin! |
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Oh, and nice to see that people are interested in that idea.  |
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I see long term problems with large ASIC farms, they have overheads that backyard rigs don't, such as staff, air-conditioning, space rental etc. I think they are doomed to failure from a shareholders perspective. I don't see a bright future for the likes of ASICminer unless they make hardware sales their main focus, even then, the ASIC chip industry is due for a shake out in the next 12mths. there are too many players.
Agreed, this part of why i'm more interested in mini-farms scattered around the place more than one centralized farm, and yes i agree, big changes ahead for the coming 12 months for sure. Will be an interesting ride. |
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BARNTECH I believe you are having the bare PCBs made in China, and the assembly will be done in Sydney ? That might prevent some of the problems punin has seen with his August batch http://m.imgur.com/a/t3AKxYes PCBs will be made in china and Assembly will happen in Sydney or the U.S. This is mainly so we can be present for the manufacture, also to avoid potential dodgey assembly like in those pics you sent. Also, none of us speak Mandarin. |
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Barntech and others - We have some good mentions here of power supplies. They seem to really vary in price from 60 bucks to almost 200 bucks. Some of them are modular (no cables connected, just the plug end - more money) and others are non modular (come with cables wired to box, LOTS of cables - cheaper). I prefer the former but need to know what cables to buy. I believe the Drillbit system can run off of a USB plug or  And, if we are going to overclock the Drillbit system, do any of these power supplies work or do we need something special (e.g. more adjustments with Voltage, Amps, etc.) I will have the Drillbit 4 card system into 1 backplane (100 watts or so) AND a Burnin Mining system with 2X20 282Mhz chip unit. (Think that is around 200 watts or so). I'll probably get a 450 watt unit (90% efficiency) or higher. Thanks, IAS The Drillbit Boards power from a 4 pin molex. The miniplane from an ATX power connector. The overall draw on a fully stacked miniplane won't be all that high. We're moving into testing phase this week and will publish details as we have them. There have been some good suggestions for PSUs on this thread. We may recommend one, but in the end it will be up to everyone how they want to do it, how many boards they will be needing to power etc. A $60 PSU should be fine though. More on that stuff soon.  Barntech How about powering more than 4 boards? I don't get why you chose an ATX cnx for only 100W. Are we suppose to buy a PSU for each 100W / 64GHps rig?? Initialy, it was clear we can stack "mini stack" to a upper lever and that would lead to a 16 PCB rig. Is it still true? Will you still provide a PCB for 16 boards for free? Will it postpone shipping than without? Or can we just supply each 4PCB rig using one of the 4 molex instead of using ATX ? I'm not so worried about all that, I'm just trying to understand clearly so I can pave the way of the drillbit. As my previous miner, I just unpacked, plugged, and configured it  . I will share all my hardware choices (microPC, PSU, ...) on this topic. By the way I'm glad that everything went as expected so far, congrats!! Hey Beast. Firstly, no, one 4 pin molex won't run a 4 PCB stack. Definitely don't try to do this. It would probably damage your equipment. At this point, what we are doing for larger stacking is a hub which stacks two miniplanes. One ATX will power this. They will cost approximately $50. Beyond that you will either have to get a larger PSU and potentially convert the 12v to 5v to run the second, or as you say, get a second power supply. You will be able to get away with pretty cheap ones though. The main reason for the power going this way is the overclocking. The boards are rated so that you can push them up to max on the power without any troubles. This requires more draw. If you were to run them conservatively it may be possible to run two hubs from one atx connector, but not ideal if you are wanting to overclock. |
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After looking at cointerra's website, their individual chip prices aren't that bad... http://cointerra.com/product/goldstrike1-25th-asic-pack-50-500ghsec-asics/ $139,750 isn't that bad for 50 500gh/s chips. That puts a single chip unit at around $2795. I'd be curious what sort of samples they might send out to test the feasibility of a design. Even though its a ways off, if the cost of the board isn't too high I would certainly be interested in a $3000 500GH/s board. Might be cool if it was mountable in a PC case, as I imagine something like that would require quite a bit of cooling, much more than an array of much smaller bitfury chips. Price per a GH/s would be better than even our cheap bitfury pricing, as we would only get around 225-450GH/s with bitfury based on current and future pricing. EDIT: I'd be interested in trying to run some group hosting as well. I've got years of experience in big IT. Main issue would be the establishing proper legal protection for the customers and for the mining operator. Being based in the US, a mining coop would also have to follow any laws and regulations pertinent to the mining. Just putting it out there as food for thought. Most likely we will be doing something like this. Can't give any details as yet on pricing, but we will make it as cheap and affordable as possible. Thinking about offering whole miners and 1/10th shares in miners. As you mention, this will require hosting. As i have mentioned in a previous post, my preference would be for small farms in each city so a little collective of people could form in any given place as a bitcoin mining co-op of sorts. That way people could meet and be able to visit the hardare that they have a share of. Also, it would help to fight against the centralization and monopolization of the Bitcoin network that i feel is coming with the new wave of hardware. Nice to see you putting your hand up console cowboy. Yes, the legal situation would have to be solid so no one gets scammed but that shouldn't be too hard. Are people into this idea? Barntech |
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I havent seen it (may have missed it, sorry) but could you let me know the dimensions of the cards please? I'm interested in this as well. Judging from the CAD pics and actual board photos, they look to be a smidge over 4x molex plugs in length and width? I'm looking at housing them in an Antec Solo case. CPU, motherboard, RAM, PSU in their usual spots, and the Drillbit boards mounted on the floor of the case, with a case fan blowing over them, and the exhaust air going out the PCI expansion slots. The 24-pin ATX connector would be occupied by the PC's motherboard, so I gather I could just mount the Drillbit boards separate from each other (not using the four-stack mini-plane), and power them individually via their molex plugs? Another option is to use my old Dell Mini 9 netbook, but I'm concerned about reliability over the long-term. It's a passively cooled netbook, using a thin aluminium plate just under the keyboard. I was thinking of removing the keyboard as well as running it headless, with a [dust filtered] fan blowing into the guts of the netbook. Power consumption (DC estimate) for the netbook alone would be 6~7W, compared to ~20W for the desktop CPU and motherboard (Celeron G1610 and H61 board). An Intel NUC (Celeron 847 model -- ~$200 AUD) would be another option, drawing around 10~12W from the wall. Or skip x86 and get a Raspberry Pi with negligible power consumption? Just throwing some ideas around. I'm currently leaning towards the desktop CPU option, as I'm not too fussed about the slightly higher power consumption, plus I'd feel more comfortable with troubleshooting in Windows 7 than learning afresh in linux. Need a VGA port as well for my perfectly sized Asus 15.6" VW161D monitor, so would need an adapter for the Intel NUC. I gather with the rpi you could use an s-video/composite to VGA adapter? Sounds like a pretty good set up. Here are the dimensions: 102mm x102mm for the 8 board (will fit in a hdd bay) 39mm x52mm for the thumb, more or less. Its an odd shape so not the full rectangle. |
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so the usb miners are still avalible right? your first post says 0 left but on the site says 49 avalible
Sorry, Haven't updated the page. Currently there is 0 available but we may release a few more in the next couple days. Keep your eyes peeled. Cheers |
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..... and Bam! They're all gone.
Thanks everyone for making this happen. I'm gonna do the final tallies soon and we may have a final release of a few more thumbs, maybe even a few more boards. Stay tuned.
Barntech.
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Hey guys. Totally happy to ship in batches if people want that. I guess ultimately it will be up to you guys to coordinate. I can post up all the people in each given country to assist you guys in sorting that side of it out. It will probably be cheaper that way, but as pointed out may result in the process taking a bit longer. I'm sorry i haven't got proper shipping details up yet. Trust me, it is on my list. Basically it will come down to weight and choice of things like expedited delivery, tracking (i imagine we will all want this) etc. I WILL get that sorted soon. In the meantime, pplease feel free to form groups for bundled postage if you like. Updates on possible second chip batch aren't looking good. I can see that there is a lot of demand, and trust me, we would love to make more of these things, but i still haven't heard anything back about potential price changes. Currently new batch boards would sit somewhere around the $650 mark, which i don't really feel comfortable offering. That said, if 500 people are all happy to pay this, then we can do. Let me know if that does interest any of you. We will also be putting up the purchase option for blank boards soon for anyone who has access to chips any other way and is interested in fabricating them themselves. All our stuff we will be open sourced once we have done our manufacture run. On other news, the boards are slowly coming to life!   |
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Hope the testing phase goes smoothly Barntech THanks for being so open and candid and helpful throughout this GB. Thank you. Yes here's to a smooth run getting all the tech happening. I have faith in our crew. Should be some exciting updates over the next two weeks. And thank you also for being enthusiastic and engaged in the group buy. It has been a pleasure to have a solid crew of people always here engaging and keeping the interesting discussions flowing. And yes, minifarms! ... I like it. A nice way to combat the potential centralization of the bitcoin network that may be coming with so many giant companies and farms joining the scene. See how we go. |
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Hey guys.
I have been busy with other things and only just popped my head in to check out the status of what's going on here. Understandably, people are frustrated at what's happening. The whole Avalon scenario is a major fuck around. I'd like to stand up in Steamboat's defense, purely because as a group buy operator myself, i know how much hard work and effort is involved, not to mention financial investment. If i were in Steamboat's shoes i would be devastated ending up in this situation after putting in so much hard work to make it all happen. I hope that Steamboat and his team can find a good way out of this mess. It's not easy.
That said, i would like to here formally note my desire for a refund on my 128 chips from Batch 6 paid for here 6340cef6cf76b84eeb2db835334c6deb73c9a7c7df26ba15ebdb07d8e20198e6
Hope this works out ok for all involved.
Regards.
Barntech
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if anyone is interested in selling their order message me im i missed the initial sale
You need to wait until barntech releases official news on transfer of ownership policy. Stick working that one out. Waiting till we have all the orders locked down first. When i put it to the community a week or so ago, people seemed more in favor of not allowing onsells of preorders. I'm still open to both possibilities. Leave that one with me for a bit longer. Cheers |
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I woke up this morning and it's almost like Christmas! Awesome to see the progress!
Cointerra may be a little rich for my blood at this point, but I do hope you guys continue with these projects!
Yay christmas. I know, cointerra is a bit crazy at 500 GH/s per chip, but we're thinking about perhaps getting some little farms going that people could buy shares in. Do you think people are interested in this sort of thing. The idea is something along the lines of finding someone to be responsible for hosting in each city and everyone from that city could joing the co-op and be able to go round, see the equipment etc. This seems preferable to me than one centralized farm in a foreign land that you don't get to interact with. Thoughts? Barntech. |
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This is the sample run for Protos. Not quite at mass production yet. Happy monday!
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3D printing is a really cool idea. Gonna see if we might be able to know up a cool design that people could print for themselves if they want to. Genius.  |
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Any word on doing cases for them Barntech?
I think 4 Drillbit systems in a backplane would probably fit in a computer case with power supply? But I see your point as well, something more custom. I want it to look really cool, that way the missus will quit moaning at me "What are all these wires?... wah wah wah!" It will fit inside a computer case for sure. Main problem with a custom case is the cost. It will be quite a bit to actually get something made, and also add a fair whack to the postage too. If it was a larger run, it would become more viable but at this point not feeling worth it. That said, haven't ruled it out. If i get some extra time i'll get back on the trail and see if we can get a cool option for you guys. Would people be interested in a case even if it was a bit pricey? We also talked about making some cool custom steampunkish wooden cases with fans at either end. That would also come out pretty expensive though, but may well impress you missus Lemonte  Let me know if you guys are super keen and i can look into it some more. |
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I am currently waiting on BarnTech to pay me for the website overhaul.
Hoping he pays me soon so I can snap up one of those remaining drillbit thumbs. Gonna take the BTC and invest it in just dice for a week and hopefully their is a board left for my ordering. ^_^
You can send payment for the website here BarnTech: 12x1G3g7vHgSZLGYwGxwoCA6b7vA138ZJ4
Greatly appreciated man. I'll confirm once I receive the payment!
Kyle.T
HOLY CRAP! Thank you for the payment for the site design Barntech!
That is the largest single transaction I have ever gotten before! Thank you so much!
You need ANYTHING done to the site. Lemme know. I am forever indebted to you!
Thanks again for letting me be part of this project!
Kyle.T
I don't see any transactions in your wallet.. maybe im blind? 12x1G3g7vHgSZLGYwGxwoCA6b7vA138ZJ4 Or you ment 1KLYExysvx4yMN5jG3thep37C2c6DLAj4Z  I don't see any transactions either. MRKLYE - Care to elaborate? Payment went to this address 1KLYExysvx4yMN5jG3thep37C2c6DLAj4Z Nothing huge really. Just a token of appreciation for a job well done. Website looks cool. Thanks again Kyle. |
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HOLY CRAP! Thank you for the payment for the site design Barntech!
That is the largest single transaction I have ever gotten before! Thank you so much!
You need ANYTHING done to the site. Lemme know. I am forever indebted to you!
Thanks again for letting me be part of this project!
Kyle.T
Thank you very much for helping out! It's really nice to have various members of the community stepping up and offering assistance. I have had lots of people offer their skills and efforts and truly appreciate it. Good vibes. |
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Nice, it that a lot of gold plating I can see?
Copper |
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