That's not the reason they're the worst. If you want to search for the myriad of threads with nearly identical titles posted here over the last year or two you'll see a lot better reasons why they're the worst than "there's a holiday we didn't tell you about".

Add one for MrZoidberg.

You could search "S7 hashboard repair" and see what info is already here.

Since when has that ever been the case?

My guess is it's a cost thing. Bitmain just wants more money and nobody has a competitive product so they know they can get away with it. Kinda like they did with S5 and S7.

Someone provided a Windows build of cgminer-gekko back when the first Compacs rolled out. I know it worked because I bench-tested the first couple thousand sticks with it. Check the early pages of the support thread.

I also don't know how well it works on Windows 10. I don't know how well anything works on Windows 10, or if Windows 10 even works. I probably never will.

VH said he'd put up download links and a software support thread or some such by the time the proof 2Pacs have gone out to reviewers. I should have had those out already but I've been seriously backed up, but that'll probably happen by Tuesday.

Were you keeping them cool? Before shipping out they're all tested at 650mV/200MHz (about 3.5W) and they like having at least moderate air movement to stay cool at that speed. 700mV you were running what, 250MHz for 5W or so? They definitely needed a fan at that speed.

PM me with info on how they're behaving, and where you bought them from, and I'll see if I can't get you taken care of.

I do really appreciate everyone with the signature ads. I've never bought into a signature campaign though I've been asked once or twice, and I'm not paying anyone to advertise on my behalf either - folks are just doing it on their own. That's pretty cool.

I don't know about discounts for "early supporters" or anything; a lot of them are people I like (which is to say, people I've done favorable business with and generally get along with) - including Biodom, one of my earliest hosting customers who has gone out of his way to help me out on several occasions. His support is part of the reason I'm still in business right now, as his advice and assistance have helped me out of a pickle or two in the last few years. There are several folks like that who have helped me out, and I try to take care of them in return.

I don't want to say I don't appreciate every sale that comes in, but I'm not really organized enough (or have the available time to organize enough, my to-do list is already filling a blackboard) to do favors for everyone. In general, I set my prices about as low as I'm willing to sell for. Folks are sometimes upset that there's no bulk discount on stickminers, well even the guy who buys one is getting the best price I'm willing to offer. That's how it goes.

I'm sorry there hasn't been more progress on Bitfury stuff yet. 2Pac dev took longer than I thought it would - not nearly as long as starting from scratch, since a lot of it was built on Compac dev from last year 2015, which remember took something like 5 months before I was shipping product. I'm doing my best to track down helpers so I can get manufacturing done quicker and still have dev time, and that's going to really determine how quickly anything happens on new gear.

Good news is, Biggie pod dev should be pretty limited - even more so than 2Pac was, since a lot of 2Pac hangup was getting VH enough resources to write a freakin' sweet driver. He did his job so well that it should pretty much natively support a Biggie out of the box. Hardware design for the Biggie was almost entirely just figuring out layout, part of which was basically defining a form-factor to use on future pods.

That kind of front-loading strategy will be used on BF16 gear as well. The BF16 Compac as planned will incorporate most of the same features as the BF16 pod; the power system will be based on existing Compac/2Pac but the controls set will be all new, and most of the controls parts are the same between BFPac and the BFPod. The S1 refit boards are intended to basically be three BFPods on a single board, with a common controller. This means once the BFPac is ready, the BFPod is 90% done and when the BFPod is ready the S1 refit is 90% done. I've already got a test layout (and PCBs) for the BF16 Compac, in a more open and tweakable form than the high-density stick, so the bulk of design work from here on will be programming - both in firmware and the cgminer driver. Just gotta find time to do it.
I was hoping to be all over that next week, but I just got a giant PSU order which, although I do appreciate the revenue, will probably chew up a solid 3 days.

2Pac heatsinks I'm told have shipped, which means I've got PCBs and about one other thing still inbound before I can start manufacture of those. Should be no delays on getting started. Biggie PCB will probably have to wait until tomorrow; I've been meaning all week to get that checked out and ordered but I keep getting stuck with other stuff (see note about length of to-do list above).

So, that's a general update.

2K is my preferred Windows; when I had to move to XP (for lack of hardware support, in 2009) I stripped it down to behave as 2K-like as possible. My opinion, outside of drivers for newer hardware, XP improved over 2K in only two or three fairly trivial ways and crapped on it in a lot more. My work machines (that aren't Debian) are now a stripped-down Win7 because modern bloatware requires assloads of RAM to stay alive for very long, but my Thinkpad T61 vintage 2007 is still alive and kicking on XP.

I do have a few Win10 machines in my hosting (GPU rigs, really should have thought that through better) but I didn't turn 'em on until the firewall was locked down on telemetry. Friggin' Microsoft.

Anyways, yeah there should be a Windows build. And of course like cgminer legally mandates *cough*BITMAIN*cough*, the code will be freely available to compile on anything you want.

Maybe because every Windows since XP has sucked in progressively more intolerable ways?

VH has already mentioned Windows binaries to me. Should be okay.

I really want for there to be a gazillion of them. If the people who have already expressed interest are the only buyers there's still interest for many hundreds, and once they exist and actually get advertised it'll be even more. I don't take high margins from anything, but I was planning on using the profits from BF16 gear to actuall cement my business as more than a barely-breakeven one-man operation in a rented shop, which kinda requires selling a gazillion of them.

Do not remove the resistor.

Draw on it with a pencil. The pencil lead will lower the resistance and raise the output voltage. A small change in resistance can make a large change in voltage.

Have a bit of patience.

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.

Actually, I'm raising money for BF16 projects by whipping out some multi-chip BM1384 stuff since, at low clocks, they're still decently efficient (under 0.3J/GH, so S7-level) and easy to work with. Pods are back in the works anyway, and I'll be sending off for prototype PCBs this week. This isn't the appropriate place to discuss it, but there's updates in my 16nm dev thread and stuff in Group Buys, including a Canada GB, so if you still want to trade those S5 boards for something you should look it up.

I thought to mention that, but since the pod is currently still just a PCB layout with no prototypes, let alone active sales, it doesn't do him a lot of good. I don't expect they'll be deployed until March, at which point heating the home is no longer much of a factor.

But there's still sticks, yeah.

Closer now than I ever have been, what with both sample chips and dev funding. I'll be in BF16 prototyping as soon as I get 2Pac proof sticks out in a couple days.

But yeah, it's actually been over 2 years. Novak and I first contemplated the idea when ASICMiner posted BE300 test results in December of 2014.

Add 5 to the list for a guy named patx. We'll have to figure out the shipping costs I guess, but he paypal'd me for the sticks.

Thanks, but...

I'd have to cut them down to length anyway, and drill and tap. If I'm going to do that anyway I'll just get bar stock at 20 cents an inch.

Also there's only a couple dozen and I need a hundred dozen.

Thanks though.

I had an S9 in hosting that would not hash at all if the one bad board was left in it. I don't recall if it gave this error or if cgminer just flatlined.

DIY is what I've looked into, since anything would be starting from scratch. Seeing decent results from straight DC so I'd probably start there, nothing fancy.

Biggie pod layout is done, pending a final checkover. I need to do that and work up bitshopper's custom silkscreen for the sticks bound for Europe and I'll be ready to place an order including Biggie prototypes.

The first box of parts just arrived, which includes almost all the passives and some of the active components I'll need to build the 2Pacs, including parts I need to work up the rest of the prototypes. Got some PSU board work to do in the short term, but I'll set up the robot to run out 2Pacs early next week and get review units out to people ASAP.

I also went ahead and followed up on that US heatsink supplier link, thanks Meech. I had come across that outfit when I was doing some looking last month, but that was right before I handed off the task to my procurement agent friend. I've submitted an RFQ for their 1" profile, with and without tapped holes.

I also did a bit more research on anodizing, and since I have about ten feet of heatsink-profile bar stock on hand to play with, I might dabble a bit next week depending what chemicals I can find locally.