I've had good luck with DPS1200 on 208V driving S7 and S9 on 208V in my hosting. 240V should run them a little bit better.

Odd. S9 now ship with software that, on a cold start, tests each board for an "optimum" working frequency. This can take at least 20 minutes before it shows actual mining, sometimes longer hence why it's recommended to check it after an hour.

Was this a new machine or a used one?

Also, and I know it's a pretty hefty read, but there's lots of info in the actual S9 thread.

Is it still auto-tuning? Turn it on, don't touch it for an hour, and then check how it's behaving.

Oh yeah, Biggie layout is about 95% finished. I've got ground plane stuff and temp sensor stuff to iron out, and then give it a good once-over to check all connections but I should be on schedule to order prototype PCBs next week.

It might have only been mentioned in the sales thread, but vh's cgminer driver will differentiate between Compac, 2Pac and Biggie miners. I have requested, and have been told it's easy to implement, having a unique frequency flag for each miner type.

Last year Bitshopper licensed the Compac design for manufacture in Germany and they were made in all black, so I figured I'd get him 2Pacs to match. I don't know what motivations went into his choosing that color scheme but all in all they were quite sexy.

In general, for stuff I build, the color it is is the color it is. There is some precedence for a red Compac, maybe at least a red heatsink, but the all-green was kinda deliberate. Doesn't look like there'll be any options on the 2Pac heatsink color, just bare aluminum, unless I feel like experimenting with an anodize setup. But I'll probably be too busy.

I would say we're more than 3/4 paid on the batch, but it's no longer entirely accurate. I have ordered 1000 PCBs, but MacEntyre's sticks for bitshopper.de will require a separate one-off PCB order with silkscreens to include some information he requires for European markets. He's paid up on a full 250 sticks to make this more economically feasible. Since he'll be getting custom boards anyway I'll be sending him some with sweet black soldermask to match his German-made original Compacs.

Therefore the total group buy size can exceed 1000, since I'll have about 1000 for domestic sale plus 250 for bitshopper.

Yeah, except that it's the wrong size in every dimension and costs four times as much. At a glance, I don't see anything the right size in their inventory. I'll probably be back to my regular supplier by the time BF16 sticks come out, but for now I'll just do it my way.

Probably should be easy if you got the connections, but since I'm already doing three jobs already I figured I'd talk to someone "in the know". And since I haven't heard anything out of him in 3 weeks, and since the couple other people I've talked to haven't said anything either, I'll just do it my way.

That's how these things always go for me. There's only about three people I trust to actually get things done and I don't work with any of 'em anymore; Novak was the last one around here.

M3x0.5, same as the original Compac. What's up?

Yes. My normal heatsink supplier (going back all the way to my AM Blade overclock kits) wouldn't have been able to get me anything until sometime in March, which is noticeably way too late. I asked a friend who is an actual procurement agent for an aluminum casting and machining company to help find another good source but he hasn't reported back positive anything yet so at this point I'm planning on just buying extruded bar stock with the right profile and doing all the cutting, drilling and tapping in house. Since I don't have the equipment to anodize, there won't be sweet colors this time around.

The profile is a different size, because 2Pac heatsinks are on the other side. It's a 2-sided build with the ASICs on the backside (like the S5 or Avalon6) so the heatsink is mounted there. Doing that allowed me to keep the PCB/heatsink area the same (same overall height and board width) because I could put all the node-level components topside. The heatsink fins will also be about 2mm taller than the standard Compac heatsink. The green ones pictured are Compac leftovers I redrilled for prototyping, but the 2Pac heatsinks will be slightly different (and, unfortunately, not anodized a sweet color).

If everything works as expected, yes that's the plan. The actual interface on Compac, 2Pac and Biggie are pretty much the same so VH's cgminer should be forward-compatible with the Biggie as well, though there may be some tweaks once the Biggie is actually rolled out.

No BM1384 gear will be software-adjustable, which means both the 2Pac and Biggie. The projects were intended to be a quick-turnaround fundraiser to get some "cheap" (but still better than what's currently available anywhere else in the market sector) gear out and raise money for the more intensive BF16 projects.

All BF16 stuff will definitely implement software-adjustable voltage. Those will have a microcontroller onboard sampling temperature sensors, controlling fan speed, adjusting core string voltage and measuring power use as well as relaying work data to the chips.

The "quickie" 2Pac and pods are designed more simply; in fact, the 2Pac's power system is identical to the original Compac except for voltage range. The same base circuit will be used on the BF16 stick also, except with the manual adjustment pot replaced with a digital. The Biggie's power is also close to what'll be used on the BF16 pod, with the exception of manual adjustment and no instrumentation.

So, long story short - no software voltage adjustment until BF16 gear.

Software will be made available when it's ready, and before 2Pacs start shipping. It's up to VH when to release, and he has a plan. He said he'd set something up before the review sticks go out so folks will be able to actually run them, and that's probably not until next week because necessary parts to build the rest of the prototype sticks are still inbound.

I'll be sending VH a care package including an original Compac, a couple 2Pacs and a decent testing hub so he can see how they behave in person and iron out any issues locally. Should speed up compatibility and stability issues.

Nope. The error is in cgminer controlling 2Pac voltage. This has never been stated.

Add qctechno to the queue for 4 sticks taken in trade for S5 boards.

Nope.

By the way, the next step is gathering chips so anyone who wants to trade S5 boards for credit on 2Pacs, Biggies or cores for refit boards should start talking soon.