Is there a doc (or list) of the data commands or the only place is the source?
"Use the Source, Luke" :-) |
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Thanks for reply.
I made a simple board for one chip. And it is ok.
I want to build something similar.
I think you have the following layer stack:
top - power plane and jumpers (if any chip will be damaged)
layer1 - Ground and SPI connection between chips
layer2 - Ground and IOVDD conection
bottom - Ground plane
Am i correct?
A small board with a single bitfury can be a bi-layer indeed. Wouldn't take changes when making a board with many ASICs Here you can see the different layers:  Layer top is Vcore (0V6..0V9), rest is GND with vertical going wires on layer 3 and horizontal going wires going on layer 2. Except near the upper edge were current density is low. Layer bottom is also GND. In the power section layer top is also GND. intron |
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cscape intron was stating that this board is 4 layer. I can't understand why four layers are needed? Top - power plane inside1 - SPI connections between chips inside2 -  ? bottom - ground plane Could you explain? Four layers were used to yield un-interrupted power and ground planes, giving nice return paths and minimizes ground bounce. Also when using a 4-layer board, the distance between top and layer 1 and bottom and layer 2 is rather small, giving extra capacitance to fight power noise. We are switching massive currents here, so decoupling could be a problem. It was an absolute rush job, design was done in a few days. So there was no time to take changes trying to cut costs and end up with a flakey board. intron |
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For lots of chips, the M/H board system is a better solution. Of course, an interesting option would be to replace the Raspberry Pi with an integrated CPU/Ethernet on the M-BOARD.
Yes, let's make that one! Can be done over the weekend...  intron |
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Power regulator is the APTS050A0X3-SRPHZ module. And the junk around the module is not heat stress, but flux residue.
Most of the board is reflowed, but I decided to hand solder to power module later. This turned out to be quite a messy deal. The pins of the module are hard to reach underneath the PCB, and the solid copper pours around the module make it hard to get the temperature up.
I'll drop of a bottle of flux remover if needed:) intron |
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Quick update:
- Got some test boards for testing the chain set-up:
EDIT: Just to clarify – this chaining is a new feature that will help us build more competitive products, this has nothing to do with current board functionality.
Hi punin, When you are done testing the 'string theory', I can draw you a board if you like:) intron |
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When a hashing board is plugged into the masterboard, how much does the socket add to the total height?
From of base the M-CARD to the top of the H-CARD measures 147 mm. intron |
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It's a feature that is on the bitfury ASIC and makes it possible to power them in series. Could
potentially cut the current requirements in half.
I myself have still no idea how this works however:)
intron
I'm very curious about that too. It's a big advantage. My guess is that inside is simple OPAMP. Connect output with some power transistor (outside chip) and you can have regulated high amp zener diode. This diode will hold voltage at settled point while delivering current to chips that will need more "juice". There will be some power loses but if chips will draw very same current then this losses should be minimal. But DC/DC converted will be simpler, smaller and more efficient. You can do this with every chip, mounting opamp and power transistor outside package. But it's all guesses and I may be wrong  Documentation from Bitfury is needed ASAP It has something to do with a current mirror, I only got a sketchy schematic from bitfury that was used for doing SPICE runs I guess. Not of much help though:) intron |
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Will this device be 'string powered'? It's a feature that is on the
bitfury ASIC and makes it possible to power them in series. Could
potentially cut the current requirements in half.
I myself have still no idea how this works however:)
intron
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Are the bitfury chips ready? i mean packaged and all?
LOL:)  intron |
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Just got my first USB Erupter today and I didn't realize it would become so HOT!
I've got a second coming in two weeks and three K1 nano USB miners coming (hopefully) this month too.
I've bought a USB fan and hub coming next week. I've got a fan on my one Erupter to cool it, I'm guessing it's not okay NOT to cool it?
Yes it can get quite hot. But a little fan works wonders:  intron |
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Ok, so I take it that's where the ring terminal to molex-jr cables come in to play (included in the kit). So the kit will have everything necessary to power the rig , or will we have to splice our own power cables, etc. Are these the Molex JR cables: http://www.digikey.com/us/en/ph/Molex/MiniFitJr.html I only made the board, no idea what's in 'the kit'. intron |
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Does this mean if one chip is fried (or removed, ) everything beyond that would fail? This was anticipated, there are solder jumpers to short out a fried chip. Removal of the broken chip might be necessary though. intron |
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Is it possible to get the bore hole distances from the master board too please?
 intron |
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For your own 100TH operation how do you intend to mount the h-boards?
I'm not doing the 100TH, just made the prototypes. intron |
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But when you say the main ASIC area has been left free of components you mean the center of the PCB and on the outside area there are various leads and components, no?
I don't think this is mentioned anywhere but are there any temp sensors on the boards? And if so I assume it will be visible in the mining software.
Please have a look at the layout of the bottom layer, you can see the distance between the screw holes and the area that has components placed.  intron PS: You are looking thru the board from the top side. Don't make the 'mirror error' too often made:) |
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Its working alright.
Nice. The bitfury schematic shape looks rather familiar... intron |
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intron You were using 15 ceramic capacitors around the chip and 3 electrolytic. Could you tell the nominals?
The small 0402 ceramics are 1U/6V3/X5R types. The 'ecaps' are merely space holders for bigger caps to be placed there. I was in a hurry, so I chose a nice, large footprint that could hold many types of capacitors. Just put something there, say a 22U or 47U ceramic or something. intron |
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Feeding external clock with its own dedicated power supply will improove these parameters a lot and will help for more stable work at higher clock speeds if chip allows them. I have prepared one variable for selecting the best frequency and then will use fixed for maximised performance.
And do you feed the clock to multiple chips then? With clock buffers or fanning tree or matched lines? intron |
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