Date/Time stamp on Payout @ Bitmain is 05-31-2015 @ 18:09 CST.
Date/Time stamp @ Coinbase is 06-01-2015 @ 2:00 CST

~8 hours to make it through the net?
Are they running on a 300 baud dial-up modem?
When I buy H/W the BTC transfer never takes more than .5 hours.

"Things that make you go Hmmmmmmm."

No payout here either.
Wassup Bitmain?

Pool has had some outages (>1 hour) over the last 2 days here in US.
Downtime = Lost revenue.
Not a good thing.

"Are we there yet?" 

Do you have the DPS2000 BB XL (12 PCI_E plugs) in stock?
Cost?
UPS Shipping cost of 1-6 boards to Longville, MN USA 56655 ?

Thanks,
PlanetCrypto.com, LLC
Jeff Schlenker, CEO
1199 State Hwy 200 NE
Longville, MN USA 56655

15+ years ago was considering the same (Alaska Wyoming). Ruled out Alaska as there are advantages to being in CONUS. Wyoming was beautiful, just couldn't seem to find the right chunk of ground. Settled on Northern MN. Good compromise. Brutal winters, pleasant summers, great fishing and hunting, land was less expensive, reasonable distance to VA medical facilities, UPS hub is 42 miles away, etc.

Don't think you need to apologize for taking a weekend off, not like your under contract with a delivery date cast in concrete. But appreciate the update.

sidehack

Our human heating systems are a 3 loop system with a small (3-5 gal) expansion tank operating at 1 bar +5psi/-0psi gauge. Basically the system runs at atmospheric pressure with the +5psi in the system plumbing being caused by fluidic resistance in the plumbing. One loop continuously circulates fluid thru the miner(s)/immersion tank contributing heat to the expansion tank. The second loop pump is driven by a room thermostat (on/off) i.e. it runs when the thermostat demands heat and flows heated fluid into the PEX in the floor or into a heating coil mounted in the plenum of a forced air furnace when the fan in running, and the third loop pump is driven by an adjustable temp sensor on the tank which circulates fluid thru PEX buried outside the building (we like to put it underneath the driveway and sidewalks to minimize snow shoveling in the winter, one could use it to preheat the water in a hot tub also). Typically the system is sized @ 1/8 BTU capacity of an identical system with a restive element boiler. This sizing minimizes the third loop pump operation. All the pumps are "run of the mill" hydronic heating system circulators. At the high point in the system we install a automatic "burper". All PEX in the system is of the oxygen diffusion barrier type (this minimizes rust contamination/creation from cast iron pumps, fittings etc.). A safety sensor on the expansion tank will disrupt the power to the miner(s) if tank temperature becomes excessive. The system is tweaked to maintain a ~40C expansion tank temperature with the automatically resetting high limit miner shutdown set at ~60C. Careful attention is paid to tubing sizing to minimize fluidic resistance and maximize flow rates for optimal heat transfer in all zones of the system. Because we operate the system a lower temperature and pressure than a typical restive element heated system the system typically needs larger sized piping/tubing to transfer the heat quantity desired. Oh yeah and the fluid is a 50/50 mixture of distilled water and green antifreeze.

It's amazing how few miners it actually takes to heat a structure. One of the installations has 16 manifolded C1's heating the slab floor of a reasonably well insulated 40'x30' pole barn.

Well enough of this off topic rant.

Can't wait to get my hands on one of your boards.

AJRGale - Many of the server PSU's have a Vout adjustment and can easily be tweaked +- 1V and probably a lot more than that depending on the particular supply in question.

Most of the buck converters I've worked with want at least a Vin = Vout + .8V with a more typical minimum of Vin = Vout + 1.2V.
This is where SEPIC (Single-ended primary-inductor converter) and/or CUK converters come into their own with a wider Vin range at the expense of component count and circuit complexity. Where Vin can be either above or below Vout within an acceptable design range. Typically, these converters (DC-DC) have a practical maximum current design limit owing to massiveness of the inductors at high current outputs.

Several of the chip manufacturers have single chip SEPIC/CUK controllers on the market. But they still require a butt load of external power components. Linear, Fairchild, and TI to name but a few.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-ended_primary-inductor_converter
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%86uk_converter

16V Jap Caps with a low ESR. Good stuff maynard.

Ya' know I looked at a S5 miner stats page as I was writing that post and saw 32. Just went back and looked at the same page still open in my browser and sure as Sh*% it indicates 30 chips. Must be going senile.

Ya' got a point on the remote S/W adjustment, although once corn-figured it'll likely never get changed.
One of the beauties of immersion cooling is the ability to R&R components while the rest of the machine is up and running. Hence the inquiry for edge card connectors. Hot swappable hash boards/PSU's.
You're spot on about bucks liking a narrow Vin-Vout. Why I'm always amazed that many of the server PSU's we use run more efficiently off of 240VAC than 120VAC.

At the hash board level, clock & volt adjustment is about all I need.
Hell, jumpers or dip switches would work for me to set clock and CoreV.
Call me old fashioned but I like dip switches I can look at versus S/W.
What else can one do at the hash board level?

How close to having proto boards made for the Spec1 are you?
BTW, I got a dozen S1's that are turned off right now. Will be interested in 24 Spec1's.
What'ca figure the hash rate and power consumption will be on the Spec1's?
The Spec1's would be easily waterblockable (is that even a word?) with the waterblocks from syscooling, me thinks.

So the Spec2 will be similar to the S5 hash board (32 chips) with a Prisma formfactor and a USB interface?
Guessing the Spec2 board will draw ~240W @ 350MHz clock?

Do the DC-DC's you're thinking about using take a higher Vin than 12.2Vdc?
Just thinking that if the DC-DC's would live with a Vin range of 12.2 to 15.0 one could run them off a 12V lead-acid cell.

Hey has anybody out there tried running a miner straight off a 12V deep cycle or car battery (@ 12.75V) ?

Dinner time, l8r folks.

For waterblocks, we've had good luck using the MX-4 thermal compound as it is electrically inert and has a thermal transfer co-efficient 6-8 times that of Arctic Silver.

Now you have me drooling over a Prisma 1.0/2.0 refit board. And we would be VERY interested in a board like that that didn't use a pre-historic propriety controller.

Yeah that's what I anticipated you'd say about socketing. Don't know till you ask.

Just outta' curiosity, guestimate - ball park - off the top of your head - a number I can't/won't hold you too, the design/dev cost of a high density Prisma style board using the BM1384's with edge card connectors and a matching backplane with DPS-2000 style PSU connectors. Dimensionality is unimportant as we can build a tank around anything. admin@planetcrypto.com Don't spend a ton of time on this just curious how many zeros are to the left of the decimal point a design like that would have.

We had/have 3 installations of "solid state" hot water boilers operating for comfort heating (at a profit) all this last winter in and around my local area in northern MN. All in all, an extremely successful test/prototyping and are working on a final design. Over designed one installation to the point that when it was -20F they had windows open dissipating the excess heat with everybody in tee-shirts.

Again, before I spent too much time doing board design I'd want some kind of a commitment from Bitmain for chip supply. Or maybe a licensing agreement to manufacture chips . . . . .
Just sayin'

Been outta' the loop for awhile, long time no talk.
I hope you have better luck getting chips outta' Bitmain.
We've wanted to buy some for quite a while for a similar project (high chip density board for immersion cooling) but Bitmain never seems to want to release/sell them in quantity.
Like you (and others) we were hoping that the BE300 would come to fruition. Alas I fear that's not going to be the case in the near term.

In our immersion cooling world, a high hashing-chip density board consuming 1Kw-2Kw with edge card connectors mating to a backplane for power and USB interface, designed to dissipate the heat through the pad with all the components on the opposite side would be PRIMO. A design like that would lend itself to air (heatsink) or waterblock cooling solutions as well. If the backplane had an appropriate number of connectors like your DPS-2000 adapter one could keep the power and ground planes short and thick.

Another concept might be to socket the hash chips assuming that the BM1384 and BM1386 remain pin compatible.

Anyway, you'se guys are the brilliant ones and I'm sure whatever you come up with will be fricking amazing.

BTW, I have contacts inside 3M that may be able to apply a little external corporate pressure to prod Bitmain to release/sell chips to a board manufacturer that makes an immersion coolable board cuz' 3M, obviously, wants to sell their Novec engineered fluids, adhesives, and sealants. Let me know if I should make a couple of calls to "grease the wheels of motion".

M

FYI, Last couple of days mdude.org has been "Under Construction".

Maybe I missed something in the thread about changing hosting.

Inquiring minds wanna' know.

Thanks for all you do.

We have Qty 48 $400 off coupons for Bitmain S4's expiring on 2014-11-30 22:18:00 that we will probably not use.
Anybody interested in these should email admin@planetcrypto.com
We would like to sell these coupons for .25 BTC each.

Best regards,
PlanetCrypto

In the PC power supply arena I absolutely concur. The EVGA's are Top Notch.
However, what we feel is a more more cost effective solution follows:



Connected to this adapter Gekko Science Sells ( http://gekkoscience.com/products/IBM2K_board.html )


Bottom side view:


What the look like wired up and running:


But this is what we call a "Desktop Computer".

8 6 core AMD's (48 cores), 64G memory, Dual nVidia Quadro's w/1.5G each, . . .

These are 1800W supplies (147.5A * 12.2V) They have adjustable OCP (Over Current Protection) and adjustable output voltage, in addition to all the "bells 'N' whistles" the Gekko Science adapter brings to the table.
We have paid anywhere between $18.75 -$25 each, the Gekko Science adapter sells for $60.
We make our own PCIe cables, although Gekko Science sells 3' cables for, if memory serves, $3.75 each.
The fans we scarfed in the salvage market which flow 24 CFM each and are required to run these supplies outside the IBM Blade Center enclosures they were designed to be in.
I believe Gekko Science offers fans for these supplies but don't know their cost.
So assuming one purchased the cables from Gekko (8 * 3.75) for $30, the total cost of this supply is ~$115

Just a thought.

I'd get that thing away from anything combustible, whether you're home or not.
If it blows a gasket, you run the risk (whether you're home or not) of lighting all that nice kindling that surrounds it.
In contrast, if that S3 fries crispy, the ignition source stays inside it's case and likely would just be a smoke bomb.

Blocking that square hole in the back also helps force all the air across the heat sinks.
I used aluminum foal tape (not cloth, fiberglass, or plastic duct tape). As in my previous pics. Cheap at the hardware store.

Remember 70% of the heat is dissipated by the heat sinks (internal), and the remaining 30% is dissipated from the visible components and board.
Assuming you're clocked @ 200 and drawing ~1000W and assuming the power supply is 92% efficient.
The Prisma is dissipating 920 watts total.
That means 644 watts are being dissipated by the heat sinks (internal) and 276 watts are being dissipated component side.
BTU = watts * 3.15.

The downward facing hashing board is therefore dissipating 217.35 BTU (276W/4 * 3.15) continuously 24/7 into the wood shelf it's sitting on.

And is why we mount ours on metal racks vertically.
I betch'a the bottom board on your Prisma is running 2x-3x hotter than the other 3 (top and sides).

Just sayin'.

Roger the P=I*E

Have a clamp-on for larger loads (100A+), she's not terribly accurate below 50A.
I'll check out the one at Lowes.

Thanks

"My main reason for the first post was trying to figure if a 260 oc is better then a 200 uc."
Roger that, why we're doing testing at various different clock rates.
Think it's a forgone conclusion that H/W error rate will rise with increased clock speed.

There is a fine line balancing act between initial cost, cost of operation, and difficulty increases.
I'll stick my neck out here and say that any gear can post excellent W/GH/s if de-clocked enough.
Heck, look at what guys are doing with de-volting and de-clocking Bitmain S1's.
Problem with de-clocking is hash rate falls with it and given the network difficulty increases with reduced hash rates it may never pay for itself.

I would re-write your list with each line item carrying an equal weight to read:
1) initial cost ($/GH/s)
2) profit potential (W/GH/s)
3) reliability/dependability
4) heat + safety

Regarding reliability/dependability, the amount of effort required to cause a miner to restart mining (after say a power failure), and the length of time required between miner reboots.
The Bitmain S1's are the epitomy of dependability. Plug'em in, config'em, OC'em, and forget'em.

"I did find that my power went from 985-90 to 1033-1049 watts.  the meter jumps back and forth with the readings."
Your meter might be sensitive enough with a fast enough sample rate to be seeing the power fluctuations caused by varying power requirements during hashing.
 
"So temps may play a big part in power draw."
In our observation across many different machines, incoming air temp most definitely causes changes in power consumption.
As a rule-of-thumb, the warmer the air the more trons they use. Colder is cheaper.

"I keep getting the feeling this gear will need too much care to be safe."
Like much of the new releases of mining H/W, it takes the community/individuals a butt load of trial 'N' error to find the "sweet spot" for operating parameters.
I think with the kind of chip densities the Prisma has this "sweet spot" will be harder to find.

At this juncture I'd like to give a "shout out" to friedcat for designing the Prisma, to AM for manufacturing it, to CG and Canary for selling them, and to gekkoscience for making the adapters boards that power these units.
All of the above are "pushing the envelope" in search of better, more profitable, cheaper mining technology.
Thanks Guys, couldn't do it without you.

"For your farm with multiple units emmersion cooling may be best."
In bulk (16-32 hash boards/tank), immersion cooling makes sense.
On a "onesy-twosy" basis it drives the initial cost to the point of non-profitability.

 

OOPS on the previous post, just noticed your temps are in F not C.

MY BAD!!

No clue.
When we initially fired them up we were powering them with EVGA 1300's feed with 120V with a Kill-A-Watt monitoring watts.
Stats were ~1250W @ 240, ~1300W @ 260, and ~1400W @ 270.
Don't have a power meter that will measure @ 240V, hence my cluelessness.
Now powered with DPS1600BB's feed 240V which have about the same efficiency as the EVGA's feed 120V.
So the power draw @ a given clock rate will be in the ballpark.
Hence my use of the "~" character indicating approximate.

If any one knows of a cheap power meter that will run @ 240V I'd sure like to know.
Because I'd sure like to have one in my inventory of test equipment

Gross power draw is not the only consideration when considering safety.
Heat is what causes these things to fail (sometimes violently).
Excessive heat is what caused all the units to fail with all the ugly pictures posted in this forum.
More precisely, not being able to dissipate the heat is what caused the failures.
Configured and mounted vertically, as in the pictures I posted, heat is being managed, keeping chip, board, and cap temperatures within tolerable and safe ranges.
What we are doing is finding out what it takes to safely run these things at elevated clock rates on air.

This elevated clock rate testing speaks to the second part of your post which concerns itself with W/GH/s which is used to predict the most cost effective air cooled clock rate to operate at.
Very likely operation with air cooling @ stock (240) or de-clocked rates will be the most cost effective air cooled operating mode.
But one doesn't know unless tested in the real world to develop stats.

We're a business. We bitcoin mine to make a profit. We are not hobbyists. So finding the most profitable mode of operation is our goal.
We may determine with this Prisma analysis that there is more cost effective air cooled H/W.
The next phase of our testing will be these Prisma boards mounted in 2 Phase Open Bath Immersion Cooling Tanks.
But developing an air cooled base line is the first step.

What follows is a snapshot of our RPi controlled Prisma clocked @ 260.
In my feeble mind 2 things jump out at me versus the image you posted of your RPi controlled Prisma.
1) There is a difference of hashing rate ~300 GH/s.
2) There is a difference of operating temperature of ~70C (158F)

Almost 100% sure that the temp indicated by Minera is the temp of the RPi near one of the vertical connectors on the RPi B+.
The RPi that is controlling ours sits in the incoming air stream and is specifically positioned there to give an indication of incoming air temp.
The RPi that's controlling yours is (by it's own internal measurement) operating some place hot enough to boil water.
If the Rpi is that hot, how hot is the Prisma? and the components contained thereon.
While not having a pic of your configuration, Your Prisma may be operating at or near a thermal failure point. Even in a de-clocked operating mode/state.
Just food for thought.



While the bulk of our air cooled hashing power is/are Bitmain products, we have quite a few different hashing units in our environment. Mostly acquired for immersion cooling testing.
None but the Prisma have the board densities suitable/optimum for OBI cooling. Likely due to the requirement of using air as a thermal transfer medium (which is a poor choice at best).
We have high hopes for the Prisma hashing units primarily because they prove challenging/difficult to cool on air.

IMHO, the Prisma was specifically designed for a Data Center environment with all that brings to the table (Chilled water, adequate air flow, stable abundant power, dislocation from combustible materials, fire suppresion, etc. . .) and not for the home hobbyist that likely will operate these in a bedroom or garage.

But you know what they say about opinions, "Opinions are like assholes, everybody's got one and they all stink."
Maybe I'm just the stinkiest around.

In the previous tirade, I'm not trying to belittle, deride, or criticize your config, just trying to offer some observations/solutions that possibly might prevent a catastrophe.

Best of luck.

Ambient Air Temp for the following pics:


Temp of back bracket on vertical Prisma:


Vertical Prisma Temp was taken off of:


Rear hole closed with Aluminum Foil Tape:


Hashing Data of OC'ed Prisma, Hash Rate ranges from 1400GH/s to 1800GH/s, Average is ~1600 GH/s: