So what's been going on...

Got three jalapenos in as donations, all of which have interesting little problems.

The first is pretty unusual: It looks like the FETs have shorted out. Symptom is 2-3 volt pulses on the 1 volt line that heat up (and I believe have destroyed) the hashing chips. I think the culprit is a short of the high fets *or* a failure of the lower voltage FETs.

The way the power supply works is that the 1 volt line is attached to the 12v line for a short time, then to the 0v line for a longer time. The capacitors and the the chips smooth out the resulting voltage, and the monitoring circuit picks this up as a stable 1 volt. What this also means is that the bottom chips (the 1v) are on longer, but the top chips (12v) have a higher inrush current. One set of FETs is going to take a lot more current than the other, this might be the reason the "hot FET" issue popped up in the beginning, and why BFL put bigger FETs on one side (and beefed up all FETs on the singles). Mystery makes sense.

However if the FETs fail to gate interesting stuff will happen. If the high FETs short, then you're going to have 12 volts on the 1v rail but the bottom fets should short as well. Might result in blown FETs. If the bottom FETs open then nothing is there to prevent the high rail from blowing up the chips.

This would explain why trying to remove chips from this board and put them on others does not work. Nasty failure mode.

The second one had one chip hashing at about 4gh. The second chip looked good, but was not working. Tried a reflow, chip would warm up but still nothing. Removed it from the board, held it in finger and thumb...

And it cracked apart. Not the normal shatter into little bits, a clean break in half. I think this one was a victim of a heat sink screwed down too hard; what happens is that the pressure torques the case around the BGA balls, and if one of them is a tiny bit higher you get a fracture inside the chip and failure. Only way to see it is to pull the chip and try bending it.

Third unit is another one that is shorting out, will take it apart and see if I can replace the FETs to get it going. But I'm guessing it has the same failure mode as the first. Drat.

Anyway, things keep rolling along, we keep hashing, and I dream about 300gh jallies in my sleep. What a neat thought...

C

His suit does look cheap. Maddof looked much better.

Problem is the concept of the Sunk Cost fallacy, the Gambler's fallacy, and our nature to believe in a subjective reality. Having read Rand and such, I found the only thing of value was:

• "Reality Exists"
• "Contradictions, by their very nature, do not exist. If you are faced with a contradiction, check your premises, one of them is wrong."
  

Gox is a funny case. But oddly enough not unique. The question is what can we learn from it?

C

The real fun part is when someone gets the email addresses of these Gox users and starts setting them up for some *real* fraud. Between the dollar auction concept and the possibility of slightly higher levels of entitlement of some users, this could be considered a *gold mine* for the next person with a cheap suit.

As for Sagan and DHW (his book) it is interesting to keep in mind that in the late 70's alien abduction and faith healing crap was all the rage. I think it was in the 80's when people, confronted by the evidence, started to say "screw it, I'm going to believe this no matter what" and an incredible generation of gullible opportunities came to be.

Sad. Really Sad. The fact that 26% of the population believes the sun goes around the earth is evidence that something is wrong. People trusting their money to a guy in a crap suit at Gox in Japan is another.

*sigh*

C

Ditto on the power consumption, and are you blowing the air INTO your AC Unit? Clever.

C

The trick though is these devices measure the differential in current as measured by a magnetic field around the wires. Stronger the field, more amps. However that assumes a hot and ground, I think you have two hots.

Whatever, good luck.

That's the Catcoin supporters.

GO CATS!

Is the claw rated for 240 volts? Usually they look for the inductance based on a single hot (120), not two hots (240)

Just a thought.

C

As a data point I have never had to restart my Chili other than when I was swapping power supplies or fiddling with the heat sink. Otherwise it has been solid as a rock.

C

I wish it was possible to tell me which chip was giving 6% of the errors. I'd love to pull it and swap in a new one.

C

I think this clip from Animal house puts it perfectly:

http://youtu.be/-glKGjp50Ug?t=26s

We need to meet in Vegas at Defcon and start drinking heavily...

The weird thing is did you ever have bitcoins there? Bitcoins are things where you have the private key to unique solutions on the blockchain. Without the key you didn't. have. coins.

If you did you should be able to access them now.

This is pedantic, but I think the problem is not Bitcoin it's that someone made a fiat system aside bitcoin. That fiat system collapsed.

I'm really thinking about this one, and its ramifications. Complex problem.

Well think about it: A lot of the Bitcoin Libertarians are huge on self help and self responsibility and self blame and self flagalation. Maybe they are counting on that and people hanging their heads in shame and all.

C

Ouch, I didn't even think about that back-stop, nice catch Luke and Wk.

I've actually made an error in my wallet on a config file and mined into the ether for an hour or so. It's a weird thought for that on a larger scale.

C

Indeed. I seem to be back in queue, 19 blocks back. Once again, not a big deal he'll fix it eventually (highly understanding this is a side business for him)

Yes, however I have been waiting to re-enter the payout queue for several blocks now. I was in the queue last night after a "19 block delay", something's up.

I'm sure it will be fixed, I trust Wk.

C

Translation: Scary people have spooked us, so we're running off with all your money. That will show you....

Weird situation, but the truth is if you don't have the private key to your bitcoins, you don't have bitcoins. Oddly enough this statement holds for gold (GLDX is not Gold, it's paper) and money (bank balances are not money). Fascinating to watch.

C

The words "Nigerian scam" just zipped through my brain....

Oh the Jedi are going to feel this one, that's for sure :-)

Never dull in bit-coin land. And I just got the fans to run quieter on my miners...

Yup. Use a tiny bit of artic silver type stuff on the sink, the mirror finish on the chips means you don't have to pre-treat them.

I'm thinking Mr. Teal's code is checking the temps on the chip, so any little difference is picked up immediately as opposed to allowing the thermal mass of a pad to compensate.

32gh here, happy.

Fake on the boobs, but is the butt fake as well?

C