Since the Pi can run off the R606's USB output jack, you wouldn't need to provide it power separately, which makes the whole thing more portable than if tethered to a PC. Just make sure to account for the Pi's power needs when setting your voltage and frequency.

I broke my leg on January 12th; about six inches above the ankle, both bones were in three pieces. That forced me off the shop floor for a good month before I was really mobile again, which meant nothing to do but PCB design (mostly from home) and firmware programming and drafting the sheet-metal housing. The prototype version of this machine was one trace and six components short of the final working design. I'm stunned my own self that it's less than three months from idea to release, though it really helps to have competent people able to handle the stuff I couldn't do during that time.

We're hoping to keep that R&D momentum going with two or three more new things this year, now that we do sticks, pods and hubs.

The official announcement thread is a few down from the top right now.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5131245.0

When you have a networked machine with a full-OS controller, you get access. There is no good reason to lock someone out of his own hardware.

It's bad enough that they had full voltage control as far back as the second-version S7 without ever making it open. And building ASICBoost into the S9 from the start then waiting two years to make it open. And then speed-locked autotune firmwares, and the perpetual violation of open-source licensing on everything they've ever shipped out. And let's not get started on selling dust-filled machines as new, allegations of charging for old hardware while mining on new to steal further profits from cloud-mining contracts, and the various BitCH fork and pump and trade-war fiascos. When you already demonstrably can't trust a manufacturer, giving them a pass while working to remove transparency and user control even further is unacceptable.

Maybe it won't affect most folks directly. But the precedent should still cheese us off.

Right, now I remember he's on mac, which is why I didn't say something about zadig earlier.

cgminer's picking up 2Pacs, so either it's already got permissions directly or with the workaround. If it was detected but not able to mine for a permissions issue, there's a warning pops up about that instead of a no-devices-detected. Could that cause a failed-to-initialize without the message about permissions?

Seems to me something at least slightly weird's going on, but I'm the hardware guy so listen to VH and kano.

That's a good point. 2Pac and NewPac use a different USB chip so drivers wouldn't carry over.

Power draw is whatever you want it to be (since voltage and frequency are both adjustable) but due to limitations of the internal main regulator it shouldn't go over about 120W. But it can also go under 20W with the right settings.

Introducing the newest quiet consumer miner from GekkoScience, the newest addition to the Terminus pod-miner line, the R606.



This miner, built as an expansion of NewPac tech, is a significant improvement over the previous Terminus R808 with BM1384 ASICs. The R606 is fully-enclosed in an aluminum shell for better air ducting (including better main regulator cooling for high-end stability). Heatsinking is improved for more efficient ASIC cooling, plus the integrated 80mm quiet fan is a standard size easy to replace or upgrade.

The miner features 12 of Bitmain's BM1387 ASICs (as found in the S9) and an adjustable core voltage (from 390mV to 460mV) using a simple push-button interface to step up or down in 10mV increments with internal calibration and a fairly straightforward LED readout. No screwdrivers or meters necessary!


The Terminus needs an external controller running cgminer, with USB connection to the miner. Every Terminus miner has an internally regulated 5V USB power output (2.5A limit) which can be used to power a small controller like a Raspberry Pi. The miner runs on 12V power from either a standard 2.1/5.5mm barrel jack (rated for 8A) or a PCIe 6-pin jack (rated for more than you'll ever need).

Driver support in cgminer is still in development but VH has made a lot of fantastic progress. We have automatic detection of unresponsive ASICs forcing a string reset, which will prevent damage to underperforming chips and recover from "zombie" conditions. ASICBoost is supported and is now enabled by default (with pool support detection), with a user flag to disable it if necessary. BM1387's implementation of ASICBoost not only improves efficiency by roughly 20% but reduces USB traffic by roughly 70% so it's basically essential for hitting the high hashrates.


The "stock" speed is about 750GH with an estimated 8A-draw hashrate around 950GH with ASICBoost enabled. Early device testing has seen Terminus R606 hit speeds in excess of 1.1TH; however, since we do not bin ASICs and the stability of the entire string is dependent on its weakest chip, maximum speeds are not guaranteed. We're still working on acquiring thorough performance statistics using VH's new auto-tune routine, designed to find the peak stable speed of each device, which is another very exciting driver development.


Since I know what you guys love, this miner features BLINKY LIGHTS! The rate of blinking is based on the hashrate, scaled against the voltage setting, to approximate stock NewPac timings. The base light color is orange.

And like all GekkoScience products, the Terminus R606 is Made In The USA.

Approximate dimensions: 3.5 x 4.5 x 6 inches.

---

So far, at least three resellers are confirmed to stock this machine.

MinerSupply on Amazon.com (forum user Rockmoney)
MineFarmBuy.com (forum user minefarmbuy)
419Mining.com (forum user 419mining)

Limited direct sales are also available; contact kalahn@gekkoscience.com for information.

The first batch is limited to North America only, in case of unforseen warranty, reliability or support issues. Global sales should be available with the second batch.

The Terminus R606 will include a 6ft USB cable. Kit packages will also include a high-quality 8A DC power brick. Resellers may also put together other package-deal offerings, so shop around a bit. Most resellers should have listings go live within the next 24 hours.

Given that this miner is roughly equivalent to six NewPacs with a hub and fan,

Retail Pricing is around $300 for miner, $325 for miner with 8A brick.

The first batch is still in production, though we're mostly only waiting on accessories like power bricks and fan grilles, and should be shipping before the end of April. Production and shipping should be fairly continuous after that point.

The BM1387 ASICs are very susceptible to thermal runaway. The difference between no cooling and even slight air movement can mean a halving of the power draw on the NewPac.

1:

2: In fact it must be connected to a USB port attached to a computer and run that way. I include a 5V USB power jack onboard so something lightweight like a Pi can run attached to it.


3:

4: Nobody knows that yet, because it's not for sale yet.

5: Yes but it's painfully out of date and my good stuff isn't on there.

Yeah those are bench serials so I can tell them apart when multiple instances are running on cgminer. Probably not gonna have production serials hastily scrawled in Sharpie on the ones that get shipped out.

Handful of mostly-complete production verson pods undergoing some comparison testing. I'm testing VH's build updates while also trying to get some statistics on peak frequencies attainable at different voltage settings.

Nothing too important, just thought it was fun.

Also I'm updating the first post a bit with photos and info.

The high-end ATX generally have a single 12V rail that's piped to all the cables. I don't know that any of them have per-cable current limiting but if one did it'd be completely unsuitable for mining - even GPU mining. The 75W/150W spec is for PCIe compliance on the device end so the PSU is required to source that much as a minimum standard but a good one will be capable of quite a bit more.

Technically the 6-pin PCIe, to be in spec, only has to have power on two of the 12V lines. And the only difference between the 6-pin and 8-pin (6+2 commonly) is power guaranteed on the third line, plus two extra ground lines. But a good PSU will always have power on all three power lines even for a 6-pin.

Anyways, for this miner, if going over about 8A you'll want to use the 6-pin. Shouldn't be possible to get much over 10A draw out of it regardless.

I don't know what additional specifics resellers will offer for packages, but everyone should have at least the base option of a quality 8A power brick. That'd serve you pretty well unless you wanted either more efficiency for running a stack of units, or to max the overclock of a single unit.

I trusted the 16AWG cables I manufactured to handle 8A per wire for 288W total on a 12V system.

The internal Vcore regulator on this pod is limited to 20A at a peak of about 5.5 volts for 110W total. Add in peripherals, inefficiency and the fan and you should never need more than about 10A of 12V for this guy.

PCIe spec for a 6-pin specifies a 75W draw. As anyone that's run any mining gear since at least 2013 will tell you, a good PSU will give you a heck of a lot more than that. Some ASIC miners will ask for up to 300W from a single 6-pin, which is why folks started turning to high-reliable server PSUs and durable aftermarket cables.

Or did you think the S9 needed 20 jacks?

My pod's barrel connector is rated for more than 75W. The miner's internally limited to much less power than the 6-pin could provide (from a good supply).

Yeah, you're missing about 15GH. 350MHz should see 79.8GH which means your 350MHz is running at 81% and you'd get the same hashrate with probably lower power use out of 285MHz.

I'm still finishing the details but it'll have a sweet logo and the jacks will be labeled. Nothing that can't be undone, of course. And have I ever built a thing that can't be disassembled? I wouldn't do that to you guys. Or myself, frankly, because then warranty work would suck.

Only about 3300 of those were ever made, compared to over 20k of the 2Pacs. Not sure even I have four in hand, at least not that work.

Also, I'll update the first post but I will be selling direct for forum users, through a friendly rep like last year. Should have the details ironed out by week's end. We'll also have everything sorted with resellers to open up sales pretty quick-like.