Ok, first things first, we now have hashing stable at 1.6 GH/s per chip!  ... Now i know that sounds low, but there's still lots more tweaking to be done to get that rate up, which means we're getting close on the firmware (and by close i mean ACTUALLY close  )

This means that we are looking really good to pull the trigger on full production very soon. Almost there guys!

On the topic of the price drop, apologies to people who put their order in after the jump in BTC rate and before the price drop, there are only two of you. One i've already spoken with and the other i'll get in touch with now. It is certainly not intended to be unfair or milk extra cash from you, rather the opposite. It's hard with the rate jumping all over the place as it does. Part of the idea behind to switching prices into BTC is to create a market that is contained within BTC and not always referencing the dollar, after all, this is the dream right? That said, basically everyone is still needing to use dollars to purchase bitcoin anyway so we are not really there yet. When we arrive at the day when you're Bitcoin wallet is your main bank account, your job pays you in Bitcoin, and you use Bitcoin to buy milk at the corner store, THEN the fluctuations against the US dollar will not be so relevant anymore. Oh what a beautiful future vision! We are here to manifest that vision people. Go out and demand your bosses to pay you in BTC!

... but anyway, while we still wade through the cold murkiness of a US dollar lead world, I'm going to look into using Bitpay to pin our prices. Not exactly keen to actually use bitpay to receive payments, but we can use it as a reference to ride the waves of BTC rate change. See how we go. For now, the prices are the prices.

Barntech

New pricing:

Drillbit Thumb -                  0.65 BTC
Drillbit 8 Board -                 2 BTC
Drillbit Miniplane -               0.25 BTC
Drillbit Double Scroll -          0.25 BTC

Hey guys.

Apologies for not having posted for a while. Same old story, busy busy busy. So, some updates for you all. One batch of our chips has landed with our assembly people, the other is in transit and due to arrive this week. Hooray. 

Next, we have the thumb hashing! Still not to full spec, but it is going. The guys are still fiddling and tweaking on the firmware, and to be perfectly honest with all of you, it has proven to be a much larger undertaking than we had first thought. The documentation out there on the exact details of the Bitfury chips is rather sparse and incomplete, and there has had to be a lot of troubleshooting to get us to this point. It is still a work in progress, but getting the chips actually hashing is a major break through. It means we are close. Now i know i have said that we are close for quite a long time now, and i'm honestly not trying to mislead you guys with false ideas of progress. It has been the legitimate belief of our guys doing the firmware that it has been close for quite some time. But i guess putting it another way, it is getting closer and closer every day. As i have stated before, as soon as we have solid results, i will come running to my computer to share them with you all. Nothing will make me happier. There are just a couple remaining checks that need to be made before we can go ahead with manufacture. All things being equal, we will be pulling the trigger on the main run this week.

As for the power supply situation, it seems i have certainly thrown the cat amongst the pigeons there. I'm sorry to throw up so much confusion on the issue. Here is whats happening. The original design takes a 5V input. Upon announcing this, various members of our community began pointing out certain advantages to 12V input rather than 5V. Looking into it, it turns out to not be too big a change to the design to switch it over to 12V. These changes have been made and we are pumping out a prototype on the new 12V version as we speak. If it is ready in time and will not create any delays, then we can go ahead and put that version into production. If it is not, then we will be moving forwards with the 5V version. I'm sorry that i can't give you a more definitive answer on which version we will be using, but basically it is quite late in the piece to be changing things and we only want to do so on the condition that it will not cause any delays. I'll keep you updated on this as soon as i know.

I will be adjusting the prices downwards shortly to reflect the recent rise in BTC value. This will apply to new orders, not orders already placed.

On other things, Zeek, you mentioned my whopping 6GH/s mining on Bitminter! This is 20 block erupters.  It used to be 10 GH/s before i recently turned off my GPUs! (about 5 months too late!) I look forwards to raising my hashrate very soon!

IAS, well said as always. I entirely agree on the awesomeness of having a hobby that can also earn you money, and yes i too am excited by being a part of this crazy experiment. I look forwards to telling my kids that i was there somewhere close to the beginning of bitcoin! (especially of course in the imaginary future where bitcoin is the primary global currency  ) ... or will it be sex coin? or hobo nickels? 

And finally, yes, people on ebay are fucking crazy. I stumbled upon this the other day: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Butterfly-Labs-Jalapeno-Bitcoin-Miner-5GH-s-BRAND-NEW-IN-HAND-/221299229844?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3386764494&_uhb=1. I have no idea why people are bidding on this (other than to own a little piece of bitcoin history), but they are. Now obviously i would hope that people involved in this project of ours are more interested in mining with the gear we are making than selling it, but i'd say you will probably be able to sell it for a decent price on ebay should you wish, or as someone mentioned, do both.

Ok, so i will endeavor to be a more present in this crazy time. Please feel free to ask me anything. Hope you're all doing well. 

Barntech

Correct.

and please.... leave paypal out of this!  (just send it through i have the rest of your details. Cheers

Great. We are going by Bitstamp for the rate, which right now is $138 so $85 will be 0.616 BTC.

You're welcome on the cables.  Figured it makes more sense for me to buy them in bulk than for everyone to buy them individually.

Barntech

Thanks Sprint.

Got it.

Hey all.

Yes let's keep discussions on specific things over on the forum at drillbitsystem.net/forum. I'll try to jump in there when i can to answer questions. I'll also try to do up a specs sheet thingy which will hopefully address most of the questions being asked.

As for USB cables, i have decided that because i love you all so much, i'll send USB cables free with the miners when we send them out, so you don't need to worry about those.

Barntech

The socket is USB mini-B, and yeah you only need to plug one board in to connect the entire miniplane (or double scroll), only requiring a hub if you are going to be pluggin in lots of miniplanes.

We are working on a few exciting things for future larger Bitfury miners. Stay tuned on that front. 

Firmware is still happening. We have all hands on deck for this. Its the last hurdle before we go to production. Well, that and actually getting the chips, which really should happen this week, as should the firmware. The guys are feeling confident that it will be ready really soon. From there we are all set to go into production

To further update you guys on what i've been up to for the last little while (other than chatting with all of you and chasing postage payments  ... still quite a few outstanding btw), i have found us a new PCB manufacture factory and a new assembly house that will turn things around much faster. It will cost a bit more, but worth it to get these things happening quicker.

Also want you guys to know that i have been working on backup plans, on the off chance that the firmware stretches out longer than we can afford. I don't believe this will happen, but want you to know that we will be covered either way.

Almost there guys. This has been an epic project and a pleasure to see come together. Final charge. I'm very excited to see this almost at completion. I greatly look forwards to the day i send the last package and retreat back to my miner heated room to sleep for one week straight! 

Barntech

Hey.

So yeah, people have already said it, it really will depend on what the specs on the new chip are. If it is possible to make new boards that will still be compatible with the current miniplanes, we will. The main factor will be the power consumption of the chips. If they are significantly higher in GH/s and power consumption, then the current miniplanes wont work. Speculation at this point. We'll see what they come up with. There are lots of other chip developers out there now so soon there will be a nice selection of other chips for future projects. At this point we still haven't decided what we will focus our attentions on for the next one, but there are a few that are looking appealing. Stay tuned.

Oh and yes i guess you could use moneygram or western union. Bank wire is also possible. BTC is much preferred.

Barntech

Yes, all orders are prepayed. I mentioned to this person that pulling out now is quite damaging to us, but he insisted he had no other choice. I'm not going to hold someones money to ransom. But yeah, horrible timing. So... who wants them? 

So i've just had a 16 board order pull out from Batch 1 one.  If anyone wants to pick up all 16 boards (and 4 miniplanes), i'll give you a special price. Send me a PM.

Ok so not standalone in that sense. You will need a PC or a rasp pi, but standalone in that you don't need the miniplane. The board via USB will work just fine. 

On the chips front. All things being equal, both chip batches should be in the air early next week. 

We will be posted our favored heatsink soon and making it available to add to your order if you want. Stay tuned.

Yes, i believe there are emerald green lights on there  ... i'll double check.

The boards work standalone, nothing else required. If you buy multiple boards you can stack them together using the miniplane, but it is not required. So one board ready to mine will be 2.5 BTC + $25 regular or $65 express postage to the U.K.

Cheers

Basically just covert the dollar amount into BTC using https://www.bitstamp.net/ for the conversion rate. When you fill in the form just let me know how much you paid for shipping.

Cheers

Barntech

Yes Batch 2 is ordered. It will be going ahead no matter what. 

The prototyping is coming along. The comms are looking solid on the boards, comunication between the ATMEL processor chip and the bitfury chips is all working. The cgminer side of things is all sorted. The remaining pieces of the puzzle are getting the USB protocols working and making sure the bootloader is functioning correctly for future firmware updates. Almost there!

Update on chips is that they are on the brink of being sent. Should be in the post in the next couple of days. 

From receiving chips to delivery will be 2-3 weeks, though i am exploring options to potentially cut this down. See what i can do.

Barntech