I disagree. My investment is based on the price going down slightly or staying the same. Bonus if it goes up.

As to your second point, someone has to make a profit on mining. If larger profits are gained from being first to market with more powerful mining equipment (and further securing the BTC network), so be it. It must be that way to spur innovation and development.

If anyone still needs the Murata 38L361C inductor, I just received a couple reels of its approved replacement, the Sumida CDEP105NP-0R3NC-88, stamp 0R3NL.

AFAIK these are sold out everywhere, and I had pretty poor luck sourcing the original Murata part from Chinese vendors at any reasonable price, or at all. I definitely won't be using them all, so let me know and we'll work something out.

I took this in high school and was an INFP.

Took it just now, many years later, and got this.

Since it's an announcement made by a single exchange with no proof to support it and no laws actually passed, probably not much.

If I remember correctly there were many who predicted difficulty would be approaching 80-100 million this month and next. Silly people.

If your goal is to generate bitcoins, these USB miners are great. Not everyone is in it to make gobs of money.

People can be judgmental. Maybe I should examine and pass judgement on my brother's wasteful food purchases, but I don't. He's just throwing money away! Why would he do such a thing, eating at restaurants...

Not easy, but doable. You'll need a reflow oven or a DIY toaster oven. And the steady hands and patience to place many flavors of resistors and capacitors. There are 192 of one of them.

The lead paste Bkk sells probably plays better in a toaster oven.

I've been busy sourcing all other parts and barely have had time to think about heatsinks. Seems there are a number of things to keep in mind:

First it needs to contact each of the reverse side of the 16 chips, of which there thermal vias to transfer heat out. Easy.

It should avoid the four side mounting holes. This is easily solved by using a 80x90mm size.

With a flat 80x90mm heatsink is there needs to be a small recessed area so not to short out the PCIe pins. You also need four mounting holes drilled through the heatsink for spring-loaded pins. This is where the cost begins to add up.

I've been floating the idea of using two separate, smaller heatsinks, 30x90mm. I don't know, that might be more expensive in the long run and you'd lose precious surface area. Bkk also gave me the idea of using a copper or aluminum shim to raise the heatsink a bit away from the PCIe pins. I'm just thinking out loud now, feel free to chime in with thoughts.

I know we're all getting antsy and I hope Thomas understands the amount some of us have invested here. Stopping in to say hello and put our fears to rest will go a long way.

That's what I understand. Parts for board assembly are in short supply. I've been sourcing for two days and the demand is definitely outpacing supply on many of them.

I just ordered... wait for it.... 2 pcs. It's all they had left. Perhaps that's the reason for the error. Their warehouse is in CA and their email says they ship same-day so if they get more in stock should be good for US builders.

Anyone have experience using Alibaba? As long as it's not Alibaba and the Forty Thieves it looks promising. I see they have an escrow service.

I've always dreamed of making gyms into huge generators... put all that fat to work.

Seriously the only way to free electricity is in a dorm type situation or an apartment with paid utilities. Even then you can't go nuts or it will raise suspicion.

Yeah, that was me. I tried to choose the one you might have more in stock, thinking that QFN is more difficult to hand solder.

If you need to split my order into 50/50 I sure don't mind so long as the boards/PICs match up. Or just switch the whole thing. No preference.

And to those still needing to source headers.... Ebay

These two are what I'm missing as well. I have a few emails out to China sellers... in the meantime I'll keep looking.

As for the USB controller, just order them from Bkk's site. They come pre-programmed.

You have to look harder. I've been able to source all parts but one or two (and the headers, but those should be easy, right?) since I started searching yesterday. Also some of these are available in different packages, ie cut-tape vs reel. I'm not going to give away all my secrets yet until I have confirmation of shipments.

If anyone has the hard-to-find items (Murata 38L361C and IR3895) I'd pay a premium, hint hint.

I'm putting off ordering boards and PICs (need about 100) in hopes that this could happen. However I also have chips coming in with steamboat's batch 1 and want to begin assembly asap. I'm worried that once I place an order the very next day you'll offer the kits Would I be better off sourcing parts on my own and putting in a board/PIC order now? Decisions decisions... what do you guys think?

Thank you so much Bkk. I would definitely like to see this option.

Fantastic!

Pretty good timing too

If you got in on an early chip buy (late April/early May) and feel comfortable with SMT soldering,  then yes.

The Deer Hunter

A little long (the wedding scene in particular), but a deeply moving movie.