[RUN 2 CLOSED][SIDEHACK STICK]GekkoScience Compac Official sales thread

[brush242]

Did anyone run the numbers on these anywhere?

What's their ROI like, if any? I don't really care either way, but I am curious.

I'm not finding anything.

Damn it, never mind. Found it.

roi on a stick  is only possible if you solo mine and hit a block

Soon, SOON, I will be a billionaire, from solo mining!

[Chris_Sabian]

roi on a stick  is only possible if you solo mine and hit a block

Yeah, it's pretty clear that CK's solo pool is going to be getting about 300 little helpers in the near future

Can't win the lottery without buying a ticket...

Yep.  Pretty much.  That is what I'm going to do.  I have a spare solar panel, r-pi, and some older 12v deep cycle batteries that I'm going to rig up to power 1 or 2 of these sticks.  I'll have ~ 1 in 26 million chance per block of hitting it with 1 stick.  Or ~1 in 6,000 per month.  Not the best odds but it will be a fun project to build over a weekend. 

[Luke-Jr]

Should just run a full node and solo mine for real ...

[brush242]

roi on a stick  is only possible if you solo mine and hit a block

Yeah, it's pretty clear that CK's solo pool is going to be getting about 300 little helpers in the near future

Can't win the lottery without buying a ticket...

Two thoughts:

a) Address for CK's pool?

b) What's the most effective pool out there now? Which I had a farm I used, um, that one, uh, crap. Eligius!

But you're right, it may just be good fun to jump into a "lottery" pool. Heh.

[TheRealSteve]

a) Address for CK's pool?

http://solo.ckpool.org/

b) What's the most effective pool out there now? Which I had a farm I used, um, that one, uh, crap. Eligius!

Maybe have a read through Bitcoin Forum > Bitcoin > Mining > Pools > BTC Mining Pools List, and pick one based on your own criteria for 'most effective'.  If you were thinking 'most profitable', don't fall for the (inverse) gambler's fallacy

[brush242]

a) Address for CK's pool?

http://solo.ckpool.org/

b) What's the most effective pool out there now? Which I had a farm I used, um, that one, uh, crap. Eligius!

Maybe have a read through Bitcoin Forum > Bitcoin > Mining > Pools > BTC Mining Pools List, and pick one based on your own criteria for 'most effective'.  If you were thinking 'most profitable', don't fall for the (inverse) gambler's fallacy

Thanks, TheRealSteve. I assume that is ckolivas'(sp?) pool?

I suppose I was looking more for some opinions (I believe that there is one or two of them to be found on this bulletin board?), or insight. I am well aware of the mistakes people make with this type of thing, e.g., "if I just keep playing the same lotto numbers, the odds get better! It just *has* to hit sometime, right!!??" Five months off has left me a bit behind. Heh.

As an aside, I sold my farm as it started to become air conditioning weather. Since summer is waning and before we know it, heating weather will be on us, does anyone have any thoughts about as to which large-format used miner(s) I should pick up to use for heat this winter? If I'm going to use electricity to generate heat, might as well have a little fun with it as well.

[edonkey]

Should just run a full node and solo mine for real ...

I would, but I'm afraid of the bandwidth use. It's not the hardware costs, or the fact that I might need to expand later to handle larger blocks in the future.

The problem is that there's a disconnect between a full node's network requirements and common non-commercial Internet contracts.

I know that you can mitigate this by limiting the bandwidth use of the full node. Maybe that would work for me, but it's yet another IT job.

Edit: Removed reference to a certain multi-billion dollar corporation...
Now if I had fiber (not available in my area yet) and didn't have to worry about bandwidth, I'd set up a full node in a heartbeat.

Sorry sidehack, I don't mean to derail your thread.

[sidehack]

Yeah, I'd ban you if I could for talking good about google in my thread. I refuse to endorse the various machinations of a multi-billion-dollar enterprise whose main source of revenue is spying on almost literally the entire world and selling that information to anyone that can pay.

I do, however, fully support the purchase of Compac stick miners. Feel free to do that as much as you want.

[alh]

Should just run a full node and solo mine for real ...

As with edonkey, I don't want to risk my "relationship" with Comcast to run a full node. I looked into the website of a guy that was doing it, and I could see 100GB/month easily in the future, if not tomorrow. While I don't presently have an enforced cap on total usage for the month, I don't think that will last forever.

Hence I think a "full node at home" is NOT in my future.

[philipma1957]

Should just run a full node and solo mine for real ...

As with edonkey, I don't want to risk my "relationship" with Comcast to run a full node. I looked into the website of a guy that was doing it, and I could see 100GB/month easily in the future, if not tomorrow. While I don't presently have an enforced cap on total usage for the month, I don't think that will last forever.

Hence I think a "full node at home" is NOT in my future.

I run a full node with cablevision/optimum and every 6 to 8 days they shut my internet down for about 1 hour then reassign my ip.

there is no way I am going to solo mine on that node.  As that 1 hour a week down time would never let me feel good about mining.

[sidehack]

Today the rest of parts arrived. I need to check where my heatsinks are at, but all the components are in and our solder-paste stencil is in. I've already built a rough reel-holder for the SMD parts to make my job easier until we get the robot (which Novak got a phone call from the guy and was told it's definitely going to ship next week, BFD) and rigged up a panel for holding the solderpaste stencil so I can paste entire sheets of Compacs at a time.

The PCB panel has 30 sticks to it. I'll probably grease 'em all at once and then break it into three groups, cycle boards in and out of the fridge for batching particular parts (we have pushing 30 reels of parts but my block holds 8 at a time) and bake 'em all at day's end. It's not likely I'll have a full panel done by cheeseburger time what with having to do setup and stuff in the morning, and a few other non-Compac tasks before day's end. Also because it's 1AM so I sure as heck ain't getting up for an early start.

Novak's working on base drivers so I can put together a test station over the weekend that'll allow me to flash the USB chip and test the voltage settings. I'll probably make sure they start up at about 150, crank it up and restart at 300, then set the voltage to a reasonable running at 150 and let it burn in for an hour or so on the hub. If everything passes it'll get bagged and stacked and ready to ship.

So, I don't know how many will be shipping but I should be able to start shipping on the 25th. It might be slow going after that, until the robot arrives, but as Novak and I were chuckling about earlier, I bet we'll still get 'em out faster than Technobit Minion boards and anything from BFL.

[edonkey]

Yeah, I'd ban you if I could for talking good about a certain large corporation who will remain nameless in my thread. I refuse to endorse the various machinations of a multi-billion-dollar enterprise whose main source of revenue is spying on almost literally the entire world and selling that information to anyone that can pay.

Sorry about that. I edited my post.

I do, however, fully support the purchase of Compac stick miners. Feel free to do that as much as you want.

LOL! I think I have enough, but maybe I could get a few more. I could bundle them with a Raspberry Pi and give them out as Christmas presents 

[sidehack]

Well played, sir.

Also, updates to Australia and Canada group buys are paid and tallied. 314 sticks so far to go out.

[Mikestang]

Should just run a full node and solo mine for real ...

As with edonkey, I don't want to risk my "relationship" with Comcast to run a full node. I looked into the website of a guy that was doing it, and I could see 100GB/month easily in the future, if not tomorrow. While I don't presently have an enforced cap on total usage for the month, I don't think that will last forever.

Hence I think a "full node at home" is NOT in my future.

I run a full node with cablevision/optimum and every 6 to 8 days they shut my internet down for about 1 hour then reassign my ip.

I have comcast cable internet and run a full node from home.  Never had any bandwidth issues, never has my service shut off, and never had my IP address changed (knock on wood).

[alh]

......

So, I don't know how many will be shipping but I should be able to start shipping on the 25th. It might be slow going after that, until the robot arrives, but as Novak and I were chuckling about earlier, I bet we'll still get 'em out faster than Technobit Minion boards and anything from BFL.

Doesn't sound you plan on "testing" them for a month like BFL did either. Following the BFL line, you probably should be offering folks a way to convert their Compac order into a Compac II with 2 BM1385 chips for a an additional $35, to be delivered in 2016!

 

[sidehack]

I have word from heatsink people that, well, that they don't have any word from the factory about the delays in getting us our order. I expected to have them delivered last week, and if they're not even in the US yet it's very unlikely I'll have them in hand in time to complete assembly and testing for shipping anything by the 25th.

Which seriously sucks.

So that's going to delay things a bit.

Novak has been told our robot will be shipping next week. Whether we believe them or not is a different story, but that puts us having it the week after. I may start work on assembling miners by hand as intended, but until I know the heatsinks have shipped I may deprioritize it in the hopes that I can get most of the work done via robot and not actually lose any ship time because heatsink delays would dominate. This would also free me up to get back to design work instead of spending about 150 man-hours assembling stick miners.

Right now there is no formal plan for a Compac II with BM1385 chips. The exitence of that stick would depend entirely upon Bitmain's willingness to get us chips, and enough market demand (and available resources on my end) to merit it. Could happen, we'll see, but it won't happen until after all original Compacs sold are delivered.

We actually were just joking yesterday about driving up to BFL and seeing if we could buy a pick-and-place off them. There's a nice redemption irony in that, for the machine at least.

[sidehack]

So I placed an entire panel of Compac PCBs today, 30 in total. Took a few hours less time than I expected, which is good.

Of course, I'm stuck with either a hot air station or a toaster oven for cookin' the paste. And I think the toaster just died or something. So it looks like I'm back to the hot air station, which sucks.

We're supposed to be getting a really nice programmable reflow oven in with our pick-and-place. Looks like until that gets here I'll be able to surface-mount at most 30 Compacs a day, and then cook 'em all by hand, and then there's attaching the USB jack (which I may rig up a jig for, make that easier) and testing and probably realigning some parts on most of 'em because hand-placing sucks.

Given that MacEntyre isn't looking to ship until about what, September second? I might postpone my shipping as well which gives us time to get the robot in. Honestly if it arrives about ten days from now I'd probably still complete the as-of-yet sold orders at about the same time. If we don't have word of robot shipment by about Thursday I'll start hand-sticking 'em again. Does anyone object to this?

I will probably use the time between now and then to work on TypeZero design. I'm trying to work up a modular buck that'll work for both Spec1 and Spec2 boards, and then there's the rack standard idea we're wanting to iron out (which the Spec2 board will be built to fit).

[valkir]

I dont see any problem in a little delay.

If that make your life easier with the robot or the oven wait for it. 

These stick gonna be lottery ticket so 1 or 2 week less is not the end of the worl.

[sidehack]

I just don't like blowing deadlines. I guess I did say when these first went on sale that the expected ship date would probably hinge on whether we had the robot in or not, but it still sucks. Though I guess it does also give us more time to have a driver deployed, which is good for Novak since he's doing double duty this week.

Later I'll post a picture or two of what I've got so far. Maybe that'll keep y'all interested.


EDIT: Like this. First full panel of Compacs placed and baked.

[heslo]

Brilliant stuff mate! I must say I'm keen to get my hands on my two in little old Australia! Love your work!