BM1384 Pod Miner plus trade-in/recycling - an interest and feasibility poll

[Searing]

Maybe he can give you some bad boards :
http://www.ebay.com/itm/AntMiner-S5-1155Gh-s-0-51W-Gh-28nm-ASIC-Bitcoin-Miner-/141841810461?hash=item21066e441d:g:76YAAOSwT6pVp9kR

I talked to some one who may have been ripped off by this seller on ebay,the guy who told me that is buying my last s5, once i get a 18 pin cable and test the replacement board and other board to gather.  he told me he paid about that and is fighting with PayPal to get it back . just a tip.

I see the auction as kinda funny "EASY REPAIR!!! DAMAGED, DEFECTIVE ONLY ONE OF THE HASH BOARDS ARE WORKING REPAIRABLE".... if it's so easy why did seller not fix and sell as working S5? Am I the only one seeing that.

Sounds like scammy or at least bad sellsman to say it's very easy to fix! I just cant do it... you can though!  Also talking about bitmain warranty when I doubt any S5 is within warranty... no one should buy from there.

I see all kind of stuff wrong there !!! i even tried to put one in my cart and got a 404 page error if i click to add to my cart, but, if I click buy now, it sets me up to buy, i don't know how many, LMAO ..


Now the add to my cart works and it said it was the last one for 288 $ ,

I trust the guy on the forums that told me, then that link . i have bought a few things off the guy that told me about that seller.

hmmm..got no dog in this fight...(never got into antminer ran out of $$$ as a newbie ) but let us know how it works out on here ..think more then a couple of you guys jumped in on this on this thread....

(crypto ..the drama ...the soap opera...the moon)

[1714889024]

1714889024

[Meech]

Any new news on the Pods?  Was hoping the silence meant chips have been sourced or in the works.

[Exoskeleton]

Any new news on the Pods?  Was hoping the silence meant chips have been sourced or in the works.

I gotta admit I've been lurking on this thread without a single post, just waiting for a release date or something solid with the chips before I commit. I know for a fact sidehack is solid and I've bought from him before in the tune of $1,000, me sending first, with no reservations. He has done me right everytime and his breakout boards and miners work great. Big work for a small operation to be sure.

That said, the longer Bitmain puts us off, the less these S5 chips will be worth working with. Its a bit sad for me because I once tried to work with some people on creating a miner based on first gen Avalon chips, and Avalon not providing us with chips when promised killed it. It cost us all more than you can imagine. We spent months non-stop getting things ready for the chips. Im never going through that one again. Mind you this was durring another 10%-20% per adjustment period, just like the one were entering. This kind of diff adjustment makes the pressure on delivery and money lost compounded in a harsh way.

And just so you know (for those who don't, this was mid 2013, and the major topic of discussion on the forum at the time) Avalon claimed that the "Chinese Mafia" (Yes, this was the actual excuse for not delivering the chips) extorted them and...uhmmm...sorry.

Sorry you guys spend tens of thousands on community funded R&D and sorry you collected millions of dollars in funds for the chips. Sorry people spent months of non-stop work on OPEN SOURCE design just to have us not deliver chips and improve on your (now FREE) design.

I've never really gotten over that one and sorry to say I never expected bitmain to ever offer chips despite saying "maybe". I do however support bitmain with my continued business buying miners and they have never done me wrong with direct purchases. I am dubious however of their intentions of ever providing a chip for sale. I'll take a maybe as a no.

Avalon is another story altogether. While I think its clear they have improved as a business, I'll never trust that company again, for good reason.

[Chronikka]

Any new news on the Pods?  Was hoping the silence meant chips have been sourced or in the works.

Basically still no chips available. Although I had heard that it took ~3 months for Bitmain to release BM1384 to Sidehack after the S5 was released. Its been ~3 months since the S7 was released. So who knows maybe when S7 sales slow down they will make BM1385 chips available. I think it helps that Bitmain seems to have legitimate competition from Avalon, Spondoolies, and a few others.

[notlist3d]

Any new news on the Pods?  Was hoping the silence meant chips have been sourced or in the works.

Basically still no chips available. Although I had heard that it took ~3 months for Bitmain to release BM1384 to Sidehack after the S5 was released. Its been ~3 months since the S7 was released. So who knows maybe when S7 sales slow down they will make BM1385 chips available. I think it helps that Bitmain seems to have legitimate competition from Avalon, Spondoolies, and a few others.

It's not that there are not chips.  It's that it is very hard to get chips without spending a massive amount.  If you bought a batch of chips... chances are they would sell it.  But that is a massive amount of capital needed and would really have to go twords big miners not pods.

I hope the chip situation changes as I like sidehacks items.   But I'm afraid it will be a bit on new chips.

[sidehack]

I could have bought a full batch of BM1384 earlier this year, but I didn't have an extra quarter million dollars. Right now I could sink a quarter thousand dollars on a sample order and not feel bad about it, and I'm hoping I can convince Bitmain that's a good idea. 20 chips would buy me a month of prototyping, at least.

Silence does not mean chips have been sourced. A very loud and excited announcement that chips have been sourced means chips have been sourced. Trust me, that's not something I'd be able to keep secret.

Regarding pods, this week I have to bust out the final Compacs and finish up my hosting expansion. After that, pod prototyping will be priority. However, it's December so I probably won't be working weekends like usual because family and stuff. So, you know, progress will be made but not immediately.

[notlist3d]

I could have bought a full batch of BM1384 earlier this year, but I didn't have an extra quarter million dollars. Right now I could sink a quarter thousand dollars on a sample order and not feel bad about it, and I'm hoping I can convince Bitmain that's a good idea. 20 chips would buy me a month of prototyping, at least.

Silence does not mean chips have been sourced. A very loud and excited announcement that chips have been sourced means chips have been sourced. Trust me, that's not something I'd be able to keep secret.

Regarding pods, this week I have to bust out the final Compacs and finish up my hosting expansion. After that, pod prototyping will be priority. However, it's December so I probably won't be working weekends like usual because family and stuff. So, you know, progress will be made but not immediately.

I think that is the problem if you wanted a full batch... it get's attention.   I really like your products and enjoy playing with them so wish I could get them.  But even with crowdsourcing or something a quarter million dollars is still a lot of money.   

I hope you could get some prototype chips.  But honestly I'm not sure how receptive they would be knowing you are not looking to buy a batch.   But I keep hoping one day a hear a big yes from someone selling to you.

[sidehack]

I'm not looking to buy a batch right now. I might someday, if I had a good enough product that folks got behind in a big enough way to buy a batch. But I will not take a cent from anyone for mass-producing a design that I haven't yet built and tested, and building and testing requires sample chips. Sample chips, then, are the first necessary step in a series of steps which may end in buying an entire batch.

[bctmke]

I'll just continue to hide in my hole and watch for updates here

Thanks for keeping everyone in the loop sidehack!

[bix0]

I'll just continue to hide in my hole and watch for updates here

Thanks for keeping everyone in the loop sidehack!

+1

[kipper01]

I anxiously await updates also.  It is good to see things progress from an idea to reality to people actually purchasing items

[sidehack]

I'm finishing up Compacs tonight, and the next couple days I have to finish up interior wiring for my hosting expansion (50KW available, 8.9 cents per KWh if anyone's interested) but after that priority goes to pod dev. We're right this minute assembling a parts order which includes components for the control section, and Novak's got a head start on firmware already.

[sidehack]

So I'm pulling this thread back up because there's been some work done on the pods. I need to redesign the power layout since I'm getting some errors that I know aren't component-based, which kinda leaves noise as the likely culprit. But the really tight scary complex parts of the design proved themselves pretty well.

My test board right now is running stable on borrowed power and it's been cooking for four hours at 325MHz. I intend to let it run overnight and I'll probably check on it tomorrow, maybe see how it behaves at 350MHz. And then I'll probably assemble a few more. The onboard controls don't exist yet, so it's hotwired to an S5 controller.

I had a thought while eating my Friday cheeseburger a few hours ago. What if I build two boards to fully functional off an S5 controller, mounted on a common base with coolers attached, and raffle the thing off? If it works I'll build a pair so there'd be two winners. I need to do a bit of repair but I do have two S5 controllers sitting idle right now, which means I could build two complete units and all you'd have to do is hook up power and ethernet. If they'll run 350MHz that gets you about 300GH of fairly quiet undervoltable hashrate, pretty much plug-and-play.
The only real problem I can see is, without onboard controls, there's no temp sensing or software volt setting. So you'd have to adjust voltage manually. It's no harder than tuning a Compac; you turn a little knob and if it doesn't hash, you turn it up a little higher and restart cgminer. But make sure the chips get adequate cooling.

So if I sold "tickets" for, say, 0.02BTC for a dual pod prewired to an S5 controller (in a possibly jankety but solid/stable manner), complete with Freezer7 coolers, who'd get in on it? Unlimited entries, two pod winners, and let's say two "runners up" who each get a free Compac.

If anyone's wondering why I'd sell an incomplete product, partly it's to raise excitement and awareness and partly to pay for a prototype batch of boards with an updated design. I'll take feedback on the idea for the next couple days before deciding for sure what I want to do. So let me know what y'all think.

[kilo17]

I am in...

[VirosaGITS]

I am in...

Sound good, especially if not too many tickets are sold. Would still be good for development so i could scrounge up 0.02BTC. The pod would need 1-2 PCI-e of power supplied?

[hawkfish007]

I am in too 

[sidehack]

As the guy needing the money to continue dev (and the cost of materials for the things being raffled), I have an interest in selling many tickets. The pod takes 1 PCIe.

[Searing]

I am in too 

ditto for me to ..i imagine there will be a 'raffle thread' and google doc on such folk sending in the 0.02 btc (or $8.70 per ticket by my current calcs)

anything to support the project....(could make it a "PIE" sale but with shipping an all...that could get messy)

[bctmke]

I'd be in.  I kind of dislike the unlimited tickets option as one person can basically make sure that no one else has a shot.

However, I'd still be in.  The rules are yours to set and I'm entirely down for supporting the project in whatever small way I can.

[VirosaGITS]

I'd be in.  I kind of dislike the unlimited tickets option as one person can basically make sure that no one else has a shot.

However, I'd still be in.  The rules are yours to set and I'm entirely down for supporting the project in whatever small way I can.

Well if someone decide to throw 1 BTC in there, then maybe Sidehack could use that BTC to give that person one pod in the first place and raffle off the other 2, keeping the rest.

Or not, but it would be good for the project.