Who likes pod miners?

[sidehack]

You did notice that's the "instantaneous hashrate", not the steady-state, right? At 325MHz the average hashrate is 143GH. If you can push one to 450MHz without it melting down (might be possible with "pencil mod" to the main regulator since the required voltage is out of range) it'd hit 200GH but it'd be pretty smokin' at that speed. Like over 100 watts kind of smokin'.

[Morguk]

Haha no I didn't notice that. I'm happy with anything >100GH TBH, but 150GH would be great.

[sidehack]

It should be able to run 100GH without a fan, off a 12V 3A brick. It'll sure be toasty. The release version will have an overtemp shutoff set to 80C with a temp sensor in the middle of the chip field right under the heatsink.

[Biodom]

You did notice that's the "instantaneous hashrate", not the steady-state, right? At 325MHz the average hashrate is 143GH. If you can push one to 450MHz without it melting down (might be possible with "pencil mod" to the main regulator since the required voltage is out of range) it'd hit 200GH but it'd be pretty smokin' at that speed. Like over 100 watts kind of smokin'.

don't spill ALL the beans, please...BTW, where is that regulator [on the pic], incidentally?  

[sidehack]

That regulator is the one that's being replaced on the new version. VH and I both have hacked-up boards with external main regulators spliced onto them so we could experiment with drivers and such at full hashrate because the onboard was by no means robust.

[Eagleone]

THANKS!!! Cant wait

[spazzdla]

Go go pod miners!!!!

[philipma1957]

I would not mind  point them at a few pools.

mmpool.org  for one.

[sidehack]

The new Terminus is definitely better, but I'm still having issues at higher power levels. My test board is sitting comfy at 150MHz (66GH) 26W including fans but it doesn't like pushing higher than that without locking up the string - usually that means voltage sag. Hopefully it's something that can be ironed out without another PCB redesign.

[Yuna517]

sidehack -

I've read every post in this thread, and also your 2pac thread (among others).
i'm thoroughly impressed.
have you seriously created robots/'minions' to help strip chips from board and drill holes to increase your productivity (rhetorical)?

after a lot of lurking, I've created an account to subscribe to this thread, and will be eager to follow your progress with the terminus. you said you're not into big/"1000w" machines, but this has some real potential!

[nuanicaj]

The new Terminus is definitely better, but I'm still having issues at higher power levels. My test board is sitting comfy at 150MHz (66GH) 26W including fans but it doesn't like pushing higher than that without locking up the string - usually that means voltage sag. Hopefully it's something that can be ironed out without another PCB redesign.

the BF pod miner is what I want, maybe that will be the solution with lower power requirements.

[-EOS-]

Great work Sidehack!!

Can't wait to pick up a few of these when available..

[sidehack]

Further tests are required to probe the limits and - more specifically - the reasons for those limits, but my version-2 Terminus is currently on Kano.is pushing 250MHz. I've touched 275MHz on it, where the hacked model can see 325MHz from the same voltage, so there's still some limitation in the regulator that I need to play with. VH hooked me up with some improved stepping code that smooths things out a bit, and I did some jimmying on the hardware itself.

Oh and I should probably test the overtemp protection too one of these days.

If I can get this guy stable and reliable at 300-325MHz, I'll send off for what I hope is the final version PCB. That one will have mounting holes for if someone conjures up a case, means for better potentiometer access, stuff like that. Some of that's gonna have to wait a bit though because manufacturing and also manufacturing.

However - right now, I'm very pleased.

[kipper01]

Further tests are required to probe the limits and - more specifically - the reasons for those limits, but my version-2 Terminus is currently on Kano.is pushing 250MHz. I've touched 275MHz on it, where the hacked model can see 325MHz from the same voltage, so there's still some limitation in the regulator that I need to play with. VH hooked me up with some improved stepping code that smooths things out a bit, and I did some jimmying on the hardware itself.

Oh and I should probably test the overtemp protection too one of these days.

If I can get this guy stable and reliable at 300-325MHz, I'll send off for what I hope is the final version PCB. That one will have mounting holes for if someone conjures up a case, means for better potentiometer access, stuff like that. Some of that's gonna have to wait a bit though because manufacturing and also manufacturing.

However - right now, I'm very pleased.

Can't wait to get my hands on a couple of these.

[qctechno]

That one will have mounting holes for if someone conjures up a case, means for better potentiometer access, stuff like that.

Good for 3D printer 

[sidehack]

I was thinking more like metalwork, but hey you works with what you gots and my background is in construction.

Case anyone cares, 250MHz means 110GH. http://www.kano.is/worker.php?a=1BURGERAXHH6Yi6LRybRJK7ybEm5m5HwTr_terminus2

Hopefully I can do some more tweaking tomorrow and get it up to full speed.

[in2tactics]

I was thinking more like metalwork, but hey you works with what you gots and my background is in construction.

Case anyone cares, 250MHz means 110GH. http://www.kano.is/worker.php?a=1BURGERAXHH6Yi6LRybRJK7ybEm5m5HwTr_terminus2

Hopefully I can do some more tweaking tomorrow and get it up to full speed.

I was going to ask that very question, but I figured you had already stated it somewhere else.

[sidehack]

Once I have samples of the new PCB in hand and they're tested to work, I may do a "limited first run" sale of them, maybe a dozen or so, to put toward a full batch.

Good thing about the Terminus design is, about 80% of the components transfer over from the 2Pac. It's basically if you wired 4 2Pacs together, the only thing you'd need to replace is the main Vcore regulator. So I already have enough of most things to get started at least. The biggest hindrance, as always, is chips, but people have turned out with S5 boards lately that put me well over the top for the 2Pac batch and, if the really big one finally works out, I'd have enough chips for several hundred Terminus already. Since 2Pac manufacture delays were traced pretty much directly to ASIC availability and reliability of installation, both of which are now solved, Terminus manufacture should go much much faster overall.

Once Bitfury 16nm stuff starts talking enough for a Compac, it'll be almost trivial to port over to a Terminus as well. The most complex things will be communication and power; power is being solved right now, and communication will be a direct copy from the stickminer.

If the Terminus prototype can be made to run 300MHz (132GH) stable and reliable off VH's new freq-step code, I'm calling it good. Though I should probably run it in a quiet environment and see if the fans are annoying. That's something people care about, right?

[gt_addict]

I cant answer for anyone else but being a quiet pod miner would always be beneficial for me. But im happy woth the noise range upto your modded S7LN.

[in2tactics]

Once I have samples of the new PCB in hand and they're tested to work, I may do a "limited first run" sale of them, maybe a dozen or so, to put toward a full batch.

Good thing about the Terminus design is, about 80% of the components transfer over from the 2Pac. It's basically if you wired 4 2Pacs together, the only thing you'd need to replace is the main Vcore regulator. So I already have enough of most things to get started at least. The biggest hindrance, as always, is chips, but people have turned out with S5 boards lately that put me well over the top for the 2Pac batch and, if the really big one finally works out, I'd have enough chips for several hundred Terminus already. Since 2Pac manufacture delays were traced pretty much directly to ASIC availability and reliability of installation, both of which are now solved, Terminus manufacture should go much much faster overall.

Once Bitfury 16nm stuff starts talking enough for a Compac, it'll be almost trivial to port over to a Terminus as well. The most complex things will be communication and power; power is being solved right now, and communication will be a direct copy from the stickminer.

If the Terminus prototype can be made to run 300MHz (132GH) stable and reliable off VH's new freq-step code, I'm calling it good. Though I should probably run it in a quiet environment and see if the fans are annoying. That's something people care about, right?

It sounds like you are making good progress. If you are still accepting the same payment methods as you did for the stick miners, I would love to purchase and test two of your "limited first run" sale units, or only one unit if you want to be able to spread them among more folks.