Who likes pod miners?

[Morguk]

True dat.

[truckinusa]

I would really like one of these.  How do I get on the list or prepay?

[Archi348]

bitten by the crypto mining bug again.  Looks like a sweet project!   Sign me up for a couple of these when they are available.

[sidehack]

All y'all wanting to be on the waiting list will have to wait a bit longer. I won't start a waiting list until it's proven ready. Once I announce that, make sure to come back and let me know.

Even though I proved base functionality of the new version last week, I don't have a new PCB down yet. Last week I also got orders for the entire rest of this batch of 2Pacs at the same time my assembly minion decided to bail so I'm a bit backed up. Gonna be making time this week to test out a few new things I want to integrate into the Terminus final design, but I also got about 500 2Pacs to assemble post-haste without my trusty ass*cough*istant to help so it's definitely juggling time.

[truckinusa]

All y'all wanting to be on the waiting list will have to wait a bit longer. I won't start a waiting list until it's proven ready. Once I announce that, make sure to come back and let me know.

Even though I proved base functionality of the new version last week, I don't have a new PCB down yet. Last week I also got orders for the entire rest of this batch of 2Pacs at the same time my assembly minion decided to bail so I'm a bit backed up. Gonna be making time this week to test out a few new things I want to integrate into the Terminus final design, but I also got about 500 2Pacs to assemble post-haste without my trusty ass*cough*istant to help so it's definitely juggling time.

Are you hand soldering everything?  I wouldn't mind a PCB I could assemble. 

[sidehack]

No, that would take years. But there's still a lot of manual processes and a buttload of assembly steps, being as it's a double-sided board with salvage chips, USB jack, heatsink and stock voltage setting with three testing steps.

[truckinusa]

No, that would take years. But there's still a lot of manual processes and a buttload of assembly steps, being as it's a double-sided board with salvage chips, USB jack, heatsink and stock voltage setting with three testing steps.

Are you farming out the work?  I was just curious.  Maybe you have your own pick and place or whatever they call it?

[sidehack]

I do have my own pick-and-place. I farm out nothing. If I sell it, it was designed and manufactured in-house. Were this not the case, I wouldn't be talking about using up all my time with manufacturing.

[truckinusa]

I do have my own pick-and-place. I farm out nothing. If I sell it, it was designed and manufactured in-house. Were this not the case, I wouldn't be talking about using up all my time with manufacturing.

That sounds cool.  Wish I was that set up.  I just assemble little kits now and then and limited surface mount stuff since its too small.  I use a toaster oven.  I try to keep up with stuff I learned in school as an instrumentation tech.

[sidehack]

My pick-and-place is pretty mediocre, but I've been working with it for almost two years so I've figured out how to make it behave. I do actually use a kitchen convection oven with one of those controller kits for all my reflowing. Started out with an IR oven that came with the robot; it's handy because it's big but it also realy sucks. Hot and cold spots everywhere, really bad regulation. I was looking for a basic convection reflow oven and found one I kinda liked, but it cost about four times what I thought it was worth. The one I got now cost $250 in parts plus one day of work and the boards come out beautiful, way better than that big IR oven on its best day.

Thinking about building another one. Pretty handy. Probably won't get another robot anytime soon. Got my eye on one I like, US-made, but the base model with some necessary extra feeders costs something like six times what I paid for my car. We're not there yet.

[sidehack]

Okay, show of hands. What would people rather see - a 6-pin jack for power (in addition to 2.5mm barrel), or a USB-B for signal (in addition to USB mini)?

Recall the max power on this guy is about 75 watts.

[NotFuzzyWarm]

6-pin PCIE connector.

[Morguk]

6-PIN PCI-E over USB-B for me. Just make sure the barrel jack stays.

[leowonderful]

6 pin! I have several server PSUs that run plenty quiet and I can spare plenty of PCIE connectors for a Terminus, whereas I have only one barrel adapter that runs at only 60 watts. Keep up the great work, I've been lurking for a while here and it looks like things are getting there

[hurricandave]

I would like 6-pin for power, have lots of 350watt PSU's salvaged from old Dell OptiPlex's.

[Spill]

Would like the 6pin also. 

[sidehack]

Well heck. I guess I'm the only one still uses them nice sturdy B jacks.

6-pin it is.

I'm working right now on prototyping a simple controller that'll handle fan throttling, overheat shutdown and string lockup recovery. If the string is running unstable, like the buck is at capacity and briefly trips for overcurrent or overheat, or the chips are cold-started at a threshold speed, the string risks a lockup so the micro will detect that condition and force a reset. Problem with a reset is, the chips default to 200MHz and there's a decent chance that's not the speed you want. VH has some recovery code I need to test out which will detect this condition and restore the user-set frequency. Should be pretty handy for long-term stability especially at threshold voltage/speed combinations, for those of you concerned about efficiency or pushing the peak overclock.

So if anyone's wondering, dev work for that is what's holding up the Terminus schedule, and dev work for that is delayed by 2Pac manufacture. But we're getting there. I've already got a test board set up.

[in2tactics]

I vote for the 6-pin PCIE over the USB-B. I would suggest dumping the barrel connector altogether, but apparently it is quite popular. Is there a particular reason you are using USB-mini over USB-B?

[QuintLeo]

Okay, show of hands. What would people rather see - a 6-pin jack for power (in addition to 2.5mm barrel), or a USB-B for signal (in addition to USB mini)?

Recall the max power on this guy is about 75 watts.

 I've no clue what a USB-B is, certainly don't have anything that plugs into one.

 I'm also wary about the whole concept of running 75 watts through a 2.5mm barrel - gridseed "80" blades at 40-50 watts were marginal enough - but I still have a couple of 10A 12V bricks from those days.

 6 pin should be definite.

[leowonderful]

Okay, show of hands. What would people rather see - a 6-pin jack for power (in addition to 2.5mm barrel), or a USB-B for signal (in addition to USB mini)?

Recall the max power on this guy is about 75 watts.

 I've no clue what a USB-B is, certainly don't have anything that plugs into one.

 I'm also wary about the whole concept of running 75 watts through a 2.5mm barrel - gridseed "80" blades at 40-50 watts were marginal enough - but I still have a couple of 10A 12V bricks from those days.

 6 pin should be definite.

It's the weird-shaped huge one, I only have one at my house and it was used on a DVD reader that broke a while ago(search on Google for a better idea, this is the best I can explain it). PCI seems to be the safer platform, agreed.