Klondike - 16 chip ASIC Open Source Board - Preliminary

[Bakal]

i love seeing those "yay!"

yay!

small steps. nice and slow.

[loshia]

i love seeing those "yay!"

yay!

small steps. nice and slow.

Brilliant BKK!

[MinermanNC]

Wonderfull! Very encouraging to see that hashing!

[ampu]

From "absolutely nothing" to "yay".. this is amazing! 

[Lollaskates]

My current opinion / standing on the over-clocking power issues is that I'll get the current version working fully and then do a version 2 board that uses the IR3847 buck reg chip instead. The circuit is almost identical and just has some position/orientation changes. The sourcing may be more difficult but it's still the better choice for boosting the on-board power without too much redesign. Most of the parts are value changes to similar parts. I think the main issue will be the Cyntec 0.215 uH inductor (PCDC1008-R215EMO) and for those looking at sourcing and supply I'd start digging into how to get test samples and place larger orders of that part. It doesn't seem to be commonly available at Mouser/Digikey et al.

Just some forward looking comments at this point.

On the K1 it's possible to replace the 6502A with the 6503A and use a powered hub to get up to 3A of juice for the ASIC over-clocking. It's almost the same price anyway but would require a small bump in inductor choice.

It seems that it would be in everyone's best interest if the board was made to support more power right from the beginning, more freedom for tinkerers and more ROI with overclocked chips. Judging by what you've said here, it isnt time consuming or hard to make that change. That speaks to a good initial design . You're moving wonderfully fast and succeeding, congratulations!

[Xian01]

It seems that it would be in everyone's best interest if the board was made to support more power right from the beginning

+1 on this sentiment.

 I can't speak for others waiting on Klondike boards as I have a bunch ordered through Steamboat, but am tempted to wait for the rev2 boards that allow overclocking rather than accept a rev1 that doesn't.

[WynX]

 I can't speak for others waiting on Klondike boards as I have a bunch ordered through Steamboat, but am tempted to wait for the rev2 boards that allow overclocking rather than accept a rev1 that doesn't.

I think you'd be better off getting them on v1 boards asap, to later decide to upgrade to v2 boards by either;
1) modifying some components and other firmware, another pcb might not be needed.
2) get v2 boards and transplant your avalon chips. Depending on the time between v1 and v2 this could still be beneficial (with difficulty rising sharply).

I think chances are that only minor adjustments enable substantial overclocking...not worth holding back your rig for...

[prodigits7]

Absolutely brilliant BKK! Very good sign to see it hashing 

It's like Hello World!!!

[cardcomm]

Absolutely brilliant BKK! Very good sign to see it hashing 

It's like Hello World!!!

LOL! I was thinking that same thing. It' like the best "Money Making Hello World" ever!

Congrats Bkk - you must be feeling pretty happy right now. Thanks again for all the extremely hard work you've put into this so far!

[mtbitcoin]

It seems that it would be in everyone's best interest if the board was made to support more power right from the beginning

+1 on this sentiment.

 I can't speak for others waiting on Klondike boards as I have a bunch ordered through Steamboat, but am tempted to wait for the rev2 boards that allow overclocking rather than accept a rev1 that doesn't.

+2 . I would wait on the rev2 board is this means a delay of 2 weeks or less.

[bassclef]

Yay Bkk! I think more beer money is in order to thank you for your hard work

[mjmvisser]

I'm not a big fan of Kicad but the main reason I used it was so that anyone could edit and work with the files without having to buy a license of any sort.  So I'm not really looking for a commercial version of Eagle. You have to remember that where I live I could have easily picked up Altium or Eagle for only a few $. Using Kicad was more a philosophical issue. Despite the troubles I had on the way I'm actually kind of impressed that it actually does work. I would change a bunch of things if I had the time and energy to contribute or fork the project - but I don't for now.

If there are specific Kicad bugs that slow you down, perhaps donations could go to bounties to those who get patches accepted that fix those bugs? That is after all one of the nice things about open source projects.

edit: link to launchpad bug list

[lexis200]

Love those Yays!!

Thanks BKK for your continued hard work, you are clearly passionate about what you do, and it's paying off. I have sunk just about everything I have into steamboat's group buy and hosting, so can't wait to see your board out in the field, be it V1 or V2. I have to say, waiting for a V2 board might be a bit of a waste, as any gains from overclocking will probably be negated by the increase in difficulty with all the other ASICS going online.

There will be a little something from me into your tip jar once my miners get going. I'd do it now, but my wallet just contains dust!

Again, thanks very much... it's appreciated.

[Xian01]

There will be a little something from me into your tip jar once my miners get going. I'd do it now, but my wallet just contains dust!

 I like the way you think. Will be sure to flip BKK a BTC once I've taken delivery. Absolutely love supporting community projects.

 Cheers on the spectacular work so far, BKK !

[Rakessh]

I concur 

[sensei]

Absolutely brilliant BKK! Very good sign to see it hashing 

It's like Hello World!!!

I remember my first "Hello World". That was 25 years ago.

Yay!  Great job Chris!

[WynX]

+2 . I would wait on the rev2 board is this means a delay of 2 weeks or less.

I understand that you'd do that if it's less than 2 weeks, however thats not realistic. v2 would be made after collecting substantial user experience from the v1 and is not realistically placed in the 2 week release date difference. I expect the v1 release will consist of the most optimal and stable tested version. This practically means that if overclocking would be very very simple (within 2 week release cycle), it would be included in v1 directly. An enhanced version is possible, yet will take longer than 2 weeks. Just my 0.00000002.

Great work Bkk, I'm reading each of your posts with great enthusiasm

[cardcomm]

Absolutely brilliant BKK! Very good sign to see it hashing  

It's like Hello World!!!

I remember my first "Hello World". That was 25 years ago.

Yay!   Great job Chris!

haha me too - you just started me thinking about this. I started learning Applesoft BASIC in around '86. Time sure flies when you're having fun!

edit: spelling

[jimrome]

+2 . I would wait on the rev2 board is this means a delay of 2 weeks or less.

I understand that you'd do that if it's less than 2 weeks, however thats not realistic. v2 would be made after collecting substantial user experience from the v1 and is not realistically placed in the 2 week release date difference. I expect the v1 release will consist of the most optimal and stable tested version. This practically means that if overclocking would be very very simple (within 2 week release cycle), it would be included in v1 directly. An enhanced version is possible, yet will take longer than 2 weeks. Just my 0.00000002.

Great work Bkk, I'm reading each of your posts with great enthusiasm

I'm not sure what you're referring to by "substantial user experience from the v1" - this seems like more of a software-centric development mindset. Hardware development tends to be much more iterative as designs are assembled, tested, modified, assembled and retested.

I'd imagine that the current "V1" board isn't going to be the "final" board - at least for board manufactures who like to err on the side of caution. I believe I recall that Bkk stated that the board was still very much a work in progress when he released the Kicad project file a few days (a week?) ago.

With that in mind it's likely that the power section could be reworked to replace the current 16A regulator with the 25A part. Which could be mostly transparent - aside to those who've already purchased may boards/parts (Terrahash I'm looking at you) or those who have chips arriving in the first batches purchased from Avalon.

This all hinges of course on the 25A regulator being readily available as well as any supporting components.

[WynX]

Ah yes, well I assume the v1 board is released when Bkk thinks its ready. Also assuming he'd release it when he thinks it is production ready while considering overclocking potential. When it would be very easy to just replace a regulator, he'd do that before the v1 release. I've not checked intentions of other board manufacturers (like terrahash).
'Substantial user experience' refers also to hardware; temperature, stability, possible overclock on current hardware (etc). My main point is that it would be strange if Bkk would release a board that could be substantially improved (to a stable v2 board) within 2 weeks, I trust him to strike a good balance between quick release and 'maturity' (being overclockability). Maybe this boundary is around 1 month dev time?