Klondike - 16 chip ASIC Open Source Board - Preliminary

[mrm0]

..still worryied about his wellbeing.

On another note, BKKCoins has too little trust ratings: three.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;u=29155
..where one of the three screams "SCAM!".
I don't know what's going on at BKKCoins' home. But I strongly feel his trust page doesn't reflect all that he did for us.
Let's change that now.

Ente

+1

I am hesitant to post here, because I did not order anything from BkkCoins, but at some point in time I bought and sent to him as a gift some components he needed for prototyping the K16. I did it because of his obvious enthusiasm, open communication and the tremendous amount of work he did in the Open Source/Hardware spirit.

I am also concerned by his silence. I only speculate, but given his full commitment to this project it could be that the mental stress caused by non/late delivery of chips was too much for him to handle. In that case he may recover at some time, or he may not stand another thought of this project forever..

While I understand the 'no product == no positive trust rating' line of thought, I think we may at least give him the benefit of a doubt and keep his rating clear of scam accusations... in memory of his enthusiasm and openness.

Sigh... I really wanted this project to come to fruition.

[Ente]

..still worryied about his wellbeing.

On another note, BKKCoins has too little trust ratings: three.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;u=29155
..where one of the three screams "SCAM!".
I don't know what's going on at BKKCoins' home. But I strongly feel his trust page doesn't reflect all that he did for us.
Let's change that now.

Ente

I'm pretty worried about BkkCoins as his disappearance seems so out of character. And he DID do a TON of amazing work on this project.

With that said, what do you expect to be added to his trust rating? I DON'T think he's a scammer at all. As already stated I'm worried about his well being. Yet I too have ordered items from him that I never received. I've sent a number of emails that have gone unanswered. By rights, I SHOULD be doing the community a "service" by stating so in his trust ratings. I haven't done that, because I DON'T feel it's in his character, and there must be extenuating circumstances.

Hmm, you guys are right, from this perspective (too).

I see that Chris vanished and left some contracts unfulfilled on his side. There are several people who did not receive what they paid for. He may owe a two- or three-digit sum of Bitcoins. This is (as far as I can see) fact.

However: I see Chris did a half-year-long project, where he spent close to all his spare time on it. He spent a lot of his personal money on it too. He neglected a lot of other people and things for this project. He put everything online to public domain from the beginning. Many users here would have made a lot more profit on this than him personally (if the whole Avalon situation did not occur).
I believe many users here don't know how much Chris invested here. For the community, for us.

In that light, the funds or goods Chris failed to deliver seem less dramatic to me. I am much more worried what actually happened that he doesn't show up here any more. Maybe there really is no point to worry about his trust rating. He either shows up again or not, that simple.
And, for the record, I may well be a top ten "victim" of his disappearance.

Ente

[TomKeddie]

I'm pretty worried about BkkCoins as his disappearance seems so out of character.

I agree and really appreciate the spirit of your post.  The most puzzling thing to me is that he seemed to have ordered most of the things he was reselling - all he would have to gain would be the unused funds for shipping costs.  It's a sad fact that there's no shortage of K16 parts around that's for sure, they're not something he could resell for much.

[bassclef]

I have a huge amount of respect for the work Chris put into this project, so naturally his safety and continued contribution to the DIY community is worth more than the 8 btc he owes me. That said, it's a lot of money and I'd like to see at least a partial refund should he ever return.

[cardcomm]

..still worryied about his wellbeing.

On another note, BKKCoins has too little trust ratings: three.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;u=29155
..where one of the three screams "SCAM!".
I don't know what's going on at BKKCoins' home. But I strongly feel his trust page doesn't reflect all that he did for us.
Let's change that now.

Ente

I'm pretty worried about BkkCoins as his disappearance seems so out of character. And he DID do a TON of amazing work on this project.

With that said, what do you expect to be added to his trust rating? I DON'T think he's a scammer at all. As already stated I'm worried about his well being. Yet I too have ordered items from him that I never received. I've sent a number of emails that have gone unanswered. By rights, I SHOULD be doing the community a "service" by stating so in his trust ratings. I haven't done that, because I DON'T feel it's in his character, and there must be extenuating circumstances.

Hmm, you guys are right, from this perspective (too).

I see that Chris vanished and left some contracts unfulfilled on his side. There are several people who did not receive what they paid for. He may owe a two- or three-digit sum of Bitcoins. This is (as far as I can see) fact.

However: I see Chris did a half-year-long project, where he spent close to all his spare time on it. He spent a lot of his personal money on it too. He neglected a lot of other people and things for this project. He put everything online to public domain from the beginning. Many users here would have made a lot more profit on this than him personally (if the whole Avalon situation did not occur).
I believe many users here don't know how much Chris invested here. For the community, for us.

In that light, the funds or goods Chris failed to deliver seem less dramatic to me. I am much more worried what actually happened that he doesn't show up here any more. Maybe there really is no point to worry about his trust rating. He either shows up again or not, that simple.
And, for the record, I may well be a top ten "victim" of his disappearance.

Ente

I've followed this thread VERY closely since the beginning. I totally agree that Chris gave this project his all. There is no questioning that. I'm still in awe of his achievement, and wish he could be here to see it to fruition. He believed so strongly in the project that is was infectious. Many people including myself donated funds or material to this project. I don't regret that at all.

I'm not really all that bothered that he didn't ship the items I ordered. The money isn't much. Honestly I'm mostly just disappointed not to be getting the souvenir K1 and the "picngo" boards he'd developed. So I'm not saying that I suffered a dramatic loss. Not at all.

I'd like to know what happened to him - I'm truly worried for his welfare. I'm finding it very difficult to believe he stole from us or scammed us. I know this project to a big toll on him - physically, mentally, and no doubt financially.

Until proven differently, I still strongly respect and trust Chris. Unfortunately though, the reality is that I simply can't justify a fully positive trust rating despite my very high personal regard for BkkCoins.

[Newar]

The way I see it, the trust rating is an indicator for others whether or not to deal with a certain person. That person has to be around to do deals though. BkkCoins is clearly not around. Therefore the trust rating is moot in his case anyway until he (hopefully soon!) returns and can explain his situation.

[mokahless]

Alright, well, I have my chips now and most of my components. Now I need programmed PICs and K1 boards. Suggestions?

I have access to a local place that can make boards but I am unsure of the information I need to give them. I'd also really rather avoid programming the PICs myself, as that would require further investment than I was hoping for a hobby project.

[cp1]

Was the K1 verified working?

[ik2013]

Alright, well, I have my chips now and most of my components. Now I need programmed PICs and K1 boards. Suggestions?

I have access to a local place that can make boards but I am unsure of the information I need to give them. I'd also really rather avoid programming the PICs myself, as that would require further investment than I was hoping for a hobby project.

Try Digikey for the PICs. I know they will program AVR chips before they send them out I can't imagine why they wouldn't offer the same service for a PIC. The board files should be on the github referenced in this thread

[Newar]

Was the K1 verified working?

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=190731.msg3213896#msg3213896

[Bicknellski]

Is the K1 fully functional?

I could be wrong but I do not think the revisions where ever tested. Last Word from BKK was his wife going to pick up the new K1 pcb's. He was waiting on these before mailing orders, then my order arrived -k1 pcb's so am guessing there may have been an issue with them.

Am not aware of a third party testing them Bicknellski may have further info on the K1's..

We pulled the plug on our 11000 K1's before the K1's he ordered arrived. So never got to the stage of fabrication.

Email on K1 received from BKK on Aug 2 a few days before we finally threw in the towel because of Yifu failure to deliver the 30 sample chips on time etc etc.

Hi Darin,

Sorry, I was away picking up stuff in Bkk yesterday.
I refunded my customer the btc he paid and told him I couldn't produce K1s at the price he desired.
So I don't have any plans at the moment for doing K1 sales or production.

I've been in contact with a Microchip Engineer over the last few days trying to clear up an ambiguous design issue regarding the F series parts. The final word is that F series, eg, PIC16F1459 parts will not work in the K1 due to it's internal USB voltage regulator not being able to be bypassed. It can only support USB when running at 5V and we cannot do that due to the ASIC requiring 3.3V only.

That was my attempt to free up more than 6000 F series parts in stock now at Microchip.

Now, the engineer did contact their marketing department internally and they stated that production is based on orders in their system for 'LF1459, and that if no one has contacted them through an account to order them they won't get produced. He asked if I had placed an order, and I explained that I'm a designer and that it's my clients who cannot source enough parts. So, the bottom line here seems to be that you won't get enough of these chips unless you directly contact their sales department and order them, and then negotiate with them about how quickly they will get made. My opinion is that the number of LF1459 parts floating around in distributor stock is purely left overs from production for specific orders they receive. That's why Mouser has had 50 on order for 3 months and never gets them.

That was pretty much the last contact I had about the K1... everything else you know I know from his posts here on the K1.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=190731.msg2928080#msg2928080

August 14, 2013

Thanks, Everyone for kind words and support.

There's some errors in K1 Nano package footprints on a few parts. I'm going to review them again before posting a parts list update or board revision. Looks like a few parts have 0603 pads for 0402 parts, which is probably workable but not ideal.

My K1 boards have now arrived in Bkk and I should be going to get them within a few days. I'll need to cut them down before packing and shipping.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=190731.msg2961262#msg2961262

August 19, 2013

Please Everyone,

If you have decided this is dragging on too long and want to cancel and get a refund, then please contact me by PM and let me know. I'll process it asap.

Please don't file a Paypal dispute for something I can handle directly and simply by myself. The last thing I need is a flood of disputes causing my excellent 10+ years standing at Paypal to be questioned and even worse my account to be put on hold, making it hard to order stuff. There's no reason to doubt I'll take care of your request quickly and with no fuss.

I hope you'll hold on as K1 boards are waiting for me to pick up,a nd should be shipping real soon. I'm working on the firmware updating code now so that I can ship pre-programmed PICs. I've got this code written but I'm testing and working on a ktest update to allow manual upgrading via USB. I'll be shipping the working firmware before I complete the automated upgrading ability in cgminer since using ktest (while clunky) will allow people to upgrade the firmware. This programming work has taken precedence over my hardware testing because my priority is to ship orders ASAP, and then return to building/testing my own personal miners.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=190731.msg2969544#msg2969544

August 19, 2013

Small update - my wife is going to Bkk to get the K1 boards this evening. She'll pick them up tomorrow and return the next morning. So I should be shipping a lot of orders Thursday/Friday. I'll process them in order as received assuming I get the firmware tested while she's away. The only nagging problems I'll have still are shortage of SS PICS and K1 heat sink delivery. I had both those worked out weeks ago but both have not arrived as expected. The 268 PICs I had shipped have either got lost or stuck in customs. They could turn up any time or not.

The K1 heat sinks I sampled and ordered back when I put the site up have become unavailable. I've worked on substitutions but so far that's not really coming together. I could get flat aluminium and self-fabricate by cutting and bending. Another possibility is a shorter 24mm x 27mm heat sink I do have available here. Since it's not 32mm long it would need thermal adhesive for attaching rather than screws. So that's a possible backup plan.

I'm open to suggestions on the K1 heat sink. I don't really want to give up on them as it's bound to be harder for individuals to dig up something suitable. Places contacted in China via Alibaba haven't been useful either as they've required minimum 1 ton purchases - well beyond what is feasible here.

August 20, 2013

K1 boards arrived.
I'm working on firmware now but want to get these boards cut up and shipped asap.

https://i.imgur.com/YHyUT0w.jpg

LAST MESSAGE... then darkness.

August 31, 2013

I'm still here and haven't abandoned the project. I've had some disruptions over the last week as the tile guys that I've been waiting for since March finally arrived and started putting in floors. I've been moving stuff around from room to room, and it's a mess, stuff piled up everywhere. Timing couldn't have been worse, and my time diverted. I'm setting up my workbench and tools again and back working again, though the room I'm in still has no floor and I'll have to move back again in 2 days. If it were just me here I could probably have delayed them but my wife (and other family) presses on me as well. Plus I really need a floor.

I appreciate the kind words above and want to finalize this whole thing so I can move on. I feel like I'm stumbling around not knowing what's actually going to happen regarding Avalon chips, much disheartened by everything, but trying to keep a more positive outlook.

[erk]

..still worryied about his wellbeing.

On another note, BKKCoins has too little trust ratings: three.
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=trust;u=29155
..where one of the three screams "SCAM!".
I don't know what's going on at BKKCoins' home. But I strongly feel his trust page doesn't reflect all that he did for us.
Let's change that now.

Ente

I'm pretty worried about BkkCoins as his disappearance seems so out of character. And he DID do a TON of amazing work on this project.

With that said, what do you expect to be added to his trust rating? I DON'T think he's a scammer at all. As already stated I'm worried about his well being. Yet I too have ordered items from him that I never received. I've sent a number of emails that have gone unanswered. By rights, I SHOULD be doing the community a "service" by stating so in his trust ratings. I haven't done that, because I DON'T feel it's in his character, and there must be extenuating circumstances.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I feel like I'm giving him a break by just skipping his trust ratings - I can't in all honesty give him a 100% trust rating, since I didn't receive what I ordered. I know there must be more to the story, and like momma told me "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all".

Besides, would there there even any value in it for him to have a high trust rating, given that he's not logged on in quite some time?

I agree, it's not like the Avalon chip scam was his doing. I would like him to surface and give his point of view on things. The Klondike project could be converted to Bitfury chips.

[Bicknellski]

Others have moved to BitFury miners already and they are not going to be long life units given the difficulty... at this point I would say salvaging with bitfury is best option but you have to get a team of people together to work on this not sure how many people out the are still willing to salvage the boards or simply write this off.

I will send out a postcard to Chris today... hope to hear something back about his health and situation in November.

[synapse]

I'm surprised that others haven't chimed in with what they have done.
I got my chips from the steamboat buy last week (unfortunately missing the PCB's from bkkcoins)
sounds like steamboat might have a working klondike based on this email I got back on 3rd October:

Chip refunds:
 The majority of the eligible chip refunds have been processed, with the remainder to be sent tonight. We received enough requests to process 4 batches of refunds. To date, there still have not been enough requests to fulfill the fifth batch. Of the remaining two batches, we have processed and additional 200 BTC worth of chips using our own funds. Those who have submitted a refund request which cannot be fulfilled will be contacted shortly regarding their order.

 Chip status:
 Batch 1 and 2 have arrived, and have been sent to the assembly house. Those with a chip only order will be sent an email shortly confirming their information. Shipping will be provided free of charge for all chip only purchases.

 Assembly status:
 We have successfully determined the source of the hardware issues, as well as a portion of the software/firmware conflicts, and are now hashing on all 16 chips at 4.6-4.8GH/s, at 350mhz. We are still receiving high hardware error rates, which we believe is a combination of the on board PIC and suboptimal firmware, and are in the process of optimizing the driver to reduce the error rates. Overclocking testing has also shown the thermal vias were not being fully filled due to the way they were designed. The assembly house has developed a two-step process to address this, and will be ready to assemble today pending final verification after we have tested and approved the process. During testing the 3.3v regulator was operating over spec, using more amps than it is rated for. While the unit functions and the component appears to be stable, we have chosen to replace it in order to ensure there are no failures during extended long term operation.

 There are several firmware issues which need to be addressed before the units are ready for end use. The first priority is a USB bootloader. This is necessary to flash the units with firmware updates via USB without the need for additional hardware and software. Additionally, there is an issue with cgminer which does not allow multiple units to be connected to the same instance without severe performance degradation. This is not essential to shipping the units so long as the USB bootloader is properly programmed, but does increase the amount of time required to test the units as the ktest utility remains unfinished. We are also working on auto-serialization code to allow us to step-program the units with a unique serial number without the need to rebuild the hex file for each board. Lowest on the priority list is I2C implementation to allow chaining between boards. While it greatly reduces the amount of USB cables and hubs necessary to connect multiple units, it is not necessary for the unit to function.

 Assembly refunds:
 We will be releasing information as soon as we can regarding assembly refunds. We understand you are anxious to receive your refunds, and we are working on it. Our first priority is fulfilling our obligations to those customers who have chosen to receive their units. This unfortunately is not a process we can rush. Please continue to be patient with us as we work to catch up.

 I would like to devote more time to explaining in more detail where we are in the process, how we plan to proceed, and provide more timely updates, but there simply is not enough time. Our silence does not mean we are not doing anything. Quite to the contrary, we are working overtime, and have been for quite some time, to make the best of this situation. I have to cut this update short because the assembly house is awaiting final testing to begin production, but felt it could not wait any longer. A more detailed update will be sent as soon as possible describing the process and how to proceed from here.

[joeventura]

Well I have 1 highly prized (HA) Avalon chips.

Any idea who may be selling assembly services and actually delivering a functional device,
Otherwise these chips are going to become nice cuff links.

[loshia]

Well I have 1 highly prized (HA) Avalon chips.

Any idea who may be selling assembly services and actually delivering a functional device,
Otherwise these chips are going to become nice cuff links.

Hex16a and burninin

[TheDroid]

I can help you out I think.  I'm doing assembly for one of the groups, and due to cancellations and refunds we should have surplus parts to run some K16's and maybe K1's.  Right now its on hold pending the firmware issues being fixed, but then we're good to go.

I've assembled one full K16 that does work but with ~20% HW due to firmware issues.  Once that gets resolved we'll be pumping them out for days and days.

As for K1's, I'm not sure the design was finished.  If it is, those should be easy to assemble.  I don't have parts/boards for them but that wouldn't be an issue.

BTW, Avalon cuff links would be sweet... especially if hashing while your wearing them.

[Vl4dim1r]

Is anyone still selling Avalon1s? I have a few extreme cooling techniques I'd like to check out, and parts remaining for k16s I need to build up

[freeworm]

wow, that's a great news.
steamboat, you did a great job!
What's the hardware issues with the K16 board?

[fasmax]

As far as surplus parts go, one would think that TerraHash would lots of extra stuff.
They were going to build K16's before they got a refund on 20,000 ASIC's.
If any one wants to sale a few Avalon ASIC's (like maybe 4 parts) let me know.

Also is anyone interested in continuing this project and adapting it to the new gen 2 Avalon parts?