Klondike - 16 chip ASIC Open Source Board - Preliminary

[marto74]

Small teaser
K1 with Avalon and some of the components almost ready for PIK and communication testing





These were populated by hand for tests only

[joeventura]

Small teaser
K1 with Avalon and some of the components almost ready for PIK and communication testing





These were populated by hand for tests only

Well done! And nice soldering skills!!

[BkkCoins]

Small teaser
K1 with Avalon and some of the components almost ready for PIK and communication testing





These were populated by hand for tests only

Nice. Looks like rolling the legs over worked ok.
Looking at that just made me realize I want to remove the ICSP pads from paste layer as my intention there was just to press prog. pins against the pads, which is harder if solder is there.

That NOR gate is one of the tiniest parts.

[Igor_Rast]

He Guys , I was having this idear of building a host for the Klondike with a
Parallax Propeller 32bit microcontroller , whith a Wiznet W5200 TCP/IP stack for network connectivity .
Looking tru the info I can find , but cant find a meaningfull flowchart of any kind

does anyone have this , Let say , the flowchart of cgminer / the controlling of the Avalon chips  ?? or are we still waiting for avalon to release these . They gave some communication protocol info . but cant figure out anything with that alone
sure would be verry handy in brainstorming this host controller

Thanks
Igor

[miztic]

Keep up the good work BKKCoins,
enjoy your hobby, don't let anyone pressure you.

[ik2013]

don't sweat it BKK! Trust me I know all about the frustration of the small errors with board design, so annoying! Sounds like it should be an easy enough fix. I'm sure it doesn't help that tons of people are watching you either. Bummer about kicad not catching it too

It's all going to work out!

[magixx]

Where can I actually buy a board+parts?

[ryepdx]

Where can I actually buy a board+parts?

Right now? Nowhere. The thing's barely begun testing. You can preorder them from a few places, though, if you have chips and want assembly (such as my own assembly service). BkkCoins will be selling bare boards, kits, and populated boards (minus chips) directly, too, once the design is done. (See the first post in this thread.)

[mike2kt]

Just doing my sanity probing on the K16. Found first error: Vcc power for PIC is not connected. I know why, but I'm curious if anyone out there can find it and why Kicad does not report it during it's DRC check. Again, I know why, and in my opinion it's a huge failing of Kicad, but since I knew that it has this absurd behaviour I should have caught it especially with such an obvious line. Anyway, this one is easy to fix for the test board, and now I know I can fix the design file, but you know the whole point of design software is to not let this happen and Kicad fails miserably at this.

Did the ERC Pass?

[BkkCoins]

Did the ERC Pass?

Unfortunately you get the same errors all over the place even when they're connected fine.
My complaint is that power rail symbols don't actually connect to each other unless you add a label. Even though that pin is marked as Vcc it doesn't connect to Vcc until I add a separate label Vcc, and then the net list gets it and the connection makes it over to the PCB.

[daemondazz]

My complaint is that power rail symbols don't actually connect to each other unless you add a label. Even though that pin is marked as Vcc it doesn't connect to Vcc until I add a separate label Vcc, and then the net list gets it and the connection makes it over to the PCB.

gschem works in a similar way, the visible label is not (necessarily) what is used by the netlister.

However, all the power symbols in the standard library do include the net by default!

[BkkCoins]

My complaint is that power rail symbols don't actually connect to each other unless you add a label. Even though that pin is marked as Vcc it doesn't connect to Vcc until I add a separate label Vcc, and then the net list gets it and the connection makes it over to the PCB.

gschem works in a similar way, the visible label is not (necessarily) what is used by the netlister.

However, all the power symbols in the standard library do include the net by default!

I think I got frustrated early on with the ERC in Kicad. I kept having to check things that were fine, and after a while I stopped running it because it had no way, like Eagle, where you could mark an item as "Ok, so stop buggin me". I would say it came back and bit me except right now there are a dozen or so same ERC errors that have the net list connections intact.

[southerngentuk]

Quit? Let the riot begin:





The Firmware is not yet production ready cgminer throws a shitton of errors on starting.
AND the chip currently runs at 128Mhz because its not properly cooled, i have tested it at 256mhz too and it works but its too hot for long tests.

Come on BKK, ur falling behind

Seriously though, just take your time. We are all behind you...

[ecliptic]

What are the options/alternatives for the k16 heatsinks?

[erk]

What are the options/alternatives for the k16 heatsinks?

There are many options covered in this thread, I suggest you look at some rather than having people repeat them over and over.

Type the word heatsink into the search and you should get 6 pages of hits.

[ecliptic]

What are the options/alternatives for the k16 heatsinks?

There are many options covered in this thread, I suggest you look at some rather than having people repeat them over and over.

Type the word heatsink into the search and you should get 6 pages of hits.

Yeah about that, pretty much looks to be all all custom solutions with questionable sourcing availability.  Time to design and quote one or find one that can be easily modified to work i guess.  There doesn't appear to be anything off the shelf that works, but that's probably unavoidable

[Mabsark]

What are the options/alternatives for the k16 heatsinks?

There are many options covered in this thread, I suggest you look at some rather than having people repeat them over and over.

Type the word heatsink into the search and you should get 6 pages of hits.

People shouldn't need to search through multiple pages of mostly irrelevant information to find 1 comment which makes a passing mention of the info you're looking for.

Any kit that is currently ready should be linked to in the initial post.

[erk]

What are the options/alternatives for the k16 heatsinks?

There are many options covered in this thread, I suggest you look at some rather than having people repeat them over and over.

Type the word heatsink into the search and you should get 6 pages of hits.

People shouldn't need to search through multiple pages of mostly irrelevant information to find 1 comment which makes a passing mention of the info you're looking for.

Any kit that is currently ready should be linked to in the initial post.

There are no kits in this thread, it's a design discussion thread. Go look at one of the board buy threads, there are many, like Burnin's or Terrahash threads.

[Mabsark]

Each K16 have a power connector, power plug or suggestions 2.5/5.5mm Type D Molex power connector.

Each K16 has a PCI Express power connector. That's the 6 pin standard one seen on most PCI Express cards, and commonly available on ATX power supplies. Molex adapters are cheaply available, as are PCIe splitters, but be sure to use ones that have thick enough wire to handle 4A without getting hot.

The 6 pin PCIE cables use 3 x 12V lines, providing 6.25A and a a maximum wattage of 75W. That should allow 2 devices to be powered per cable using a splitter.

Also, how many amps does a K16 use?

[Mabsark]

You can also get SATA power to 6-pin adaptors:

http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-SATPCIEXADAP-6-Inch-Express-Adapter/dp/B007Y91B80/ref=pd_sim_pc_2

Single SATA to 6-pin also exist and are probably enough.

Possibly but then again possibly not.

The SATA connector was not chosen because it needed 1.5A per pin and parts were available with only 1A or in 15+7 form (power+data) and ended up costing more than the PCI-E.

The Molex can push 11A per pin. You might even be able to use a Molex splitter (you'd still be testing the power limits though).

The SATA connectors use 3 pins per voltage, so that's 4.5A per connector, which should be enough I believe.