Ended CardReaderFactory Lancelot Group Purchase due to Seller Business Practice

[Beaflag VonRathburg]

Put me down for 1 if the group is still open. I too need to find a way to convert fiat -> btc though atm.

Let me know when you have.

Alright, have most of the BTC.
https://blockchain.info/address/1swagRTAax1nny6zJbtukYVVWYJkm3zKg
Just need to wait for my litecoin transaction to confirm so I can trade to Bitcoin as well.
http://explorer.litecoin.net/tx/9380ec355ce4512153b2012dda933e80a54616fdb72715031fa63e617a87fc3e

I'll add you to the list.

[1714136957]

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[DebitMe]

Scarab. Im trying to figure this out. I havr an extra psu for this but no extra comp to put it to. All the ones I have running have all their watts used by gpua. So I want the brick. Can I buy a generic brick that will work? Do the splitters come with the boards? And I wojld possibly be interested in a tower unit. But dont the pins they come with allow them to be stacked?

[Beaflag VonRathburg]

Still no response from blackarrow or cardreaderfactory. Going to be resending messages and posting in multiple threads in hope of receiving a response.

Scarab. Im trying to figure this out. I havr an extra psu for this but no extra comp to put it to. All the ones I have running have all their watts used by gpua. So I want the brick. Can I buy a generic brick that will work? Do the splitters come with the boards? And I wojld possibly be interested in a tower unit. But dont the pins they come with allow them to be stacked?

If you have an extra PSU to power the units just connect the lancelot units to the molex connectors and paper clip the 24 pin plug to turn it on. Google, "Paper clip turns on power supply". Or, purchase one of these for $7: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812201037&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-Internal+Power+Cables-_-N82E16812201037&gclid=CIqBodHO_bYCFcuh4AodvVcAtA

[DebitMe]

Still no response from blackarrow or cardreaderfactory. Going to be resending messages and posting in multiple threads in hope of receiving a response.

Scarab. Im trying to figure this out. I havr an extra psu for this but no extra comp to put it to. All the ones I have running have all their watts used by gpua. So I want the brick. Can I buy a generic brick that will work? Do the splitters come with the boards? And I wojld possibly be interested in a tower unit. But dont the pins they come with allow them to be stacked?

If you have an extra PSU to power the units just connect the lancelot units to the molex connectors and paper clip the 24 pin plug to turn it on. Google, "Paper clip turns on power supply". Or, purchase one of these for $7: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812201037&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-Internal+Power+Cables-_-N82E16812201037&gclid=CIqBodHO_bYCFcuh4AodvVcAtA

So what your saying there is that I still need the ATX Power Converter right?  Then I have my one main computer that has 4 GPU's running and its own PSU, and I plug in a different PSU to the boards through the ATX Power Converter, and plug all the usb connectors into the main computer I should be fine?  Essentially two PSU's, one to power my GPU's and the other for the FPGA's?  Why would I need that product from NewEgg though?

Sorry for being a noob, I am learning and promise to take everything that I have learned and help others

[DebitMe]

Wow I apologize for sucking at reading.  Ok, 2nd PSU goes Molex straight to boards, then paperclip power supply to turn them on, then connect the boards to the main comp via usb, GOT IT! 

Is there an order that I should turn this contraption on?  Like boards first then main comp?

[scarab2378]

Scarab. Im trying to figure this out. I havr an extra psu for this but no extra comp to put it to. All the ones I have running have all their watts used by gpua. So I want the brick. Can I buy a generic brick that will work? Do the splitters come with the boards? And I wojld possibly be interested in a tower unit. But dont the pins they come with allow them to be stacked?

I'm not 100% sure, but the brass standoffs do not seem to come with the Lancelots, hence the idea of making a frame came to me.

http://www.cardreaderfactory.com/shop/bitcoin.html

A generic brick with the right specs should power these.  They sell 12v 10amp bricks on thier site and state that 1 brick powers 4 devices.  They don't state if the brick has 4 output plugs though.  If you view thier ATX splitter page, they give a bunch of options for buying wires with plugs.  I am sure that getting the plugs is not an issue, you simply need the correct size (5.5/2.5mm power plug), and I am assuming that we will need to wire them ourselves.  This is pretty easy soldering. Just get the polarity correct!

So, you buy any bricks with the right specs (input volts 120 for N. America, and 220 for Europe), probably have to cut off the existing 12v output plug, and solder on 4 of the correctly sized plugs in parallel to power 4 of the Lancelots.

Alternatively, you can use a computer ATX power supply (at 600 or more watts), but then you need to figure out how to adapt it to power up to 20 lancelots.  This is where their ATX adapter breakout board comes in handy, which is why some of us asked for this.  Their breakout board is a bit unusual in that it has 20 of the 12V outputs.  You buy 20 of their wires + plugs and simply screw the bare wire ends into the green terminals.  You then plug a 600 watt ATX power supply (personally, would use a 700 watt) and you can plug 20 lancelots into it.  You can plug less in (say like 10 lancelots) if you prefer, so then you need only 300 watts (or preferably 350 watts).

Hardware installation:

1, connect the Power cable, use Molex-D-type connector or 5.5/2.5mm power plug. please do not use both of them.

As another option, we make our own, or find an off-the-shelf ATX breakout board.  Possibly this might work http://www.robotshop.com/cytron-atx-power-supply-breakout-board-right-angle-2.html though it does not have 20 of the 12V outputs.

I am not sure what the 5 (or 6?) caps on the cardreaderfactory ATX breakout board are for.  If anyone knows, please let me know.  Possibly they are just to help smooth out the 12V output.  If that's the case, then it would be easy to add some caps to a generic breakout board.

The above options assume you don't mind doing a little soldering.  THis is easy soldering, not like trying to solder SMT components or anything tricky.

[scarab2378]

Still no response from blackarrow or cardreaderfactory. Going to be resending messages and posting in multiple threads in hope of receiving a response.

Scarab. Im trying to figure this out. I havr an extra psu for this but no extra comp to put it to. All the ones I have running have all their watts used by gpua. So I want the brick. Can I buy a generic brick that will work? Do the splitters come with the boards? And I wojld possibly be interested in a tower unit. But dont the pins they come with allow them to be stacked?

If you have an extra PSU to power the units just connect the lancelot units to the molex connectors and paper clip the 24 pin plug to turn it on. Google, "Paper clip turns on power supply". Or, purchase one of these for $7: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812201037&nm_mc=KNC-GoogleAdwords&cm_mmc=KNC-GoogleAdwords-_-pla-_-Internal+Power+Cables-_-N82E16812201037&gclid=CIqBodHO_bYCFcuh4AodvVcAtA

So what your saying there is that I still need the ATX Power Converter right?  Then I have my one main computer that has 4 GPU's running and its own PSU, and I plug in a different PSU to the boards through the ATX Power Converter, and plug all the usb connectors into the main computer I should be fine?  Essentially two PSU's, one to power my GPU's and the other for the FPGA's?  Why would I need that product from NewEgg though?

Sorry for being a noob, I am learning and promise to take everything that I have learned and help others

This may just be my preference, but I would not power the Lancelot units from the same PSU that is running your computer, except possibly just to run 1 or 2 of the Lancelots (and assuming you have enough unused wattage from your current PSU.)  If you do have enough available unused watts, then you can use the splitter from Newegg he cited to split the power from your current PSU to power one Lancelot.

If you are using an extra PSU, then the spitter he cites will power 2 of the lancelots.  I suppose you could get crazy with the splitters and buy a bunch and keep splitting them to power a bunch of lancelots, but this is not ideal due to daisy chaining a lot of plugged in connectors, and risking that somehwhere in the chain, you get a bad connection, which would affect everything downstream.

[Beaflag VonRathburg]

Wow I apologize for sucking at reading.  Ok, 2nd PSU goes Molex straight to boards, then paperclip power supply to turn them on, then connect the boards to the main comp via usb, GOT IT! 

Is there an order that I should turn this contraption on?  Like boards first then main comp?

You got it. Connect USB, plug the Lancelot boards in, and paperclip. Fans will spin and OS will detect the boards.

[Zeronic]

Depending on when the order will be place I might be good for 1 atm.

[sgrunger]

I got a reply from blackbarrow, I had asked him a few questions before I knew about the group purchase, saying

"We do accept Bitcoins as payment, even escrow service.
We aim to ship at the end of this week but we'll know for sure on Monday. We are still waiting for our FPGA suppliers hence we cannot be 100% sure that we'll ship everything at the end of the week."

[Beaflag VonRathburg]

The group purchase has officially been closed. If you have previously contacted me and are on the fence about ordering this is your last chance.

Depending on when the order will be place I might be good for 1 atm.

Let me know as soon as possible.

I got a reply from blackbarrow, I had asked him a few questions before I knew about the group purchase, saying

"We do accept Bitcoins as payment, even escrow service.
We aim to ship at the end of this week but we'll know for sure on Monday. We are still waiting for our FPGA suppliers hence we cannot be 100% sure that we'll ship everything at the end of the week."

He responded to my PM and I've just sent him a response. We are attempting to work out the details of the escrow services.

[fgkrew]

Put me in for 4 of this.

Is there an estimate of delivery time?

[Beaflag VonRathburg]

Group purchase closed. Updating the OP and that is it.

Put me in for 4 of this.

Is there an estimate of delivery time?

Adding you and updating the original post with PMs received. This is officially the last units to be added to the group purchase. From the time they ship 2-3 days until they are at my door.

[Beaflag VonRathburg]

John K. confirms he will perform the BTC group purchase escrow for 2% of the total. That would increase the price per unit $5.50. If that is unacceptable to you personally please pm me, let me know, and we will discuss it.

Here is a group purchase thread he is currently acting as the escrow agent for: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=195052.0

Here is a group purchase thread that he has successly acted as the escrow agent for: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=177994.0

All we are waiting on is for blackarrow to confirm John K. as an acceptable escrow agent, confirm acceptable stock, and I will place the order for the units.

Please wait few more days before starting collecting payments. We will let you know as soon as we have confirmation from our FPGA supplier then you can start collecting the payments.

[LazyOtto]

...
All we are waiting on is for blackarrow to confirm John K. as an acceptable escrow agent and I will place the order for the units.

Not quite. Also still need blackarrow to affirm product availability. (Unless he has already done this in private conversation with you. If so, the statement needs to become public.)

All I've seen recently is that he is still working on procuring sufficient chips to actually build more boards.

Please get some specificity as to blackarrow's actual ability to deliver in xx time frame prior to placing the order.

[Beaflag VonRathburg]

...
All we are waiting on is for blackarrow to confirm John K. as an acceptable escrow agent and I will place the order for the units.

Not quite. Also still need blackarrow to affirm product availability. (Unless he has already done this in private conversation with you. If so, the statement needs to become public.)

All I've seen recently is that he is still working on procuring sufficient chips to actually build more boards.

Please get some specificity as to blackarrow's actual ability to deliver in xx time frame prior to placing the order.

Fixed. Pasted from our pm conversation. Waiting on blackarrow's confirmation of stock and John K.

[LazyOtto]

Please ...

Fixed. Pasted from our pm conversation. Waiting on blackarrow's confirmation of stock and John K.

Thank you.

[Beaflag VonRathburg]

Updates:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=187549.msg2048750#msg2048750

Dear Customers,

We've based our offer on a IC supplier that promised us a certain price for any quantity with immediate supply. When we've placed the order with them (immediately after receiving the first orders), they gave us few FPGAs and asked us to wait 8 weeks if we want more. Since then we have continued to look for the FPGAs.

Today we've only been able to get enough FPGAs for 50 boards (from another supplier) but this is not enough to clear our backorders. We'll put these in production tomorrow and should ship by Friday.

Meanwhile it looks that we've asked every company in Shenzhen for these FPGA. Most of them are indirect re-sellers but they did not told us this upfront. What happened was that they started to ask between themselves and they got the impression that the demand is higher than it actually is. For this reason they've upped the price by 30-45% which makes it impossible for us to sell them with the discounted price of $275/pcs. We are still looking for the parts but it appears that the only certain way to get them is to place an order from Xilinx which will take 8 weeks.

Would anybody be willing to wait 8 weeks if we can sell at $275?

We have now put the Lancelot devices "Out of Stock" on our website and will not take any more orders until we can clear the backlog and find a proper supplier.

If anybody can supply us with the following ICs, we would be very grateful. Please send me a private message if you can get them within few days.

XC6SLX150-3NFGG484C   
XC6SLX150-3NFGG484I   
XC6SLX150-3FGG484C   
XC6SLX150-3FGG484I
XC6SLX150-2FGG484C
XC6SLX150-2FGG484I

Regards!

and,

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=187549.msg2050341#msg2050341

Just a quick update. We're sending everybody who've placed orders and have not yet paid this message. We think it is the fairest thing to do right now. We welcome useful suggestions.


We have an update for your order:

We will have in stock 50 x Lancelot devices on Friday but this is not enough to complete all our backlog. For this reason you might not get the order in time.

You can now pay your order but if you do so you agree to the following conditions:

We will ship the orders on first paid, first shipped basis.

If we've sold all the above stock and you have not paid by then, we will put your order status back on "Backordered"
If your payment arrives after we've sold this stock you can ask for a refund immediatelly (you will cover all the refund or exchange fees where aplicable - none for Bitcoin) or you can let us know by next Monday how long you are willing to wait for your order to be shipped. Based on this information we will organize our parts order to ensure that we can fulfill your order.
Once you've commited to a shipping date, and we've accepted it, your refund will be available only after that date if we fail to ship it.
Although we accept escrow payments we will favorize all other payment methods but escrow. This means that if you choose to pay with bitcoin escrow, you will only receive your order once we've cleared our backlog of all other orders paid through different payment methods.
Your order is on hold as we are waiting for the payment.

My Response:

This doesn't seem shady to anyone? Nevermind, what we said before about escrow services, please pay us now to receive your order eventually. When, we can't tell you, but we'll let you know.

As the organizer of a 163 unit order, paying customers would constantly bump our large order to the end of the line because we are requesting escrow service. Receiving inadequate stock of xilinx units as infrequent as 50 at a time with no certain time line for more, guarantees never being able to supply the units in a timely manner. Paying orders would stack up ahead of us faster than they can send them out the door due to inadequate stock of xilinx units. Combine those two factors and we'd end up waiting at absolute minimum a month to receive units and possibly longer.

He also refuses to answer my question about escrow suggesting I should fly to China to pickup and pay for the units:

We will cover the 2% fee. If that is acceptable to you I will place the order upon your response for the units.

Wouldn't it be more convenient if you would fly here to pick them up?  You could pay here in Cash, test them, avoid paying 600-900usd in escrow, customs taxes and DHL fees.

We cannot declare very low value for customs as we will need to insure them for the full value.

Regards!

Let me know how you feel about this. I believe this basically makes our purchase worthless unless they magically get 300+ xilinx units in tomorrow.

[chanberg]

Pretty much man.. Sucks, was looking forward to this group buy..

I guess its back to the BFL waiting game haha

- Danny

[DebitMe]

dang that really sucks, I was getting really excited for these.  But that sounds very sketchy to me.  Oh well...