X6500 "Reject" Grab Bag Auction

[fizzisist]

Update:

I just gathered up everything that I'm planning to ship to the winner and took a photo:



A partial list:

• 16x X6500 rev 3 (rejected)
• 6x Spartan 6 XC6SLX150-3FG484C FPGAs (up from 4 advertised previously!!)
• 9x standard heatsink/fans
• 4x custom heatsink/fans made by Enzotech for us
• 2x Enzotech SLF-1 copper heatsink/fans
• 2x Enzotech SLF-1-Ultra copper heatsink/fans
• 2x Enzotech CNB-S1L copper heatsinks
• 2x Zalman "flower" heatsinks
• 2x 120 mm fan
• 92 mm fan
• 80 mm fan
• Spare voltage regulator modules
• Tons of standoffs, screws, and between board spacers
• Two big bags of various spare parts

This deal is getting better by the minute, and there's only about 1 day left to bid!

I've been receiving lots of emails lately from people wanting to buy X6500s, but sadly, we're not going to make any more. I had an idea though, that might be very appealing to an enterprising individual that's handy with a soldering iron. Auction off a grab bag of "rejected" X6500s!

Each of the 16 rev 3 X6500s in this box was tested but did not meet our quality standards. We fully intended to go back and repair/diagnose these at some point, but ran out of time. The boards suffer from a variety of problems: possibly (although rarely) simply higher than average "invalid" shares, to (more likely) not working at all. There are no notes on what ails each board, and I have no time to plug them back in and test them. So, I'm just putting the whole box up for auction!

These are sold AS IS with NO WARRANTY or GUARANTEE.

My best guess is that probably 4 or 5 of them have a single FPGA that works perfectly, but the other FPGA has some problem that doesn't impair the other one at all (as far as I could tell and remember). Some might need a minor repair like a voltage regulator replacement, or simply a burned out fuse. Some just might not work at all for whatever reason but worst case you can scavenge the board for parts. Again, I make no guarantee about the quality or functionality of these boards.

To aid repairing, I'm going to include a spare parts kit. This will be randomly assembled from parts I have on hand, so I can't say that you won't need to order other stuff to get these working. Most importantly, there will be four brand new Spartan 6 XC6SLX150-3FG484C FPGAs included. These have never been soldered and are still in the original tray, although the vacuum packaging has been opened. I'll also include some heatsinks and random stuff that might be useful (e.g., standoffs). If you'd like more detail on the parts included, please ask and I'll roughly catalog what I have and make a list.

Starting bid is 3 BTC and the minimum increment is 0.1 BTC.

Shipping to the US is free. International shipping will be paid by the buyer.

The auction will end at midnight UTC at the end of May 6, 2013. Countdown clock below.

Timer removed. End time: 2013-05-06+19:00:00

[Garr255]

Watching!

[siennamar]

"seeing"

[Bicknellski]

3 BTC

[fizzisist]

Additional note:

The winner of the auction must submit payment within 48 hours from receiving the payment address from me, or the offer will open to the next highest bidder.

[TheSeven]

Having seen some photos and xray scans of some of those boards, I'd guess that the majority of them should be fixable fairly easy, with just a standard soldering iron. There were pretty clear signs of some PCB pads of the oscillator chips not reflowing properly, which should be easy enough to fix.

fizzisist, please post a few pictures of those boards, and the xray scans where available

[fizzisist]

Here are some x-rays of the FPGAs and oscillators:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/9fi69wbjj28ob6q/orbfzJ1aKW

The oscillator chips are to the right. Note that I don't know which of these boards these x-rays were, but about eight of these reject boards belonging to this x-rayed group of 10 seems about correct from my memory. Still, I want to be clear that I'm not making any claims about how easy these will be to repair.

I'll try to take some pictures tomorrow.

[Bicknellski]

LOL stop trying to paint such a rose picture... I want these boards at 3 BTC.

[t13hydra]

3.1 

[Bicknellski]

  3.2

[Bogart]

I've been wanting to learn to do SMT work some more, and this looks like a good opportunity to learn.

Supposing I were to win the auction, or buy a few pieces from the winner, what kind of tools might I need to be able to make a good repair effort?

I have a regular soldering iron, and a Hantek USB DSO.

I'm also getting this "USB Microscope": http://www.ebay.com/itm/110747608280

What else should I have?  A hot air reflow wand?

(sorry if this doesn't really belong in this thread)

[TheSwede75]

Two questions:

- Do they come with 'complete assembly' (Fan, heatsink etc)
- Is the auction for 1 pcs or the whole 16 pcs lot?

Thank you!

[fizzisist]

I've been wanting to learn to do SMT work some more, and this looks like a good opportunity to learn.

Supposing I were to win the auction, or buy a few pieces from the winner, what kind of tools might I need to be able to make a good repair effort?

I have a regular soldering iron, and a Hantek USB DSO.

I'm also getting this "USB Microscope": http://www.ebay.com/itm/110747608280

What else should I have?  A hot air reflow wand?

(sorry if this doesn't really belong in this thread)

Nothing wrong with asking that here, but it's difficult to answer, without knowing exactly what is wrong with these. A good soldering iron, flux, solder wick, and a DVM should repair at least some of these boards. Your DSO will be helpful, and the microscope is a plus. A hot air gun could be useful for more advanced repairs, but it's not going to be good enough for reballing the FPGAs if needed, I'd say.

[fizzisist]

Two questions:

- Do they come with 'complete assembly' (Fan, heatsink etc)
- Is the auction for 1 pcs or the whole 16 pcs lot?

Thank you!

They do not come complete, but there will be a bunch of heatsinks and fans included, just not sure how many until I dig through the parts bin and count them up.

The auction is for the whole lot:
- 16 assembled but rejected boards.
- Spare parts including 4 brand new FPGAs.

I've been asked to catalog the spare parts, and will get a rough list together today, hopefully.

[TheSwede75]

Two questions:

- Do they come with 'complete assembly' (Fan, heatsink etc)
- Is the auction for 1 pcs or the whole 16 pcs lot?

Thank you!

They do not come complete, but there will be a bunch of heatsinks and fans included, just not sure how many until I dig through the parts bin and count them up.

The auction is for the whole lot:
- 16 assembled but rejected boards.
- Spare parts including 4 brand new FPGAs.

I've been asked to catalog the spare parts, and will get a rough list together today, hopefully.

Thank you for the info. In your opinion, can someone with 'laymans' knowledge and steady fingers possibly get some working with a soldering iron and a 6-pack of beer?

[t13hydra]

3.3BTC

[Bicknellski]

3.4BTC 

[danieldaniel]

Can I just buy one of them for .1 btc?

[Garr255]

Can I just buy one of them for .1 btc?

That would negate all the previous bids, so he'll probably say no

[fizzisist]

Two questions:

- Do they come with 'complete assembly' (Fan, heatsink etc)
- Is the auction for 1 pcs or the whole 16 pcs lot?

Thank you!

They do not come complete, but there will be a bunch of heatsinks and fans included, just not sure how many until I dig through the parts bin and count them up.

The auction is for the whole lot:
- 16 assembled but rejected boards.
- Spare parts including 4 brand new FPGAs.

I've been asked to catalog the spare parts, and will get a rough list together today, hopefully.

Thank you for the info. In your opinion, can someone with 'laymans' knowledge and steady fingers possibly get some working with a soldering iron and a 6-pack of beer?

I'm confident you'll get something working, even without the soldering iron. How much you get out of it will be a question of perseverance and skill, though.