[ANN] FutureBit Moonlander 2: The Most Powerful and Efficient USB Stick Miner!

[jstefanop]

THIS IS THE GENERAL INFO THREAD: Keep this thread on topic!
All order related questions go here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2141261.0
All support related questions and driver updates/download links here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2420357.0
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UPDATE 12/6/17

Batch 2 Pre-Orders start tomorrow with estimated Mid January shipments. More info here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2141261.0

UPDATE 11/16/17

Batch 1 Pre-orders are now being shipped out!

Support thread is also up below. Please use this thread to find driver downloads, instructions, and all support related questions.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2420357.0

UPDATE 9/25/17

The final design has been locked in for production next month, and I'm happy to reveal it you all! PCB is a cool matte black design, with the same anodized black aluminum heatsink as the original moonlander. I decided to include both memory voltage adjustment in addition to core voltage, as my tests had an efficiency gain of 10-20% for ASICs that can handle lower memory voltage!

As a super thank you to all who pre-ordered I decided to include a 25mm fan into the cooling solution as well, so no need to come up with clumsy external fan solutions to keep these cool. A top side small ASIC heatsink will also be included to further increase thermal efficiency (it will be black not blue). With this setup I've achieved 1.6W/MH all the way up to 800mhz, which is 4.6 MH of hash power for just 7.5 watts! Pretty impressive for a chip thats designed to do 3.8 MH at the same watts.

Check out the pics below!

UPDATE 9/4/17

Pre-order is now over...please use the below linked pre-order thread for all discussion on order related topics

UPDATE 9/1/17

Official Pre-order has started and links are here: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2141261.msg21415891#msg21415891


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Well this one has been a long time coming, but after many months of negotiations, design, and testing I finally have a new USB Stick miner to announce based on a latest gen scrypt chip, that makes this stick one of the most powerful, profitable, and efficient USB Stick miners ever released (even beats bitmain in efficiency with about 1.3 w/mh)!

Like with the original Moonlander project, my goals are the same for this stick and what it means for the crypto community. Build a low cost and easy to use scrypt USB miner that will put mining and Litecoin use into thousands of hands that would have never had the means or experience to do mining before! Except I can hopefully realize this goal this time around, since the original Moonlander project was based on a obsolete chip I happened to get the last remaining stock in, this chip is in full production, and have access to the first batches of chips from the foundry!

So without further ado here is the FutureBit Moonlander 2!



Specs: (these are prototype specs and can change in production version)

- 3mh to 5.5mh scrypt performance per miner
- uses about 1.5w/mh for most of that range
- core clock from 500mhz to nearly 1GHz!
- fully customizable core voltage range from .6 - 1v, as well as adjustable memory voltage
- Fully redesigned 5v->core voltage stage with about 95% efficiency
- Heavy duty/over speced parts were used to ensure wide range of operation (stick can be pushed to nearly 6mh if you can cool it)
- Custom heatsink design, and the first USB miner to feature a built in 25mm Fan!
- status LEDs for power, TX and RX transmission
- uses latest bfgminer 5.4 for control
- Will work with all Mac OS, Linux, and Windows based PCs, as well as RPi's etc (and I will be offering easy to use pre-compiled binaries)


The Moonlander 2 is over 4x the speed, over 5x the efficiency, and nearly 5x the profitability (if you guys remember when the original moonlander came out, it was doing about $2 a month, this stick is doing almost $10 per month at current price/difficulty). This beats out any other stick miner whether scrypt or any other algo!

Best part is that this stick is consuming under 5 watts at its peak efficiency range (~ 4MH), so unlike the original Moonlander which was nearly impossible to operate without a hub and fan, this stick can easily run on USB 3 power with no fan in the 3-4MH range.


Production:

Batch 1 was successfully produced, and shipped out to all pre-orders. Batch 2 is currently underway, check out the pre-order thread for more info on ordering.

Pre-Order/Cost:

Just like the original Moonlander I'm more interested in getting mining and crypto out to as many hands as possible than pure profits (so I need you guys to push these out to all your friends for stocking stuffers and introduction crypto/mining!). While id love to keep the price at around $30 like the original, it will unfortunately not be possible this time around since I got the original ASIC for practically free, this time its a brand new ASIC so I'm paying around $15 just for the ASIC alone. Pricing will most likely be in the 50-70 USD range based on batch component costs and ASIC pricing. (Considering my original is still selling for over $50, and this one is way more efficient and profitable I hope you guys still consider this a steal).

Ordering will also be done a little differently this time, since Im a one guy shop, I was pretty overwhelmed in shipping out hundreds of sticks in time for everyone to get them ASAP, and this time the number of sticks will be way more so I have enlisted a few distributors around the world to handle pre-orders and distribution. Most of these guys you already know and trust so hope that wont be an issue. If you are planning on ordering more than 50 sticks, you can still contact me for direct ordering.

USA/Canada/NA will be handled by Scott at HolyBitcoin, and ASICPuppy
Europe and surrounding areas will be handled by Bitshopper.de
Asia and surrounding region klintay/eyeboot
South Africa/Africa Bitmart.com
Australia/NZ bittawm bittawmart.com


Please contact me if you wish to be a distributor in South America/India, these are the last two major regions I don't have distributors in.

Keep in mind I will work with the distributors to keep fair launch pricing on the initial batch, but this will be only for the initial pre-order batch, and wont be able to control pricing past this. The initial batch is for about 1-2k units, so if you want to pick one up at the initial pricing I would pre-order.



BIG THANKS to all the original buyers of my Moonlander stick...you guys made #2 possible, and hopefully with the success of Moonlander 2 ill be able to launch even some more interesting projects I'm working on!

Keep hashing and spread the word!


Oh and some screenshots of the device actually hashing

Normal operation at my scypt pool...driver is not complete yet so its not reporting hardware hashrate...pool hashrate is displayed (756 MHz clock @ 6 watts... ~ 1.4 w/mh!)



Stress test...nearly 6MH!



Power draw..5w @ 648 MHz (~3.8 MH/s) = ~1.3w/MH...the most efficient operational ASIC miner in the world!

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[jstefanop]

RESERVED

[jstefanop]

RESERVED

[y2j89]

Sounds awesome! Will definetely try to get one of those up to 5mhs performance sounds really good considering the "size" of it!

[jsand0113]

Four reserved!

[hunterqian]

HI, buddy:

 I' m come from China , how can I get your USB Miners? or how become your agent in China

thanks

[jstefanop]

HI, buddy:

 I' m come from China , how can I get your USB Miners? or how become your agent in China

thanks

Just shoot me a PM if your interested in bulk supplying in China...but with your newbie account I wouldnt consider this unless you have an established userbase/website in china that you sell similar products.

[SquidConqueror]

I am wanting some!  Don't forget about the Squid!! 

[aarons6]

ill take 8 of these.


you said they will be smaller, thinner too? how many can you put on a hub? single space or double space?

[vuli]

great, I was always interested in such devices but never had a chance to get some. This time I would like to buy 1.

[steve666]

Hi, I would like to have at least 2 of these 

[doktor83]

Interesting project, maybe i'll buy a few of these.

[StraabdenDaals]

Probably a dumb question (never used Asics, only GPU), but would this be able to be used on any coin using scrypt algo? There are many new altcoins using it and I'd love to be able to use a device like this to speculatively mine early while difficulty is lower.

[VictorGT]

Four for me please  

And yes, they will work with any scrypt coin.

[jstefanop]

Probably a dumb question (never used Asics, only GPU), but would this be able to be used on any coin using scrypt algo? There are many new altcoins using it and I'd love to be able to use a device like this to speculatively mine early while difficulty is lower.

Yes this is what alot of people use USB miners for. This will work with any scypt based coin or pool.

[jstefanop]

ill take 8 of these.


you said they will be smaller, thinner too? how many can you put on a hub? single space or double space?

The final PCB size will be similar to origonal moonlander. Even though this thing sips power on the lower end, it still needs a rather large heatsink for people that want to push it.

[Hackelchen]

I recently just read about the First one, and was frustraded that i was too Late to Order some.
I would Love to take 10 of these.

[Igor535]

Purchase 2 pcs.

[aarons6]

ill take 8 of these.


you said they will be smaller, thinner too? how many can you put on a hub? single space or double space?

The final PCB size will be similar to origonal moonlander. Even though this thing sips power on the lower end, it still needs a rather large heatsink for people that want to push it.

sweet i cant wait to get my hands on these, i love the 1st gen ones..

im going to have to get 2 more superbpag hubs so ill have 8 1st gen and 8 2nd gen..

will they use the same driver for bfgminer and run at the same time?

[jstefanop]

ill take 8 of these.


you said they will be smaller, thinner too? how many can you put on a hub? single space or double space?

The final PCB size will be similar to origonal moonlander. Even though this thing sips power on the lower end, it still needs a rather large heatsink for people that want to push it.

sweet i cant wait to get my hands on these, i love the 1st gen ones..

im going to have to get 2 more superbpag hubs so ill have 8 1st gen and 8 2nd gen..

will they use the same driver for bfgminer and run at the same time?

hmm didnt not think about that kind of use case...the drivers are actually not compatible either way, since ASICs are completely different. Youll most likely need to launch two diffrent instances of bfgminer to run them together.