[BFL-Chip Groupbuy] $27,5/chip 50% - BTC,PayPal,SEPA - 420 sold, 0/100 batch #4

[GrapeApe]

Awesome and thanks for the patience while dealing with my PayPal payment.

[bitpop]

Lucko you have bad luck with exchange rate ;-)

[Lucko]

Lucko you have bad luck with exchange rate ;-)

Not realy... This is how they calculate it.

Bitcoin Exchange Rates
As of today, the only exchange that has enough liquidity and tight spreads to pull real time rates is BTC/USD.

To calculate the exchange rate for US Dollars, we pull up-to-the-minute BID prices from three exchanges. We take the 2 that are closest together and toss out the third, so that a bad feed from one exchange will not affect our calculation. Of the 2 rates that remain, Bit-Pay uses the highest BID price as our exchange rate.

To calculate the exchange rate for currencies other than the US Dollar, we use the USD rate described above and multiply it by the daily ECB ForEx rates compared to the US Dollar.

And since BTC-e and Bitstemp are the one they are looking in this case and not mtgox it wasn't that bad... Currently published exchange rate is 90.somthing and in case of a big order it goes down...

[Lucko]

Today I got conformation from BFL that I'm in line for samples... for first order... Yes on a day they should be shipped... Not too good to publicised on GB but I'm letting you know about everything...

I was started to write report but fall a sleep 3 times during that... I will do it tomorrow...

[GrapeApe]

Get some rest man. Thanks again for the help and support.

[bitpop]

Yeah man, take a week off. You are the hardest working group buy of them all.

[Lucko]

OK back from work... Some quality time with daughter and hire I am...

Now boards:
This is not only problem for our GB but every GB out there. Chips will probably needed to be mounted with manual pick and place... Automatic will not be good enough in placing the chips. I know it sounds strange to me too since I would guess other way around. Once mounted can't be removed so any error can destroy the chip on board... So now I'm looking for the best possible company for placing the chips on boards so no problems will pop up... Company I was planing to use isn't that sure they can do it without errors or with minimal numbers of them... But this problem is still 85 days away... It will be solved... They can do the boards and it looks like it will be about 30€ board and 20€ mounting(this is just estimate since I don't have exact number of boards)... Components will add up additional 120€ but this is again estimate since BOM for BFL board is not in documentation and we have not made it jet(I didn't write it down but if I remember correctly 600+ components)... So we are in a 200$ zone. I know this is close to price of Jalapeño but this board has 50% more power. I know that Jalapeño board has 80W for ASIC chips so it should work with at lest 6. What we think is the problem is that small voltage tolerance for chips are making problems so adding more power should help. We also added additional capacitors to stabilize it. What we think is happening is that a lot of transistors in a chip are turned when calculating(something that can happen) on and power usage spikes voltage drops below tolerance and resets the chip. Unfortunately this is the anser I got from BFL when asking if we are correct

The information we have put on the website is current and up to date for the shortboards we are using in 5GH/s model. Any additional issues you experience are essentially your own problem that must be sorted out in your design process.


Thank you for your orders.


Kind regards,
Jonathon Griffin
Marketing Coordinator
Butterfly Labs, Inc.

So no help from them...

Pictures
I was promised that over this weekend board will be finished so picture will be ready next week.

Next front that I have open is contacting MrTeal to negotiate licencing agreement if this produces a cheaper product for you. He realised this picture

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2wlaw9kh7w33127/Board.jpg

It looks like 5 chips but it is not. It is 4 chips and central one is in case only one is mounted... It might be a better option for those who have only 4 chips ordered or have up to 4 left when my boards are full... or if it end up being cheaper then 50% of our board we will use only those... So as promised best deal for you..

Sample chips

This is a msg I received yesterday...

You are in line to receive your sample chips. Thank you for your order.


Kind regards,
Jonathon Griffin
Marketing Coordinator
Butterfly Labs, Inc.

Batch 2.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/y7eyoyt0nku93wa/cenzurirano2.bmp

104 chips ordered.

Exchange rate 91,7279791. Pitpay page at that time was showing 93,01

I have explained how do they get it earlier. But it looks like they also look at market depth too. And it looks relay good at current exchange rate... 83,42

Next batch is now open...

And thanks for waiting some rest did wonders...

[Lucko]

New batch started with order of 9 chips...

[Swimmer63]

Anything new Lucko?

[Lucko]

I guess I can share this picture.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/03tggvhaai7vwlo/testboard.jpg

This is a board that will be used for testing if we got BFL board right. The only difference is that it has bank of capacitors on top... So we can test how far it will go... New power supply is not ready jet... But it is smart to use unmodified just to test if everything is OK. If there would be a lot of changes and it wouldn't work you might end up wondering did we got BFL part wrong or are the modifications...

[Swimmer63]

So assuming it works what's the hash going to be for this board?

[Lucko]

Well this should work with 2 chips and then we plan to add 2 more and see if it works. If it doesn't we will add capacitors into bank one by one and see what happens... This is not final board... But it was the first we created some time ago and decided that we should used it first just to make sure this part works...

EDIT: who knows it might end up working with 8 I don't think so but who knows...

[Lucko]

Got this mail from BFL... It is a good bed news kind a thing... Lack of informations and them not answering mails in time...

You are in line to receive your sample chips. You may request additional samples to be taken out of your total order. In other words, the sample chips are provided from the total number of ordered chips.


Kind regards,
Jonathon Griffin
Marketing Coordinator
Butterfly Labs, Inc.

That was for my last order and of I jumped at the chance to get more samples... But I figure out that 2 samples are taken out of the order not given extra...

Let me break this down. For every 100 chips ordered, we simply provide 2 sample chips from the order up front. So you get 2 samples and then the remaining 98 chips later, completing the order for 100 chips.


However, you can request an additional amount of sample chips to be sent to you as well. We will allow up to 5% of the order to be shipped out as sample chips, so that would be 5 sample chips for every 100 ordered.


If you want to do that, just tell us the order and the amount of samples you'd like to receive, for each particular order.


We sincerely hope this helps you in your development and testing process.


Kind regards,
Jonathon Griffin
Marketing Coordinator
Butterfly Labs, Inc.

Since I have 16 chips in first batch it is not a problem but not ideal since some might end up destroyed... I asked them if I can increase the orders by 5 chips so we will see what happens...

[one4many]

Hi guys (Luko),

I received a tracking number from BFL for 2 sample chips. As soon as I have them in my hand I will forward them on to Lucko.
It looks like they take a week to be delivered to Germany, unfortunately I'm away all week next week (hacker camp OHM2013 in NL).
So I guess the earliest I can send them to Lucko is Monday the week after next!

Lucko ... warm the PCB board up and get ready to do some real testing 

All the best!

   one4many

[bitpop]

Man bfl is shady

[-Redacted-]

I'll say.  Taking sample chips out of the number of chips in the order...

[bitpop]

Asshole move

[Lucko]

Now I realy don't get it will I get 2 or 5 samples... I asked for 5 and asked if I can increase orders by 5 and got this replay

No. This sample offering is provided only on an individual basis, given we have enough supply on hand. In other words, you have no right to claim any more than 2 samples per 100 ordered. 5%is offered only as a courtesy.


Kind regards,
Jonathon Griffin
Marketing Coordinator
Butterfly Labs, Inc.

Now I don't know if this No apples to increasing the order or getting 5 chips... But since speed of communication is increasing I guess I will know that soon...

Well that was quick... I must say BFL communications is improving...

"No" was in response to the only question in your prior e-mail. You cannot get additional samples from previous orders.


You cannot get an additional 3 samples 100070222 for a total of 5; the samples for this order have already been sent.


I have marked your other orders for 5 sample chips.


Thank you for your continued interest.


Kind regards,
Jonathon Griffin
Marketing Coordinator
Butterfly Labs, Inc.

So I will get 2+5+5 samples and first 2 were send... So I have samples on the way as well...

[Lucko]

Got 2 tracking numbers. One for 2 chips and one for 10 chips... Nice... But they don't work...  Well they might start working later...

one4many I guess no need to rush with chips... I will let you know if I end up needing them...

[one4many]

one4many I guess no need to rush with chips... I will let you know if I end up needing them...

Sure no problem! I'll be on standby

All the best!

   one4many