DRILLBIT SYSTEM Miners - Avalon range available - Now $104.99!

[voxelot]

I would never attack a developer like barntech who only helps you guys make coin. Pay attention before you accuse people.  

And I really hope you guys don't get treated by bitfury like the other ASIC devs.. who are the true greed source here.  Here's to crossing my fingeres for all of you =D

If my statements were out of line, then I take them back, no bad intention.
But perhaps, you should word your statements more carefully.
You left things quite open and when accusing, you should be quite specific.

ISD

And I apologize for that... may be some residual avalon frustration coming out.. I sincerely do hope you guys don't get screwed over

[thegun69]

as i am sydney local, sent a pm to barntech offering my services for free in any way i can to help get these out quicker when arrive. while my offer hasn't yet been accepted, i am calling on other sydney locals in this group buy who might be able to help him out in any way they think they can.

even if only for a few hours, if you can only do simple packing/labeling, or you might be good with a soldering iron, or you can drive, or you might work in a take-away shop or maccas and can provide cheap/free fish 'n' chips or whatever for lunch, you might not even be sydney local and just be able to respond to messages on his behalf, as i'm sure he is probably getting a whole bunch of same/similar questions from different people, but i don't know. i don't know what he needs really or if he needs anything at all, but no matter how mediocre the task you think you can perform, please list your skills and then at least if barntech so desires, he might be able to assemble a 'crew' to get these boards out quicker.

if the boards get out quicker, we get them sooner. if we get them sooner, we can mine sooner. if we can mine sooner, we can make more coin. do you want to make more coin? i know i do.

cheers ladies.

[AussieHash]

By October, we'll have worked out this issue.  We are playing with different R01F (input) resistors now to see how well that works. 

Can I confirm when in Oct you expect October kits to ship ?
ie: early orders - early October vs all orders at the end of Oct. etc

Shipping is "by end of" whatever month the product description says - and that's our best effort guess.  With production delays, component shortages and now even manufacturing variability we just can't nail it down much better.

One thing we do know for sure - bare chips will be early October.

[warhawk187]

Sorry I do not have the time to go through 25 pages of text but are the loose chips still available for purchase? IS the estimated delivery time of the chips supposed to be October?

[erk]

Sorry I do not have the time to go through 25 pages of text but are the loose chips still available for purchase? IS the estimated delivery time of the chips supposed to be October?

Try reading the first post.

[console_cowboy]

Hopefully some of the other manufacturers will be capable of supplying chips for future projects! If Bitfury wants to increase pricing, perhaps Cointerra will step up and provide chips. 500GH/s blades would be quite nice!

[Barntech]

So your auction is for completed boards, do you have any bare chips left, or are all the chips going into those boards you're auctioning?

We will probably have a few bare chips left. PM me if you are interested.

[voxelot]

Here is a crazy idea for all of us developing PCB gerbers while holding our breathe for the manufacturers of these ASIC chips to release design documents or making the boards, and then never receiving anything more than samples and knowledge for your hard work.

What if the open source community pooled together.. started a thread.. and started working on our own ASIC wafer/clone.

Here is somebody questioning what it takes to actually produce ASICs.

http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/7042/how-much-does-it-cost-to-have-a-custom-asic-made

Obviously talking to TSMC and similar companies is a good start.  Getting connections to foundries... there are others listed too that seem to allow gerbered designs to go out on small scales.  

I have a mathematics degree and a computer science passion and have began studying the ASIC/FPGA/CUSTOM designs created in the past. At the very least maybe we can pull off a clone and truly create some ASIC chips that everybody can get their hands on... instead of all of us getting shut out simply because we do not have the "connections" to have our designs printed.. and more importantly tested.  

If anyone thinks this is a good idea let us know. It will probably be quite hard to find skilled people who would be willing to give that kind of talent away and not make a profit when the design is complete, tested, and ready to be mass produced at a price that only covered the initial material (mask) and other extreme costs.

I am willing to devote as much free time as possible to a thread or team of open source developers who would like to take this challenge.

Project Open ASIC  

EDIT

btw Barntech I really enjoy your approach to these chips and this is why I am posting here.  I feel like we should be chasing the gold in the mountain.. not the developers promising us the gold in the mountain

  

[Barntech]

Hello Barntech,

Is there any way to find out where we are in the assembly queue (e.g. # 21 of 100) or the like?
We can't tell from the thread as not all orders are listed here.

Thanks again for your hard work and all,
IAS

Yes i'll get a queue list sorted soon. Its on my list. 

[neiq]

The only prob with that is with every stride "we" make the diff gets even harder. That's the genius of crypt o-curencey . The more innovation the harder it gets to reach the ultimate goal. A smack in capitalism's face. Yes we may wipe out these asic companies (BFL especially) but in the end there will be another group who's goal is to wipe us out.. We are all in this to make $$$ hobby or not. Until there is a clear and easy way to convert btc in to usd....... so that the value of 1btc can rise above $200+usd there will be no real winners. It's an "algorithm" that no one here truly has the answer to degree or no degree..... #Foodforthought. BUT these ASCI developers will continue to "feed" the folks that are getting in, in the hope of making thousands in a day. Remember " A gamble or investment is in the eye of the beholder" .......

Here is a crazy idea for all of us developing PCB gerbers while holding our breathe for the manufacturers of these ASIC chips to release design documents or making the boards, and then never receiving anything more than samples and knowledge for your hard work.

What if the open source community pooled together.. started a thread.. and started working on our own ASIC wafer/clone.

Here is somebody questioning what it takes to actually produce ASICs.

http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/7042/how-much-does-it-cost-to-have-a-custom-asic-made

Obviously talking to TSMC and similar companies is a good start.  Getting connections to foundries... there are others listed too that seem to allow gerbered designs to go out on small scales.  

I have a mathematics degree and a computer science passion and have began studying the ASIC/FPGA/CUSTOM designs created in the past. At the very least maybe we can pull off a clone and truly create some ASIC chips that everybody can get their hands on... instead of all of us getting shut out simply because we do not have the "connections" to have our designs printed.. and more importantly tested.  

If anyone thinks this is a good idea let us know. It will probably be quite hard to find skilled people who would be willing to give that kind of talent away and not make a profit when the design is complete, tested, and ready to be mass produced at a price that only covered the initial material (mask) and other extreme costs.

I am willing to devote as much free time as possible to a thread or team of open source developers who would like to take this challenge.

Project Open ASIC  

EDIT

btw Barntech I really enjoy your approach to these chips and this is why I am posting here.  I feel like we should be chasing the gold in the mountain.. not the developers promising us the gold in the mountain

  

[Barntech]

Ah, going the auction route for the 8 chip boards.  I was looking to get a couple of the 2GH USB sticks (I was going to give them to friends to get them into Bitcoin mining, but with a more sensible hashrate than the AM sticks).

Are the USB Drillbits no longer available?

USB Drillbit Thumbs are still available. I'll put them back up soon, once we get the last of the Drillbit Boards sorted out. There will still be quite a few up for grabs.

[HTML5 Gordon]

Ah, going the auction route for the 8 chip boards.  I was looking to get a couple of the 2GH USB sticks (I was going to give them to friends to get them into Bitcoin mining, but with a more sensible hashrate than the AM sticks).

Are the USB Drillbits no longer available?

USB Drillbit Thumbs are still available. I'll put them back up soon, once we get the last of the Drillbit Boards sorted out. There will still be quite a few up for grabs.

Awesome, thanks - I'll be ordering as soon as they come back.

[Barntech]

Here is a crazy idea for all of us developing PCB gerbers while holding our breathe for the manufacturers of these ASIC chips to release design documents or making the boards, and then never receiving anything more than samples and knowledge for your hard work.

What if the open source community pooled together.. started a thread.. and started working on our own ASIC wafer/clone.

Here is somebody questioning what it takes to actually produce ASICs.

http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/7042/how-much-does-it-cost-to-have-a-custom-asic-made

Obviously talking to TSMC and similar companies is a good start.  Getting connections to foundries... there are others listed too that seem to allow gerbered designs to go out on small scales.  

I have a mathematics degree and a computer science passion and have began studying the ASIC/FPGA/CUSTOM designs created in the past. At the very least maybe we can pull off a clone and truly create some ASIC chips that everybody can get their hands on... instead of all of us getting shut out simply because we do not have the "connections" to have our designs printed.. and more importantly tested.  

If anyone thinks this is a good idea let us know. It will probably be quite hard to find skilled people who would be willing to give that kind of talent away and not make a profit when the design is complete, tested, and ready to be mass produced at a price that only covered the initial material (mask) and other extreme costs.

I am willing to devote as much free time as possible to a thread or team of open source developers who would like to take this challenge.

Project Open ASIC  

EDIT

btw Barntech I really enjoy your approach to these chips and this is why I am posting here.  I feel like we should be chasing the gold in the mountain.. not the developers promising us the gold in the mountain

  

Hey Voxelot

Have definitely considered it. It is indeed annoying that we are stuck at the mercy of the larger players who are producing these chips. It would indeed be great to get our own "grassroots" chips going, but it is no small matter. The main issue is the cost. We're looking at something like 2 or 3 million dollars. Try setting up a group buy for that one. Then of course you are looking at some very skilled people spending a rather large amount of time designing the things. Then it would be somewhere around 6 months to a year if you were to properly test and manufacture them. People are getting it done quicker by rushing everything through because this whole game is about getting there first. This is probably why BFL came so late, they stuffed their chip design and hard to start again half way through.

Basically, it would be awesome to do, but would require serious investors willing to take pretty serious risks. I guess this is why people who have gone and done that want to make as much as they can out of it, unfortunately screwing everyone in the process.

That said, if anyone out there is willing to front 3 mil, Dan our engineer has the skills to design a chip. Anyone? 

[Barntech]

Hopefully some of the other manufacturers will be capable of supplying chips for future projects! If Bitfury wants to increase pricing, perhaps Cointerra will step up and provide chips. 500GH/s blades would be quite nice!

Looking at several options for future chips. 

[Barntech]

With regards to greed and all the chatter that has been going on here about that, here is my little rant from the Auction page. On the scale of greedy snakeyness in the Bitcoin mining world, i'd say we are about as low down the rung as it gets. If we wanted to go down the greed road, we could have built a pretty website and started selling bullshit preorders like everyone else. Instead we have gone open source group buy; a shared venture including all of you members of this bitcoin community. We are not making much money. We do it for the love.

Basically we are working with what we've got. Trust me, if we could get these out to you tomorrow we would. We are unfortunately entirely dependent on Bitfury getting chips to us. If the early October delivery comes true, there is a good chance that we may just be able to be some of the lucky few who get in early and actually make some money. As Neiq has said, that's how it works, a few people get units early enough to profit, everyone else chases the magical window and doesn't quite get there, or buys in (read block erupter USBs) without ever having a chance at ROI, just because its fun and exciting. Hell i have some of those; terrible investment, but their pretty cool. I also have a giant power munching 3 GH/s GPU rig costing me more than it makes, just because i like it and find it fun.

So i guess yeah, if your main motivation is a sound investment, you'd probably do better to buy shares in a bank or a mining company (as in iron ore mining, not bitcoin).... or, just buy some Bitcoin and hope the price jumps. But if you are excited about being a part of this crazy Bitcoin thing as it's springing into being, and are willing to take a gamble that may pay off, then get a miner, get ten. Thats how i'm approaching it. I too am in it for the thrill of the chase. I do it because i love it. Setting up this group buy and short run manufacture has basically become my unpaid full time job right now, and i'm not complaining, i chose to do it and i'm having fun doing it. If i was billing my hours spent however, i'd be down a whole lot of money.

On that topic, basically we have costed out a manufacturing scenario that leaves us making very little money. (largely because the boards we have created are not cutting corners like many others out there, they will be quality tech). This is not some giant money making venture for us. We would all make a lot more money just doing regular jobs. But that's not the point. There has been some talk about succumbing to the capitalist greed just like BFL and Avalon, who have basically rinsed people for millions of dollars. I find that comparison pretty rogue. In the end we are putting the final few miners to auction to generate a bit of extra cash to help us see this project through smoothly. At most we'll end up with a couple thousand extra, which could easily disappear into some unforeseen manufacture expense, or import duty or whatever. Hardly capitalist greed at its worst.

The miners are going to auction and people are paying what they are willing to pay. No one is being forced into anything. If you believe that $300 is a more reasonable price for the boards we are making, they were available at that price for weeks, the opportunity was there.

Ok, sorry for the long rant. I hope everyone feels happy and comfortable with things. Please send me a PM if you would like to have anything further explained or discussed.

Yours in Mine Love 

Barntech

[lajz99]

Very well said and that's why I chose this buy over all the others out there.

[flemeister]

Indeed, well said.

Also, regarding shipping the boards, here's something I'm sure we'd all like to avoid: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=179769.msg3023021#msg3023021

[erk]

Indeed, well said.

Also, regarding shipping the boards, here's something I'm sure we'd all like to avoid: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=179769.msg3023021#msg3023021

Sounds like the boards were not individually wrapped before the were put in the box, that's all. A common problem when I buy stuff from China on eBay.

[Barntech]

Indeed, well said.

Also, regarding shipping the boards, here's something I'm sure we'd all like to avoid: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=179769.msg3023021#msg3023021

Yes, haven't quite got to shipping yet, but don't worry, we'll travel them in cosy fluffy clouds of softness. 

[Stack]

The miners are going to auction and people are paying what they are willing to pay. No one is being forced into anything. If you believe that $300 is a more reasonable price for the boards we are making, they were available at that price for weeks, the opportunity was there.

Yes. This.

I actually think the auction was the fairest way to do it.

It swept away the buying-in-at-the-last-second approach that I'm sure many people were attempting to do.
Also,
If it hadn't gone to auction, most likely a single buyer would've snapped up all 16 boards in 1 hit, and thus, opportunity gone.
This way, if you are prepared to pay more for the opportunity, than it's yours.

To those who sat on the fence and missed out... welcome to bitcoin.