The Chili – 30+GH/s BFL based Bitcoin Miner Assembly

[agibby5]

Sorry ahead of time for the low quality images.  Also, I figure everyone is already past this step at this point in the game... but I'd post it anyway.

Originally, I was going to use the ARCTIC Accelero Mono Plus VGA Coolers and grab some PCI brackets, but that setup was considerably more expensive and proved to show lower hashing results as posted by others.

Then, I was going to do the double Antec Shelf idea like MrTeal. I ordered 8 coolers for 4 boards, but I tried it with a single one and I am fine with the results... so now I am going to buy 4x more boards to use up my 4 extra Shelfs.

So to mount the single shelf to the Chili, I mounted it directly to the board with the provided 1156 back plates.  I mounted the top mount to the heatsink as it was directed in the instructions (to the underside of the heatsink).  I then used misc computer screws which threaded into the back plates... I have a ton of screws laying around from buying internal computer devices (CDROM, floppy, etc drives) and they provided a very tight connection.  The board doesn't look like it's bowing at all.  I used nothing besides a rice sized amount of the Antec included thermal grease on each chip (maybe too much but it seemed to work).  I didn't really think about standoffs, since I have them mostly sitting in their sides like the first picture showing the back plates.  If you wanted to sit them upright, they sit on the back plates.  It's probably not 100% safe (something could short the power solder points underneath), but oh well. It works for me.

I tried one Chili with a thermal pad, but that one got 27 Ghs.  I redid it the way I did the others and it raised up the Ghs to around 34 or so.

All in all, I'm getting between 34 and 36 ghs.

Followed your guide and fitted this cooler, took 10 minutes and very easy to do.

Used the bundled arctic cooling TIM and getting 33.07 gh/s

Thanks

Edit:

added a small fan blowing directly on the Mosfet's and now getting 36.71 gh/s

Super glad I could help! 

[agibby5]

Where can we buy chips?

[daemonfox]

Chili Minions! With 4 minion chips!

This is exactly what I was thinking!

http://www.blackarrowsoftware.com/store/minion.html

Too bad they shun group buys... Teal and Geek or a benefactor would have to plunk down solo up front and allow us to buy a whole miner from them in order to use Minions.

But 460 - 500 GH/s on one card is sick... and if anyone can do it better... a Minion based Chili would be the ticket!

I can help you guys out here if there is some interest. I have the first 500 Minion Chips already reserved for DiY, I am just waiting for final data sheet to be released before I open it up.

Can you clarify that... i swooned a bit when you said this...

So... you HAVE an order for 500 chips already and you are the FIRST chip buyer in line? Really really?!?!

If the above is true, and you have it reserved for a DIY group... i have a couple bits i'd drop right now to reserve my chips.

MrTeal and ChipGeek... do you have interest at all in making a phenomenal 28nm Minion miner? 4 chip or 8 chip? (OMG 8 chip 1 TH MrTeal Minion Miner making me all tingly...)

[bobsag3]

Chili Minions! With 4 minion chips!

This is exactly what I was thinking!

http://www.blackarrowsoftware.com/store/minion.html

Too bad they shun group buys... Teal and Geek or a benefactor would have to plunk down solo up front and allow us to buy a whole miner from them in order to use Minions.

But 460 - 500 GH/s on one card is sick... and if anyone can do it better... a Minion based Chili would be the ticket!

I can help you guys out here if there is some interest. I have the first 500 Minion Chips already reserved for DiY, I am just waiting for final data sheet to be released before I open it up.

Can you clarify that... i swooned a bit when you said this...

So... you HAVE an order for 500 chips already and you are the FIRST chip buyer in line? Really really?!?!

If the above is true, and you have it reserved for a DIY group... i have a couple bits i'd drop right now to reserve my chips.

MrTeal and ChipGeek... do you have interest at all in making a phenomenal 28nm Minion miner? 4 chip or 8 chip? (OMG 8 chip 1 TH MrTeal Minion Miner making me all tingly...)

I have paid for the first 500 chips, They just dont want to deal with GBs directly as it takes much time, But I have no problem with it.

Prelim. Data sheet: http://www.blackarrowsoftware.com/store/preliminary-minion-datasheet.html

[Swimmer63]

I would be in on the above.

[MrTeal]

We might take a look at something like that. The minions are interesting chips in a lot of ways. A lot of the basic design is done, so while it wouldn't be a dead simple port like Avalon Gen1 to Gen2, it would be a similar interface and setup to the BFL chips.

Regarding the power supply, I just buy a few of these.
http://www.digikey.ca/product-detail/en/39-01-2241/WM1029-ND/284603
http://www.digikey.ca/product-detail/en/0039000081/WM1016CT-ND/3028731

They're the 24 pin connector you'd see on your motherboard. You just need to crimp two terminals together on a piece of wire, and put them in the right holes on the housing. I like them because I can also pull out the two 12V lines on that 24 pin ATX connector and use them to make another PCIe connector. It's really useful if you have a bunch of supplies with 4 rails that only have two rails feeding onto PCIe connectors by default.

[GrapeApe]

I would be in on the above.

Same here...

Also Mr.Teal do we just watch this thread for the upcoming chili auction?

[Mudbankkeith]

We might take a look at something like that. The minions are interesting chips in a lot of ways. A lot of the basic design is done, so while it wouldn't be a dead simple port like Avalon Gen1 to Gen2, it would be a similar interface and setup to the BFL chips.

Regarding the power supply, I just buy a few of these.
http://www.digikey.ca/product-detail/en/39-01-2241/WM1029-ND/284603
http://www.digikey.ca/product-detail/en/0039000081/WM1016CT-ND/3028731

They're the 24 pin connector you'd see on your motherboard. You just need to crimp two terminals together on a piece of wire, and put them in the right holes on the housing. I like them because I can also pull out the two 12V lines on that 24 pin ATX connector and use them to make another PCIe connector. It's really useful if you have a bunch of supplies with 4 rails that only have two rails feeding onto PCIe connectors by default.

For a quick 24 pin setup try one of these:-
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/POWER-SUPPLY-Voltage-TESTER-20-24-Pin-PSU-PSU-ATX-BTX-ITX-SATA-For-PC-Computer-/140874160062?pt=UK_Computing_PowerSupplies_EH&hash=item20ccc117be

For a longer term try:-
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Beige-Plastic-Module-Connector-Adapter/dp/B00E0FM9CS/ref=sr_1_240?ie=UTF8&qid=1385831995&sr=8-240&keywords=24+pin+connectors
and add a cable.

Or buy a box of paperclips

[daemonfox]

We might take a look at something like that. The minions are interesting chips in a lot of ways. A lot of the basic design is done, so while it wouldn't be a dead simple port like Avalon Gen1 to Gen2, it would be a similar interface and setup to the BFL chips.

EPIC!

I am in! Should we start a tally somewhere to get an idea of how much support there is for this?

Bob, what do you think is a fair price per chip since you are THE first person in line?

[bobsag3]

We might take a look at something like that. The minions are interesting chips in a lot of ways. A lot of the basic design is done, so while it wouldn't be a dead simple port like Avalon Gen1 to Gen2, it would be a similar interface and setup to the BFL chips.

EPIC!

I am in! Should we start a tally somewhere to get an idea of how much support there is for this?

Bob, what do you think is a fair price per chip since you are THE first person in line?

I cant really sell the chips at a discount, but I can offer them to be delivered ASAP. I guess I should make the thread now..

[daemonfox]

I just sent bobsag3 an email for my Minion chips I would like.

I do not know how everyone else feels about this since it is 3 months out right now... but I am going to at least get in line and set aside my funds now for this, in case MrTeal and ChipGeek do indeed take on this next challenge.

MrTeal... any idea what you would be doing if you did take this up? 2 chip, 4 chip 8 chip boards? Same 100 board commitment before you would go in for a batch run?

[Mudbankkeith]

I just sent bobsag3 an email for my Minion chips I would like.

I do not know how everyone else feels about this since it is 3 months out right now... but I am going to at least get in line and set aside my funds now for this, in case MrTeal and ChipGeek do indeed take on this next challenge.

MrTeal... any idea what you would be doing if you did take this up? 2 chip, 4 chip 8 chip boards? Same 100 board commitment before you would go in for a batch run?

The challenge is laid!

[asjfdlksfd]

LED decoder ring

The LEDs are numbered 1 to 8 with #1 closest to the USB connector and #8 closest to the power and fan connectors.  During first power up, LEDs 5, 6, 7, and 8 will light up and LEDs 1, 2, 3,  and 4 will indicate a failure code if anything is wrong with the hardware.  This happens VERY quickly - in less than a second.

If the initial hardware checks are good, #7 will blink indicating it is waiting for the board to cool down.  This will always blink for a few seconds even if the board is cold. 

Then #7 and #8 will blink indicating ASIC self test. 

After that, 1, 2, 3, 4 will indicate how many jobs from cgminer are waiting to run in the input queue.  LED 5 is just a debug output for me but it roughly indicates a job has completed - but sometimes blinks too fast for the human eye to see.  Just ignore LED 5.

I am working on some firmware updates that will fix most (or all?) of the problems the boards are having.  For example, one failure I think I have figured out is occasionally a board will jump to more than 100 GH/s but have 100% hardware errors.  I have one board that does this once per day or so and needs to be rebooted.  After chasing this for a while, I believe I have finally figured out what is going on and will have a fix in the next release.

Hi,

what does it mean if a board leds 1-4 will be stay off and 5-8 will be stay on? No usb connection is registred if I plug in on my linux box? TP5V and TP3V3 are looking fine with measured 4,99V and 3,38V.

I registred the problem on one board before mounting the bgas and on one board after mounting the bgas, so maybe the problem allready exists before I mounted the chips.

Cheers,

[BrimStone]

We might take a look at something like that. The minions are interesting chips in a lot of ways. A lot of the basic design is done, so while it wouldn't be a dead simple port like Avalon Gen1 to Gen2, it would be a similar interface and setup to the BFL chips.

EPIC!

I am in! Should we start a tally somewhere to get an idea of how much support there is for this?

Bob, what do you think is a fair price per chip since you are THE first person in line?

I cant really sell the chips at a discount, but I can offer them to be delivered ASAP. I guess I should make the thread now..

Count me in as well.   

[GrapeApe]

Any news about batch 3? Are you still planning on auctioning off some populated boards?

[Mudbankkeith]

I have opened a new thread for Chili watercooling:-

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=355824.msg3806734#msg3806734

[asjfdlksfd]

LED decoder ring

The LEDs are numbered 1 to 8 with #1 closest to the USB connector and #8 closest to the power and fan connectors.  During first power up, LEDs 5, 6, 7, and 8 will light up and LEDs 1, 2, 3,  and 4 will indicate a failure code if anything is wrong with the hardware.  This happens VERY quickly - in less than a second.

If the initial hardware checks are good, #7 will blink indicating it is waiting for the board to cool down.  This will always blink for a few seconds even if the board is cold. 

Then #7 and #8 will blink indicating ASIC self test. 

After that, 1, 2, 3, 4 will indicate how many jobs from cgminer are waiting to run in the input queue.  LED 5 is just a debug output for me but it roughly indicates a job has completed - but sometimes blinks too fast for the human eye to see.  Just ignore LED 5.

I am working on some firmware updates that will fix most (or all?) of the problems the boards are having.  For example, one failure I think I have figured out is occasionally a board will jump to more than 100 GH/s but have 100% hardware errors.  I have one board that does this once per day or so and needs to be rebooted.  After chasing this for a while, I believe I have finally figured out what is going on and will have a fix in the next release.

Hi,

what does it mean if a board leds 1-4 will be stay off and 5-8 will be stay on? No usb connection is registred if I plug in on my linux box? TP5V and TP3V3 are looking fine with measured 4,99V and 3,38V.

I registred the problem on one board before mounting the bgas and on one board after mounting the bgas, so maybe the problem allready exists before I mounted the chips.

Hi, I also checked now the other unflowed boards without mounted chips. They are all starting as well with the four leds for x/10 seconds also short time as now expected and  then different leds are flickering for seconds before they will all be go off. This looks like great for the rest of my boards. So first I will continue to assemble and test them.

I have not a plug with this dimension to the jtag connector so I cannot check at the moment the connection and status of the arm which maybe is not working well. I will order an cable so I can connect my rpi to the jtag.
Because of missing documentation do you can give me instructions what I can check to analyze and fix the boards by myself? Maybe the test points F0-F7 are helpfull? I didn't checked them.

Thank you,

[MrTeal]

LED decoder ring

The LEDs are numbered 1 to 8 with #1 closest to the USB connector and #8 closest to the power and fan connectors.  During first power up, LEDs 5, 6, 7, and 8 will light up and LEDs 1, 2, 3,  and 4 will indicate a failure code if anything is wrong with the hardware.  This happens VERY quickly - in less than a second.

If the initial hardware checks are good, #7 will blink indicating it is waiting for the board to cool down.  This will always blink for a few seconds even if the board is cold. 

Then #7 and #8 will blink indicating ASIC self test. 

After that, 1, 2, 3, 4 will indicate how many jobs from cgminer are waiting to run in the input queue.  LED 5 is just a debug output for me but it roughly indicates a job has completed - but sometimes blinks too fast for the human eye to see.  Just ignore LED 5.

I am working on some firmware updates that will fix most (or all?) of the problems the boards are having.  For example, one failure I think I have figured out is occasionally a board will jump to more than 100 GH/s but have 100% hardware errors.  I have one board that does this once per day or so and needs to be rebooted.  After chasing this for a while, I believe I have finally figured out what is going on and will have a fix in the next release.

Hi,

what does it mean if a board leds 1-4 will be stay off and 5-8 will be stay on? No usb connection is registred if I plug in on my linux box? TP5V and TP3V3 are looking fine with measured 4,99V and 3,38V.

I registred the problem on one board before mounting the bgas and on one board after mounting the bgas, so maybe the problem allready exists before I mounted the chips.

Hi, I also checked now the other unflowed boards without mounted chips. They are all starting as well with the four leds for x/10 seconds also short time as now expected and  then different leds are flickering for seconds before they will all be go off. This looks like great for the rest of my boards. So first I will continue to assemble and test them.

I have not a plug with this dimension to the jtag connector so I cannot check at the moment the connection and status of the arm which maybe is not working well. I will order an cable so I can connect my rpi to the jtag.
Because of missing documentation do you can give me instructions what I can check to analyze and fix the boards by myself? Maybe the test points F0-F7 are helpfull? I didn't checked them.

Thank you,

The connector is a 10 pin 0.05" ARM Cortex JTAG connector, using the standard pinout.
http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en?x=0&y=0&lang=en&site=us&KeyWords=609-4055-nd
http://infocenter.arm.com/help/topic/com.arm.doc.faqs/attached/13634/cortex_debug_connectors.pdf

Test points F0 to F7 are the frequency outputs of the ASICs, you can see the actual speed of each chip at those points.

Send me an email with as much detail as you can on what's happening with the board that you mounted the ASICs on, and I'll see what I can do to help. It sounds like the other ones are starting up correctly, so it could be a reflow issue. LEDs 5-8 coming on and staying on usually indicates that the 1V supply is either not initializing or is not asserting the power good signal.

[MrTeal]

Any news about batch 3? Are you still planning on auctioning off some populated boards?

Yeah, I need to get on that. I should be posting it up tonight or tomorrow.

[ysyang21]

We might take a look at something like that. The minions are interesting chips in a lot of ways. A lot of the basic design is done, so while it wouldn't be a dead simple port like Avalon Gen1 to Gen2, it would be a similar interface and setup to the BFL chips.

EPIC!

I am in! Should we start a tally somewhere to get an idea of how much support there is for this?

Bob, what do you think is a fair price per chip since you are THE first person in line?

I cant really sell the chips at a discount, but I can offer them to be delivered ASAP. I guess I should make the thread now..

Count me in as well.  

I do a simple and rough math.
The unit cost per GH/s of Chili-Minion is about 1/10 of Chili-BFL.
Suppose the difficulty adjust is about 20% rising exponential. (1.2)^x=10, x~=6.
It means the shipment of Chili-Minion board should be within 60 days, or it's hard to break-even assume there's no another BTC/USD surge in the future.

Even so, I still want in Please reserve 8 Minion chips for me, if MrTeal and ChipGeek would do it.