NanoFury Project - Open Source Design

[vs3]

vs3, can you tell us about the heat of the chips, without any dissipation layer, how much temperature rises?
I happened to make a big hole in the GND pad and once the bitfury soldier is padded on the backside with tin or thermal compound to insert a rear heatsink.

I had the sample boards that I made over the weekend run for a while without any heatsink on the back - just using the entire copper backside as a heatsink. They worked just fine at 50 bits speed (and I also let them run for a while at 51 and they worked fine too but I didn't let them run for long enough to be certain).

Also - keep in mind that the chips are not the only heat source. Chips produce about 80-85% of all the heat, but also the coil and regulator produce another 15-20% too. So heatsink on the back side helps them as well.

What we know for sure is that the bitfury chips can take a lot of beating - and I mean A LOT :

Chips have been tested to run at extreme temperatures. One user used a soldering iron to heat the chip to the point it desoldered. Hashing stopped only when chip started floating on solder and shortcircuited.

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[aTg]

Well, I finished a modification of nanofury project to be printed on a single layer PCB, also brings built-in USB connector and holes to install standard chipset heatsinks.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=343366.msg3678665#msg3678665

[IchibahnSLC]

Anyone know the best place to buy the bitfury chips in bulk?

[Swimmer63]

Anyone know the best place to buy the bitfury chips in bulk?

BuzzDave at Megabigpower.com. Got a small order in 2 days. I think he has like 1500 on hand.

[IchibahnSLC]

Anyone know the best place to buy the bitfury chips in bulk?

BuzzDave at Megabigpower.com. Got a small order in 2 days. I think he has like 1500 on hand.

I was hoping for a better price with an order of 50 or so.  I pm'd me but he didn't really give any specifics.

[Swimmer63]

Anyone know the best place to buy the bitfury chips in bulk?

BuzzDave at Megabigpower.com. Got a small order in 2 days. I think he has like 1500 on hand.

I was hoping for a better price with an order of 50 or so.  I pm'd me but he didn't really give any specifics.

No you have to be in the stratosphere before there is a discount.  Like 3000 or more.

[rgr_rgr]

Seems to be sold out. Any other source?

[stan258]

I am willing to pay a decent fair market price for any.  Please PM me if you need some extra cash or coin.  Ideally I would like to get as many as possible.



------Dave is out.  I believe I took his last one. Waiting for FedEx now. 

[IchibahnSLC]

I am willing to pay a decent fair market price for any.  Please PM me if you need some extra cash or coin.  Ideally I would like to get as many as possible.



------Dave is out.  I believe I took his last one. Waiting for FedEx now. 

I'm waiting for FedEx as well.

[drinkmorecoffee]

I am willing to pay a decent fair market price for any.  Please PM me if you need some extra cash or coin.  Ideally I would like to get as many as possible.



------Dave is out.  I believe I took his last one. Waiting for FedEx now. 

I'm waiting for FedEx as well.

He said in an e-mail that he's restocking in February.  Preorders available at $5/chip, but in 3000-chip batches.  Unknown as of yet if we can order individuals or small batches from the website again when he finally restocks.  Hope so...

[stan258]

I wonder why so long between runs?

[Taugeran]

I wonder why so long between runs?

manufacturing of the chips is like waiting in line at a gov't office.....long wait

[Swimmer63]

Is it possible to do a USB miner with a BFL chip?  I am guessing no since no one has done it and they are much more readily available than BF.

[drinkmorecoffee]

Is it possible to do a USB miner with a BFL chip?  I am guessing no since no one has done it and they are much more readily available than BF.

Might be possible, but with the BGA packaging they used makes them a lot harder to work with than the more hand-solder friendly packages like TQFP (with the leads sticking out the sides).  Plus, BFL lists the chips as out of stock, so I imagine you'd have to buy them from someone who has them stocked up just like BitFury.

[bitly]

Is it possible to do a USB miner with a BFL chip?  I am guessing no since no one has done it and they are much more readily available than BF.

Might be possible, but with the BGA packaging they used makes them a lot harder to work with than the more hand-solder friendly packages like TQFP (with the leads sticking out the sides).  Plus, BFL lists the chips as out of stock, so I imagine you'd have to buy them from someone who has them stocked up just like BitFury.

The BFL chips uses 3.2 W/GH/s so that's 12.8 W/chip for the 4GH/s chip. That doesn't fall within current USB specs but may be possible in the future.

[vs3]

Is it possible to do a USB miner with a BFL chip?  I am guessing no since no one has done it and they are much more readily available than BF.

Might be possible, but with the BGA packaging they used makes them a lot harder to work with than the more hand-solder friendly packages like TQFP (with the leads sticking out the sides).  Plus, BFL lists the chips as out of stock, so I imagine you'd have to buy them from someone who has them stocked up just like BitFury.

The BFL chips uses 3.2 W/GH/s so that's 12.8 W/chip for the 4GH/s chip. That doesn't fall within current USB specs but may be possible in the future.

yup - that pretty much sums it up.

As people already mentioned it - there are 2 major issues when considering it for a USB miner:
#1 - package is too big and cooling requirements are just too much of a pain for a USB miner (BF produces 2-3W of heat, BFL is well over 10W)
#2 - most importantly BFL chip consumes MUCH MUCH MORE power than the 2.5W that USB2 can provide.

Although it is probably possible to make an externally-powered big device that has fans for dealing with the extra cooling, etc, etc - that would sort of defeat the purpose of the simplicity that you get with a USB miner.

[Bicknellski]

BitMain?

[bitly]

BitMain?

May be an interesting option. Could conceivably fit 3 bitmain chips on a stick

[Mudbankkeith]

Is it possible to do a USB miner with a BFL chip?  I am guessing no since no one has done it and they are much more readily available than BF.

Might be possible, but with the BGA packaging they used makes them a lot harder to work with than the more hand-solder friendly packages like TQFP (with the leads sticking out the sides).  Plus, BFL lists the chips as out of stock, so I imagine you'd have to buy them from someone who has them stocked up just like BitFury.

The BFL chips uses 3.2 W/GH/s so that's 12.8 W/chip for the 4GH/s chip. That doesn't fall within current USB specs but may be possible in the future.

yup - that pretty much sums it up.

As people already mentioned it - there are 2 major issues when considering it for a USB miner:
#1 - package is too big and cooling requirements are just too much of a pain for a USB miner (BF produces 2-3W of heat, BFL is well over 10W)
#2 - most importantly BFL chip consumes MUCH MUCH MORE power than the 2.5W that USB2 can provide.

Although it is probably possible to make an externally-powered big device that has fans for dealing with the extra cooling, etc, etc - that would sort of defeat the purpose of the simplicity that you get with a USB miner.

The external power is already available(plenty of 12v & 5v on one of these)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dpjtcouau6ah0kj/2013-11-02%2012.41.13.jpg
and connected:-
https://www.dropbox.com/s/x8ho5djfthq0a7u/2013-11-02%2010.26.41.jpg

[MagicMan187]

I got a few of these, they run great!

Can you provide detailed instructions on overlocking?

I can't find no info online on the pencil mod for the nano fury. How do I got about doing this? Can you provide pictures with annotations?