X6500 Custom FPGA Miner

[tgmarks]

Those things are sweet, i'm totally trying a set of those out.

[99Percent]

I was able to drastically reduce the rate of invalids by removing the heatsinks, scrapping clean the white adhesive and using gasoline, and the apply thermal paste (I couldn't quickly find thermal epoxy here in Mexico) and then gently press the heatsinks back on.

I think TheSeven is right about the nasty plastic packaging of the FPGA, it is the major bottleneck for its heat to dissipate. Isn't this chip available with a metal top?

[Vanderbleek]

I don't see one available on digikey -- Xilinx might be able to cook something up, but I'm willing to bet it would cost quite a bit.

[ZodiacDragon84]

I was able to drastically reduce the rate of invalids by removing the heatsinks, scrapping clean the white adhesive and using gasoline, and the apply thermal paste (I couldn't quickly find thermal epoxy here in Mexico) and then gently press the heatsinks back on.

I think TheSeven is right about the nasty plastic packaging of the FPGA, it is the major bottleneck for its heat to dissipate. Isn't this chip available with a metal top?

Liquid nitrogen bath for hashing...lol

[fizzisist]

I was able to drastically reduce the rate of invalids by removing the heatsinks, scrapping clean the white adhesive and using gasoline, and the apply thermal paste (I couldn't quickly find thermal epoxy here in Mexico) and then gently press the heatsinks back on.

I think TheSeven is right about the nasty plastic packaging of the FPGA, it is the major bottleneck for its heat to dissipate. Isn't this chip available with a metal top?

Glad to hear you got it working better! Is the heatsink then attached to the PCB in some way? I don't think the thermal grease will hold onto it very well (for long at least). Or maybe I misunderstood what you used...

Nope, no metal packages available for the Spartan 6 FPGAs, unfortunately. Looking at the published thermal specs for these FPGAs (UG385, page 341), though, I don't think the case is that bad. Obviously metal would be better, but we're just trying to move less than 10 W here. In rough numbers, keeping the thermal resistance from case to ambient under about 5 degC/W should be good enough. This is possible with the stock heatsinks and a good fan next to the board. The key then is that we have two parallel thermal paths: through the case and through the PCB. Adding those in parallel means that the total thermal resistance from junction to ambient is reduced a lot. This is why airflow over the board itself is very helpful! If you want to eliminate whole board airflow, you need to drastically reduce the thermal resistance of the heatsink.

[allinvain]

Hi. Where did you get that enclosure, and what is it exactly, a hdd enclosure? (model number, etc) I'd like to get one too.

Edit: oops, did not realize someone that someone already asked the same question. Sorry for the redundancy. Maybe you missed his reply as well though.

Thanks.

[c_k]

They look like motherboard bus heatsink/fan combos from xilence, 40mm I think?

[abbeytim]

no offense but shouldnt this be in the mining hardware thread

or are you actually selling these cause when i checked cablesaurus they say sold out

[abbeytim]

http://cablesaurus.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=10&product_id=56 theres the link says out of stock

[SamHa1n]

Heatsink/fans are 40mm xilence that originally came stock on ztex fpga boards. Had to mount with epoxy. Removing the stock sinks was rather easy, considering that one just fell off by itself when the board was being lightly handled.

Standard 3.5" external 5 drive enclosure. Replaced the stock 120mm back fan with a variable speed liquid bearing fan. Each board is mounted to 2.5" -> 3.5" drive adapter tray.

PSU is 90W Pico unit

The digital readout is a 4 channel fan controller / temp sensor.

Around $100 of parts, give or take... 

[tgmarks]

Well done, throw a panel on the front around your digital readout and thats a nice little unit.

[fizzisist]

no offense but shouldnt this be in the mining hardware thread

or are you actually selling these cause when i checked cablesaurus they say sold out

Yes, we are actually selling these, but they are temporarily out of stock. I agree though, this doesn't really seem like the right place for this, along with all the old GPUs. Also, the thread has really become more of a place to discuss and get help, not a venue for buying and selling. Anyone object to a move to Bitcoin > Mining > Hardware?

Also, SamHa1n, very nice!

[cypherdoc]

no offense but shouldnt this be in the mining hardware thread

or are you actually selling these cause when i checked cablesaurus they say sold out

Yes, we are actually selling these, but they are temporarily out of stock. I agree though, this doesn't really seem like the right place for this, along with all the old GPUs. Also, the thread has really become more of a place to discuss and get help, not a venue for buying and selling. Anyone object to a move to Bitcoin > Mining > Hardware?

Also, SamHa1n, very nice!

i've been thinking the same thing.  you need to move this to Hardware. 

[TheSeven]

i've been thinking the same thing.  you need to move this to Hardware. 

+1

[cypherdoc]

i've been thinking the same thing.  you need to move this to Hardware. 

+1

do you have a sense about how widely MPBM is being adopted?  are you pleased with its functionality?

[TheSeven]

i've been thinking the same thing.  you need to move this to Hardware. 

+1

do you have a sense about how widely MPBM is being adopted?  are you pleased with its functionality?

I'd estimate that there are around 10-30 installations right now, and no, I'm not really pleased with it's functionality yet.
It probably outperforms the standalone software solutions from the FPGA board vendors, but is nowhere near where I want it to be.
This is why I'm currently rewriting it from the ground up, for both better performance and greater flexibility. The new version won't have a configuration file any more, instead it will be configured through a web interface.

[cypherdoc]

i've been thinking the same thing.  you need to move this to Hardware. 

+1

do you have a sense about how widely MPBM is being adopted?  are you pleased with its functionality?

I'd estimate that there are around 10-30 installations right now, and no, I'm not really pleased with it's functionality yet.
It probably outperforms the standalone software solutions from the FPGA board vendors, but is nowhere near where I want it to be.
This is why I'm currently rewriting it from the ground up, for both better performance and greater flexibility. The new version won't have a configuration file any more, instead it will be configured through a web interface.

any estimate of when the rewrite might be ready?

[TheSeven]

any estimate of when the rewrite might be ready?

If things go well, this will be another couple of weeks of coding time until it is somewhat working, another couple of weeks until it works reasonably well.
I have exams coming up though, so I sadly won't have time to work on this full time. So if I don't manage to finish this really soon, it'll probably have to wait until after the exams, which means that it might take until around the end of May.

[kjlimo]

any estimate of when the rewrite might be ready?

If things go well, this will be another couple of weeks of coding time until it is somewhat working, another couple of weeks until it works reasonably well.
I have exams coming up though, so I sadly won't have time to work on this full time. So if I don't manage to finish this really soon, it'll probably have to wait until after the exams, which means that it might take until around the end of May.

any estimate of when the rewrite might be ready?

If things go well, this will be another couple of weeks of coding time until it is somewhat working, another couple of weeks until it works reasonably well.
I have exams coming up though, so I sadly won't have time to work on this full time. So if I don't manage to finish this really soon, it'll probably have to wait until after the exams, which means that it might take until around the end of May.

What exams are you talking about?  College, CPA, actuary?

[fizzisist]

Manufacturing update!

We now have a firm ETA for the board manufacture to complete on March 6th. I estimate about a week of testing, then they should be shipping out!