FPGA development board "Icarus" - DisContinued/ important announcement

[Turbor]

I don't know... but that looks wild. Is going to be "cut and put" a new plug on, no problem.

[Raize]

why not you guys use this ? 

I'll be honest with you ngzhang. Innovation is dead in America.

If a company can't patent it, they can't profit from it, so they don't even try.

[coretechs]

why not you guys use this ? 

I'll be honest with you ngzhang. Innovation is dead in America.

If a company can't patent it, they can't profit from it, so they don't even try.

That is a pretty ridiculous general conclusion to draw given the context.  There is nothing exceptionally innovative about a universal power strip either.  I'm sure plenty of people in both China and America use them.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1/189-2418886-7548616?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=universal+power+strip&x=0&y=0

[ngzhang]

why not you guys use this ? 

I'll be honest with you ngzhang. Innovation is dead in America.

If a company can't patent it, they can't profit from it, so they don't even try.

That is a pretty ridiculous general conclusion to draw given the context.  There is nothing exceptionally innovative about a universal power strip either.  I'm sure plenty of people in both China and America use them.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1/189-2418886-7548616?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=universal+power+strip&x=0&y=0

MADE IN CHINA 

[antirack]

I have received my 5 Icarus test boards today from Beijing and got them up and running. Very professional packing, thanks ngzhang.

I didn't get cgminer to work under Windows 7 so far so I am running 5 instances of RG7Miner for now.

I have a universal power bar with 5 slots just like the one ngzhang uses, but unfortunately the way the power supplies are angled I can only connect 4 to the bar. The other one I plugin on a normal socket using a travel power plug (we are using UK plugs here in Hong Kong).

I also connected the powerbar to my Brennenstuhl energy monitor (Kill-A-Watt kind device) and it shows 97.7W for 4 Icarus. This means I have around 2 GH/s with less than 120 Watt (+ notebook etc). I am pointing them at Slush's pool so I'll know the average hashrate in 10 rounds.

They do get warm under the FPGAs. When I point my low cost (= low accuracy) infrared thermometer at the underside of the PCB where the FPGAs are it shows 53C max. I can still touch it nicely (it seems like the paint on the PCB's is not yet completely dry, at least it feels a bit sticky).

It has probably been mentioned before, but does Icarus have temperature monitoring?

[allinvain]

Will you be contacting the people who pre-ordered via email? I don't always watch this thread so I was just making sure.

That's a very good question. ngzhang, you never answered that question.

I have received my 5 Icarus test boards today from Beijing and got them up and running. Very professional packing, thanks ngzhang.



It has probably been mentioned before, but does Icarus have temperature monitoring?

Hmm, that was quick! I presume you live in China. And as far as I know the Icarus does not have a termal sensor on it so no temperature monitoring. I don't think any of the FPGA miners (except perhaps BFL) have temp monitoring.

[Turbor]

I didn't get cgminer to work under Windows 7 so far so I am running 5 instances of RG7Miner for now.

So were you unable to get cgminer to run or did the software not detect ICARUS ?

[TheSeven]

why not you guys use this ? 

I'll be honest with you ngzhang. Innovation is dead in America.

If a company can't patent it, they can't profit from it, so they don't even try.

Another issue with that kind of socket is that it isn't touch safe (you could touch a live pin of the plug while it's half-inserted), at least for some plug types.
Which probably makes it illegal to sell such a thing, at least in most european countries.

[antirack]

I didn't get cgminer to work under Windows 7 so far so I am running 5 instances of RG7Miner for now.

So were you unable to get cgminer to run or did the software not detect ICARUS ?

Well, I had several issues. I've never used cgminer before so that's probably the main contributing factor. I am also not a Windows developer. But as far as I know Icarus support in cgminer is new and untested under Windows, I might be the first user.

So I downloaded the latest Windows binary but it didn't run because it required OpenCL.dll which you need for GPU mining. Next thing luke-jr sent me a binary compiled without GPU support. Took me further but now pdcurses.dll was missing. I then decided to build it from source in Windows and found Sharky's instructions very useful:

http://pastebin.com/3pzivj32

I compiled it with Icarus support only. It starts fine now, but somewhere seems to be a bug. Xiangfu sent me some source diff (2 new lines which I manually inserted) to fix a timeout bug that he had already discovered, but it seems not to be the only problem.

What I get at this moment with cgminer (latest official source release + xiangfu patch) is this:

Code:

$ cgminer -T -D --verbose -S COM3 -S COM4 -o pool -u user -p pass
[2012-02-28 16:38:15] Started cgminer 2.3.1
[2012-02-28 16:38:24] Icarus Read: No data in 8 seconds
[2012-02-28 16:38:24] Icarus Detect: Test failed at COM3 : get 00000000, should: 063c5e01
[2012-02-28 16:38:32] Icarus Read: No data in 8 seconds
[2012-02-28 16:38:32] Icarus Detect: Test failed at COM4 : get 00000000, should: 063c5e01
All devices disabled, cannot mine!

 

[Energizer]

Please correct me if am wrong:

Currently, I am getting the best performance "MH/s" using Modular-Python-Bitcoin-Miner "better than cgminer".

https://github.com/TheSeven/Modular-Python-Bitcoin-Miner

[ngzhang]

sorry, i can not use cgminer too.
xiangfu told me that next version will fix this issue

[ngzhang]

Will you be contacting the people who pre-ordered via email? I don't always watch this thread so I was just making sure.

That's a very good question. ngzhang, you never answered that question.

I have received my 5 Icarus test boards today from Beijing and got them up and running. Very professional packing, thanks ngzhang.



It has probably been mentioned before, but does Icarus have temperature monitoring?

Hmm, that was quick! I presume you live in China. And as far as I know the Icarus does not have a termal sensor on it so no temperature monitoring. I don't think any of the FPGA miners (except perhaps BFL) have temp monitoring.

about the question.
sorry, i'm thinking about how to answer it.

i give half of preordered customers payment email (by pre-order time sequence), and start the shipping a week ago. today i finally send out all payed orders.

and first 100+ boards are sold out. include half bulk orders and half small orders.

next 100+ boards will come out next week. (5-7 days after) and i will give another half preordered customers a payment email in next 2-3 days, and start the ship again in 7-9 days.

because i'm totally in a email jam, so i may be miss some inquiry mails..

[allinvain]

I see. I think I fall into the "small order" category. I did send you a formal pre-order request a while back and you responded as having received and confirmed it.

The main question here is if someone writes you an e-mail with a pre-order request or wants to get in on a batch I presume you actually write/store their info/request, no? lol otherwise having to go through e-mails will result in lost orders and lost customers. I'm not questioning your organizational skills, I just am curious to know _what_ they're like

[ngzhang]

I see. I think I fall into the "small order" category. I did send you a formal pre-order request a while back and you responded as having received and confirmed it.

The main question here is if someone writes you an e-mail with a pre-order request or wants to get in on a batch I presume you actually write/store their info/request, no? lol otherwise having to go through e-mails will result in lost orders and lost customers. I'm not questioning your organizational skills, I just am curious to know _what_ they're like

i actually feel your displeased, and i must say that's all my fault.
EDIT
and:  small order is in a higher priority.
EDIT
i write down all pre-order emails, and will give the payment information by the time sequence. you know, i never withdraw when there are no boards in my hands, at least they must pass the preliminary test. i already dispose of half  pre-orders, and send them out. next i will deal with another half, after that, if any one pre-ordered but didn't get my respond, i will ask here and process them immediately, by my reserved boards.

this will be totally finished in 9 days.

[Raize]

I'm thinking maybe the problem is that we need to help him out by getting distribution channels set up. I *just* formed an LLC earlier this month for my mining, but I'm wondering if maybe I should instead be working to get bulk orders done to the US, then reselling them to interested parties?

Biggest problem is I'm in the Midwest, so shipping here isn't exactly cheap. What about MemoryDealers? They usually seem to be okay with working with other people in the Bitcoin world, maybe they'd be a better outfit to handle the shipping?

[TheHarbinger]

I'm thinking maybe the problem is that we need to help him out by getting distribution channels set up. I *just* formed an LLC earlier this month for my mining, but I'm wondering if maybe I should instead be working to get bulk orders done to the US, then reselling them to interested parties?

Biggest problem is I'm in the Midwest, so shipping here isn't exactly cheap. What about MemoryDealers? They usually seem to be okay with working with other people in the Bitcoin world, maybe they'd be a better outfit to handle the shipping?

Get in touch with the folks over at "Bit-Pay".  They are set up 3 blocks form me, so I wouldn't have to pay shipping fees again. 

[allinvain]

I see. I think I fall into the "small order" category. I did send you a formal pre-order request a while back and you responded as having received and confirmed it.

The main question here is if someone writes you an e-mail with a pre-order request or wants to get in on a batch I presume you actually write/store their info/request, no? lol otherwise having to go through e-mails will result in lost orders and lost customers. I'm not questioning your organizational skills, I just am curious to know _what_ they're like

i actually feel your displeased, and i must say that's all my fault.
EDIT
and:  small order is in a higher priority.
EDIT
i write down all pre-order emails, and will give the payment information by the time sequence. you know, i never withdraw when there are no boards in my hands, at least they must pass the preliminary test. i already dispose of half  pre-orders, and send them out. next i will deal with another half, after that, if any one pre-ordered but didn't get my respond, i will ask here and process them immediately, by my reserved boards.

this will be totally finished in 9 days.

Well I will be displeased if I do not get the board that I pre-ordered lol :p Check your e-mails. Hint: I ordered form a gmail address that has my forum handle in it - ie "allinvain" .

I really hope I don't miss out on this batch.

[ngzhang]

ok,
next 300 chips arrived, i send them to the factory today. the planed complete date is 3/6. the test will cost another 4 days. so the planed delivery date is around 3/10-11.

tonight i will contact with next half pre-ordered customers.


the chips maybe about 1-2KG weight include package, and the value is much more than 30,000$.

(here if you kill a person in a car accident, you should compensate for about 100,000$. )

[Inspector 2211]

(here if you kill a person in a car accident, you should compensate for about 100,000$. )

Regardless of FAULT?

In Thailand it's like this: If a motorbike rider ignores a stop sign and is therefore injured or killed by a "farang" (foreigner) driving a car, the "farang" is automatically at fault, because if the car hadn't been there, the accident wouldn't have happened.

Is is similar in China, or is it a little bit more rational?

---

On another note: For the first time ever there was presence of China-based security vendors at this year's RSA conference. For years and years, Germany had a huge pavilion for several vendors from Germany, and this year as a first, China had the same thing.
Specifically, the pavilion was rented by "Beijing Zhongguancun Overseas Science Park" and subdivided among several vendors.

[allinvain]

In Thailand it's like this: If a motorbike rider ignores a stop sign and is therefore injured or killed by a "farang" (foreigner) driving a car, the "farang" is automatically at fault, because if the car hadn't been there, the accident wouldn't have happened.

Is is similar in China, or is it a little bit more rational?

---

On another note: For the first time ever there was presence of China-based security vendors at this year's RSA conference. For years and years, Germany had a huge pavilion for several vendors from Germany, and this year as a first, China had the same thing.
Specifically, the pavilion was rented by "Beijing Zhongguancun Overseas Science Park" and subdivided among several vendors.

Wow, that's just wrong. By farang do they mean a white dude or any person without Thai nationality?

On a different note: Ngzhang, do you have any extra boards? I am contemplating upgrading my pre-order :p