Due to BlackArrow delays, some of their customers are being offered 50 Minions in place of a miner.
Just wondering if anyone had done anything with these chips. There could be a lot available soon.
WASP Collective was going to design something but I don't know if it materialized.
BlackArrow customers are wondering if it's worth it to get the chips or continue to wait. Thoughts?
We are not working on the Minion chips at this time. We are working with the Hammer SpondooliesTech trying to develop a board that goes into a DataTank test system at Allied Control hopefully in June when I am in HK for the Inside Bitcoin conference. Our Minion design board will only be starting later in 2014.
Best suggestion don't take the chips unless you have something already tested and working and fabricator you can trust. Such a small number of chips will be a fairly expensive build. You might be waiting a lot longer than just being patient for them to figure out their issues with the backplane. Or take the miner compensation and mine or sell them.
Weren't you guys working on a universal system for all chips? Didn't the WPC receive a variety of chips from a variety of manufacturers? What happened to all of those and the cards WPC was working on to support them? Are you going to follow through on the Hammer ASIC, or are you guys going to scrap that entirely as soon as another one comes along like you have for everything else?
We are not working on the re-design yet for the Minion. We had nearly finished an A1 board and had it blinking away and that has now been relegated to a test board, (as the blinking board was designed as a test board anyhow as a first prototype), and we did this because more chips became available and we were offered the Hammer chips and took that tact over the A1, BE200 and the Minion we look at the costs of the chips and the design requirements and made our decision based on the recommendations of the EE team. The WPC in meetings then set out a plan for moving on to other chips as the A1 is an odd ball chip to say the least with its unique cooling issues.
So, first we have to get our 1300 Hammer chips into a preliminary design either some as a Whiteface that will be Novec cooled or a Hornet which is an air cooled board. We could work with others if they want to take on parallel design for the Minion versions but we would have to look at some sort of agreement for that and the members who have invested in the boards (project) would have to agree. That is something that lead EE can talk more about. If anyone is keen on that please contact me and I will arrange for you to come to the meeting on the 31st of May. That meeting will give us the latest news on the development and where we will likely be by the 24th of June. Also we are looking at buying seats for a CAD program to make the redesign of the Minion and Rockerbox and future BGA type chips much easier and that will allow 2 or 3 EEs on the WPC to work in together on this. Currently we are constrained to a 1 seat OrdCad Cadence package which has limited functionality.
We have a limited number of people working on the project and I have personally been trying to engage more EEs to support this as members of the WPC. But again unlike those who have millions of dollars in reserve we are working on not as a full time gig for most of the members they have real world jobs and so we are functioning more or less on 3 to 4 people with one lead EE that does the majority of the pcb work. Those working on the project give time in lieu of shares in the project. Those who are not providing sweat equity are investing $ or BTC to help pay for the development costs and all this is kept in an open accounting system that all our members can see. We are also working on the WPC mining pool which is functional now as well as trying to set up our LLP/LLC soon. All of this is done by a number of people and I think I would guess that would be some 8 to10 people. We are transparent so if any member or any member of the public wants to come to a meeting to see what is happening feel free to contact me and poke your nose in and see what the EE has to say. Ask questions and get answers first hand.
Honestly we have had discussion very openly that we will definitely need to either grow membership and take on investors who are willing to support a more full-time approach that will cover the total development costs of these projects. As we are not building miners to sell we only need the raise just enough to get a reasonable number of boards out to prove and test that production for the DIYers or larger customers is scalable and profitable. There is a lot more beyond just the PCB design and that firmware plans we are always looking to add people willing to work and or invest time and money in our collective efforts. This is not a solo effort. I am not the only member. I do not handle money or BTC that is in the capable hands of others in the collective just so everyone is clear since there are countless lies being posted here and there in bitcointalk. Again if you want to check if I am telling the truth come to the meeting and ask.
The plan is from this point forward, and what we have funded to this point, is to build a prototype Hammer Whiteface to go into a test datatank system at Allied Control in June before the HK Inside Bitcoin conference. Those 1300 Hammers we have in hand will be put either into Whiteface or Hornet form factors and will remain in the WPC and not sold. The next step will be to go for a Rockerbox / Minion / Pickaxe in the Whiteface, Hornet and Wasp form factors.
At the point we have a working Rockerbox, Minion or Pickaxe then we will be licensing our designs out when that is ready to anyone.
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TLDR; Start Here.Back on topic. I think your best bet is really waiting for BA to resolve their issue with the backplane. I have already asked our EE to look at BA's backplane problem if he has time but he is neck deep in our Hammer Whiteface board.
Design Priority
Hammer > BE200 > Minion > RockerBox > PickAxe
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More Ranting Below. Feel free to ignore it.There are plenty of people cracking on about the WPC and what we haven't done. If you have the balls show up to our meeting on the 31st and challenge our EE's to answer your questions about the design and their level of commitment to the project, please come and get a CLEAR answer about the project and the WPC. I am getting a bit tired of the lies and innuendo from the peanut gallery given there are LIVE people pouring effort into this project based on their own decision. I might be a polarizing figure for the WPC because I stand up to people who have cheated others out of BTC, but let us be clear I am not the only person in the WPC and it seems like attacking something without backing it up with any evidence is the way some people play the game. If you have the guts, then come and talk to the WPC about your concerns in person. I bet you won't particularly those who have lied about the nature of the WPC and my own involvement.
If you think you know what is what then please feel free to come chat with our EE's. Otherwise you can drop the pretense you are somehow concerned about the "free" labour the EE's provide
me the WPC. That is not how it works. We can invest our time or our money no one is forced or coerced to do it. I have invested a lot of free time and my own money into the WPC based on my belief that the EE team will deliver at some point.
The whole point of the WPC is to pool our resources and share in the risk and the reward. We all know the risks we are all big boys with our big boy pants and we know the risks so we don't need others telling us what those risks are. But again if you want to level lies and accusations then bring that to our meeting and voice it. I DARE you to bring it as I would be very keen to hear what the EE's has to say in response to the misconceptions and lies that some specific people love to spread here.
Bottomline we are working on a design. We pay for the work in sweat and money from the members who decide they want to invest in a given project and that is the risk we all understand. Where some of these assholes are pissed off with me is directly related to my stance on their thefts of BTC from members of this community, which by the way, is well documented and their only recourse is to lie about the nature of the WPC and my involvement. Come to the meeting and say that to our faces don't hide behind a wall of text it is either show up or shut up time for those detractors.
