Free 4xSpartan 6 DIY design and schematics!!!

[Wandering Albatross]

could someone give the schematics to a manufacturer and get a reliable product?

The icarus is an open design. I recall seeing a BOM, not sure about the design files.

[1714869403]

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[1714869403]

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[stcupp]

btw, my interest is for personal rigs, not commercial interests.  just wanted to be clear on that in case there were any concerns, or if commercial use of the design would violate even the spirit of the project.

This is DIY if you had a manufacturer make this you would prob pay a extra 250 to have them put it together so it would be cheaper to just buy a foga miner already built

[triplehelix]

btw, my interest is for personal rigs, not commercial interests.  just wanted to be clear on that in case there were any concerns, or if commercial use of the design would violate even the spirit of the project.

This is DIY if you had a manufacturer make this you would prob pay a extra 250 to have them put it together so it would be cheaper to just buy a foga miner already built

depends on the hashrate.  death and taxes seems to be onto a design that is very attractive.

[DeathAndTaxes]

I wouldn't say design that gives it to much credit ... maybe "concept".

[triplehelix]

fair enough.  your concept is very intriguing to me, and while i admit my extreme ignorance in technical proficiency to really understand, it doesn't seem like a ton of work to move from the current design, to implementing your concept.

[rph]

A bitcoin fpga mining project will take at least 3 months of your life.   Even with the open source RTL and SW now.

-rph

[aTg]

I do not understand this thread, "rph" had a project just like a circuit with four removable FPGAs and the project was almost finished, it brings back this? I see rather more cumbersome than the other.

[Skrivitor]

I like this project and I would love to contribute.  I design circuit boards for an Aviation/Oilfield computer company and they allow me to use my Altium Designer Summer 09 Seat for personal projects.  PM me if you would like to chat.

[triplehelix]

I like this project and I would love to contribute.  I design circuit boards for an Aviation/Oilfield computer company and they allow me to use my Altium Designer Summer 09 Seat for personal projects.  PM me if you would like to chat.

nothing stopping you from starting your own project i don't think.  open source it, and everyone benefits.

make the improvements you see fit, maybe incorporating some of the expandability wishlist.  i'm looking for something that has a good ROI, that i can contract to be manufactured for my personal use.  any design i end up using, i will donate to.

[eldentyrell]

...versus https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=45532



Sincerest form of flattery?

No seriously, I'm glad to see it's catching on.  Those molex connectors are expensive, though.

If I were you I would allocate way more than 10A of power per board.  However, since you aren't soldering down the power supply to the board with the FPGA on it (like ztex and others) you can always just underpopulate the "motherboard" if you need more power per board.

I recommend using a SATA power connector instead of a 4-pin molex connector.  It's hard to find the SATA power connector without a data connector as well, but you can just leave the data side unconnected.

Good luck!

[Ilovebitcoins]

Well I see this project is the design used by btcfpga.com. What am I wondering if the complete plans for this have ever been released. I mean I see so CAD designs of the PCB boards but I cannot submit those to a company to produce them.

What I am trying to do is basically build my own FPGA boards with this design because I really like this style of miner. I am really hoping that the original poster will release the designs for his PCB boards so I can get some made. I would really love to try and build my own FPGA miner. I am willing to risk screwing up a little bit as well to learn how to build these efficiently. I know that I am asking a lot but would it be possible to get a complete parts list and the PCB board designs so I can submit them for manufacturing. I really think that I would be able to build my own boards at home.

Here is a link to a site showing you how to solider a FPGA at home.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkjOwuSEzKU

I think I could follow this man's video pretty well. I would order some stencils as well so that I could make applying the paste and everything very neatly. I mean if we could get a few of us that would like to DIY a FPGA miner to order the PCB boards together I am sure we can get a decent price. I have done research and have found companies that will make me a single PCB board at a time but it will be a premium cost. I am trying to get the cost as low as possible.

If I could get the Spartan 6 chips for about $150 each I would like to think that I could build a complete unit for around $700.00 which would be saving me like $400 dollars from the units that can be purchased at BTCFPGA.com.

Like I said I simply would like to be able to build my own FPGA miner for a fun hobby/project. I would not be reselling them in anyway. They would be for personal use only. I am hoping the original poster will release the designs to me. I would be willing to pay a little bit for the designs privately if that was possible. Original poster please just PM with the cost details for the PCB board design ready to send to the manufacturer and a complete parts list.

[||bit]

Well I see this project is the design used by btcfpga.com. What am I wondering if the complete plans for this have ever been released. I mean I see so CAD designs of the PCB boards but I cannot submit those to a company to produce them.

What I am trying to do is basically build my own FPGA boards with this design because I really like this style of miner. I am really hoping that the original poster will release the designs for his PCB boards so I can get some made. I would really love to try and build my own FPGA miner. I am willing to risk screwing up a little bit as well to learn how to build these efficiently. I know that I am asking a lot but would it be possible to get a complete parts list and the PCB board designs so I can submit them for manufacturing. I really t

I'd also like to make my own. But seems these DIY threads tend to dry up as quickly as they start.

[stcupp]

The schematics were taken down awhile ago

Well I see this project is the design used by btcfpga.com. What am I wondering if the complete plans for this have ever been released. I mean I see so CAD designs of the PCB boards but I cannot submit those to a company to produce them.

What I am trying to do is basically build my own FPGA boards with this design because I really like this style of miner. I am really hoping that the original poster will release the designs for his PCB boards so I can get some made. I would really love to try and build my own FPGA miner. I am willing to risk screwing up a little bit as well to learn how to build these efficiently. I know that I am asking a lot but would it be possible to get a complete parts list and the PCB board designs so I can submit them for manufacturing. I really think that I would be able to build my own boards at home.

Here is a link to a site showing you how to solider a FPGA at home.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkjOwuSEzKU

I think I could follow this man's video pretty well. I would order some stencils as well so that I could make applying the paste and everything very neatly. I mean if we could get a few of us that would like to DIY a FPGA miner to order the PCB boards together I am sure we can get a decent price. I have done research and have found companies that will make me a single PCB board at a time but it will be a premium cost. I am trying to get the cost as low as possible.

If I could get the Spartan 6 chips for about $150 each I would like to think that I could build a complete unit for around $700.00 which would be saving me like $400 dollars from the units that can be purchased at BTCFPGA.com.

Like I said I simply would like to be able to build my own FPGA miner for a fun hobby/project. I would not be reselling them in anyway. They would be for personal use only. I am hoping the original poster will release the designs to me. I would be willing to pay a little bit for the designs privately if that was possible. Original poster please just PM with the cost details for the PCB board design ready to send to the manufacturer and a complete parts list.

The designs were taken down awhile ago... I prototyped this board and had some bugs with it and have worked them out in future revisions. I don't think you realize how much more this stuff costs in low quantity..... you wouldn't be able to make these for $700 a unit in low quantity.... you would need to make over 100 to get to around $700..... for example say you wanted to make 3 units the parts for each backplane would be around $80 -$90 + the price of the PCB's which would be around $180 for 5 then you need 12 spartan 6 plugin boards the parts for those would be around $185-$205 depending on what speed grade of FPGA you get each plus you would need 12 4layer PCB's which are pretty expensive in low qty if you got 12 of them made it would be around $400-$450. So now lets add this all up....

Parts for backplane: $85 ea * 3 =                                  $255
PCBs for backplane 5 for                                               $180
Parts for Spartan 6 plugin board = $185 ea * 12 =             $2220
PCBs for 12 Spartan 6 plugin board =                               $400
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                                                                    TOTAL:  $3055
                                                        PRICE PER UNIT:  $1018.33

Oh and it will be more than that you have to include other things you'll need such as  taxes on the parts, shipping, solder, soldering wick, flux, a good soldering Iron, and more....... The key to getting it cheap is QTY!

I may be able to make a kit or something..... actually the original plan was to just sell kits but I figured most people wouldn't be able to or wouldn't want to solder the 484 ball BGA and all the tiny 0402 capacitors and resistors + the ARM chip that only has 0.008 in. between pins..... I would be happy to make a kit though as long as there is enough interest.

[||bit]

I may be able to make a kit or something..... actually the original plan was to just sell kits but I figured most people wouldn't be able to or wouldn't want to solder the 484 ball BGA and all the tiny 0402 capacitors and resistors + the ARM chip that only has 0.008 in. between pins..... I would be happy to make a kit though as long as there is enough interest.

I think there is interest. It's scattered, but they will come. You could even initially create a thread to sell the full blown, non-buggy(!) design and initially sell the design plans. And thereafter, if you wanted to compile and sell a kits, you could probably do that too. See my thread linked below, and you can see that it started to generate interest from the start. But it fizzled soon after, maybe because people realized it was best if was backed by someone with FPGA circuitry know-how.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=78935.0

On top of all that, you can get feedback from us and we can together streamline the process to reduce costs even more. Six sigma!  

One example I can think of, but admittedly just speculating on, would be to consider if the traces on the PCB could be made to act as caps near the FPGA (cost savings built into the design). I'm not sure if it would work, since the capacitance value might be greater than a thick PCB dialectric would allow practically. A capacitance measurement on parallel traces could test this idea. [late entry: I just saw that the capacitors are super cheap, so this would not be a significant cost savings at all, but if it was easy enough to design into the PCB, it could at least save the time to solder them into the circuit]

I have 10 BTC waiting to barter for a complete non-buggy DIY design.

[Ilovebitcoins]

Hey man,

I would hope there would be interest in DIY kits. I mean if I understand what you are offering correctly I think that would be a great idea. I understood it as you would basically put all the parts together and send them in a kit correct? I know it would not be soildered but I think that would be a great idea. Maybe you could make a new post to gauge interest in a project like that. I would prefer a design similar to the one that you had designed. Something that could be added onto when more cash is acquired.

Now would you offer these kits at a lower price if there was enough interest? Let's say 100 kit orders were placed, would you be able to offer it at lets say $500 for the starter back plane, all the chips, and the PCB board? Now I know that you would only be able to include 2-3 FPGA chips at that price but I am looking for an option that allows me to start small and work my way up. I really love the design of the miner you designed for btcfpga.com. I would like to see maybe an 8x or 16x back-plane as well that way I could only buy single daughter board kits for lets say around $150-$175 bucks.

I would like to hear some of the ideas you have concerning a DIY project kit. I mean theoretically if you ordered enough FPGA chips at once I am sure you can get the cost down as well as the PCB back planes and daughter boards. Just would love to your ideas on a kit and the cost factor. If it is something that could compete with the ButterFly Labs single I think there would be a hell of a lot more people buying these kits. I mean I would like to pay around $600 bucks for a complete 4x FPGA setup. Also I think you should include a stencil for the FPGA soldering so that newbies could attempt this with some research. I would hope that they would have enough sense to practice before using the actual chip but that would be on them and not you.

[stcupp]

Hey man,

I would hope there would be interest in DIY kits. I mean if I understand what you are offering correctly I think that would be a great idea. I understood it as you would basically put all the parts together and send them in a kit correct? I know it would not be soildered but I think that would be a great idea. Maybe you could make a new post to gauge interest in a project like that. I would prefer a design similar to the one that you had designed. Something that could be added onto when more cash is acquired.

Now would you offer these kits at a lower price if there was enough interest? Let's say 100 kit orders were placed, would you be able to offer it at lets say $500 for the starter back plane, all the chips, and the PCB board? Now I know that you would only be able to include 2-3 FPGA chips at that price but I am looking for an option that allows me to start small and work my way up. I really love the design of the miner you designed for btcfpga.com. I would like to see maybe an 8x or 16x back-plane as well that way I could only buy single daughter board kits for lets say around $150-$175 bucks.

I would like to hear some of the ideas you have concerning a DIY project kit. I mean theoretically if you ordered enough FPGA chips at once I am sure you can get the cost down as well as the PCB back planes and daughter boards. Just would love to your ideas on a kit and the cost factor. If it is something that could compete with the ButterFly Labs single I think there would be a hell of a lot more people buying these kits. I mean I would like to pay around $600 bucks for a complete 4x FPGA setup. Also I think you should include a stencil for the FPGA soldering so that newbies could attempt this with some research. I would hope that they would have enough sense to practice before using the actual chip but that would be on them and not you.

Errr I don't think you realize there is no price discount on the FPGAs even in large QTY.... see for yourself Digikey and Avnet are the only authorized distributors of Xilinx chips...

http://search.digikey.com/us/en/products/XC6SLX150-2FGG484C/122-1750-ND/2339792

http://search.digikey.com/us/en/products/XC6SLX150-3FGG484C/122-1725-ND/2339800

http://avnetexpress.avnet.com/store/em/EMController/FPGA/Xilinx/XC6SLX150-2FGG484C/_/R-12249118/A-12249118/An-0?action=part&catalogId=500201&langId=-1&storeId=500201&listIndex=-1

http://avnetexpress.avnet.com/store/em/EMController/FPGA/Xilinx/XC6SLX150-3FGG484C/_/R-12261582/A-12261582/An-0?action=part&catalogId=500201&langId=-1&storeId=500201&listIndex=-1


The only other options are figuring out how to get the chips directly from Xilinx and if I can get price discounts like that I figure there would be a min qty ordering them like that though. Say they required you to buy at least 1000 chips to get the chips straight from them I don't have over $100k to drop on FPGAs so I can get them at discount. This is just a example but I will look into it and see if this is possible.

The other option is finding some asian unauthorized dealer that could easily send you fake / old chips that have been remarked to look like the chips you ordered, used chips, broken chips, or just straight rip you off on thousands of dollars worth of chips and not send anything and there wouldn't be anything you could do about it.


Anyway what I was planning was maybe making some kits that would include all the parts to make the backplane and daughter boards + the PCBs idk if I would include the FPGAs in with this or not and I'm not sure what the pricing would be yet but definitely cheaper than buying it already soldered and cheaper than buying the parts yourself in low qty. I might make the kits separate also like a backplane kit and the daughter board kit.

 Oh and a stencil isnt needed the FPGAs come with the solder balls already attached you just have to put a very thin layer of flux on the pcb and get the FPGA perfectly aligned on there and heat it up with your preferred DIY BGA soldering method(toaster oven, skillet, hot air gun, or whatever you can think up that will do the job =p) following Xilinx's soldering guidelines for the Spartan 6 as closely as possible to make the solder balls bond to the PCB.

[Tyger]

I cant seem to find the link to the schematics, anyone?

[Ilovebitcoins]

Hey,

That would be fine for me if the FPGA chip was not included. I would just really like the kit to include the daughter boards and back-plane and parts needed to construct the miner. What would be the cost of the kit without the FPGA chip? I would be interested in something like that for sure if it was cheap enough.

[||bit]

Hey,

That would be fine for me if the FPGA chip was not included. I would just really like the kit to include the daughter boards and back-plane and parts needed to construct the miner. What would be the cost of the kit without the FPGA chip? I would be interested in something like that for sure if it was cheap enough.

Same here. I'd buy a kit without an FPGA. But would hope the design is proven not buggy. Also, would need direction on how to proceed with loading FPGA.

[TheSeven]

I don't think this is feasible. The FPGA is actually the part that is most tricky to solder onto such a board (and easiest to mess up), so it seems backward to me to ship kits without FPGAs.