Wondering where your BFL Singles are?

[ElectricMucus]

Cool.

I nominate Inaba for the scammer label.

Wat?

If I were to bet I'd say you are BFL.

But time will tell.

I will take that bet.  Please let me know how much you want to bet, I will cover any bet you care to name.

So... put your money where your mouth is before further sounding like an idiot.  I propose we go with 1000 BTC to start, what say you?  We can pick a neutral escrow agent that we both agree upon.  If you want to bet more, just name your amount and I'm in.

Don't be ridiculous. If I had 1000 BTC I would have something better to do with them.
To bad I have to add that as a disclaimer as of every post I make.

From my casual observation you are overly concerned for a independent party about bystander comments like mine, again just a thought. Move on dude, it's just my humble opinion.

PS: LOL Internet.

[1714062988]

1714062988

[1714062988]

1714062988

[1714062988]

1714062988

[1714062988]

1714062988

[boonies4u]

Cool.

I nominate Inaba for the scammer label.

Wat?

If I were to bet I'd say you are BFL.

But time will tell.

I will take that bet.  Please let me know how much you want to bet, I will cover any bet you care to name.

So... put your money where your mouth is before further sounding like an idiot.  I propose we go with 1000 BTC to start, what say you?  We can pick a neutral escrow agent that we both agree upon.  If you want to bet more, just name your amount and I'm in.

Don't be ridiculous. If I had 1000 BTC I would have something better to do with them.
To bad I have to add that as a disclaimer as of every post I make.

From my casual observation you are overly concerned for a independent party about bystander comments like mine, again just a thought. Move on dude, it's just my humble opinion.

PS: LOL Internet.

Precisely, welcome to the internet.

Funny story, I once rested my elbow on my tower as I was disconnecting the PSU from the power strip. It sent a charge through my arm, which abruptly stopped at my elbow.
In the end, everything went better than expect.

[abeaulieu]

Here they are, being prepped to ship:



I stopped by the BFL offices the other day and wow, they've expanded a ton since I stopped in a few weeks ago.  I met a number of new hires as well, so it looks like they are gearing up for faster production.  The Minirig assembly line was full of Minirigs.  I was able to take the above picture of one of the areas they are assembling the singles... I tried to slip a few in my pockets, but my pockets were not big enough, sadly.  

I may try again and wear some cargo shorts.  I think maybe I could fit a six pack of Jalapenos in some parachute pants, too.

RE: ESD Straps... Look at the outlet closest to the 90's radio. There is some sort of 2 prong device and then what appears to be an ESD strap lead plugged into the ground terminal. Just sayin' 

[SgtSpike]

Here they are, being prepped to ship:



I stopped by the BFL offices the other day and wow, they've expanded a ton since I stopped in a few weeks ago.  I met a number of new hires as well, so it looks like they are gearing up for faster production.  The Minirig assembly line was full of Minirigs.  I was able to take the above picture of one of the areas they are assembling the singles... I tried to slip a few in my pockets, but my pockets were not big enough, sadly.  

I may try again and wear some cargo shorts.  I think maybe I could fit a six pack of Jalapenos in some parachute pants, too.

RE: ESD Straps... Look at the outlet closest to the 90's radio. There is some sort of 2 prong device and then what appears to be an ESD strap lead plugged into the ground terminal. Just sayin' 

Also, you can see some sort of surface with rounded corners on top of the workbench.  Look next to her left elbow.  Maybe that's the ESD mat, and the lead from the ground terminal is grounding it?

[Raoul Duke]

So, according to dreamwatcher all my laptops should be fried by now from me dismantling them piece by piece every 3 months without any kind of ESD protection whatsoever...

Cool!

[SgtSpike]

So, according to dreamwatcher all my laptops should be fried by now from me dismantling them piece by piece every 3 months without any kind of ESD protection whatsoever...

Cool!

Haha, same.  I just set it on my kitchen table and have at it.  :p

[crazyates]

So, according to dreamwatcher all my laptops should be fried by now from me dismantling them piece by piece every 3 months without any kind of ESD protection whatsoever...

Cool!

So when I take every single GPU I get apart and replace the thermal paste (in a carpeted room, on a wooden desk, with no protection), they should all be fried by now? Now I am somewhat cautious: I try not to place them ON the carpet, and I tend to touch my computer case when I"m about to pick the GPU up, but still...

Side note, I have actually fried one single piece of hardware ever. At work, I reached into a running computer to feel how hot a HD was. I touched the running HD, felt a zap, and the computer shut down, and the drive wouldn't spin. We got a replacement from Dell. Only thing I've ever had fry on me...

[Raoul Duke]

So, according to dreamwatcher all my laptops should be fried by now from me dismantling them piece by piece every 3 months without any kind of ESD protection whatsoever...

Cool!

So when I take every single GPU I get apart and replace the thermal paste (in a carpeted room, on a wooden desk, with no protection), they should all be fried by now? Now I am somewhat cautious: I try not to place them ON the carpet, and I tend to touch my computer case when I"m about to pick the GPU up, but still...

Side note, I have actually fried one single piece of hardware ever. At work, I reached into a running computer to feel how hot a HD was. I touched the running HD, felt a zap, and the computer shut down, and the drive wouldn't spin. We got a replacement from Dell. Only thing I've ever had fry on me...

Truth be told I always make sure the laptops are disconnected before i dismantle them

[dreamwatcher]

So, according to dreamwatcher all my laptops should be fried by now from me dismantling them piece by piece every 3 months without any kind of ESD protection whatsoever...

Cool!

So when I take every single GPU I get apart and replace the thermal paste (in a carpeted room, on a wooden desk, with no protection), they should all be fried by now? Now I am somewhat cautious: I try not to place them ON the carpet, and I tend to touch my computer case when I"m about to pick the GPU up, but still...

Side note, I have actually fried one single piece of hardware ever. At work, I reached into a running computer to feel how hot a HD was. I touched the running HD, felt a zap, and the computer shut down, and the drive wouldn't spin. We got a replacement from Dell. Only thing I've ever had fry on me...

Truth be told I always make sure the laptops are disconnected before i dismantle them

Absolutely amazing, do they not teach basic physics in school anymore?

So I guess your right, I said everything has a 100% immediate failure rate without ESD protection. That whole walking wounded thing is just an urban myth I guess, and all the research and numbers over the years have been disproved by you!!!!!

Your experience proves an entire industry wrong, hell you even proved NASA wrong.

http://eed.gsfc.nasa.gov/562/ESD_PreventionGSFCHWFrontpage.htm

Better get in contact with them right away and let them know that they do not have to worry about ESD.

Maybe you should publish a paper, I am sure the entire industry would like to know that they can save all kinds of money by not worrying about ESD anymore. YaY!!!

So I admit to the form, that the anecdotal evidence presented in this thread proves ESD is just a hoax, all the research,mathematics and electron microscope studies of failures are just total BS to sell grounding straps.

I have been bested, enjoy your "victory".

[yjacket]

Cool.

I nominate Inaba for the scammer label.

Wat?

If I were to bet I'd say you are BFL.

But time will tell.

I will take that bet.  Please let me know how much you want to bet, I will cover any bet you care to name.

So... put your money where your mouth is before further sounding like an idiot.  I propose we go with 1000 BTC to start, what say you?  We can pick a neutral escrow agent that we both agree upon.  If you want to bet more, just name your amount and I'm in.

Don't be ridiculous. If I had 1000 BTC I would have something better to do with them.
To bad I have to add that as a disclaimer as of every post I make.

From my casual observation you are overly concerned for a independent party about bystander comments like mine, again just a thought. Move on dude, it's just my humble opinion.

PS: LOL Internet.

So you are a fucking retard.

[Raoul Duke]

So, according to dreamwatcher all my laptops should be fried by now from me dismantling them piece by piece every 3 months without any kind of ESD protection whatsoever...

Cool!

So when I take every single GPU I get apart and replace the thermal paste (in a carpeted room, on a wooden desk, with no protection), they should all be fried by now? Now I am somewhat cautious: I try not to place them ON the carpet, and I tend to touch my computer case when I"m about to pick the GPU up, but still...

Side note, I have actually fried one single piece of hardware ever. At work, I reached into a running computer to feel how hot a HD was. I touched the running HD, felt a zap, and the computer shut down, and the drive wouldn't spin. We got a replacement from Dell. Only thing I've ever had fry on me...

Truth be told I always make sure the laptops are disconnected before i dismantle them

Absolutely amazing, do they not teach basic physics in school anymore?

So I guess your right, I said everything has a 100% immediate failure rate without ESD protection. That whole walking wounded thing is just an urban myth I guess, and all the research and numbers over the years have been disproved by you!!!!!

Your experience proves an entire industry wrong, hell you even proved NASA wrong.

http://eed.gsfc.nasa.gov/562/ESD_PreventionGSFCHWFrontpage.htm

Better get in contact with them right away and let them know that they do not have to worry about ESD.

Maybe you should publish a paper, I am sure the entire industry would like to know that they can save all kinds of money by not worrying about ESD anymore. YaY!!!

So I admit to the form, that the anecdotal evidence presented in this thread proves ESD is just a hoax, all the research,mathematics and electron microscope studies of failures are just total BS to sell grounding straps.

I have been bested, enjoy your "victory".

Why didn't you reply to the following post?

Open liquids (coffee cup) in an electronic assembly room??? Seriously??? 

I don't know about you, but if I am paying up to $30k for a piece of equipment, I EXPECT it to be assembled professionally.

I once worked in a cordless phone factory, that produced phones that at a max went for around $80, and all the above protocol was used.

I just wanted to chime in with some wisdom from the former CEO of my company who actually had a long experience managing assembly lines in the electronic industry.

The neatnik streak as displayed by dreamwatcher, especially the anti-ESD propaganda, is just a cover for the real management issues:

1) theft, both occasional and organized.
2) sabotage, especially when temporary labor force is employed.
3) anti-union or other political/labor issues, e.g. drug distribution amongst the people doing monotone work.
4) need for managerial control of positive factors: tracking of the good workers for possible promotion.
5) need for managerial control of negative factors: locating and investigating of workplace accidents and incidents.
6) saleability, state of being visibly spotless, mostly in case of consumer goods.
7) ESD is nowadays mostly a human factor, not a technical precaution. When people are repeatedly zapped their productivity goes down and it increases the chance of accidents.

Really, please think a bit about the history of the USA. Messrs. Hewlett and Packard probably should consider themselves lucky that nobody was there in their garage to make a snapshot of the sweat on their backs as they assembled the first laboratory oscillator that they sold to Walt Disney.

No arguments?

[dreamwatcher]

Why didn't you reply to the following post?

Open liquids (coffee cup) in an electronic assembly room??? Seriously???  

I don't know about you, but if I am paying up to $30k for a piece of equipment, I EXPECT it to be assembled professionally.

I once worked in a cordless phone factory, that produced phones that at a max went for around $80, and all the above protocol was used.

I just wanted to chime in with some wisdom from the former CEO of my company who actually had a long experience managing assembly lines in the electronic industry.

The neatnik streak as displayed by dreamwatcher, especially the anti-ESD propaganda, is just a cover for the real management issues:

1) theft, both occasional and organized.
2) sabotage, especially when temporary labor force is employed.
3) anti-union or other political/labor issues, e.g. drug distribution amongst the people doing monotone work.
4) need for managerial control of positive factors: tracking of the good workers for possible promotion.
5) need for managerial control of negative factors: locating and investigating of workplace accidents and incidents.
6) saleability, state of being visibly spotless, mostly in case of consumer goods.
7) ESD is nowadays mostly a human factor, not a technical precaution. When people are repeatedly zapped their productivity goes down and it increases the chance of accidents.

Really, please think a bit about the history of the USA. Messrs. Hewlett and Packard probably should consider themselves lucky that nobody was there in their garage to make a snapshot of the sweat on their backs as they assembled the first laboratory oscillator that they sold to Walt Disney.



No arguments?

I had more sarky remarks, but this has turned into a worthless exercise in futility.
I am done with this thread, nothing I will say will convince you or others, and nothing is going to change my views. It appears a large chunk of my fellow engineers are not going to post one way or another. Perhaps they were much smarter than I and realized the futility of continuing the discourse.
As for the above poster, second hand information that if you really read closely does not make a whole lot of sense in what ESD protocol is, just look at #7, Really??? You cannot be that gullible.

Perhaps the most telling

FYI - this is a non debate.  Ours is an ESD protected environment.  I would agree with Inaba in terms of scale of concern, but it's not an issue either way.  Open board work is done with ESD Matts & pretty blue wrist straps.   (I feel icky for having stepped in to answer this at all)

Do I really need to comment? It makes one of BFL's reps feel "icky" to answer a simple protocol question.

It has been an experience to say the least, and  I thought about making copies of this thread to show to my associates and in the fall to my professors. Instead I think I will let it die . People will read it before it falls off the front page and hopefully take something from it one way or the other.

More than likely i will be buying one of BFL products, I really never wanted the thread to turn out the way it did, but somehow we got here. My intention was never to slam BFL, just express a concern and get a proper answer which I was sure BFL had.

Well, good luck to you all and to BFL labs, see you around the forums.

[Inaba]

So, according to dreamwatcher all my laptops should be fried by now from me dismantling them piece by piece every 3 months without any kind of ESD protection whatsoever...

Cool!

So when I take every single GPU I get apart and replace the thermal paste (in a carpeted room, on a wooden desk, with no protection), they should all be fried by now? Now I am somewhat cautious: I try not to place them ON the carpet, and I tend to touch my computer case when I"m about to pick the GPU up, but still...

Side note, I have actually fried one single piece of hardware ever. At work, I reached into a running computer to feel how hot a HD was. I touched the running HD, felt a zap, and the computer shut down, and the drive wouldn't spin. We got a replacement from Dell. Only thing I've ever had fry on me...

Truth be told I always make sure the laptops are disconnected before i dismantle them

Absolutely amazing, do they not teach basic physics in school anymore?

So I guess your right, I said everything has a 100% immediate failure rate without ESD protection. That whole walking wounded thing is just an urban myth I guess, and all the research and numbers over the years have been disproved by you!!!!!

Your experience proves an entire industry wrong, hell you even proved NASA wrong.

http://eed.gsfc.nasa.gov/562/ESD_PreventionGSFCHWFrontpage.htm

Better get in contact with them right away and let them know that they do not have to worry about ESD.

Maybe you should publish a paper, I am sure the entire industry would like to know that they can save all kinds of money by not worrying about ESD anymore. YaY!!!

So I admit to the form, that the anecdotal evidence presented in this thread proves ESD is just a hoax, all the research,mathematics and electron microscope studies of failures are just total BS to sell grounding straps.

I have been bested, enjoy your "victory".

Just got two things to say to this, since it's a pointless debate.  Billions of consumer products prove the point, so it's not use arguing.

1. GFSC hardware is mostly considered mission critical, I would take precautions regardless of the chance in a mission critical application.  Comparing bitcoin mining by CONSUMERS to mission critical multibillion dollar industries where a failed system can result in millions or billions of dollars lost in a firey explosion is perfectly normal.  Yes, right.  Got it.

2.  The ESD boogey man is alive an well in every industry.  The grey beards are just as ingrained if not more so than myself and it's an almost impossible habit to break.  That said, please provide ANY statistics to back up that CONSUMER grade products have a failure rate that has been attributed to static discharge in any capacity beyond the norm.  I can save you time: you can't.  There are no abnormal failure rates due to ESD on consumer grade products. There are a number of factors that contribute to this, including the life expectancy of consumer products that is measured in months or a scant few years, not decades.

[crazyates]

I'm pretty sure I saw a video online of a HP exec demoing their hardware testing facility. They were repeatedly zapping their laptops with a 75,000V gun.

[Inspector 2211]

I'm pretty sure I saw a video online of a HP exec demoing their hardware testing facility. They were repeatedly zapping their laptops with a 75,000V gun.

I find that very hard to believe.
I tested some hardware myself and the existing standards demand 10000 V or 12000 V, I forget which one.
10000 V *roughly* corresponds to a 10 mm long spark.
75000 V would thus correspond to about 3 inches.
That means, even light pipes of 1 inch length would be insufficient for preventing a spark from entering the circuit via a simple indicator LED.
For military equipment, maybe they test to more then 10 KV.
For consumer equipment, no way.

[nave]

ESD aside... having that coffee cup poised for a suicidal plunge into the murky inner world of someone's $29,000 investment doesn't really seem like a best practice. Just guessing here, but while I can channel lightning through my USB ports (cool! I learned something today...) and power my iPhone with St. Elmo's fire, having 12 ounces of slightly acidic, sticky, syrupy hot liquid suddenly meet with a circuit board, spinning fans and a non-grounded Midwestern hottie seems like a bad idea. And I'm going to get enough dog fur, dust mites and stray fasteners into the guts of my hardware without them arriving loaded up already. There are levels of "Clean" that should be at least a minimum standard, and that damn coffee cup should be in a break room.

Come on, that coffee cup is serious ASIC testing equipment! How else are they going to assure people that the Jalapeno's are capable of warming customer's coffee as advertised? I know I want to make sure BFL tests all their equipment make sure they meet their announced specs, having cold coffee would be completely unacceptable and would make me lose all faith in BFL!

[TechCF]

Thanks a lot for the update! I am hoping my unit ships within the next weeks. Shops looks great, nothing to complain about. These kinds of updates are the ones that get me closer to buying a single SC.

[kentrolla]

fwiw, dreamwatcher is right to be concerned about ESD protocol. ESD is not a "boogeyman."
I fried my HDD 2 years ago due to ESD. 

[crazyates]

I'm pretty sure I saw a video online of a HP exec demoing their hardware testing facility. They were repeatedly zapping their laptops with a 75,000V gun.

I find that very hard to believe.
I tested some hardware myself and the existing standards demand 10000 V or 12000 V, I forget which one.
10000 V *roughly* corresponds to a 10 mm long spark.
75000 V would thus correspond to about 3 inches.
That means, even light pipes of 1 inch length would be insufficient for preventing a spark from entering the circuit via a simple indicator LED.
For military equipment, maybe they test to more then 10 KV.
For consumer equipment, no way.

Ya I can't find the original article I read months ago, but this one from Giz says they test up to 15,000 V.

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2012/05/this-man-electrocutes-laptops-for-a-living/

[BR0KK]

Fried seeral mem Sticks  with esd .... (or at leasti think so cause i can Not Test for it)