GekkoScience BM1384 Project Development Discussion

[eretron]

Funny, I had this idea a few days ago, so I've purchased 2 S1 units for 30E each.

For now they are door stoppers but in the future I hope to convert them to something useful.

So If you ask me, go for it

[HerbPean]

A quick question.

I have 2 s3's mining in a friends office.

Hoping to convert  them with the  TypeZero Module.

I got a one day ebay coupon today.

  I could pick up   2  s-1's  for  about 80 bucks.  40 each after the coupon.

I think I should do this. Any opinions.

I can leave the s-3's alone as they are using 2.4 cent power and still earn 45usd after power cost each month.

I could then have 2 very cheap s-1's to use for the upgrade boards.

Any opinions on this idea?

I'm also looking for cheap S1 close to me

[sidehack]

And I'm really hoping we'll be able to get chips from Bitmain to make S1 refit boards or y'alls money  is approximately going to waste.

If we can't get chips from them, though, we'll figure something else out. Hopefully. This project is too good to throw away.

[philipma1957]

yeah I am going to order 2 of them.  will post details later.

[Mikestang]

And I'm really hoping we'll be able to get chips from Bitmain to make S1 refit boards or y'alls money  is approximately going to waste.

If we can't get chips from them, though, we'll figure something else out. Hopefully. This project is too good to throw away.

So excited to see this happen!  I have one S1 that I run solo, despite it's operating cost, I would love to upgrade it with this hardware once developed.

[philipma1957]

Okay I have all my ducks in a row to buy either 2 s-1's or 1 s-3.

The logic buying the s3 is if this busts out I can underclock it and run it at  my friends office.

I have 2 at freq 212.

I could do 3 at freq 200  still stay within the power limits of his office and it would earn money until the boards project is finished here.

[HerbPean]

Okay I have all my ducks in a row to buy either 2 s-1's or 1 s-3.

The logic buying the s3 is if this busts out I can underclock it and run it at  my friends office.

I have 2 at freq 212.

I could do 3 at freq 200  still stay within the power limits of his office and it would earn money until the boards project is finished here.

You can also do the pencil mod so you can get close to 1W/gh

[sidehack]

You can get down to 0.8W/GH on the S1 if you really try.

[HerbPean]

You can get down to 0.8W/GH on the S1 if you really try.

I run mine undervolt at 55gh/s each blade. Never really checked how much watt I was using.

[philipma1957]

You can get down to 0.8W/GH on the S1 if you really try.

I got s-1's down to 1.1 watts

but I went ahead and ordered an s3+ for 84 to my door.

I may tear it down and do a pencil mod on it.  if I get it to .68 watts a gh  Doing that I would be happy .  I will run it with the other two at my buddies office.  Then if this board upgrade works out I will upgrade them.  If it does not 2.4 cent power will turn it into a good item.

[chiguireitor]

Sidehack, about this:

I was even thinking about putting edge connector pads on the board in case someone wanted to backplane them, which could get interesting. Basically a backplane with power and a USB pair to each socket, have a hub chip on the backplane and there you have it.

Is there any future plans about it? i have a design in mind and would like to know if you're planning a TypeZero-ish board later with a backplane design? Can i PM you with the idea?

[sidehack]

It's definitely possible, but we haven't made a decision whether to do this or not. Our own ideas for a rackable miner using 30-chip Spec2 (Prisma refit) boards do not make use of this feature, but that doesn't mean it's impossible.

[chiguireitor]

It's definitely possible, but we haven't made a decision whether to do this or not. Our own ideas for a rackable miner using 30-chip Spec2 (Prisma refit) boards do not make use of this feature, but that doesn't mean it's impossible.

Nice! i have a very-rough-around-the-edges design on blender that is thinked around 8 S5 blades, but i think it would be more fitting for a TypeZero build backplaned machine, being that it is a "community" product and whatnot.

Lemme know if i can bother you privately with my idea, just to bounce it off with someone that could conceive the brains of the final product. I know my labor & parts costs are very low due to my country of origin, but board design is a no-no here (Venezuela).

[Bicknellski]

It's definitely possible, but we haven't made a decision whether to do this or not. Our own ideas for a rackable miner using 30-chip Spec2 (Prisma refit) boards do not make use of this feature, but that doesn't mean it's impossible.

Nice! i have a very-rough-around-the-edges design on blender that is thinked around 8 S5 blades, but i think it would be more fitting for a TypeZero build backplaned machine, being that it is a "community" product and whatnot.

Lemme know if i can bother you privately with my idea, just to bounce it off with someone that could conceive the brains of the final product. I know my labor & parts costs are very low due to my country of origin, but board design is a no-no here (Venezuela).

Recycling existing backplanes would be nice.

 

[sidehack]

Translation: you want an S2 upgrade kit?

Unless someone made a backplane with power lanes capable of pushing at least 150W per socket (250W if you want the 30-chip board on it) and also have a USB data pair to each port, it wouldn't work. Did WASP build something like that?

[Bicknellski]

Translation: you want an S2 upgrade kit?

Unless someone made a backplane with power lanes capable of pushing at least 150W per socket (250W if you want the 30-chip board on it) and also have a USB data pair to each port, it wouldn't work. Did WASP build something like that?

We were working on our own backplane not sure of the capacity it had but I suspect something along that lines.

If you want to see the design it's up on the site we forwarded to Novak. I might be able to contact the engineer who designed it  and that might be something to discuss that with him if he has the time. He is based in the UK. PM me if you are keen on that.

We also did have contact with a company in HK that were running boards in Novec and they had their own backplane designed for air cooling and fluid cooling as well that we were looking into at the very end our efforts last May when I went to the Inside Bitcoin conference in HK.

We had imagined a universal backplane with plug and play boards that had different chips so that you could roll with the changes of every new chip and even mix and match boards on the backplane. Let me see what I can did up and I will email you guys on that.

[sidehack]

I didn't look much into Wasp but I did remember reading something about that backplane idea, which is why I asked specifically about it. When Novak and I were discussing ideas back in December I mentioned that idea. We like being able to use a generic controller, which is one reason we're doing USB connectivity on our boards instead of some application-specific comms and cabling which requires a specific controller build, and having a power+USB backplane fits right in with that.

We probably aren't going to build backplanes, though, since the demand for them will probably be small (by definition, the number desired will be a fraction of the number of boards) so the cost will be high, and cabling is already pretty easy to come by.

[Bicknellski]

Yes we looked at those problems as well.

The idea was for that backplane to host all versions of the boards we built thus cutting down on the costs for each new  "machine" as well as looking into liquid cooling at that time.

I sent you and Novak an email I believe you already emailed us way back when we were working on the original idea and were directly in contact with the EE in the UK at that time from my records.

Anyhow full speed ahead on your designs if there is anything worthy of your time feel free to pick my brain and I can contact the EE's for you if you have any interest in what we did.

[sidehack]

Yeah, one of your guys emailed me about a year and a half ago about power supply something or other and I never got a reply back from him.

I don't really care about liquid cooling, since it's a rich man's game and screw those guys anyway they got enough help.

[Bicknellski]

Yeah, one of your guys emailed me about a year and a half ago about power supply something or other and I never got a reply back from him.

I don't really care about liquid cooling, since it's a rich man's game and screw those guys anyway they got enough help.

Depends on what liquids you want to play with.

Coconut Oil anyone? (Not joking.)

Efficient cooling is going to be required I think in the future of chips. Not that you will be doing this in 2-3 years given the move to BGA chips from most players. Most of the players on the large scale go evaporated cooling walls. Smaller miners could look at any number of ideas depending on their situation. Liquids seems well outside the home miner but there are options.

But like I said... steady on do what you got planned looks great from here I wish there was potential for you keep going on beyond the last version of the Bitmain chips but I doubt that anyone will be sticking with that tech moving forward next year it is all BGA stuff probably.