It feels like you guys are being hostile when i'm not. There's only so much I can do when it comes to crowdfunded products. You are providing a service to fix the boards for a price. That is not the same and comparable to what I did in making them. 0.2 BTC would literally cost a customer more than the price of the board itself and all the parts put together by anyone at the current rate of BTC to fiat right now. My point is, for the big bulk buyers that got it for 0.15 and the smaller buyers that got it for 0.20 paid way earlier in the year with the price being of lower value.
Um.... No, not hostile, just working. I charge my time and effort which includes figuring things out. Remember I've spent part of a week taking this little bridge board thing apart, reverse engineering the leads, scratching my head at why the grounds are different from a rational design (most people don't route 3.3v from a charge pump to ground) figuring out the component using a scope, and risking my own gear (my bridgeboard, my pi, and my controller board which costs me $90 in parts and an hour of cursing and two reheats to swap the fpga every time I blow it out because KNC didn't #&$@*$@ put any buffers on the outputs).
That's totally independent of the time it takes to design (if I had the design I would be a big big big step ahead in life but I don't and that's that) and work with a firm to fab boards. If I had the mask files for any of this, it would be a snap.
So unless you're saying that your fix is of higher value/comparable to someone designing a PCB, buying all the parts, and putting it together as a product, it just seems like you're taking advantage of people's need for the fix. I'd like to see you try and design it and source all the parts and have it manufactured (while controlling the fab) and still only charge 0.2 btc for your "tools and time". You know full well I can't just release a company trade secret yet you add the "/unwilling" end as if i'm purposefully trying to hide everything. If that were the case, I wouldn't even have made batch 1's and none of the big miners would be running their titans. I take offense.
It's different skills, and thus not comparable. I charge at least $150 an hour for professional work partially because I value my time and partially because I can get paid a lot more for my main line of work (and there are only so many hours in the day). So far this week I have spent a lot more than that figuring out some of these problems, so my bill rate is probably pretty low :-)
As for you not being able to say anything, well you can't and that's fine, I can figure it out myself. Just takes a long time, using fuzzers on these boards is a bitch on wheels due to the 6-8 layers and the monster ground planes in there. Also stuff goes weird places and some of the design decisions don't match what I would call anything rational. Which is why I post my stuff on my fixing forum, because other people should (and have done) working on my work. Since I have no encumbrances I can do that.
As for value, let's just say rework is not something that can be done easily (I have reversed the damage done by at least one other person trying to rework SOT23's with a blowtorch somewhere in the world) and takes some skill. If people wish to undercut me on price then by all means please DO SO!, having more people fixing this stuff is good, and gives home miners options.
I'm literally making titan mining still doable as it's rare that any big buying customers with more than 1 set, have their original bridges without burning them.
I appreciate this, that's why I fix this stuff. Big big customers have their own shops and have probably twisted KNC's arm for the schematics. I just help level the field for the home miners. I also dispense advice around here, mostly telling people to STOP RUNNING THEM AT FULL BLAST and run them at 60mh per cube. Cooler, less power overload, etc. Also this is a several thousand dollar item made of ultra cutting edge parts for a cryptocurrency philosophy that is the cutting edge of the future. Don't run it in a fucking barn (I say as I literally had to clean horse crap out of one board. Yes. Straw included. Yes, the Straw had caught fire. Several Times based on the burns on the board).
On my third batch I did say, if I get a bulk enough order than i'll be shipping the rest to batch 2 buyers for free and i'm sticking to my word. I'm waiting for a couple more people to get on board before I start however.
Sounds good. In the meantime if anyone is dead in the water drop me a line or read my other thread on fixing these things for fun and laughs. You can do the fix yourself on the stock KNC boards (I believe I documented it in my thread) if you can use a fine-tipped soldering iron, have good eyes or a 3x loupe, and can get wire wrap wire from Radio Slack. That and a steady hand will do it.
