Quote from: ben-bernanke on July 26, 2013, 06:02:56 AM

Quote from: BkkCoins on July 26, 2013, 05:48:10 AM

Quote from: ben-bernanke on July 26, 2013, 05:29:20 AM

If you buy the PCB from your website (https://klondikedesign.com/) when do we expect to see the PCB? immediately, or currently a wait time?

I'm expecting them next week - in production now. Once they arrive I'll either ship immediately or hold until other items are ready to ship together. So what could hold it up a bit is waiting for the PIC chips to come in or for me to finish the boot loader so I can flash the PICs. The PIC chips are in transit now as well. It's possible they'll arrive same time or before the boards.

Might sound a bit stupid here, but do we need the PIC to flash the chips? Or can we not flash the chips through the USB?

Ok. Here's how it works.

The PIC is a micro-controller that needs a program aka "the firmware" to run. When you get them from the factory they are blank. So it has to be flashed at least one time. If I write firmware that has a "boot loader" then after that it can be updated via USB without special tools.

The FIRST flash can be done after soldered on the board or before. For the programmed PIC orders I have I'll flash it before so buyers can solder it and run first time.

Alternately you can buy blank PICs and a $50 programmer tool and flash it your self.

Also, alternately if you wait until I finish the firmware you can get it off github and upload it to Microchip and pay them to pre-program it (cheap) - but that requires they have stock, so doesn't work so well right now.

I'm turning my time now from order handling / board design to writing/adapting a boot loader that works for both USB and I2C integrated into current Klondike protocol. This will allow you to update the firmware by simply dropping a new file into the cgminer directory, which will get detected and fed out to all your Ks. Initially it will work for testing with my ktest utility so that even if it's not 100% as I want, at least I can program and ship the PIC chips, and ktest can be used to update them.

That is the only flashing or programming on the board itself. The other chips and ASIC do not require anything. That is one reason I avoided using an FPGA or CPLD - easy to update without special tools. Yay!

So bottom line - yes, you need either to order programmed PICs or a programmer tool. eg. PICKit3 $45-55 on ebay.