Hi @nole2010, you should just use the default for pm.sample() - it is the optimal for most situation now. For example, you can do the following:
# inference
trace = pm.sample(1000, njobs=2)
As for the error of step = pm.NUTS(state=start) I have never seen this usage before… I guess you can substitute it with step = pm.NUTS(scaling=start). But again, using the default is a much better choice.