[CLOSED] - Stumptown Miners - Avalon PCB Assembly - West Coast USA - page 4.

Vycid

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♫ the AM bear who cares ♫

Quote from: ryepdx on September 03, 2013, 02:18:16 PM

Unfortunately there isn't really a course of action if your group buy implements a refund. You can try buying out someone from another group buy that *isn't* opting for a refund, but that's about it. Original terms would still apply, of course, with your place in line being determined by when your chips are received. I don't think assembly is going to be the bottleneck here, though.

In deciding whether to get a refund, keep in mind that the amount you can get back as a refund is your new ROI target. If you get back half the total cost as a refund when you would have recouped 75% by staying in, you would've been better off staying in.

Best of luck to everyone. Here's hoping the gears in the Avalon machine get moving again soon.

Well, the 75% ROI vs 50% return argument ignores a few factors, like labor and general emotional distress. I unfortunately have already decided it is best to cut my losses, as an additional 25% just isn't worth it at this point.

Best of luck to those still committed.

Ryepdx - I think I speak for everyone here when I say that your hard work and professionalism has not gone unnoticed. I hope there will be more business opportunities in the future, hopefully under less adverse circumstances.

ryepdx

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Unfortunately there isn't really a course of action if your group buy implements a refund. You can try buying out someone from another group buy that *isn't* opting for a refund, but that's about it. Original terms would still apply, of course, with your place in line being determined by when your chips are received. I don't think assembly is going to be the bottleneck here, though.

In deciding whether to get a refund, keep in mind that the amount you can get back as a refund is your new ROI target. If you get back half the total cost as a refund when you would have recouped 75% by staying in, you would've been better off staying in.

Best of luck to everyone. Here's hoping the gears in the Avalon machine get moving again soon.

redphlegm

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My spoon is too big!

What's our potential course of action if our particular group buy majority implements a refund? Is there a way for us to still get chips rather than being pushed to the back of the line? I'd like to see if it's possible to get the miners regardless. The issue that everyone is forgetting about is that it's not profitable at current exchange rates. If you think adoption will increase, so will value. And therefore, what's mined will probably be worth more than current cost. Then again, the argument is that it would be more of a return if you took the refund and just held the BTC.

ryepdx

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Quote from: evilscoop on September 03, 2013, 04:51:03 AM

rye can you please remove my link from the first thread..

I closed evilminers yesterday and issued refunds on assembly to those concerned..

Done. Sorry to hear it didn't work out for you. :-/

evilscoop

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rye can you please remove my link from the first thread..

I closed evilminers yesterday and issued refunds on assembly to those concerned..

ryepdx

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+1 class act. ;-)

Thanks, Bogart. I'll let Colin know.

Bogart

legendary

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So I sent 64 chips in to Stumptown, and I think 1 16-chip test board has been made from them so far.

If you want, feel free to put the rest onto boards and send them out to any devs who can help with the problem.

Bicknellski

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+1 Class Act.

At times like these one wonders if BKKCoins or ryepdx, Burnin or Zefir were part of Avalon would we be waiting for chips?

ryepdx

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Hi all,

I just got an update from Colin. It looks like he hasn't gotten ahold of BkkCoins yet, but he's going to be going over the test board some more with his scope this evening. So far everything looks good, which further confirms his hypothesis that there's a problem with the software somewhere. He also confirmed that he would be willing to refund the cost of assembly for anyone who wants it. Assembly cost comes out to $40 per miner.

For those of you considering getting a refund and taking direct receipt of your chips, please be aware that we still haven't received most of them. Zefir's batch 1 is the only batch we have at the moment.

Thanks for bearing with us. It's just as frustrating to me as I'm sure it is to you guys.

Bogart

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Quote from: Loredo on August 31, 2013, 08:55:40 AM

Quote from: Bicknellski on August 30, 2013, 11:30:44 PM

Maybe the group buy leaders should do a conference call and try to work this out somehow with the DIY builders / fabricators. If we can get enough chips to cover the builds asap and refund everyone else then all would be good. But of course Yifu needs to be in that discussion and work with everyone to help that happen.

There is virtually no chance that little prick would get involved.

I think that he might *IF* approached in a reasonable and respectful manner. He did respond to Zefir's PM about the matter:

https://bitcointalksearch.org/topic/m.3035535

DPoS

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Why is the Klondike in jeporady ? Did bkk get samplechips?

Loredo

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Quote from: Bicknellski on August 30, 2013, 11:30:44 PM

Maybe the group buy leaders should do a conference call and try to work this out somehow with the DIY builders / fabricators. If we can get enough chips to cover the builds asap and refund everyone else then all would be good. But of course Yifu needs to be in that discussion and work with everyone to help that happen.

There is virtually no chance that little prick would get involved.

First, most of the group buyers are not Chinese, so they don't matter.

Second, Yifu is a narcissist, so they don't matter.

Third, he's a criminal, so they don't matter.

tolan77

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Quote from: ryepdx on August 30, 2013, 10:59:36 PM

Not sure. I know he was starting to lose heart earlier. I really hope he doesn't. :-/

With that said, there's been a lot of talk about refunds. I've already ordered and received all the components for everyone's miners, save for chips. Colin has already been paid as well. At this point, I don't really have much in hand to give you guys. On top of this, the terms of sales you guys agreed to state that refunds won't be available once components have been ordered.

However, I don't want to leave you all high and dry either. I've just emailed Colin to see how much of what I paid him he'd be willing to refund for those who want refunds. I will not be seeking a refund myself, though I am fully aware that this may be more due to having invested a lot into this emotionally than due to any cold, reasoned calculation.

Thank you all again for your support.

I'm not really interested in a refund as I understand all the craziness this has become. However since you do already have my chips from Zefir's batch 1 if it's not looking like klondike will ever materialize I'm wondering if there's any other option to make them useable or if they are just gonna have to be paperweights.

Bicknellski

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Quote from: ryepdx on August 30, 2013, 10:59:36 PM

Not sure. I know he was starting to lose heart earlier. I really hope he doesn't. :-/

With that said, there's been a lot of talk about refunds. I've already ordered and received all the components for everyone's miners, save for chips. Colin has already been paid as well. At this point, I don't really have much in hand to give you guys. On top of this, the terms of sales you guys agreed to state that refunds won't be available once components have been ordered.

However, I don't want to leave you all high and dry either. I've just emailed Colin to see how much of what I paid him he'd be willing to refund for those who want refunds. I will not be seeking a refund myself, though I am fully aware that this may be more due to having invested a lot into this emotionally than due to any cold, reasoned calculation.

Thank you all again for your support.

Maybe the group buy leaders should do a conference call and try to work this out somehow with the DIY builders / fabricators. If we can get enough chips to cover the builds asap and refund everyone else then all would be good. But of course Yifu needs to be in that discussion and work with everyone to help that happen. I want to do whatever we can to help you guys out it is insanity that these efforts are withering on the vine.

Maybe there is a way to nego all this for a win win for those who want out now and those who are still pressing ahead or are ready to fab. We want more project like this so the effort we put in to saving these projects will pay dividends for everyone the next time chips and designs are available for the DIY community.

ryepdx

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Not sure. I know he was starting to lose heart earlier. I really hope he doesn't. :-/

With that said, there's been a lot of talk about refunds. I've already ordered and received all the components for everyone's miners, save for chips. Colin has already been paid as well. At this point, I don't really have much in hand to give you guys. On top of this, the terms of sales you guys agreed to state that refunds won't be available once components have been ordered.

However, I don't want to leave you all high and dry either. I've just emailed Colin to see how much of what I paid him he'd be willing to refund for those who want refunds. I will not be seeking a refund myself, though I am fully aware that this may be more due to having invested a lot into this emotionally than due to any cold, reasoned calculation.

Thank you all again for your support.

tolan77

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With all this crazy news about Avalon refunding chip orders is it likely that bkkcoins will ever finish klondike?

ryepdx

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Update on the test board: Colin's successfully run ktest and it's passing all the tests. However, it currently is only hashing for a couple of minutes before disconnecting. We think this is due to a software bug, but we're not sure yet. Colin will be working with BkkCoins to figure things out and get the Klondikes working as soon as possible.

Thanks again for all your patience. Sorry these aren't out the door yet! As a chip-holder in ragingazn's group buy, the rising difficulty is making me at least as nervous as it's probably making you guys.

ryepdx

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Yup, that's ours! :-)

TomKeddie

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Is this your test build rye?

http://placedroid.com/blogs/news/8625479-place-droid-assembles-first-of-many-klondike-k16-bitcoin-mining-engines

vs3

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Quote from: ryepdx on August 17, 2013, 05:00:21 PM

However, the PIC firmware does not currently allow for updating via USB, so I will be holding off on shipping anything until BkkCoins gets that part finished. If you are comfortable flashing updates to your PICs yourselves and want your miners shipped before then, please let me know. I just figure holding off is a good default option since flashing PICs requires special equipment and knowledge.

First a disclosure - I didn't participate in your groupbuy so you can completely ignore or take my thoughts below -

For the PICs reprogramming all you'll need is a cheap ($10-30 on ebay) programming kit and the (free) software from Microchip. Alternatively, it is a weekend project for someone to write a custom programmer that would use just the serial port (or a USB-to-RS232 adapter for $5-10). I've done that several times in the past for the old PICs.

My point is - the programming/upgrading really isn't that much of a big deal.

On the other hand, writing a boot-loader and all the other software pieces necessary to support in-place-upgrade may take much more work.

The bottom line is that you may be better off to mine for a week or two with the old software (as long as it is stable enough) and then spend a few bucks to buy the programming kit/cables (which is also a one-time investment). And the more boards you have the more it makes sense to get them hashing as soon as possible.

That's just my 2 cents though.

And by the way - kudos for the great work! This is one of the better group-buys that I've seen around!

Topic: [CLOSED] - Stumptown Miners - Avalon PCB Assembly - West Coast USA - page 4. (Read 30742 times)