Hi all,
I know a lot of people are excited about receiving their BFL product and BFL is really starting to catch up on back orders, so I thought I'd share my experience.
I received my tracking number on 9/18/2013. The subject of the email was "Your order has been shipped!".
On 9/20/2013 I received the package from USPS (yes, they ship express mail, the worst possible courier option).
The product was fitted in to a "large flat rate" box. The box is not very sturdy, so when the unit arrived it was a little banged up and scratched despite being shipped surrounded by custom foam inserts.
Items in the box:
1 power supply (Made in China)
1 power supply to dual PCIe connector cable.
1 USB cable (they've started shipping longer USB cables since people complained I guess)
1 Butterfly Labs Single SC
1 instruction card
I was very excited to get mining with the product so I took it out, read the instructions thoroughly several times.
To get the setup instructions you have to go to a website and download a PDF. That's a good way to save money on printing costs.
After I made sure I understood the setup instructions I connected the power supply to the Single SC and plugged it into the wall socket.
Nothing.
The light on the power supply did not come on. The fans on the Single did not spin and make noise like I had seen in Youtube videos.
I checked the 110/220 switch on the power supply to make sure it was in the right position. I tried toggling it, but when I attempted to slide the switch the switch backed off into the interior of the power supply and felt like it would snap off with the gentlest touch, so I tossed the power supply aside and sent email to BFL to request a replacement.
Of course it will probably be months before BFL responds to my email, so I just went to Best Buy and bought a cheap 500W ATX power supply.
I then jammed a paper clip into the black and green contacts on the mother board connector of the power supply, plugged the two PCIe connectors into the BFL Single SC and plugged the new power supply into the wall socket.
Bam. Everything started up. BFL had shipped a faulty power supply.
I first tried mining with bfgminer. Bfgminer detected both my Single SC and 29 of my 30 Block Erupters (I've had trouble off and on with getting Erupter #30 detected).
However, I had trouble getting work from the mining pool I had been mining with because it doesn't support Strata and couldn't send work fast enough for my gear to work at its full potential.
So I downloaded and installed BFL's Easyminer. It's not just a clever name, it's pretty easy to set up.
Easyminer is pretty braindead and so its functionality is also very limited: There are two options for configuring your mining pools. The first is to choose between two provided pools and the second is to set up everything completely manually by typing your command line switches for your miner (bfgminer or cgminer are your only choices and there's no way to add other miner softwares).
I decided to go ahead and use the two provided pools with the default settings and pasted in my bitcoin address to receive payments.
Once I started up Easyminer with the default settings it quickly received plenty of work from the pool and began hashing at a steady 59.248 GH/s.
Since that was working I decided to start up my own install of bfgminer to see what would happen.
I was happy to see that bfgminer skipped the SC Single that was already in use and started up with the available Block Erupters.
So I now have the Single SC running in Easyminer hashing away on the new pool and my Block Erupters hashing away on the old pool, both on the same computer.
Now that I have replaced the power supply I am happy with my purchase. I knew going into this that the power supply was a free gimme and I was half expecting to have to provide my own power supply anyways.
I suspect that BFL is running damage control by shipping using a cheap courier in flat rate boxes and ignoring people who complain about receiving banged up and broken equipment for months so they can get product out the door and stop the bleeding.
After waiting almost exactly one year for my product I'm just glad I've finally received it and got it working so I can finally disengage with their snotty little ecosystem of arrogant and flippant employees who screwed up my order several times and then acted like it was my fault.
Now to set expectations for those still waiting for shipment:
- There's a good chance when you get your package your shit will be broken. It is packaged exceptionally poorly for such an expensive piece of equipment.
- If your shit is broken you probably won't get a replacement for several months at which point your investment will no longer be of any value.
- Just go ahead and go buy a power supply and have it ready for when your product arrives and save yourself the headache.
- Whichever pool you're on, if it's not specifically set up for ASIC mining, you probably won't be able to hash at full speed because getworks will be too slow so pick a pool that is specifically for ASIC mining.
- The Single SC is VERY LOUD. It sounds like a salon grade hair dryer. You'll want to put it somewhere that you won't be sleeping.