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Topic: What if your Avalon breaks? (Read 2685 times)

sr. member
Activity: 381
Merit: 250
February 04, 2013, 10:18:13 PM
#23
Tried, failed..  trying to decide if I'm disapointed..  Do I really want to do business with a company that soooo drops the ball on communication? 

Silence is NOT golden in this case.

You can choose to do business with them or not but the demand is so high they could care less they will still sell out of avalons even with a buggy system and no customer service.

Unfortunately, the above is so true at the moment.   Rest assured, however, that someone will eventually come out with a competing product.  And, that someone will have decent customer service to boot.  When that happens, Avalon's "care less" attitude is going to come back to bite them... hard.

Apparently, this is how business is done in China..  News flash: the ASIC customer base is global..  Western expectations of customer service DO apply here.

Sigg
full member
Activity: 219
Merit: 100
Ethics and Science need to shake hands
February 04, 2013, 08:13:49 PM
#22
The term Buyer Beware has never been more applicable than when dealing with avalon.

What he said ++
hero member
Activity: 556
Merit: 500
February 04, 2013, 07:50:55 PM
#21
Yeah Frequency, I tried to order but failed, so, for me, this thread is a sad one Sad
I'm pretty disappointed at how Avalon dealt with their website mess, but that's another story Sad


+1

Tried, failed..  trying to decide if I'm disapointed..  Do I really want to do business with a company that soooo drops the ball on communication? 

Silence is NOT golden in this case.

Sigg

You can choose to do business with them or not but the demand is so high they could care less they will still sell out of avalons even with a buggy system and no customer service.
sr. member
Activity: 381
Merit: 250
February 04, 2013, 05:06:00 PM
#20
Yeah Frequency, I tried to order but failed, so, for me, this thread is a sad one Sad
I'm pretty disappointed at how Avalon dealt with their website mess, but that's another story Sad


+1

Tried, failed..  trying to decide if I'm disapointed..  Do I really want to do business with a company that soooo drops the ball on communication? 

Silence is NOT golden in this case.

Sigg
full member
Activity: 206
Merit: 100
February 04, 2013, 03:30:52 PM
#19
Sarcasm on )_(

You probably first need to get an Avalon before you can break em... Shocked  Grin  Wink

Sarcasm off (_)
Yeah Frequency, I tried to order but failed, so, for me, this thread is a sad one Sad
I'm pretty disappointed at how Avalon dealt with their website mess, but that's another story Sad
hero member
Activity: 540
Merit: 500
COINDER
February 04, 2013, 01:01:05 PM
#18
Sarcasm on )_(

You probably first need to get an Avalon before you can break em... Shocked  Grin  Wink

Sarcasm off (_)
legendary
Activity: 966
Merit: 1000
February 04, 2013, 12:52:21 PM
#17
Got the DSO, DMM, soldering iron, and cheap microscope.

No hot air gun yet.
legendary
Activity: 1064
Merit: 1001
February 04, 2013, 12:12:45 PM
#16
So, what do you do, after (hopefully) receiving your Avalon unit, it (suddenly) stops working (properly)?

Easy. Buy replacement parts or buy another Avalon.

It's not like Avalon offers a warranty on their "no refund" devices Wink
legendary
Activity: 1946
Merit: 1006
Bitcoin / Crypto mining Hardware.
February 04, 2013, 05:33:20 AM
#15
You forgot the hot-air soldering station  Grin


If you want to do it properly better add a microscope and a chip/board drying cabinet to all of that.

No wonder I had this feeling that I forgot something important




sr. member
Activity: 462
Merit: 251
February 04, 2013, 05:04:11 AM
#14
You forgot the hot-air soldering station  Grin
Oh yeah! Silly me, how could I forget that.

There you go

This

and

this



If you want to do it properly better add a microscope and a chip/board drying cabinet to all of that.
legendary
Activity: 1946
Merit: 1006
Bitcoin / Crypto mining Hardware.
February 04, 2013, 04:51:34 AM
#13
You forgot the hot-air soldering station  Grin
Oh yeah! Silly me, how could I forget that.

There you go

This

and

this

full member
Activity: 206
Merit: 100
February 04, 2013, 04:03:37 AM
#12
You forgot the hot-air soldering station  Grin
legendary
Activity: 1946
Merit: 1006
Bitcoin / Crypto mining Hardware.
February 04, 2013, 03:55:02 AM
#11
I would first invest in



and



before investing in any beta stage HW
full member
Activity: 206
Merit: 100
February 04, 2013, 03:41:58 AM
#10
Now I notice there's probably another module each ASIC module connects with a ribbon cable to.
full member
Activity: 206
Merit: 100
February 03, 2013, 07:19:03 PM
#9

It's just a WR703N with some custom firmware and an external antenna connector soldered in.

If someone would be so kind as to rip the firmware from their Avalon and post it, I think I can use the openwrt toolchain to build from it a firmware bundle that can be flashed onto a factory WR703N.

I'd be more worried about the DC-DC converters failing.  No offense to ngzhang.

Thanks, valuable information!
I think DC-DC converters are on each module, so a failure will kill only one module, not the whole unit. Even this is depending on how a module reacts to a partial failure, be it a DC-DC or an ASIC chip (probably are multiple DC-DC per/on each module).
legendary
Activity: 966
Merit: 1000
February 03, 2013, 05:53:34 PM
#8
So, what do you do, after (hopefully) receiving your Avalon unit, it (suddenly) stops working (properly)?

It seems like it has an ATX power supply, fans, an USB hub, 3 ASIC modules, and a ARM based controller.
If power supply, a fan or the USB hub break, no problem, go buy another, replace and you're back in business.

If an ASIC module fails, given the fact that the unit is modular and expandable, it has a good change to work with only 2 modules. Maybe Foundation (or Jeff) can help with a 15 minutes test, disconnecting one of the (hot glued) USB cables between USB hub and one of the modules? 44GH/s is better than nothing, until a replacement part arrives.

But what if controller fails? Disaster! Maybe there's a possibility to put the firmware (or part of it) on a wireless router (w/USB) with the same chipset? Any idea anybody? 

It's just a WR703N with some custom firmware and an external antenna connector soldered in.

If someone would be so kind as to rip the firmware from their Avalon and post it, I think I can use the openwrt toolchain to build from it a firmware bundle that can be flashed onto a factory WR703N.

I'd be more worried about the DC-DC converters failing.  No offense to ngzhang.
hero member
Activity: 1118
Merit: 541
February 03, 2013, 03:56:18 PM
#7
I have to admit BFL is clearer for their products.  I don't feel that horrible missing out on Avalon batch 2 now.

https://forums.butterflylabs.com/showwiki.php?title=FAQ:What+is+the+warranty+period+on+your+devices&do=comments

Cant post video? Sad

Reminds me of: http://youtu.be/mEB7WbTTlu4

sr. member
Activity: 297
Merit: 250
February 03, 2013, 03:29:07 PM
#6
I have to admit BFL is clearer for their products.  I don't feel that horrible missing out on Avalon batch 2 now.

https://forums.butterflylabs.com/showwiki.php?title=FAQ:What+is+the+warranty+period+on+your+devices&do=comments
hero member
Activity: 560
Merit: 500
February 03, 2013, 03:22:25 PM
#5
The term Buyer Beware has never been more applicable than when dealing with avalon.
full member
Activity: 206
Merit: 100
February 03, 2013, 02:47:03 PM
#4
Contact Avalon and order a replacement? 
Yes but on one hand, every day of non-functioning costs you money.
On the other hand, as REGULAR said, it's unclear with Avalon guys.

So, I'm more interested of what can be done by yourself, at least until (hypothetically) you get your replacement parts.
 
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