What if your Avalon breaks? | Bitcointalksearch.org

siggy

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Quote from: Keninishna on February 04, 2013, 07:50:55 PM

Quote from: siggy on February 04, 2013, 05:06:00 PM

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

dbasql

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Ethics and Science need to shake hands

Quote from: Fuzzy on February 03, 2013, 03:22:25 PM

The term Buyer Beware has never been more applicable than when dealing with avalon.

What he said ++

Keninishna

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Quote from: siggy on February 04, 2013, 05:06:00 PM

Quote from: lastbit on February 04, 2013, 03:30:52 PM

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.

siggy

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Activity: 381

Merit: 250

Quote from: lastbit on February 04, 2013, 03:30:52 PM

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

lastbit

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Quote from: Frequency on February 04, 2013, 01:01:05 PM

Sarcasm on )_(

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

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

Frequency

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COINDER

Sarcasm on )_(

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

Sarcasm off (_)

Bogart

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Got the DSO, DMM, soldering iron, and cheap microscope.

No hot air gun yet.

Korbman

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Quote from: lastbit on February 03, 2013, 02:20:30 PM

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

goxed

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Quote from: yohan on February 04, 2013, 05:04:11 AM

Quote from: goxed on February 04, 2013, 04:51:34 AM

Quote from: lastbit on February 04, 2013, 04:03:37 AM

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

yohan

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Quote from: goxed on February 04, 2013, 04:51:34 AM

Quote from: lastbit on February 04, 2013, 04:03:37 AM

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.

goxed

legendary

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Bitcoin / Crypto mining Hardware.

Quote from: lastbit on February 04, 2013, 04:03:37 AM

You forgot the hot-air soldering station Grin

Oh yeah! Silly me, how could I forget that.

There you go

This

and

this

lastbit

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You forgot the hot-air soldering station Grin

goxed

legendary

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Bitcoin / Crypto mining Hardware.

I would first invest in

and

before investing in any beta stage HW

lastbit

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Now I notice there's probably another module each ASIC module connects with a ribbon cable to.

lastbit

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Quote from: Bogart on February 03, 2013, 05:53:34 PM

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).

Bogart

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Quote from: lastbit on February 03, 2013, 02:20:30 PM

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.

senseless

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Quote from: regular on February 03, 2013, 03:29:07 PM

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

regular

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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

Fuzzy

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The term Buyer Beware has never been more applicable than when dealing with avalon.

lastbit

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Quote from: davecoin on February 03, 2013, 02:34:23 PM

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.

regular

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there does not seem to be any warranty explicitly stated on the avalon website.

davecoin

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Contact Avalon and order a replacement?

lastbit

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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?

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