ANTMINER S2 upgrade kit? EDIT: BITMAIN WHERE ARE YOU?!?!

[quakefiend420]

EDIT 2/12/16:

99.99% sure it's dead.  Not a peep from Bitmain in nearly a year.

EDIT 6/15/15:

I'm keeping this thread bumped until Bitmain responds.  Surely 4 months is enough time to say something.

EDIT 3/11/15:

http://www.miningpool.co.uk/bitmain-announces-antminer-s2-upgrade-kit/

And this:

https://www.facebook.com/Bitmain/posts/859782150729679

20 mins ago, we received a very important intelligence and we decide to increase the price of S5 by 20%. A certain competitor which we pay attention has not submit any mass production order to its wafer supplier. Only a small batch of pilot run has been submitted before the Chinese New Year. It has confirmed a long but uncertain guess that the aggressiveness get in trouble. The best time for mining bitcoin comes right now.

Am I the only one that thinks that's kinda lame?  I get that price has been on the rise and all, but this just feels like taking advantage of your customers.  "Oh, we heard that another company isn't moving as quickly, so we're gonna hike the prices up even though production costs are unaffected by this.  At least blame it on the rise in BTC price or something.

Original post 2/18/15:

Now that the S2 is getting pretty long in the tooth, when are we going to see an upgrade kit built on the BM1384 chip(S5)?

I remember reading a post from Bitmain saying that it was coming some time ago...

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=515448.msg6693886#msg6693886

A short good news for the S2 buyer is that we will let the S2 to upgrade to 1.8TH/s or 2TH/s at very low cost which you can only image now in the August or September. It still depends on many factors to let us achieve that and detailed plan needs to be drafted, But we are very confident that we can make it.

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/bitmain-announces-1-8-ths-2-ths-upgrade-path-antminer-s2-owners/

But then this was posted:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=796839.0

Notification for S2 Upgrade Kit - Coupons being issued

To all customers that ordered AntMiner S2s: We analysed the business case for S2 upgrade kits for end users and determined that it would not be worthwhile for either party.
* The S4 runs at 0.69 W/Gh/s power efficiency, which is significantly improved compared with the S2’s 1W/Gh/s. Even though the upgrade kits used the newest BM1382 chips manufactured at 28nm process, it was not a significant leap in power efficiency.
However, the next generation chip is more likely to be worth doing upgrade kits with.
* The S2 is still profitable to run for the next several months with its 1W/Gh/s power efficiency and so now is not a good time to replace them.

Are we going to have an S2 kit released alongside the S6?  BITMAIN, can you come tell us what you're up to?

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[dunand]

Don't expect anything before the end of vacation.

[AbuGarcia]

I did the math, if they get it down to 0.4w/gh then yea it'll be 250gh per blade.  so it should just be a firmware upgrade and good to go.  but the way they are charging for TH I doubt it will be cheap.

[sidehack]

S2-replace PCB will be released after Chinese Spring Festival, and it will be serial powered too, and its power consumpiton at wall will be less than 0.4W/G.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=728068.msg10435170#msg10435170

That's the only "official" word I've seen so far, but then I wasn't looking very hard.

[quakefiend420]

S2-replace PCB will be released after Chinese Spring Festival, and it will be serial powered too, and its power consumpiton at wall will be less than 0.4W/G.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=728068.msg10435170#msg10435170

That's the only "official" word I've seen so far, but then I wasn't looking very hard.

Ah nice!  Guess I'll hang onto these two S2s that I have then.

[sidehack]

If you want to get rid of one of them, I might buy it. Been meaning to track down a stock S2 for the museum (all I have is the kit version). Probably nobody's gonna sell now with the upgrade looming though.

[quakefiend420]

If you want to get rid of one of them, I might buy it. Been meaning to track down a stock S2 for the museum (all I have is the kit version). Probably nobody's gonna sell now with the upgrade looming though.

Have you posted pics of the museum anywhere?  Where is it, anyway?  I'd like to check it out.

EDIT: btw, mind leaving me trust for the cables I bought last week?

[adaseb]

Is it really worth the upgrade for 0.4W/Ghash ?  Don't we have miners right now at 0.5W ?

It doesn't seem right now like its worth buying any miners or even manufacturing them with what is going on with the BTC price.

Maybe if it was 0.25W/Ghash or so.

[Rabinovitch]

For 'native' S2 0.4 Wt/Gh means that efficiency has improved twice...

[quakefiend420]

For 'native' S2 0.4 Wt/Gh means that efficiency has improved twice...

Nearly 3 times.  The two that I have consume 1100-1200w for just over 1TH, so they're basically 1.1w/GH

[adaseb]

For 'native' S2 0.4 Wt/Gh means that efficiency has improved twice...

Nearly 3 times.  The two that I have consume 1100-1200w for just over 1TH, so they're basically 1.1w/GH

But they have other equipment right now thats 0.5W

I highly doubt that it will be cost effective to upgrade the S2.

[quakefiend420]

For 'native' S2 0.4 Wt/Gh means that efficiency has improved twice...

Nearly 3 times.  The two that I have consume 1100-1200w for just over 1TH, so they're basically 1.1w/GH

But they have other equipment right now thats 0.5W

I highly doubt that it will be cost effective to upgrade the S2.

You save on shipping, heatsinks, fans, case, controller, and PSU.  Don't see how it couldn't be...

[dimke_yu]

I agree! I think it will be a good deal...

[fullzero]

I sold my S2's when S4's came out and Bitmain said there would be no upgrade path.   

[klondike_bar]

For 'native' S2 0.4 Wt/Gh means that efficiency has improved twice...

Nearly 3 times.  The two that I have consume 1100-1200w for just over 1TH, so they're basically 1.1w/GH

But they have other equipment right now thats 0.5W

I highly doubt that it will be cost effective to upgrade the S2.

You save on shipping, heatsinks, fans, case, controller, and PSU.  Don't see how it couldn't be...

+1.
that said, bitmain might still try to overcharge for the kit.  Id love toupgrade my S2 units since they are basically breaking even right now and were losing money just a week or two back

[sidehack]

I sold my S2's when S4's came out and Bitmain said there would be no upgrade path.   

They never actually said there would be no upgrade path. They said there would be no 2nd-gen upgrade since the S2 was still profitable when S4 was released, and S4 wasn't that much of an improvement over S2. They said they might develop an upgrade with the third chip generation.

[Rabinovitch]

Nearly 3 times.  The two that I have consume 1100-1200w for just over 1TH, so they're basically 1.1w/GH

Please keep in mind that chip's efficiency and power consumption of the whole S2 "at the wall" are different things. 

[quakefiend420]

Nearly 3 times.  The two that I have consume 1100-1200w for just over 1TH, so they're basically 1.1w/GH

Please keep in mind that chip's efficiency and power consumption of the whole S2 "at the wall" are different things. 

True. In this quote they said <.4 at the wall, so I'm hoping that's accurate!

"S2-replace PCB will be released after Chinese Spring Festival, and it will be serial powered too, and its power consumpiton at wall will be less than 0.4W/G"

[Meech]

Weren't the S1 upgrade kits nearly as expensive as an S3 when released?  Price would need to stay under $350 if indeed they will output 2th.

[quakefiend420]

Weren't the S1 upgrade kits nearly as expensive as an S3 when released?  Price would need to stay under $350 if indeed they will output 2th.

No idea, I was mining Scrypt back then.  I've only recently finally started mining SHA256.  I'd be interested to know, though.