Let me offer my sympathy & welcome to the party.

I put numbers into a calculator, and look ahead to see when I think break-even will be.  I have about a week to go.

This thread is for people to report when their Avalon (reached / will reach) Break-even.
Electricity cost makes it more complicated.  I would just use the Avalon cost and list electricity separately.
This is a self-moderated thread.  You have probably read my thoughts on hate postings elsewhere.  Say what you want, but keep the language civil and based on reality.

BTC paid; payment txid; Date received; Date of break-even neglecting electricity; other costs (customs, shelving, cables, security, storage); free form comments.

Are there Batch #3 units in stock that can be sold at auction?

How curious that the bitcoin community thinks the US Government can not force them to do anything, and yet they are forced to make toxic posts because someone else does not post frequently.

Is there an input address?  I am sure we would all like to look at it.

I know some Chinese girls;  I am their respected professor who might desire help with a phone call.

A person who has spoken with him before somehow "has the right stuff."
Perhaps a single designated person could call each week at a time Yifu agrees to and act as a liaison.
Which dialect of Chinese does Yifu speak?

This post is really at the center of this thread.

Here's the deal.  If I want to discuss bitcoin or mining in a college classroom, I have to think long and hard about using your post, and by extension, this entire thread.  It does not matter that all college students use language that is more colorful than yours, the fact is that *I* dare not use that language inside a college classroom.

That leaves the choice of 1) lose one way to introduce bitcoin to an audience that is very good about accepting new ideas or 2) asking for your post to be removed.

1.  Is there any reason that you could not have written "Butterfly Labs?"
2.  Is there any reason that this question needs to be repeated 1, or 2, or 3, or more dozen times?
3.  Can you accomplish your goals by buying an advertisement that says, oh, "Butterfly Labs is 1 year late on delivery" and another that says "Butterfly Labs strongly discourages refunds?" instead of posting vendor hate?

I am used to "custom orders" being "non-refundable" as a standard of business in Texas.  The consumer protections of commodity items does not apply.  Is that situation different in Switzerland?

I think the issue is not posts about delay or fraud.  The issue is about posts that have crossed the line, especially when they are spammed, or involve threats, or grossly (sexually) insulting.
Spam includes those  people who believe that sending the same message 50 or 100 times will somehow improve life for anyone, anywhere.

I always give a test on a pre-requisite, algebra, my first day of class.

The actual hook up and configuration was straightforward.  The difficulties were with physical things like screws and cables.  It takes at least a half hour to remove and re-install the top and I only do this when powered down.

The module is from a batch #3 unit.  The mounting holes on the bottom of the heat-sink are in a pattern of 5, and the holes for the batch #2 are in a pattern of 7.  In addition, the spreader strip has a wide end and a narrow end in the batch #3.  There are two mating symmetric strips on 2 modules in batch #3.

This has meant that the module is not aligned well inside the case, and it is not secured well to the base.  It has much more the flavor of research instrumentation and not so much the flavor of a commercial product.

The connections required a custom made IDE style ribbon cable.  One of the outfits accepted a next day air shipping but did not actually make the cable for about 5 days.  I later ordered from an outfit in Texas that I have done business with in the past, and they delivered promptly.

The IDE style cable, and the power cable plugged into the Batch #2 PDU & Control board without any special consideration.  I did take off the side panel in order to be able to get my fingers through all the cables and to the actual plug locations.

Each time I have powered up an Avalon, the hash rate has increased when the module was powered on for a day or so, and then rebooted.  I cannot explain this behavior.  This occurred with this new module as well. 

I also bought a kill-a-watt.  The power supply on the Avalon is a GX-850.  I am pulling almost 1,000 from the wall, so I am pulling a lot of power for this supply.  My backup plan is to let it run, and get a 2nd case commissioned.

Heat is becoming an issue, but perhaps not because of the 4th module.  In July, some nights had a low temperature of 45°F, and it was fairly easy to allow cool night air to flow into the basement and form a reservoir of cooling.  The temperature was fairly steady at about 65-68°F.  This week, however, the temperatures have reached 95°F in the daytime, with lows in the 70s.  The intake temperature for the Avalon has risen from a reported value of 21°C to a value of 26°C.  This is about 9°F temperature rise.  With this rise, the fans are running near 3960 RPM instead of the more leisurely 2200 RPM.  I have reduced the overclocking from the automatic 347 or so MHZ to a fixed 310 MHz.  This change in clocking is visible in the accepted hash rate.  Many Minnesota homes do not have air conditioning.  I am drenched in sweat.  It is like when I lived in New Orleans and set the air conditioner to $400/month.

I am attempting to commission a 2nd chassis.  I have a quote on a batch #2 chassis that does not have a control unit, a quote on a batch #2 control unit, I posses a batch #3 chassis with a control unit and no power distribution unit (PDU), and I have a bare PCB of a PDU but do not know whether it is a batch #2 or batch #3.  I have also ordered a "non-working" module that was originally in the batch #3 chassis, and I will see if the separate 10 chip asic board is good or bad.

http://eligius.st/~wizkid057/newstats/userstats.php/18bLcVkviErQi75zB8X39jZXxHNpSZggdC
http://eligius.st/~wizkid057/newstats/userstats.php/1LU3zkC7GrdWZ6ccn4VN8jnsvQoJ9KTSx7

I visited Yoakum, TX and looked to buy a house there.  It was a very nice 3 bedroom with hardwood floors, large pecan trees, a nice detached workshop, garden space, and a shelter for animals, though I have forgotten whether it was chickens or goats.  The price was about 1/4 of the cost of our Austin house.

It turns out that the people there pretty solidly don't want taxes.  They vote for Ron Paul, and they are happy with no taxes.  As near as I can tell, Ron Paul delivers on his "minimal government" idea, his rhetoric and his action agree with each other.  His district likes him.

I respect this.

The reason that I did not move there was because of all the things that you get with no taxes.  There were holes big enough to swallow a Volkswagen in the roads.  The sidewalks were busted up.  Store after store was out of business.  Many streetlights were burned out.  Many roads within the town were unpaved.  It was like visiting a vibrant ghost town.  We sat with our prospective neighbors across the street.  She was a nurse.  In the conversation, it became pretty apparent that the physicians, nurses, pharmacists, attorneys, were the only people in town who had studied after college.  There was no live music scene, a difficult thing to abandon in Austin.  There was no entrepreneurial environment, unless selling 100 year old rusty horse shoes and kerosene lanterns to tourists, or starting a beauty salon meets your criteria for entrepreneurial.

I like the idea of a $50,000/year job with taxis, restaurants, music, roads that don't tear up my car, and $10,000 in taxes more than I like the idea of no taxes, $20,000/year job, and no amenities.

Good rules are really difficult to make. 
This rule eliminates some productive DIY conversations.

I am glad that you are looking at this.  I am very glad I myself don't have to make it work.

I think that civil language is sufficient to construct clear and forceful complaints, requests for recourse, or warnings to others.  

I think you should remove the one post that bothers you the most each day, and give a reason why.  Wear fire resistant gear.

I confirm my bid.

The cut-off temps are for batch #3 people.  The software defaults are for batch #2.

In the context of pursuing a lawsuit, the important question is "will a judge believe this."

The issue is not whether the attorney is paid with bitcoin, or chickens, or gold; the issue is whether the plaintiff are raising money to fund a lawsuit.
Which of those countries do you believe a lawsuit can be brought in?

I did find some reference to the attorneys themselves borrowing money,  and oddly enough, one of the lawsuits was in Texas.  I have been by a creosote plant in that area, perhaps the one named in this lawsuit. 

That page does have this quote:


Del Webb sued MC Mojave, arguing that Nevada law prohibited fomenting and investing in lawsuits. Jacque Petroulakis, a company spokeswoman, said that Del Webb would have fixed legitimate problems under its warranty policy, and that the lawsuits served solely to make money for MC Mojave and the law firm.

I have a batch #2 Avalon, paid very late on Feb. 18 in the amount of 56.25712356 BTC in WalletBit TXid 5268c88176f24dcaae4e862e9ec1ad696a6915a20f1de9a7fe7042ad9b2f3b9b, and delivered at the very end of Batch #2.

It began hashing July 9th.  It has received 48.18638542 BTC as of this writing.  In 2 more weeks, it may achieve breakeven.

In an imaginary world that does not exist, I made 5 BTC / day beginning in March when delivery was projected, and I addressed some big issues, such as cancer medicine and Alzheimer's care.  Please do not underestimate my disappointment at not having those items.  I am vulnerable, and Avalon did not turn out to be a lifeline.

Nonetheless, I look back on the lawsuit that I did file, and I am pessimistic about them.  Let's start with this question:  how many of the prospective members of this lawsuit are residents of the US and have not registered as an MSB?  I think that you must, if you are a miner.  If you have not registered, are you trying to get a US court to give you help in carrying out an illegal activity?  I don't know the answer to that, but if you want to be a part of this lawsuit, I think that you should.

I also do not know whether intent enters into this.  I do not believe that Yifu intended to cheat anyone.  I believe that things went wrong and he did not have the right stuff to fix it.  You might want to know whether intent matters in the action that you want to take.  If it does, you might want to look for a little more evidence than I have noticed now.

If you get far, you get to court, and you win your case, then what?  Yifu has suggested that he does not control the address where the money went.  He has suggested that he made a deal where he liquidated some bitcoin for fiat to pay the FAB.  What if that is true, and he is currently broke and inexperienced, and not the loser in a judgement.  I hear angry voices saying that he is rich and we should bring pitchforks, but I do not see the evidence that he has the money.   If someone had the money to buy the bitcoins, do you think that they are inexperienced, weak, and without their own legal counsel?  Do you think they have done any wrongdoing?  Do you think you can get that money?

The only thing that I think Yifu may have is 1)  any chips that are not delivered, 2) the design itself, and 3) any fiat money that can be found and confiscated.  The chips will almost certainly be delivered before a lawsuit can be brought.  The design itself has already been promised as open source, and may not have any value when the 28nm ASICS roll out.  Fiat money, who knows, but I think you should know the answer to that before filing a lawsuit.

You may tie up a significant amount of money and not receive a payout for a long time.  Your competitors, including myself, will take our funds and re-invest them into other bitcoin activities.  I think we will have more bitcoin than you will.

I am not discounting the anger.  I am not discounting the hopes that were raised, the plans that were made and had even more money spent on them.  I am just saying that the evidence that I see is weak, the hopes for success in a lawsuit are similar to the hopes that were placed in Avalon back in February and may be even more empty.

Yifu is communicating now as much as he did during the Batch #2 fulfillment period.  This cannot be a surprise.  These chips are late, but so was Batch #1 and Batch #2.  This knowledge was in front of you when you made the purchase.  Tell me what answer you will give to the judge when he says "Isn't that curious.  Tell me why you thought he would ship on time this time?"

I'm going to quietly work on my own design to use the chips that I ordered.  I am not going to seek a lawsuit.