ANTMINER S7 is available at bitmaintech.com with 4.86TH/s, 0.25J/GH

[marvykkio]

how are coupons being given out?  If I had one, i might pick up some more machines.  Are they giving them to people who already bought them?

They were given out for issues compensation, but i have not seen any for sale for a while. The price a S7 would be with a coupon make it attractive right now, but i can't find one, so i guess i can also wait 2 weeks for the price to drop 100-200$ again.

but do you think bitmain respects its customers?
1) ask to save on transportation and say no
2) ask to declare a low price for customs, and say no
3) ask to have a coupon because you spent a lot more, and they say no
4) let me understand why you defend so much bitmain? it seems to me that you pay it right? I had to get my miner before New Year's, they still do not have confirmed the order.
They have just sent 3 x psu and receive them on Jan. 5, 2016, so I suppose the 3x S7 receive them after 10 January 2016. I might as well wait for the batch 9 and was paying $ 994 x miner.
this is a scam. and yet you defend bitmain? let me pleasure please stop dreaming with your eyes open, because we are all of us that we buy from bitmain and pay them handsomely, not them to do us a favor. so let's have our rights

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[kilo17]

I threw this old psu cable on an s5 about 2 months ago and will never use any small or cheap cables again.  I had a couple of S5's that I thought I would just throw online with a couple of leftover PSU'S and damn near started a fire.

sorry, but this does not even look like 6-prong PCIE connector (it got eight wires coming in). What is that plastic thing to the left? It would have prevented good contacts if it supposed to be a 6 pin. If it is the part (8 pin) connecting to PSU, OK, if it was connected to the proper place on the PSU.
One possibility is that you connected a 8 pin connector to six pins in the receptacle, since i see three burned off pins and a fourth that is still there (not burned).
Is this possible?

That said, a good example of potential dangers, thanks.

That is the end that connects to the PSU and it is a 6 pin on the other end that went to the miner.  No, I did not hook it to the wrong slot, as an 8 pin couldn't even be wedged into a 6 pin slot. 

[RadekG]

I threw this old psu cable on an s5 about 2 months ago and will never use any small or cheap cables again.  I had a couple of S5's that I thought I would just throw online with a couple of leftover PSU'S and damn near started a fire.

sorry, but this does not even look like 6-prong PCIE connector (it got eight wires coming in). What is that plastic thing to the left? It would have prevented good contacts if it supposed to be a 6 pin. If it is the part (8 pin) connecting to PSU, OK, if it was connected to the proper place on the PSU.
One possibility is that you connected a 8 pin connector to six pins in the receptacle, since i see three burned off pins and a fourth that is still there (not burned).
Is this possible?

That said, a good example of potential dangers, thanks.

That is the end that connects to the PSU and it is a 6 pin on the other end that went to the miner.  No, I did not hook it to the wrong slot, as an 8 pin couldn't even be wedged into a 6 pin slot. 

I have the same issue on my Silverstone 1500W PSU, it is poor quality of connector, not cable!

[Biodom]

wire capacity guide shows that 20 gauge wire can handle 8AX12V=96W 7.5Ax12V=90W PER WIRE and there are TWO carrying wires in PCIE connector, so even 20 gauge PCIE can handle 192W 180W max in total. Since 120 (lower batch)-150 (higher power batch) is less than 192W, i don't see much of a danger, unless this guide is wrong:
http://www.rowand.net/Shop/Tech/WireCapacityChart.htm

I would advise completely ignoring that Site, it may contain some correct information, however a lot of it is either misguided, misleading or just plain wrong...



Rich

this is less helpful without providing an alternative source that is more accurate.
Here is another one:
http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/wire-gauges-d_419.html

this one says 6A per 20 awg wire and 9.5A per 18 gauge wire IF they are single core; 5A and 7A respectively for 3 core wires of 20 and 18 gauge.
Conservatively, 5AX12VX3(number of wires to PCIe, see below)=180W max wire carrying capacity for PCIe with 3-core 20 gauge wires and 7AX12VX3=252W maximum carrying capacity for 18 gauge when it is deprecated to 3-core, more if a single core.
Whether it will work will depend on the quality of connector itself, though, but wires should handle these loads according to the second citation posted above.

check also this..look at the note-most PSU provide 3 wire (+12V) connections to 6 pin PCIe, although only two are specified in the initial PCIe description:
http://www.overclock.net/a/gpu-and-cpu-power-connections

[nhando]

Wow, just saw the next difficulty jump in 3.1 days based on https://alloscomp.com/bitcoin/calculator  !!  31% jump and our S7 will be bringing in less than $150/month after Electricity, this makes the $990 price for the S7 batch 9 which on the surface seems like a good deal but in reality, it's hardly a bargain.  Definitely hurts the resell value on all the other S7 batches.  That is an incredible steep jump with many more to come.  I hope difficulty rate steady or slow down a bit, mining is too fun but it have to be practical for us to continue.

Next difficulty retarget occurs at block 391103.0 (eta 3.1 days): 1.2265138042e+11 / +31.3% [est.]

[GSpgh]

Wow, just saw the next difficulty jump in 3.1 days based on https://alloscomp.com/bitcoin/calculator  !!  31% jump and our S7 will be bringing in less than $150/month after Electricity, this makes the $990 price for the S7 batch 9 which on the surface seems like a good deal but in reality, it's hardly a bargain.  Definitely hurts the resell value on all the other S7 batches.  That is an incredible steep jump with many more to come.  I hope difficulty rate steady or slow down a bit, mining is too fun but it have to be practical for us to continue.

Next difficulty retarget occurs at block 391103.0 (eta 3.1 days): 1.2265138042e+11 / +31.3% [est.]

that's way off

for the 30% jump to happen you would need to solve the remaining 600 blocks all at once

10-15% is likely though

[nhando]

Wow, just saw the next difficulty jump in 3.1 days based on https://alloscomp.com/bitcoin/calculator  !!  31% jump and our S7 will be bringing in less than $150/month after Electricity, this makes the $990 price for the S7 batch 9 which on the surface seems like a good deal but in reality, it's hardly a bargain.  Definitely hurts the resell value on all the other S7 batches.  That is an incredible steep jump with many more to come.  I hope difficulty rate steady or slow down a bit, mining is too fun but it have to be practical for us to continue.

Next difficulty retarget occurs at block 391103.0 (eta 3.1 days): 1.2265138042e+11 / +31.3% [est.]

that's way off

for the 30% jump to happen you would need to solve the remaining 600 blocks all at once

10-15% is likely though

This is going based off of this Bitcoin ROI calculator.  They are predicting the jump will occur within 3.1 days.  I have 3 Batch 9 S7 on order and was getting ready to pull the trigger for another Batch 9 once my Power is upgraded until I saw this.  Where are you getting the 10-15% number from?  

https://alloscomp.com/bitcoin/calculator

[kilo17]

Wow, just saw the next difficulty jump in 3.1 days based on https://alloscomp.com/bitcoin/calculator  !!  31% jump and our S7 will be bringing in less than $150/month after Electricity, this makes the $990 price for the S7 batch 9 which on the surface seems like a good deal but in reality, it's hardly a bargain.  Definitely hurts the resell value on all the other S7 batches.  That is an incredible steep jump with many more to come.  I hope difficulty rate steady or slow down a bit, mining is too fun but it have to be practical for us to continue.

Next difficulty retarget occurs at block 391103.0 (eta 3.1 days): 1.2265138042e+11 / +31.3% [est.]

that's way off

for the 30% jump to happen you would need to solve the remaining 600 blocks all at once

10-15% is likely though

This is going based off of this Bitcoin ROI calculator.  They are predicting the jump will occur within 3.1 days.  I have 3 Batch 9 S7 on order and was getting ready to pull the trigger for another Batch 9 once my Power is upgraded until I saw this.  Where are you getting the 10-15% number from?  

https://alloscomp.com/bitcoin/calculator

That is not a good source- here is a more realistic link:
https://bitcoinwisdom.com/bitcoin/difficulty

[cdjbolton]

Hi Everyone.


So normally I wouldn't rant about support topics, But I have 2 major issues I have been trying to resolve over the last few days with no joy.

Now I will start by saying bitmain have normally been really good and solve issues quickly, but I don't seem to be getting anything  resolved at the moment so any advice would be much appreciated.

The first issue I have is that my latest S7 that is currently sat in customs has an invoice attached saying the value of the 1x S7 is $30,000 and they want £5000 for the VAT.

Now as far as im aware the S7 I ordered should be valued at $1650 but it seems that there has been some sort of admin error on bitmains side, I did receive an email from bitmain stating that we needed to pay our VAT or the machine would be sent back to them, I advised them of the issue and they sent over the correct invoice to me, but Fedex have request an explanation from bitmain and a copy of the invoice directly from them, so far fedex has not received a response and neither have I.

The next issue im having is with one of our current S7 machine from batch 5 has an issue,  I checked all my machines the other day and noticed a very strong electrical burning smell and noticed 2x hashing boards had gone down.

I assume they have died but cannot check as there is a warranty sticker over the machine that I do not want to touch without the permission from bitmain, So far I have emailed info@ sent a message through zendesk and also messaged zendesk when live support was available and have so far received no response.

I feel a little ignored and for the first time in 2 years im annoyed at the way Bitmain is dealing with my issues, we have easily spent well over $30,000 with them, not much compared to some bigger miners but enough to think they would as least help.

Like I said I have been more than happy with Bitmain products and there support in the past, but feel very ignored at the moment, and any advice would be greatly appreciated.

The thing that really bothers me about the S7 is the new Bitmain warranty policy stating that if anything burns on the board, there is no warranty.
It's likely that they wanted to avoid replacing boards overclocked/modded, but it also prevent honest users like you, who either got bad luck, or falling heatsinks (engineering failure) for example, to get warranty.
I hope they will reconsider it, at least for the defects caused by falling heatsinks.

If I'm not mistaken, on a batch 5, there shouldn't be any buck converters, unlike the 135 chips units.
So the most likely dead components are an asic, a capacitor, or one of the small LDOs creating the communication voltages (usually 1.8v).

You can start by shaking the unit to check if you hear a something like a heatsink that went loose.
If that's the case, you can remove one fan without losing the warranty to confirm.

You can try to negociate with them if it's a heatsink issue because there is no way they can take you as responsible for it.

Other burnt parts can be caused either by a user overclocking the unit to death, or simply by one bad component in a batch, so it's a bit harder.

If they are totally out of warranty, I'd be interested to grab one board shipped to France for experimenting.

Even though Bitmain's policy states no warranty for burned boards, Bitmain replaced 2 of my burned boards from B1 for free including shipping both ways. I didn't open the miner on my own, I emailed them that two of the boards don't hash. They asked me to open the miner and check the boards. I found loose heatsinks and burn marks. Turnaround time was less than a week after I mailed the boards.

This is a good example of customer service by Bitmain. I hope to see more experiences like this shared on the forums. While I do not like to see bad experiences we need to hear about those as well, but if you are having a reasonable response such as this, please make sure you share it! It shows improvements by bitmain, and we need to know.

Please tell us the step by step. Who you contacted and how, and who took care of your issues, sent the RMA, etc. It may help others immensely.
Thank you for sharing.

I am impressed the way Bitmain handled my warranty claim. I sent an email to info@bitmaintech describing the issues I was having, only 1 out of 3 boards worked out of the box. Wrote order number and problem on the subject line. Also added type of power supply I was using, in this case a Bitmain 1600 watter, sent a picture of input voltage with a  voltmeter just in case.  Got a reply from Sherry Liu, she asked if I opened the miner yet, if not open and inspect. I found loose heatsinks and burn marks on the boards after opening up the miner. I sent pictures to Sherry. She approved the RMA and sent me prepaid shipping labels. Note because of time difference it is not fair to expect a reply within an hour or two, wait at least 24 hours or longer depending when you sent your email. After shipping out the boards, replacement boards were at my doorstep in 7 days. I ordered more than 10 S7s from Bitmain and this is the only S7 that gave me trouble, they are all hashing at their advertised speed or faster. Also it is good to be polite, I am sure Bitmain didn't mail a defective miner, things get rough during shipping.

my case is also handled by sherry, yes i agree be patient with her, but she does reply within 24 hours or so & she even replies after office hours. once she replied me past 9pm china time.

now it's my turn to wait. package is clearing customs. let's see what does bmt engineers say. miners not oc'ed at all.

i hope it gets fixed or replaced asap.

Sorry for the late reply, Been away with family over Christmas.

Sherry has now emailed me back and seems to be sorting the issues out for me

Was a little bit worried and thanks for everyone's input, Hopefully the customs issue will be resolved soon along with the 2 dead blades which I have now confirmed to be 2x loose heatsinks on both blades, the 3rd blade looks perfect.

Fingers crossed all goes well, and hope everyones had a great Christmas/Holiday season.

[marvykkio]

I understand with 3x S7 do very little?

[nhando]

Wow, just saw the next difficulty jump in 3.1 days based on https://alloscomp.com/bitcoin/calculator  !!  31% jump and our S7 will be bringing in less than $150/month after Electricity, this makes the $990 price for the S7 batch 9 which on the surface seems like a good deal but in reality, it's hardly a bargain.  Definitely hurts the resell value on all the other S7 batches.  That is an incredible steep jump with many more to come.  I hope difficulty rate steady or slow down a bit, mining is too fun but it have to be practical for us to continue.

Next difficulty retarget occurs at block 391103.0 (eta 3.1 days): 1.2265138042e+11 / +31.3% [est.]

that's way off

for the 30% jump to happen you would need to solve the remaining 600 blocks all at once

10-15% is likely though

This is going based off of this Bitcoin ROI calculator.  They are predicting the jump will occur within 3.1 days.  I have 3 Batch 9 S7 on order and was getting ready to pull the trigger for another Batch 9 once my Power is upgraded until I saw this.  Where are you getting the 10-15% number from?  

https://alloscomp.com/bitcoin/calculator

That is not a good source- here is a more realistic link:
https://bitcoinwisdom.com/bitcoin/difficulty

Thanks Kilo!  Whew!  That is more reasonable and still give us home miner a fighting chance.. 

[GSpgh]

Where are you getting the 10-15% number from?  

simple math

we have done 1400+ blocks at less than 10% increase and less than 600 blocks remain

if you don't want to do math just create a simple spreadsheet and you'll see what's realistic and what's not



I'd say 10-20% faster remaining 600 blocks seems possible so that will make the diff between 10 and 13%

but to get to 30% you need to solve those 600 almost in no time at all

just use the blockchain - no need to trust random websites they all use the same data for "predictions" just some are worse than others

Edit: yes plus/minus signs messed up in my spreadsheet no need to laugh at me LOL

[nhando]

Where are you getting the 10-15% number from?  

simple math

we have done 1400+ blocks at less than 10% increase and less than 600 blocks remain

if you don't want to do math just create a simple spreadsheet and you'll see what's realistic and what's not



I'd say 10-20% faster remaining 600 blocks seems possible so that will make the diff between 10 and 13%

but to get to 30% you need to solve those 600 almost in no time at all

just use the blockchain - no need to trust random websites they all use the same data for "predictions" just some are worse than others

Edit: yes plus/minus signs messed up in my spreadsheet no need to laugh at me LOL

Thanks GSpgh.  Still new to the game, so still learning.  Cool spreadsheet.  Really enjoying this whole mining hobby, very exciting to see the payout each day and randomness of it.

[hawkfish007]

Something good to report on the Dec 11 600M firmware. I was curious why one of my B1 S7 stopped hashing at a hosting place, controller was detecting only 1 fan. It turned out that one of the fan failed, and the miner automatically stopped hashing. Upon changing the fan, miner started hashing as new.

[adaseb]

I threw this old psu cable on an s5 about 2 months ago and will never use any small or cheap cables again.  I had a couple of S5's that I thought I would just throw online with a couple of leftover PSU'S and damn near started a fire.

This shouldn't of happened. Maybe there was some corrorsion or dirt on the pins because I got a modular PSU with that exact cable and due to GPU specs you can pull 300Watts per cable so 600Watts or so for the S5 shouldn't of been an issue.

[Tupsu]

Something good to report on the Dec 11 600M firmware. I was curious why one of my B1 S7 stopped hashing at a hosting place, controller was detecting only 1 fan. It turned out that one of the fan failed, and the miner automatically stopped hashing. Upon changing the fan, miner started hashing as new.

You do not need this castrated software for that. Previous software will do the same.

[lyth0s]

How will this miner ever break even? With no difficulty increases and near free electricity at $0.02/kWh (China subsidized rates) it would still take 122 days to break even, but we all know that difficultly will have skyrocketed by then.


http://www.coinwarz.com/calculators/bitcoin-mining-calculator/?h=4700.00&p=1300.00&pc=0.02&pf=0.50&d=93448670796.32380000&r=25.00000000&er=431.06380000&hc=1250.00

I'm just trying to wrap my head around who could possibly have any benefit from these miners.

[Biodom]

How will this miner ever break even? With no difficulty increases and near free electricity at $0.02/kWh (China subsidized rates) it would still take 122 days to break even, but we all know that difficultly will have skyrocketed by then.


http://www.coinwarz.com/calculators/bitcoin-mining-calculator/?h=4700.00&p=1300.00&pc=0.02&pf=0.50&d=93448670796.32380000&r=25.00000000&er=431.06380000&hc=1250.00

I'm just trying to wrap my head around who could possibly have any benefit from these miners.

buyers are probably betting on btc price increase and they are spending $$ via instant bitcoin purchase on coinbase, then immediately spending on miners. This way, they essentially spent $$, but IF bitcoin appreciates and they will eventually sell mined bitcoin, they will make profit in $$.
It is obvious that they will not make their price in BTC, unless your electricity is free or almost free.

[lyth0s]

How will this miner ever break even? With no difficulty increases and near free electricity at $0.02/kWh (China subsidized rates) it would still take 122 days to break even, but we all know that difficultly will have skyrocketed by then.


http://www.coinwarz.com/calculators/bitcoin-mining-calculator/?h=4700.00&p=1300.00&pc=0.02&pf=0.50&d=93448670796.32380000&r=25.00000000&er=431.06380000&hc=1250.00

I'm just trying to wrap my head around who could possibly have any benefit from these miners.

buyers are probably betting on btc price increase and they are spending $$ via instant bitcoin purchase on coinbase, then immediately spending on miners. This way, they essentially spent $$, but IF bitcoin appreciates and they will eventually sell mined bitcoin, they will make profit in $$.
It is obvious that they will not make their price in BTC, unless your electricity is free or almost free.

Even with free electricity it still won't break even.

If they are betting on Bitcoin price going up, they could just directly buy bitcoin and hold.

[hawkfish007]

Even with free electricity it still won't break even.

If they are betting on Bitcoin price going up, they could just directly buy bitcoin and hold.

And where is the fun doing that, it is not always making $. For buy and hold, I have AAPL and FB.