Avalon ASIC users thread

[lukestokes]

What do I do now? I'm starting the RMA process for the power supply but as for the miner... I don't know where to begin.

I feel discouraged. I feel like an idiot.

Thanks for posting.
Please keep a log book and many photographs.

First, find out what is damaged. 
Next, replace the damaged part.
Next, hash as soon as possible.
.....
What is your comfort level with electronics, on a scale from pure consumer to experienced with good instruments?

Thank you for being helpful. I'm surprised the Avalon powered on at all without all the proper connections in place.

My comfort level is not far above consumer. Sure, I've built my own computers, but it's been many years. I've replaced laptop components and such, but I don't even know what the components inside the Avalon are. I don't have any instruments.

Damaged components:

The main board the ATX cable plugs into appears to be damaged. What is that called? Can I get a replacement? If so, how?

Is the module next to it damaged? I don't know. Can I find out other than repairing everything else and turning it on?

USB cable is fried.

ATX cable is fried.

Any help with getting replacement parts?

As for RMA, I was referring to the power supply, which is what their employee told me to do.

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[mdbssm]

Are you sure about RMA? It was your fault, theres no right for replacement

If the controller board is dead, it is reasonable to request the favor of a replacement at incremental manufacturing cost.  It is equally reasonable to be denied.

Only slightly off topic, an obvious business opportunity is to collect money and buy up inventory to provide replacements.  But as harsh as the bitcoin community is, who would want that sort of exposure?

It would be nice if some of the avalon clone manufacturers would offer such a service with any spare parts they might have.

[tarui]

I'm screwed. I incorrectly thought the ATX main cable was the only one needed (since, unlike a normal PC where the modular devices need to be powered individually and don't even work otherwise, the Avalon modules all connect directly to the board). I've had power supplies in the past that supported both ATX and AT and I thought this was similar.

I plugged it in yesterday, had a little trouble with the USB not being connected, but after a few times taking it apart and putting it back again, I got it working. It ran great all last night and this morning. When I got back after a meeting, this is what I found:

[img]http://s24.postimg.org/3mgzefuoh/image_1.jpg[/i mg]

[img]http://s22.postimg.org/4k68pmthp/image_5.jpg[/im g]

[img]http://s17.postimg.org/58b8hi923/image_7.jpg[/im g]

I emailed Avalon, and they asked me to post here. Talking with the vendor of my power supply (OCZ ZX Series 1250W), he said 600W is too much to go through one wire, but it wouldn't trigger any concerns on their power supply as it doesn't measure power output per wire. The wire itself just melted.

What do I do now? I'm starting the RMA process for the power supply but as for the miner... I don't know where to begin.

I feel discouraged. I feel like an idiot.

i did the exact same thing.

but lucky for me, i detected a burning smell and heard a ticking noise.

i eventually found the atx cable's wires had melted and caused arching, probably causing the noise.

only damage was the atx cables and the atx port (wire insulator) melted into the pins so i had to replace it.

decided to scavage it from my old spoilt atx motherboard.

the bigger problem is new atx power cable. down here, ocz psu arent very common so i couldnt find the replacement cable and i didnt want to risk it and i was forced to buy a new psu today.

[ProfMac]

Thank you for being helpful. I'm surprised the Avalon powered on at all without all the proper connections in place.

My comfort level is not far above consumer. Sure, I've built my own computers, but it's been many years. I've replaced laptop components and such, but I don't even know what the components inside the Avalon are. I don't have any instruments.

Damaged components:

The main board the ATX cable plugs into appears to be damaged. What is that called? Can I get a replacement? If so, how?

Is the module next to it damaged? I don't know. Can I find out other than repairing everything else and turning it on?

USB cable is fried.

ATX cable is fried.

Any help with getting replacement parts?

As for RMA, I was referring to the power supply, which is what their employee told me to do.

I think that is the controller board.  It has an FPGA on it.  To get a replacement, you go do a lot of basic simple correspondence.  To start, ask Avalon and burnin if they will ship you a replacement.  Ask what damage trade-in price they will give you.  While you are in the midst of a misfortune, your device is nonetheless valuable to the community, so continue to treat it with care.  It documents a failure mode, and the process of examining it should give insight for design improvements, and practice for the soon to be important repair business.  

The rest of the community also wants to know how to get replacements, and who will be helpful when disaster strikes.  It will strike.  Yesterday we had 2" hail and violent weather.  I could easily have taken a lightening strike and had the same mess.  Other people will have different issues, perhaps a mouse seeking a warm place to sleep, a dog marking territory, or a wife disappointed with a relationship with a secretary.

I would be very conservative.  If the module is damaged, it could in turn damage a replacement part.  I would run the unit with 2 modules to be sure that the repair worked.  I haven't thought through when & how to bring the suspicious module back online.

Again, take photos of each item that you remove.  Perhaps on white butcher paper with a carefully lettered 3x5 card with date and description.
Especially, take some close up photos of the controller board, front and back.

You might create a new payment address and put it in your posting signature, perhaps one or two Avalon owners can send a bitcoin or two as a hand-up.

[lukestokes]

I think that is the controller board.  It has an FPGA on it.  To get a replacement, you go do a lot of basic simple correspondence.  To start, ask Avalon and burnin if they will ship you a replacement.  Ask what damage trade-in price they will give you.

I've emailed Avalon and just sent a PM to burnin as well. Thank you.

While you are in the midst of a misfortune, your device is nonetheless valuable to the community, so continue to treat it with care.  It documents a failure mode, and the process of examining it should give insight for design improvements, and practice for the soon to be important repair business.  

The rest of the community also wants to know how to get replacements, and who will be helpful when disaster strikes.  It will strike.  Yesterday we had 2" hail and violent weather.  I could easily have taken a lightening strike and had the same mess.  Other people will have different issues, perhaps a mouse seeking a warm place to sleep, a dog marking territory, or a wife disappointed with a relationship with a secretary.

I would be very conservative.  If the module is damaged, it could in turn damage a replacement part.  I would run the unit with 2 modules to be sure that the repair worked.  I haven't thought through when & how to bring the suspicious module back online.

Again, take photos of each item that you remove.  Perhaps on white butcher paper with a carefully lettered 3x5 card with date and description.
Especially, take some close up photos of the controller board, front and back.

You might create a new payment address and put it in your posting signature, perhaps one or two Avalon owners can send a bitcoin or two as a hand-up.

Thanks, once my emotions settle down a bit, I'll dig into taking everything apart and do exactly that. If someone has access to modify the wiki, they might want to add a note about ensuring power is properly distributed to help someone else avoid this tragedy.

I'm also wondering if I should just sell the modules in an attempt to recoup my costs. The temperatures were fine last night and this morning, so I would be surprised if any of them were damaged. I was getting over 90GHs. Maybe a long escrow could handle that. I don't know. I'm not sure where to start with that or what the market is for them. I'm open to any advice. I feel I should wait to hear from Avalon or Burnin or someone else regarding replacement parts, but I also realize an idle miner is terribly wasteful. I feel like I should move direction or the other very soon: 1) Get all the parts needed ASAP 2) Put the parts up for sale ASAP.

[WinTame2012]

Current. Learn about it.

[Tigggger]

Might be best to contact some of the clone makers, they probably have all the parts you might need as everyone is just waiting on the chips

Bitmine.ch
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=215431.0

strombom
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=210186.0

I think blackarrow were also making clones, can't find the thread atm and I'm sure there are more

Edit: https://www.cardreaderfactory.com/shop/avalon-asic-unit.html

[tarui]

I think that is the controller board.  It has an FPGA on it.  To get a replacement, you go do a lot of basic simple correspondence.  To start, ask Avalon and burnin if they will ship you a replacement.  Ask what damage trade-in price they will give you.

I've emailed Avalon and just sent a PM to burnin as well. Thank you.

While you are in the midst of a misfortune, your device is nonetheless valuable to the community, so continue to treat it with care.  It documents a failure mode, and the process of examining it should give insight for design improvements, and practice for the soon to be important repair business.  

The rest of the community also wants to know how to get replacements, and who will be helpful when disaster strikes.  It will strike.  Yesterday we had 2" hail and violent weather.  I could easily have taken a lightening strike and had the same mess.  Other people will have different issues, perhaps a mouse seeking a warm place to sleep, a dog marking territory, or a wife disappointed with a relationship with a secretary.

I would be very conservative.  If the module is damaged, it could in turn damage a replacement part.  I would run the unit with 2 modules to be sure that the repair worked.  I haven't thought through when & how to bring the suspicious module back online.

Again, take photos of each item that you remove.  Perhaps on white butcher paper with a carefully lettered 3x5 card with date and description.
Especially, take some close up photos of the controller board, front and back.

You might create a new payment address and put it in your posting signature, perhaps one or two Avalon owners can send a bitcoin or two as a hand-up.

Thanks, once my emotions settle down a bit, I'll dig into taking everything apart and do exactly that. If someone has access to modify the wiki, they might want to add a note about ensuring power is properly distributed to help someone else avoid this tragedy.

I'm also wondering if I should just sell the modules in an attempt to recoup my costs. The temperatures were fine last night and this morning, so I would be surprised if any of them were damaged. I was getting over 90GHs. Maybe a long escrow could handle that. I don't know. I'm not sure where to start with that or what the market is for them. I'm open to any advice. I feel I should wait to hear from Avalon or Burnin or someone else regarding replacement parts, but I also realize an idle miner is terribly wasteful. I feel like I should move direction or the other very soon: 1) Get all the parts needed ASAP 2) Put the parts up for sale ASAP.

what email address did u use? i might need it as well

[ProfMac]

I'm also wondering if I should just sell the modules in an attempt to recoup my costs. The temperatures were fine last night and this morning, so I would be surprised if any of them were damaged. I was getting over 90GHs. Maybe a long escrow could handle that. I don't know. I'm not sure where to start with that or what the market is for them. I'm open to any advice. I feel I should wait to hear from Avalon or Burnin or someone else regarding replacement parts, but I also realize an idle miner is terribly wasteful. I feel like I should move direction or the other very soon: 1) Get all the parts needed ASAP 2) Put the parts up for sale ASAP.

Another option is to have someone host your modules.

I have been approached by someone who wants me to host their module in my Batch #2 Avalon.  I have thought of building up several additional "zero module" Avalons and offering a module hosting service.  If I stepped up the efforts on that, it would match up with your situation of modules that need a host.  Essentially, I am at the same place that you are, I need another controller.

I also have thought of having a repair service.  I have repaired 1 Avalon thus far.  I work with (use, troubleshoot, repair, cuss at, design) high dollar scientific instruments in my profession.

I don't know what a fair price is for hosting a module.  I am assuming I would be paid in bitcoins as it mines, but I don't know what the split should be.

Do you encourage me to get a "zero module" Avalon in operation?

[kjj]

I emailed Avalon, and they asked me to post here.

For me, this is the most interesting part of the story.  In fact, it is downright amazing.  Quite a few people have been, for at least a month, trying everything from tickets and email through smoke signals and spiritual mediums in efforts to contact Avalon.  As far as I can tell, none of us have heard back so much as a "fuck you" in reply.

Please, please let us know how you established actual contact.

[server]

I was wondering too.

Did you get a reply from Yifu ?

[CoinHoarder]

I've been running my 4 module version Avalons at 350mhz using the stock PSU. Is this bad?

I have had 7 Avalons at 350mhz running on the stock PSU for about a week. I did have to replace one PSU, but otherwise they seem to be running fine.

In my previous experience when a PSU goes bad, the whole machine just shuts off, after replacing the power supply everything is good to go and no extra harm was done.

Am I taking a large gamble of the PSUs failing and potentially harming the equipment?

I read in the Batch 3 thread that a four module Avalon @ 350mhz runs at 930 Watts at the wall. I think the Avalons only ship with 850w PSUs. So obviously what I'm doing is probably risky, I'm just wondering how risky??

[server]

Why gamble ? You're making loads of BTCBTCBTC buy some great psu's

[mdbssm]

I've been running my 4 module version Avalons at 350mhz using the stock PSU. Is this bad?

I have had 7 Avalons at 350mhz running on the stock PSU for about a week. I did have to replace one PSU, but otherwise they seem to be running fine.

In my previous experience when a PSU goes bad, the whole machine just shuts off, after replacing the power supply everything is good to go and no extra harm was done.

Am I taking a large gamble of the PSUs failing and potentially harming the equipment?

I read in the Batch 3 thread that a four module Avalon @ 350mhz runs at 930 Watts at the wall. I think the Avalons only ship with 850w PSUs. So obviously what I'm doing is probably risky, I'm just wondering how risky??

I would say you are very lucky. We have 2 4 module avalons with stock PSUs, and both are very unstable at anything over 300 MHz. Replaced one so far with a 1200w corsair PSU, and it runs solid at 350MHz static overclock. In fact it runs better with less error on static 350 than with 350 as a start point and --avalon-auto option.

Not sure why yours are OK, but consider yourself lucky!

[lukestokes]

I was wondering too.

Did you get a reply from Yifu ?

I emailed the info@ address and got a reply from NG Zhang about an hour later. I have yet to receive a follow up reply.

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions. I've contacted a few clone builders and am going to take everything apart right now to get an idea of what parts I need and how much they will cost.

Another option is to have someone host your modules.

I have been approached by someone who wants me to host their module in my Batch #2 Avalon.  I have thought of building up several additional "zero module" Avalons and offering a module hosting service.  If I stepped up the efforts on that, it would match up with your situation of modules that need a host.  Essentially, I am at the same place that you are, I need another controller.

I also have thought of having a repair service.  I have repaired 1 Avalon thus far.  I work with (use, troubleshoot, repair, cuss at, design) high dollar scientific instruments in my profession.

I don't know what a fair price is for hosting a module.  I am assuming I would be paid in bitcoins as it mines, but I don't know what the split should be.

Do you encourage me to get a "zero module" Avalon in operation?

That's a really interesting question. I'm interested, but first I want to take what I have apart and figure out what the costs (and timeframe) would be of getting this thing running again. I'll probably start up a thread about selling these modules as well, to gauge interest there.

Hosting would be interesting... there'd have to be a lot of trust on both sides. I'd recommend the owner of the module would need access to the pool login or something like that to ensure things are running smoothly, maybe settling out every week. How would the owner guarantee future payouts? Nothing prevents someone from just pointing it to a different pool and the owner would have no recourse.   

[ProfMac]

Another option is to have someone host your modules.

Hosting would be interesting... there'd have to be a lot of trust on both sides. I'd recommend the owner of the module would need access to the pool login or something like that to ensure things are running smoothly, maybe settling out every week. How would the owner guarantee future payouts? Nothing prevents someone from just pointing it to a different pool and the owner would have no recourse.   

Big money, no recourse, and strangers make for interesting dynamics.

I sold shares in my current Avalon.  I mine at eligius, and the statistics are all visible to the public.  There is no password at the pool, and no administrative tasks to perform there.  That payout address is dedicated to those 3 modules.  It is pretty clear when down-times are, and I usually post something in the auction thread.  Yesterday it was down about a half hour, and I linked to a nice photo of a friend holding some hailstones.

I would use a different payout address for the 4th module.  I could point it to the owner's address directly, and trust him to make the fee payment back to me, after all, I would be holding pretty good collateral.  For physical recourse in case of theft or catastrophic auto accident or whatever twists life throws, I suppose there could be a contract stating that the module remains the property of the owner and is to be returned at any time, for any reason, id documents, and of course a signed shipping receipt.  I don't know who would enforce such a document, perhaps the local police would do a "health & welfare" check.

I sent off some enquiries about getting a replacement controller.

[lukestokes]

Another option is to have someone host your modules.

Hosting would be interesting... there'd have to be a lot of trust on both sides. I'd recommend the owner of the module would need access to the pool login or something like that to ensure things are running smoothly, maybe settling out every week. How would the owner guarantee future payouts? Nothing prevents someone from just pointing it to a different pool and the owner would have no recourse.   

Big money, no recourse, and strangers make for interesting dynamics.

I sold shares in my current Avalon.  I mine at eligius, and the statistics are all visible to the public.  There is no password at the pool, and no administrative tasks to perform there.  That payout address is dedicated to those 3 modules.  It is pretty clear when down-times are, and I usually post something in the auction thread.  Yesterday it was down about a half hour, and I linked to a nice photo of a friend holding some hailstones.

I would use a different payout address for the 4th module.  I could point it to the owner's address directly, and trust him to make the fee payment back to me, after all, I would be holding pretty good collateral.  For physical recourse in case of theft or catastrophic auto accident or whatever twists life throws, I suppose there could be a contract stating that the module remains the property of the owner and is to be returned at any time, for any reason, id documents, and of course a signed shipping receipt.  I don't know who would enforce such a document, perhaps the local police would do a "health & welfare" check.

I sent off some enquiries about getting a replacement controller.

Thank you. I've sent some enquiries as well to those who already responded to me.

Here's a breakdown of what I think I need:

- One (1) PDU (?) (what I have looks slightly different than this picture): https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Avalon#PDU

Mine also has plugs for the fans and what appears to be a different configuration. Maybe the wiki isn't updated with Batch #3 components?

Here's the mess:









- four (4) power cables.
- one (1) usb cable
- one (1) 10-wire cable connecting the PDU to the Control Unit
- 5 zip ties

I also need any tips you have on how to clean the circuit board. I was told isopropyl alcohol and qtips. I think the fourth module is going to be OK as I don't see any evidence of melting, bulging, etc, just what looks like burnt wire insolation.



If you have access to what I need, please quote me a price and estimated delivery time via a PM.

[lukestokes]

If you're looking to buy/host some Avalon batch 3 modules or if you want to sell some batch 3 clone parts (specifically a PDU and some cables), please see this thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=269802.msg2886697#msg2886697

[arorts]

If you're looking to buy/host some Avalon batch 3 modules or if you want to sell some batch 3 clone parts (specifically a PDU and some cables), please see this thread: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=269802.msg2886697#msg2886697

So in retrospective, for those of us looking on what NOT to do and prevent accidents, why did this happen? That power supply should have handled current perfectly. Did you do custom cabling or what? I thought Avalon provided with proper cables. I still don't understand why this happened....

[nexus99]

Do Avalons come with install instructions?