is modminerquadstore.com legit ?

[rammy2k2]

is it safe to order from them ? anyone has experience with them ?

thanks

[cedivad]

It's not legit.
Thanks for asking.

[rammy2k2]

It's not legit.
Thanks for asking.

scam ?

[cedivad]

It's not legit.
Thanks for asking.

scam ?

The owner started an asic venture (bASIC) and failed to delivery. A lot of people of this community is still owned a lot of money on preorders. So, i wouldn't order from him.

You can look up the wiki for some fpga alternative if you wish.

[rammy2k2]

ah, thanks, can u recommend me any legit ones ?

thanks

[cedivad]

I don't have any direct experience with any of these other FPGA vendors, so i really can't recommend one, i'm sorry.

However, https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Mining_hardware_comparison#FPGA

[Bogart]

It's this guy that sells them:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=175872.0

Maybe you could PM him and ask about buying using escrow.

[nathanrees19]

It's not legit.
Thanks for asking.

Sorry, you're wrong.

He royally fucked the ASICs but he has consistently shipped working FPGA products.

[mezzomix]

As long as he didn't pay back my money I can't recommend to pay him before you have the product in your hand. It's up to you, but don't complain here if you do not see a product and do not get your money back.

[nathanrees19]

As long as he didn't pay back my money I can't recommend to pay him before you have the product in your hand. It's up to you, but don't complain here if you do not see a product and do not get your money back.

Let's ignore all the people that he did pay back because your personal situation is more important.

[ionux]

The store IS legit and they are actually shipping FPGA's.  You can call him up and/or email him and he's very responsive.  At least, that has been my experience.  YMMV.

[rammy2k2]

thanks, i PM-ed him to ask if he sells with escrow 

[rammy2k2]

PM-ed him .. no reply .. i guess i got my answer 

[JonSnow]

The store IS legit and they are actually shipping FPGA's.  You can call him up and/or email him and he's very responsive.  At least, that has been my experience.  YMMV.

a friend and i each ordered one the week before last, then heard about the bASIC situation ... we were nervous at first, but once we got in touch with Tom, he was able to reassure us and we each got ours last week.  i'm still troubleshooting mine because USPS ruined two of the fpga cards in transit, but Tom has already shipped out replacements which i should be getting in the next few days.

it should also be noted that he IS making an attempt to refund everyone for their bASIC orders, and he has been very helpful so far in questions i've had about the MMQ.

now, if i can just get bfgminer to detect the 2 functional units ....

[ionux]

PM-ed him .. no reply .. i guess i got my answer 

I don't know if he's responding to PM's, but he does respond to emails and phone calls.  I've talked to him on the phone a couple times now.

[mezzomix]

Let's ignore all the people that he did pay back because your personal situation is more important.

No, but there is certainly a risk involved if a business is not refunding some customers.

But for the record: I finally received a full refund.

[rammy2k2]

ok, i emailed him 

[DPoS]

What number?  3152200282 ?  I order last week but haven't heard anything.

I left a message yesterday and shot him an email so I am hoping he gets back to me.

I also sent him my bitpay invoice link since at the time, his website wasn't allowing account creation. It does now so it is probably good at tracking orders but of course mine isn't in there.

[th3joker]

Same here ordered last week and now he won't reply to emails etc.

Stupid thing is my pal was about to order between 10 and 25 units from him and is obviously reconsidering his options at his point as he was waiting to see how my purchase went.

We have outstanding orders with BFL for a multitude of kit but with all the delays we thought we'd at least buy something we can begin using while we wait.

[greyhawk]

 I've talked to him on the phone a couple times now.

So how drunk was he?

[th3joker]

Greyhawk, from what you've said I take it you know quite a bit about Thomas.

Is there any likelihood that we're getting our miners or should I book a flight for a personal visit?

[JonSnow]

Greyhawk, from what you've said I take it you know quite a bit about Thomas.

Is there any likelihood that we're getting our miners or should I book a flight for a personal visit?

battmann and i each received ours.  i'm sure you guys will get yours too.  we're both still working with Tom to get the miners up and running, and waiting for replacement cards for the 2 in my shipment that were broken in transit.  Tom already shipped both, so i should be receiving the 2nd replacement in the next few days.

hope you hear back form him soon!  you can try sending him a PM here as well.  the email address for him that i've had luck with is:

btcfpga@gmail.com

[th3joker]

Thanks for the reply :-)

I'll try a PM, I called him on the phone and left a message too.

[DPoS]

as I replied in the other thread he is doing his best.  He shipped my ModMiner out today.

Give him time, he will answer calls - cut him a break and he'll get to you..  he said he is surprised he has so many orders

he's legit

[th3joker]

Well that sounds promising, it might be nice if Tom said it himself but I guess he's pretty busy.

[th3joker]

Did yours arrive yet?

[DPoS]

Tracking shows departing Rochester today. if I'm lucky I get it tomorrow

[th3joker]

Lucky you mine hasn't changed from electronic shipping info received.

[th3joker]

I've sent cablepair aka Thomas Van Riper several emails asking what's going on and he's just not responding.

Anyone on here in touch with him can find out what's going on??

He sent refunds to people shortly after I paid him with BitCoins.

[JonSnow]

Not sure, last I heard from him was midnight on Wednesday when he SSH'ed in to my machine to set things up but wasn't able to.  battmann is also awaiting reply because he hasn't been able to get his unit working either.

[th3joker]

Do your units look new?

[JonSnow]

I received mine and USPS had broken two of the four fpgas.  Received one replacement this week which, no, did not look new - but it could've just been sitting somewhere for awhile.  Lots of brown dust on it.

[DPoS]

I've sent cablepair aka Thomas Van Riper several emails asking what's going on and he's just not responding.

Anyone on here in touch with him can find out what's going on??

He sent refunds to people shortly after I paid him with BitCoins.

I felt like you until I talked to him..  he is just swamped but seems in good spirits

I'll let everyone know if i get it tomorrow.. if not i wont be back in town until wed

[DPoS]

Got it in the mail today!   looks to be packaged great.. loads of bubble wrap

im really busy this weekend and until wed though..  so maybe i get a chance to play with it.. if so i will post

[JonSnow]

Got it in the mail today!   looks to be packaged great.. loads of bubble wrap

im really busy this weekend and until wed though..  so maybe i get a chance to play with it.. if so i will post

lots of bubble wrap is a HUGE improvement.  glad to hear it!

[th3joker]

Mine arrived today, Tom messed up the shipping and in the end I had them collected using my own FedEx account.

That said he did refund my shipping fee straight away without me having to ask, spoke to him on the phone and he seems like a pretty decent guy. Just very disorganised, I was a bit worried for a while there but he came through in the end and I'm up and running now.

[DPoS]

Good to hear! He sounds like he got too many pits on the fire... I can relate

  I finally had the time yesterday to get mine running on a WinXp box...  Plenty of room to put another 3 or 4 of them in there.   

Maybe in a few months people sell their modminers at a discount I will grab a couple more!

[JonSnow]

So jealous.  Still haven't gotten mine to work, still haven't heard back from Tom.

[th3joker]

Have you called him JonSnow.

Do you want some help getting set up?

Have you got a raspberry pi? I could send you my SD card OS image if that would help.

[JonSnow]

I've been waiting for him to SSH into my computer to see if he can figure out what's wrong.  He emails me to ask for the SSH info and then disappears for days with no response.  Then he tells me to text message him, so I do, but, again, no response.

I don't have a raspberry pi  -  just using Ubuntu 12.04.  Thank you though for the offer!

[th3joker]

Try this JonSnow:

Do a clean install of Ubuntu

make a file called install-bfgminer.sh in /usr/local/bin like so:

Code:

nano /usr/local/bin/install-bfgminer.sh

Then copy and paste this into it:

Code:

#!/bin/sh
# update & upgrade #
sudo apt-get update;
sudo apt-get upgrade -y;

################user mod change YourUsername to the user you'll run the miner with
usermod -G dialout -a YourUsername;

# Install dependencies
apt-get install build-essential libcurl4-gnutls-dev libncurses5-dev -y;
apt-get install automake autoconf libtool wget -y;

# get jansson
cd ~;
wget http://www.digip.org/jansson/releases/jansson-2.4.tar.gz;
tar zxvf jansson-2.4.tar.gz;
cd jansson-2.4;
./configure;
make;
make install;
ln -s /usr/local/lib/libjansson* /usr/lib/;
ldconfig;

# get bfgminer
cd ~;
wget http://luke.dashjr.org/programs/bitcoin/files/bfgminer/3.0.2/bfgminer-3.0.2.tbz2;
tar xjvpf bfgminer-3.0.2.tbz2;
cd bfgminer-3.0.2;
./configure --enable-modminer;
make;
make install;

Where it says "YourUsername" near the top change that to your username and then run:

Code:

chmod +x /usr/local/bin/install-bfgminer.sh

And finally:

Code:

install-bfgminer.sh

That should get you up and running on Ubuntu, haven't tried it on any other systems.

You just need to run bfgminer then with the usual pool and other settings.

[JonSnow]

Thank you!  I will try that here right now and let you know if I make any further progress! 

[th3joker]

I didn't check if you use nano, apologies for that. Just in case you don't its CTRL-X to quit then press enter to save.

[th3joker]

How did you get on?

[JonSnow]

How did you get on?

Still no luck.    It just immediately gives me an error and doesn't seem to detect the MMQ no matter what. 

[th3joker]

How did you get on?

Still no luck.    It just immediately gives me an error and doesn't seem to detect the MMQ no matter what. 

K, you're firmware is borked.

Code:

sudo apt-get install mtools -y

wget modminerquadstore.com/files/firmware/modminer092612-TLM.bin

From modminer instructions:

Orient the board so these are facing you
You will need two pieces of copper wire or something similar.
Take one piece of copper wire and connect the first two contact points next to RESET and HOLD IT THERE the LED on the backplane should dim
While holding that piece take the other piece of copper wire and connect the first two contact points next to ISP and HOLD IT THERE the LED on the backplane should still be dim, if it gets bright - try it again
Release first the left wire RESET and then the right wire - ISP if you did this correctly the light will still be dim
Unplug USB and plug it back in, the board will now show up as a mass storage device (note it may take a minute to show up!)

Use mtools to replace the firmware now:

Code:

mcopy -i /dev/disk/by-id/usb-NXP_LPC134X_IFLASH_ISP000000000-0:0 modminer092612-TLM.bin ::/firmware.bin

Ensure the data is flushed to the USB: sync
Unplug USB, hit the Reset button, and plug USB back in

Try running bfgminer again

[JonSnow]

It's showing up after the RESET as "CRP DISABLD" ...

[th3joker]

That means its ready for the new firmware which is good.

What was the output from:

Code:

wget modminerquadstore.com/files/firmware/modminer092612-TLM.bin

And then:

Code:

mcopy -i /dev/disk/by-id/usb-NXP_LPC134X_IFLASH_ISP000000000-0:0 modminer092612-TLM.bin ::/firmware.bin

[JonSnow]

the output was:

Code:

Long file name "firmware.bin" already exists.
a)utorename A)utorename-all r)ename R)ename-all o)verwrite O)verwrite-all s)kip S)kip-all q)uit (aArRoOsSq): 

[th3joker]

overwrite :-)

[JonSnow]

overwrite :-)

that's what i chose and then it doesn't do anything else ... just returns me to the command prompt.

[th3joker]

did you unplug the usb and reset the modminer then reconnect it again?

[JonSnow]

This is so frustrating!  Yes, I did that and tried running bfgminer only to get the usual: All devices disabled, cannot mine!

[th3joker]

have you tried cgminer as well?

[th3joker]

does it see the modminers at all

[JonSnow]

does it see the modminers at all

what would be the best command to issue to determine that?

[th3joker]

try this:

Code:

apt-get install libudev-dev libusb-dev -y

then run it again, mine gives that error when I've switched from bfgminer to cgminer or vice versa so I have to reboot.

if that's no good we'll try a cgminer build

[th3joker]

yup sorry libudev-dev I corrected it above too

[JonSnow]

try this:

Code:

apt-get install libdev-dev libusb-dev -y

then run it again, mine gives that error when I've switched from bfgminer to cgminer or vice versa so I have to reboot.

if that's no good we'll try a cgminer build

Didn't work.  Those dependencies were already installed.  Still getting the "All devices disabled, cannot mine!" error.

[th3joker]

cgminer build:

Code:

apt-get install git automake -y
git clone git://github.com/ckolivas/cgminer.git
cd cgminer
./autogen.sh
./configure --enable-modminer
make

Then run cgminer -o pool etc

[JonSnow]

cgminer build:

Code:

apt-get install git automake -y
git clone git://github.com/ckolivas/cgminer.git
cd cgminer
./autogen.sh
./configure --enable-modminer
make

Then run cgminer -o pool etc

Result:

Code:

ModMiner detect (5:9) zero FPGA count from ModMiner Quad v0.4-ljr-alpha
No devices detected!
Waiting for USB hotplug devices or press q to quit

[th3joker]

it's detecting the main board but not the fpga daughterboards.

Are the fans spinning on them etc.

Have you tried removing all of them and trying just one daughterboard after reseating it.

[JonSnow]

it's detecting the main board but not the fpga daughterboards.

Are the fans spinning on them etc.

Have you tried removing all of them and trying just one daughterboard after reseating it.

Yes, the fans are spinning, the LED on the main board is blinking continuously, as it is supposed to.  No, I hadn't tried with a single fpga yet because I figured if any of them were working they'd show up.

Is there a way to tell for sure whether or not the new firmware was reinstalled correctly?

[th3joker]

did it say this before ModMiner Quad v0.4-ljr-alpha

[JonSnow]

Trying with just a single board after reseating it ... still getting the same error.  Wondering if the firmware upgrade/reset didn't actually install correctly.

[th3joker]

it's possible, but i couldn't say for sure without seeing the output.

you could try it on a windows system, it pops up as a drive and you can manually delete the firmware from the folder then copy over the new one.

[JonSnow]

uggggghhhhh.  still nothing.  and i installed Ubuntu over my Windows OS, so i don't think running in Windows is possible.

[th3joker]

I'm in the UK if you are too I would be happy to try one of your modules for you at least you can rule that out then. would just need the little daughter board to plug into the main boards we have.

Perhaps if you're closer to someone else with a working rig they would do the same?

[JonSnow]

Well, Tom SSH'ed in tonight and let me know the problem is the molex power supply I'm using.  His advice was:

"just buy the cheapest desktop PSU you can find, you can probably get one
for $20

its very easy to modify to be stand alone and be able to turn on and off
without a motherboard just snip the black and green cable and connect them
wrap in some electrical tape if you got it, you guys got frys out there
right? you can buy one in store or buy one online, you dont need nothing
special the cheapest one you can find will work."

What is everyone else using to power their MMQs?

[th3joker]

Same as Ton suggests I have a real cheap PSU the two units I have draw just under 100 watts anyway so not much of a strain on them.

[rammy2k2]

1. so the store is legit ? they send stuff ?
2. 4x Spartan 6's 800+mhas , that is 3.2 Gh ?

[RoboCoder]

1. so the store is legit ? they send stuff ?
2. 4x Spartan 6's 800+mhas , that is 3.2 Gh ?

no 4x spartan 6's 200-220 mh/s each for a total of 800-880 mh/s - i have several and the average i get is about 820 mh/s each board (set of 4 chips). 

[th3joker]

Has anyone got the tml miner working on a raspberry pi I get loads of java errors connecting to the pools.

[JonSnow]

UPDATE: I bought a more powerful PSU to use since Tom said the issues were with my power supply .. received it yesterday and got it running with a motherboard.  The MMQ STILL does not work. 

Tom assured me that the new PSU would do the trick.  It hasn't.  It's been over a month since I ordered this thing and it's still not working. 

[shep80]

UPDATE: I bought a more powerful PSU to use since Tom said the issues were with my power supply .. received it yesterday and got it running with a motherboard.  The MMQ STILL does not work. 

Tom assured me that the new PSU would do the trick.  It hasn't.  It's been over a month since I ordered this thing and it's still not working. 

Same errors? 

[JonSnow]

UPDATE: I bought a more powerful PSU to use since Tom said the issues were with my power supply .. received it yesterday and got it running with a motherboard.  The MMQ STILL does not work. 

Tom assured me that the new PSU would do the trick.  It hasn't.  It's been over a month since I ordered this thing and it's still not working. 

Same errors? 

Yep. 

I wonder, would you be willing sometime to SSH in again and see if we can get it working or if it's the same issue?  I'd definitely pay you for your time.

[shep80]

Yep. 

I wonder, would you be willing sometime to SSH in again and see if we can get it working or if it's the same issue?  I'd definitely pay you for your time.

Sure, we can give the reset procedure a shot that may be reasonable to try... I should have time tomorrow evening, roughly 20 hours from now 

I will drop you a note. Let me know if you have any developments in the meantime.

Also, what was the logic behind the new power supply? What were you using before, and what did you change to?

[JonSnow]

Yep. 

I wonder, would you be willing sometime to SSH in again and see if we can get it working or if it's the same issue?  I'd definitely pay you for your time.

Sure, we can give the reset procedure a shot that may be reasonable to try... I should have time tomorrow evening, roughly 20 hours from now 

I will drop you a note. Let me know if you have any developments in the meantime.

Also, what was the logic behind the new power supply? What were you using before, and what did you change to?

Well, what happened was people suggested the firmware might need resetting, so I did that but then had a problem getting it out of the firmware reset mode.  I eventually was able to, and then Tom SSH'ed in to a fresh install of Ubuntu where I had not even installed bfgminer or any of its dependencies.  Tom installed bfgminer, still couldn't get the system to recognize the FPGAs, and then asked what power supply I was using.

It was this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Coolerguys-100-240v-Molex-Power-Adapter/dp/B000MGG6SC/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1368337840&sr=8-7&keywords=molex

Apparently it wasn't powerful enough, so Tom advised that I find the cheapest PSU that I could and then connect the black and green wires to allow it to operate without a motherboard. 

For that, I then bought this PSU:
http://www.amazon.com/Logisys-Corp-Bearing-Supply-PS550E12BK/dp/B004MU8VCS/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1368337927&sr=1-2&keywords=molex+psu

Received it yesterday, so I did some searching online and found good instructions.  Ended up using a paperclip to connect the black and green wires, which seems to have worked as the MMQ fans and everything are running from it now.

Tom said this would be all that was needed and then I'd just be able to get the MMQ to mine without issue. 

I tried, but received exactly the same errors as before.    No improvement.

I'll make myself available tomorrow evening to do this, so just let me know when you're available.    Thank you again!

[JonSnow]

Update: 

It has been over a month and a half since I initially placed my MMQ order.  Two replacement cards later and multiple peoples' attempts to get it working (including Tom, whose product this is) and it STILL will not work.  I've tried three different power supplies, five different operating systems, three forum members with FPGA and Linux experience have tried SSH'ing in to no avail, Tom himself hasn't been able to get it work ... and at this point, I just want this situation resolved.