**

[Mikej0h]

Questions to the community:

Is there some Avalon owner who found himself in a similar situation?
Any advice how to best handle this?
Obviously, it is preferable to fix the unit on spot and not waste time on return and replacement, as it may take god knows how long...

I've had a similar thing. Luckily the insides were not looking as destroyed as yours.
Packaging outside and inside looked perfect, when unpacking I noticed several cut corners and even bend alu what holds the screw and bolt.


Mine hashes away fine after I opened it, reconnected all etc. not sure who to blame too, as packaging itself was perfect shape...

As the unit does what it needs to do, I accepted it, and not even contacted Yifu about it...

[klondike_bar]

It looks like only some caps got knocked off.  If so - that is really easy to fix.
I know a local hackerspace would probably have the parts and even do it for free for the cool factor.  I would.

Good thing is since they are smt caps - they pop off pretty clean without opening up and getting the electrolytic pcb eating goo all over.

Seriously though... an electronic repair shop could knock that out in a few minutes - if it's only the caps that were damaged. 

Hell you could probably reattach the same ones yourself with a soldering iron if the caps did pop off clean without pulling the legs out.
New caps would only cost a couple of bucks anyhow.

This is all assuming that the only issue is the capacitors being knocked off.

I certainly would try that first.  Could possibly have it working in a day or less     

If you posted higher res pictures of the damage to circuit boards - I'm sure alot of people here could help figure out any other possible damage.

^this. looking at the pics it seems like only the caps are broken. If that is the extent of physical damage repairs could be easy and effective. However, the stability and future performance of the boards could be affected by damage that is not visible to the human eye

[rudrigorc2]

nice and fast response here but does the damaged pcbs have some kind of identification ?

[minternj]

Customer service seems to be top notch based on the messages in this thread.

UPDATE: 18 days after I received the damaged unit, I'm still waiting for Bitsyncom to provide any guidance regarding the replacement they initially promised.

Sorry bbqkorv, but you may be the first to say Avalon customer service is top notch. I got order in too to Avalon, but really?

[Clearfly]

18 days and no guidance = he posted in forums only to quell any backlash in sales but has done zero in terms of customer support = avoid like the plague.

[BBQKorv]

Customer service seems to be top notch based on the messages in this thread.

UPDATE: 18 days after I received the damaged unit, I'm still waiting for Bitsyncom to provide any guidance regarding the replacement they initially promised.

Sorry bbqkorv, but you may be the first to say Avalon customer service is top notch. I got order in too to Avalon, but really?

Now 18 days later I have to say that their customer service is just as bad as it gets. I had high hopes that they would get this broken unit fixed ASAP but seems like thats not really happening 

[rudrigorc2]

Did you send them back already? I know it might be sad to handle a crippled hardware, specially on times like these, but please try to identify them somehow to prevent someone getting one refurbished item in the future that might fail sooner than later.

[ma_rine_sa]

is it just only me? but the first thing that comes to my mind when i see those capacitors is dodgy soldering?

to be honest it doesn't look like those capacitors were soldered correctly.

if a capacitor was soldered correctly it would require a good amount of energy to pull it off even with pliers!

[Fiyasko]

Wow i see like... Seven broken off caps... Where the hell is TeamAvalon!
Oh wait, 18 days is WAY the fuck better than 10 months...
Go Team Avalon for appearing with a post relative to the OP

[Fiyasko]

-snip-

The capacitors are soldiered solidly but the mining module itself is quite heavy. Once all the modules are loose,  they hit each other with formidable energy during shipping and handling. So, the capacitors pins are broken half-way above the soldiering. Nothing to do with poor soldiering, everything to do with the fact that a BROKEN unit was packaged and shipped, as I documented in my original post.

Surely things like this can happen to any manufacturer, handling cases like this in a consistent and timely manner is another matter.

Yeah, Arvicco has lost approximatley 20 days of potential mining uptime, Mining on an AVALON. Do the math yourself and see how much money he is missing out on every HOUR that Avalon takes to fix the issue

[AM4Bitcoin]

Maybe a fast solution is to sell this unit to some of the developers here to have something in hand quickly.

[seleme]

Wow, what a bad luck... to order and receive machine that made people who ordered at same time some 20k already and to watch it broken and useless..

You'd probably freeze through in Ethiopia.
   

[deadweasel]

UPDATE: 50 days after I received the damaged unit, I'm still waiting for Bitsyncom to provide any guidance regarding the replacement they initially promised. 

This is fucked up.  I hope they make it right, Arvicco.

[flyonwall]

pm me order number, we are looking into this situation.

Have you sent Bitsyncom your order number? When?

[seleme]

You're pretty cool though, I have a feeling that damaged one wasn't the only Avalon piece that came to your door 

[kaerf]

UPDATE: 50 days after I received the damaged unit, I'm still waiting for Bitsyncom to provide any guidance regarding the replacement they initially promised. 

FWIW, at Bitcoin2013 Yifu said he didn't understand why you did not send the unit back to the address on the shipping label. He spoke quite excitedly like this was the obvious thing to do.

Personally, I would not send a package back unsolicited....but who knows how they work over there.

Maybe it's worth the risk to send it back since it's just sitting there

[rudrigorc2]

UPDATE: 50 days after I received the damaged unit, I'm still waiting for Bitsyncom to provide any guidance regarding the replacement they initially promised. 

FWIW, at Bitcoin2013 Yifu said he didn't understand why you did not send the unit back to the address on the shipping label. He spoke quite excitedly like this was the obvious thing to do.

Personally, I would not send a package back unsolicited....but who knows how they work over there.

Maybe it's worth the risk to send it back since it's just sitting there

Let me understand , the guy came here to this post and didnt send one PM to arvicco requesting the board then months later he says it was obvious thing to do ? Thats what I call good communication...

[fasmax]

Since the schematics and documentation are released you could probably get this this up and running most of the way if the controller board survived.
You might have to buy a new WR703 board if is was broken.

[seleme]

You're pretty cool though, I have a feeling that damaged one wasn't the only Avalon piece that came to your door 

Indeed, it wasn't - which in no way excuses complete absence of customer service which Bitsyncom clearly demonstrated in this case.

Absolutely. And now when I saw that he talked about you on conference and what he said it's even more mental.