Official Thread: AMT

[YourPalToots]

frankly I would rather have them head down building my machine than chatting with you.

You think their hands are full "building" miners? LOL. "Building" consists of plugging completed boards into a PC case, of which there are a grand total of 2 confirmed builds in the past few months. My grandmother could "build" faster than that between shuffleboard sessions while her arthritis is acting up.

Send her over. I have some work for her to do and tell her to leave the teeth at home.

[Khanduras]

Finally got my tracking number. Seems that the miner is a few towns over. I'll either get it tomorrow or the next day, and I plan on posting a review, good or bad, as soon as I've been mining with it for a while.

Also, talked to Jim on the phone. Seemed like a good enough guy to me. Was definitely nice talking to someone from AMT for once.

Anyways, I'll post back when I get my miner. I'm sure you're all going to want pictures and all that crap, so I'll see what I can do about all that as well. At least this is a pretty good sign. Maybe they'll start moving through the queue pretty quickly now. One could hope, at least.

[amer]

Well, here's a slight update on my situation. Jim contacted me today regarding my order of the 128GH machine. Still have yet to hear about the 1.2GH machine. Not sure if it was brought on by the rather nasty email I sent or not, but a response is a response nonetheless. Apologies all around to AMT if they read this, but surely they could understand where I was coming from.

Apparently he said he would send the tracking number as soon as he got to work this morning. That was at 9:30 AM. 3:30 PM and still no tracking number, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt anyway. If it was sent out yesterday, with the shipping method I used, I should get it by tomorrow afternoon.

Since the order was placed on December 1st (at least, according to their website), it should have shipped at the 29th. At the time, 128GH would not have been able to achieve a positive ROI by the end of the machine's lifetime. I have written to Jim asking about their Miner Protection Agreement, and will be waiting on a response to the upgrade inquiry. Not the biggest issue in the world in my mind - at least I'm getting my miner soon - but it would be nice to see they're willing to back up their own agreements.

I'll post again once I receive my miner with pictures as well as some actual performance details. I'll also update once I hear about the MPA. Hopefully things check out.

Why don't they hire someone to be on the phone (or email) all day? 

Maybe because they are start-up without a lot of venture capital backing upfront to fund support properly, wages are a large cost sink. They are betting on organic growth, advertising...maybe eventually through word of mouth / reviews...

I don't think founders nor a VC would proceed with a business plan delivering physical hardware to customers that didn't include a budget for "customer support" as part of the business model. More likely, this is not a traditional VC/startup situation but more like "a bunch of unemployed/underemployed guys decided that this would be a pretty cool business to do", raised some money and ventured out into the cruel and exciting world of entrepreneurship.

[FrictionlessCoin]

frankly I would rather have them head down building my machine than chatting with you.

You think their hands are full "building" miners? LOL. "Building" consists of plugging completed boards into a PC case, of which there are a grand total of 2 confirmed builds in the past few months. My grandmother could "build" faster than that between shuffleboard sessions while her arthritis is acting up.

Wait,  to be fair,  2 confirmed builds for folks who bother to confirm on this thread.  Not every AMT customer is watching this thread.   What I would like to here is if there is a "unconfirmed build".  

Can anyone confirm if they DID NOT GET THEIR ORDER?

[mdtspain]

Can anyone confirm if they DID NOT GET THEIR ORDER?

FUNNY GUY!!!!

[Mblackout]

I did speak to AMT the other day.  Jim confirmed they ware waiting for the A1 chips to arrive before the 1.2 TH miners go into production.

no eta provided.

[FrictionlessCoin]

I did speak to AMT the other day.  Jim confirmed they ware waiting for the A1 chips to arrive before the 1.2 TH miners go into production.

no eta provided.

If you get hold of him again,  ask if they have their own boards or are they also getting their boards from BitMine.ch

I am hoping for the latter answer ( would mean faster deployment ). 

Also, ask if they already receive sample chips from Bitmine.ch.

[clenell]

I did speak to AMT the other day.  Jim confirmed they ware waiting for the A1 chips to arrive before the 1.2 TH miners go into production.

no eta provided.

at least he answered you 

[russellthies]

I did speak to AMT the other day.  Jim confirmed they ware waiting for the A1 chips to arrive before the 1.2 TH miners go into production.

no eta provided.

at least he answered you 

I have accepted that this process (ASIC hardware manufacturers taking orders, accepting money, and claiming delivery dates that are never met) is pretty much ASIC industry standard.  I have posted multiple times on this forum about my having to wait 7 months on BFL, at least 4 months late.  Of course everyone knows about AMT on this forum.  I am also waiting on Cointerra, which originally gave their first two shipment windows as "Late December and Early January", neither of which appear about to ship.

I am not posting this to be negative, but to point out that it truly appears to consistently be a much greater challenge to pull off the "planned" ASIC hardware delivery time than the manufactures initially envision.  A lot of this has to do with product delivery; of course AMT cannot deliver the 1.2's until they get their inventory.  If any link in the chain breaks, there is yet another delay.

However, all that said, there is a positive note to all of this (as minimal as it may seem now):  A 28nm ASIC will be a good income stream for quite a while, as long as Bitcoin remains financially viable.  In the short 10 months I have dabbled in this business I have come to realize that this is becoming a long-term business plan on my part, not a get rich quick scheme.  The market has a way of spreading out the money, but for someone that has long-term vision, a very, very strong income stream within 6 to 7 months of investment is very doable, and I have no reason to have my lip stuck out over that time frame....that's lightening speed in today's business investment world, not to mention the incredible rate of return!

So, as I "watch" people go bananas over their order(s), thinking about this as a long term business plan helps keep one's sanity. 

[FrictionlessCoin]

There would be so much less stress if AMT was a bit more transparent with their process.

(1) How many chips did they order from Bitmine.
(2) How many 1.2 THs systems did they sell to customers.
(3) Are they ordering logic boards from Bitmine or are they creating their own.
(4) How many logic boards do they have waiting to receive chips?
(5) How many cases and power supplies do they have ready?
(6) Who is their assembler and how many people do they have in staff?
(7) How many people do they currently have in staff?
( What is their planned capacity (how many 1.2 THs sytems can they ship per day?)?

If they took pre-orders, then they should have at least the numbers for the above questions.

How about it AMT?  Can we have some transparency here?

[dreward]

(1) How many chips did they order from Bitmine.
I am sure they are not likely to reveal this number but since they have been batching their promised delivery dates I believe it is fair to  assume that they are expecting deliveries in approximately the sizes of their batches
(2) How many 1.2 THs systems did they sell to customers.
If I were them there is no way I would publish this information. BFL haven't and I doubt any other manufacturer has
(3) Are they ordering logic boards from Bitmine or are they creating their own.
Again seems like a trade secret to me. If I were them I would buy a few boards for the initial machines and then have the rest made here  from that design to cut down on their shipping costs
(4) How many logic boards do they have waiting to receive chips?
This seems like a trade secret to me but given the minimal costs of circuit boards (and the minimal on costs when producing  large run) and the costs of delay it would not surprise me if they had enough to meet at least 3 months of demand
(5) How many cases and power supplies do they have ready?
Since they are buying these off the shelf I doubt this is a rate limiting step
(6) Who is their assembler and how many people do they have in staff?
What business is this of yours again it seems to me that they batched their production and it is either limited by supplies of labor or chips either way if the first machines are 2 weeks late expect the last machines to be no more than two weeks late
(7) How many people do they currently have in staff?
If, as you suspect, they are subbing the work out who cares?

Really now that they have delivered multiple machines (including one for review) I think it is fair to say that:
1) They exist and are not just rip off artists
2) They are reasonably competent engineers with some very poor skills at customer service
3) Their delivery of the 1.2TH machines is being slowed by delivery of the chips which is beyond their control (although yes it would have been better if they had checked once we started noticing the delays from bitmine)
4) Their are an awful lot of trolls in this forum who are even more dissatisfied now that AMT are proven real and they missed out on early orders  than they were when they had hope that they were a con
5) We would all be allot better off hoping that AMT would make, say, a weekly blog post about status than creating all this nonsense on this forum.

[Khanduras]

So, the good news is, I received my miner today.  The bad news? It came in absolute shit condition. Damage to the miner boards, pieces loose and or missing in the chassis...

I contacted Jim to rectify this. Hopefully something can be done about it. I'll update you guys again once I receive a response.

[augustocroppo]

So, the good news is, I received my miner today.  The bad news? It came in absolute shit condition. Damage to the miner boards, pieces loose and or missing in the chassis...

I contacted Jim to rectify this. Hopefully something can be done about it. I'll update you guys again once I receive a response.

Could you take some shots of the machine and post here?

[clenell]

So, the good news is, I received my miner today.  The bad news? It came in absolute shit condition. Damage to the miner boards, pieces loose and or missing in the chassis...

I contacted Jim to rectify this. Hopefully something can be done about it. I'll update you guys again once I receive a response.

wow. how are they shipping these things?

[FrictionlessCoin]

(1) How many chips did they order from Bitmine.
I am sure they are not likely to reveal this number but since they have been batching their promised delivery dates I believe it is fair to  assume that they are expecting deliveries in approximately the sizes of their batches
(2) How many 1.2 THs systems did they sell to customers.
If I were them there is no way I would publish this information. BFL haven't and I doubt any other manufacturer has
(3) Are they ordering logic boards from Bitmine or are they creating their own.
Again seems like a trade secret to me. If I were them I would buy a few boards for the initial machines and then have the rest made here  from that design to cut down on their shipping costs
(4) How many logic boards do they have waiting to receive chips?
This seems like a trade secret to me but given the minimal costs of circuit boards (and the minimal on costs when producing  large run) and the costs of delay it would not surprise me if they had enough to meet at least 3 months of demand
(5) How many cases and power supplies do they have ready?
Since they are buying these off the shelf I doubt this is a rate limiting step
(6) Who is their assembler and how many people do they have in staff?
What business is this of yours again it seems to me that they batched their production and it is either limited by supplies of labor or chips either way if the first machines are 2 weeks late expect the last machines to be no more than two weeks late
(7) How many people do they currently have in staff?
If, as you suspect, they are subbing the work out who cares?

Really now that they have delivered multiple machines (including one for review) I think it is fair to say that:
1) They exist and are not just rip off artists
2) They are reasonably competent engineers with some very poor skills at customer service
3) Their delivery of the 1.2TH machines is being slowed by delivery of the chips which is beyond their control (although yes it would have been better if they had checked once we started noticing the delays from bitmine)
4) Their are an awful lot of trolls in this forum who are even more dissatisfied now that AMT are proven real and they missed out on early orders  than they were when they had hope that they were a con
5) We would all be allot better off hoping that AMT would make, say, a weekly blog post about status than creating all this nonsense on this forum.

WTF!  It's not like what they are doing needs to be secret!   These folks are just assembling the stuff,  no rocket science here.  We don't expect AMT to innovate.  We expect them to assemble the Bitmine stuff in a timely manner.

Look,  customers need to know if they are able to meet their delivery dates.  By not communicating anything, we aren't given a warm fuzzy feeling that they can meet their dates.   

We know that they are delayed because Bitmine is delayed.  However, I want to know how fast they can deliver when they receive the Bitmine chips!   Is that too much to ask?!

My requests for information are perfectly reasonable.

[Khanduras]

Could you take some shots of the machine and post here?

Certainly. I'll send you what I sent them. I'll post them in a post of their own. Took quite a few, and want to separate it from this post since I'm replying to multiple people at once. Don't want it to be too spammy.

wow. how are they shipping these things?

Was shipped UPS, packed with broken styrofoam in a box that was put together using duct tape, which is just odd. Duct tape? *shrugs*

[Khanduras]

The miner! In all it's glory.

(Edit: I'll just post links to the image on my dropbox. Too spammy with just the images.)

(Edit2: Yes, I'm aware I put btctalk.org instead of bitcointalk.org. Ooops. My bad.)

(Edit3: Removed again. Will repost later.)

[Biomech]

Could you take some shots of the machine and post here?

Certainly. I'll send you what I sent them. I'll post them in a post of their own. Took quite a few, and want to separate it from this post since I'm replying to multiple people at once. Don't want it to be too spammy.

wow. how are they shipping these things?

Was shipped UPS, packed with broken styrofoam in a box that was put together using duct tape, which is just odd. Duct tape? *shrugs*

Yeah, mine was packaged the same way. Difficult to open, but it was packed pretty solid. No damage at all on mine, but UPS did initially ship it to the wrong city. Directly opposite direction from their shipping hub. In several decades of dealing with UPS, I've never been impressed. Or more to the point the impression they make is terrible.

FWIW, mine has been happily hashing away on Eligius without any issues. I haven't had time to take it apart and take proper photos yet, but I will soon. With the baby due any minute now and a full time job, my life is chaos right now. At least my miner is working steadily

I talked to Jim on the phone yesterday for a little while before I went to work, and he said they are ready to go as soon as they get the chips. He said they would need a little time to test and tweak the firmware, but they are set to go with assembly. I didn't ask if they had sample chips yet. I meant to, but was rushed and forgot.

He also said they had tried to hire a couple of customer service people and they flaked on him. I don't really have any details, but he did say they're still working on it. My impression remains they are technical professionals, but didn't quite realize what they were biting off. Jim very much wants AMT to be the go-to company for ASIC machines in the United States, and that level of ambition in a smart man will likely pay off for both AMT and the consumer. From my point of view, I think we're seeing early speed bumps. I am convinced of their intentions, and when I get to the point I can do so, I'm buying from them. I think they'll iron out their problems outside the supply chain. That problem ain't going away. It seems there is always some gadget that you can't get on the day you need it in this industry. Usually the chips, but in watching the Klondike project, there seemed to be several "common" components that just dried up when they were needed.

In my conversation with Jim it seemed to me that the majority of their pre-orders are the Bitmine based machines which is the main reason for the delay. He didn't say that, it was the impression I got from the conversation. I should have asked more specific questions, I suppose, but we were mainly talking about my impressions of the rig they sent me. Which aside from the ugly packaging have been all positive so far. I like the machine. It's certainly not a professional level rig, whereas the others are, but as an entry level device, I think it's a decent deal. The price is higher than Blackarrow, but lower than other bitfury rigs. So right about the middle of the road, and you don't have to do a shitload of setup on it. Once I figured out that it was auto launching cg-miner it literally took two minutes to point it at Eligius. I'll post up the procedure for that with pictures on the review thread as the next project.

Also, thanks to Vesperwillow, I should have a Kill-a-watt pretty soon, and I'll post the draw. The internal software allows you to change the voltage and several other settings for overclocking/overvolting etc. Have no clue if that voids the warranty, but since I'm evaluating the unit rather than paying for it, I'll do it as soon as I know what I'm doing, and duly report the results. But as it shipped, it averages slightly above the advertised hashrate and seems dead stable. It's been running continuously for a couple of days without a hiccup. The case gets pretty warm, but not crazy hot. Keeps this previously kind of cold room comfortable, which to my cold blooded body is a bonus.

I will continue to update my evaluation of the machine in it's own thread, and link to it from this one. Right now, I've managed to watch the stats between real world tasks, and that's about it. I start a leave of absence from work on the 12th, with the baby due by induction supposedly on the 15th, so the odds are I'll have a day or two to play with it around there. Assuming my daughter don't get impatient and come early

[Khanduras]

Well, so far my experience was less than pleasant, but I'm pretty sure it's not AMT's fault. I do believe I have at least one faulty board, and another one seems... questionable, with variable hash rates. I've been talking with Jim all night and we've been going over some things to try to get it to work, but it just seems unwilling to cooperate. I'll likely try to get in touch with him tomorrow again and see how he wants to proceed with things.

There's one thing that I can say, and that would be that Jim seems like a really great guy. He's been extremely helpful this whole time, and has spent an incredible amount of time walking me through every detail of getting this thing up and running. I honestly don't foresee any troubles with AMT meeting their goals as soon as those chips come in, even if it has been a rather rocky start. Look at it this way, they're definitely not another BFL.

[clenell]

I got an email from Bitmine in regards to AMT's chips. The rude fellow I spoke to on the phone at AMT (definitely wasn't Jim) told me if I want a delivery date then call Bitmine. Jim never answered my many emails - so I contacted Bitmine.

Antonio (Bitmine AG)
Jan 09 13:59

Dear Sir,
An estimated shipping date for the order of AMT is the 3rd week of January(mid January).

Thanks
for your interests in our products.

Danke für Ihr Interesse an unseren Produkten.

For any questions don't hesitate to contact us. In the meantime

Für Fragen sind wir jederzeit für Sie da.

Kind regards/MfG

Customer Service