AMT users thread.

[opieum2]

Fact is it is very possible this is what these miners are doing. AND might ultimately explain a few things. One AMT/Joshua Zipkin knows I have the know how to actually figure this out. So his efforts to silence me might be a way to stop this. Thankfully the idea is out there and i am not the only one with the ability to look at this hence why the raw image is out there. As I cannot manipulate timestamps due to the nature of linux security, he cannot claim it was altered. There are LOTS of moving parts and that would be easily exposed if he claimed I had. So in effect AMT may be hiding something under the hood.

This leads to an even MORE disturbing idea.....the WEBui IS accurate and JorgeStofoli's idea is correct. Some of that hashpower is going to f2pool or another pool. Which would be highly illegal and now puts Joshua Zipkin directly in the crosshairs of hacking and espionage as this sort of thing falls squarely under that. There is no disclaimer. AND the hardware coming from China...well considering the issues Cisco has had with counterfeit hardware in recent years, this could present some new areas for law enforcement to cover. This certainly is an avenue to look at. Thanks Jorgestofoli for the insight. I will start bruteforcing the image to get into the SDcard. I might be able to uncover the cgminer code. It may turn out there are alot of discards and hardware errors. But IF it turns out a portion of our mining power (which if the UI reports) is actually mining to another wallet/pool. Then this is the smoking gun we all need. And it means its even present in the new code as well.

IF AMT puts out new updates, I STRONGLY recommend you do not download it unless it has access to SSH so cgminer performance AND validate pool info. At this point they may be putting out tainted code. Be VERY careful until the community can validate any new code at this point. This should also go for other vendors like lktec and anyone who does not allow under the hood access to their hardware. It is AGAINST the open nature of bitcoin as it is.

I will power up the miner tonight and see if I can capture some net traffic off it to see where its going. It should be going to my chosen pool and nowhere else. Any other locations and then that should provide some insight into whats going on. IF it turns out traffic is being diverted from the miners, then we solved the mystery of the constant 1.27Ths.....it is hashing at that BUT with a portion of it going to Joshua Zipkin's wallets....which would be theft plain and simple. I will make a video as I sniff the traffic. Least that way the community can see it. And this will be the same untouched image. Others with the same performance issues not using this image can duplicate my results if there are any results to duplicate.

[YourPalToots]

torrent link for AMT image. I am seeding it. It has a default IP of 192.168.0.245 OR 192.168.1.245 Either way its def one of those IPs. This is the original shipping image with the ONLY modification being the IP.

http://goo.gl/L5DT1B

Thanks, I will give this a try.

OK, I've downloaded your image, found a windows machine and burned the image to a newly formatted 8gig SD card. I used the formatting tool from sd org and I did and full overwrite format.

I inserted the SD card into the RasPi and fired up the machine. All fans spin up, blade lights blink green. Only one light on RasPi turns on. The internet light on the RasPi still does not light up. I've tried several cat5 cables that are known to work. I've inserted this SD card into a known working RasPi and no internet connection there either. I've used Angry IP to scan the network for IP addresses and nothing beyond the usual machines. I've also tried to plug directly from the laptop to the RasPi via ethernet ( as I did initially with my ant miners ) to no response.

any help will be appreciated. thx guys.

[opieum2]

torrent link for AMT image. I am seeding it. It has a default IP of 192.168.0.245 OR 192.168.1.245 Either way its def one of those IPs. This is the original shipping image with the ONLY modification being the IP.

http://goo.gl/L5DT1B

Thanks, I will give this a try.

OK, I've downloaded your image, found a windows machine and burned the image to a newly formatted 8gig SD card. I used the formatting tool from sd org and I did and full overwrite format.

I inserted the SD card into the RasPi and fired up the machine. All fans spin up, blade lights blink green. Only one light on RasPi turns on. The internet light on the RasPi still does not light up. I've tried several cat5 cables that are known to work. I've inserted this SD card into a known working RasPi and no internet connection there either. I've used Angry IP to scan the network for IP addresses and nothing beyond the usual machines. I've also tried to plug directly from the laptop to the RasPi via ethernet ( as I did initially with my ant miners ) to no response.

any help will be appreciated. thx guys.

Use the image I just uploaded last night. That one has an IP of 192.168.1.59. That will work.

[NotFuzzyWarm]

and don't need to format... The image is just that - an image of the entire logical structure of the storage media formatting and all. When you burn the image to a device that's all you need to do. It's ready to go.

[YourPalToots]

I just downloaded the new image. Will burn it shortly. Thx again for the help

[JorgeStolfi]

Many years ago, a colleague here was a asked by the police to help them crack the password of a custom-made bookkeeping computer that they had seized from an illegal gambling site.  He just dumped and disassembled the binary, then, intead of trying to deduce the password or looking for the places that called the password-checking routine, he just changed a one-byte opcode in the latter, so that it would accept any password except the correct one.

May be fun doing the same to the AMT binary, perhaps.

[opieum2]

dang, he got my $5,100, used my miner for a year, and now you tell me they might be stealing my hashing power and electricity? Oh, that's rich!

On top of everything else he as done would that be a shock? Again want to be clear it's still a maybe. We still have to check that it actually is the case. This was not something I had considered, I will have more info on this later today. I will run the miner for a few minutes and run a packet sniffer and check router traffic to see what the deal is there.

[clenell]

dang, he got my $5,100, used my miner for a year, and now you tell me they might be stealing my hashing power and electricity? Oh, that's rich!

On top of everything else he as done would that be a shock? Again want to be clear it's still a maybe. We still have to check that it actually is the case. This was not something I had considered, I will have more info on this later today. I will run the miner for a few minutes and run a packet sniffer and check router traffic to see what the deal is there.

i wouldnt put anything past this slimy jewish fuck. Josh Zipkin is a first rate thief and con artist.

[opieum2]

dang, he got my $5,100, used my miner for a year, and now you tell me they might be stealing my hashing power and electricity? Oh, that's rich!

On top of everything else he as done would that be a shock? Again want to be clear it's still a maybe. We still have to check that it actually is the case. This was not something I had considered, I will have more info on this later today. I will run the miner for a few minutes and run a packet sniffer and check router traffic to see what the deal is there.

i wouldnt put anything past this slimy jewish fuck. Josh Zipkin is a half-assed thief and con artist.

FTFY, if he was first rate, we would not even know we got robbed, and he would not have gotten caught out there. The difference here is he has not been dealt with by the justice system.....YET.
Kinda like pirates in the older days, black beard and all them. The shitty ones are the ones we know of, because they got caught. The good ones are the ones we never heard of and lived out their lives.

[opieum2]

FYI, I took a look at the miners. I powered up the one I have configured (I am keeping one unmodified and unpowered for now as evidence later if needed as it wont make me any money now either way anyway)
I ran a packet inspector against it, and detected nothing outside the ordinary. There is no second mining code as far as I could tell no other pools were being contacted. It is a shitty miner is all. So it is just performing way under spec. Someone else was going to look at the php code and see if they are faking the 1.27Ths constant as that makes NO sense in light of the actual hash rate reported on all the pools we mine on.

Honestly thought I would feel better if a second pair of eyes took a look at this and validated my findings. Just because I did not does not means someone else won't.

[opieum2]

And lest anyone forget, Joshua Zipkin does threaten people and plots their deaths. First rate example below. No joking no nothing. He clearly is serious. This was against Bruno of course since the obvious references to what he posts reveals that much.
Taking a page from Gleb Gamow's BFL tactic (thanks for the inpiration) to make it easier for law enforcement to find the posts with the information needed. Since he claims all this shit is made up, let's see what law enforcement does when they look at his skype logs on the microsoft side that he cant erase?

#jzipkinmurderplot

What I find interesting is that this kid goes to jail http://www.ongamers.com/articles/league-of-legends-player-who-reportedly-made-terrorist-threat-faces-up-to-10-years-in-prison/1100-894/
For saying some messed up shit as a joke, whereas Josh was serious in his attempt on Bruno's life (his own words that he was serious) as there were no lols or jks, and yet nothing happens to him, yet.

I guess maybe not enough reports have gone to local law enforcement.

[JorgeStolfi]

FYI, I took a look at the miners. I powered up the one I have configured (I am keeping one unmodified and unpowered for now as evidence later if needed as it wont make me any money now either way anyway)
I ran a packet inspector against it, and detected nothing outside the ordinary. There is no second mining code as far as I could tell no other pools were being contacted. It is a shitty miner is all. So it is just performing way under spec.

Sorry if it was a false alarm.  However, note that the attack I described above does not generate spurious internet packets and does not depend on a second pool.  The only external symptom, most of the time, would be a loss of performance.  The theft of resources would be visible at the internet level only once every six successfully mined blocks, by that block having a different address in the coinbase transaction.

To make sure that the attack is not happening, one should monitor the attempts that are sent to the ASIC rig by the mining software.

[opieum2]

FYI, I took a look at the miners. I powered up the one I have configured (I am keeping one unmodified and unpowered for now as evidence later if needed as it wont make me any money now either way anyway)
I ran a packet inspector against it, and detected nothing outside the ordinary. There is no second mining code as far as I could tell no other pools were being contacted. It is a shitty miner is all. So it is just performing way under spec.

Sorry if it was a false alarm.  However, note that the attack I described above does not generate spurious internet packets and does not depend on a second pool.  The only external symptom, most of the time, would be a loss of performance.  The theft of resources would be visible at the internet level only once every six successfully mined blocks, by that block having a different address in the coinbase transaction.

To make sure that the attack is not happening, one should monitor the attempts that are sent to the ASIC rig by the mining software.

Still worth looking at anyway just in case. It still is a possibility, but I did not see anything myself. And something like that to hide would be sophisticated and likely out of the reach of this particular manufacturer's resources and reach. Still someone could look again and see if I missed something.

[opieum2]

Remember, we INVESTED in his company, Joshua Zipkin has already said as much, he or his authorized stooge (since he would have to sign off on such a statement), in one of the previous posts. Fact is this is not the first time he stiffs people on payment. So we are dealing with a company WE invested in and only got back hardware that only resembles an $899 product as in many cases for many people the product arrived incomplete or with various defects. As of now NOONE is reporting a miner consistently hashing at 1.27ths or even close to that as reported in the UI. By contrast if you use a bitmain (or any other miner) you will see that the ratio miner to pool hash rates are in tune, with a slight lag time in hashrate reporting. The deltas between the has rates are extremely small. As in the 10s of Ghs vs nearly half a THs difference (400Ths on average delta with AMT miners and pool reporting)

Fact is this qualifies squarely as investment fraud. We invested in his R&D by Joshua Zipkin or his authorized stooge, made that statement. On top of that he seems to pick and choose playing favorites as he has. That again will look might interesting once regulators get involved. And apparently its coming. Broader announcements have been made, so it looks like the hammer is coming down on alot of companies at once.

No apologies needed, I think we really need to look at these miners closely. No SSH access is a red flag, another red flag is that the web interface 1.27Th/s does not reflect actual speeds. We are dealing with a company who took $6,000 and delivered an $899 product.

FYI, I took a look at the miners. I powered up the one I have configured (I am keeping one unmodified and unpowered for now as evidence later if needed as it wont make me any money now either way anyway)
I ran a packet inspector against it, and detected nothing outside the ordinary. There is no second mining code as far as I could tell no other pools were being contacted. It is a shitty miner is all. So it is just performing way under spec.

Sorry if it was a false alarm.  However, note that the attack I described above does not generate spurious internet packets and does not depend on a second pool.  The only external symptom, most of the time, would be a loss of performance.  The theft of resources would be visible at the internet level only once every six successfully mined blocks, by that block having a different address in the coinbase transaction.

To make sure that the attack is not happening, one should monitor the attempts that are sent to the ASIC rig by the mining software.

[Kenofbits]

I wanna sell these crappy miner for what ever price is just taking up space 1.2 n 2 boards .  give a total of 1.5

[clenell]

I wanna sell these crappy miner for what ever price is just taking up space 1.2 n 2 boards .  give a total of 1.5

no one in their right mind would buy an AMT miner. im still not even sure they exist.

[opieum2]

In that vein, I thought it would be worth noting what else DOESN'T exist from AMT....



Their news page...the internets tells the news. http://lmgtfy.com/?q=amtminers also try http://lmgtfy.com/?q=amt+miners



I LOLED f-ing hard at the stock when I saw it. I called up a friend of mine to confirm. BUT he is the white dude in the right of the picture. He is Canadian (that is as much detail as I will give). He posed for this stock photo pic 10 years ago. His hair has greyed a bit since this pic. But we had some lols over it.
For the words on the page.....I will let others have fun with it. (Oh and he does not work for AMT, none of these people do, they just posed for a nice stock photo). That photo is also definitely not AMT offices either. Personally I think AMT offices consist of a Dexter-like kill room where they murder their detractors after inviting them down to their offices to "chat".






As for what these pages ultimately mean for anyone looking




Hey Josh still planning on having a "chat" (verbatim with quotes as you used) with me? aka murder? that is how I am taking it since that is what you have stated you will do to anyone who speaks out against you.....let it be known if I suddenly stop posting here, chances are he sent a Bulgarian hitman to take me out. I know he won't have the balls to do it himself.  

[opieum2]

For anyone reading I thought I would point out the competition's way of handling hardware issues and well really any issues. text book example on customer service.

And THIS is why despite the issues with hardware they had, that they continue to get my business and I use their hardware. They OWN their mistakes instead of blaming it on others (Like AMT has been doing) and then do what they gotta do to make it right ASAP. Bravo BITMAINTECH. Sucks about the hardware issue, but I applaud their ownership of the issue (even tho it was not their issue entirely but a supplier), and their hard work to make it right. That speaks volumes on their character. Josh hated when I and other spoke about bitmain and he claimed (which is in the skype chats) that bitmain copied his name......its in there. search bitmain in the leaked chats

Power supply replacement for the Antminer S4

Dear loyal customers,
Today we have found out that the batch of power supplies shipped out in batch 1 and the first part of batch 2 Antminer S4s contain a critical defect. The customized power supply produced by AplusPower Co. Ltd is suffering from an unacceptably high failure rate and will be replaced with immediate effect.
We take full responsibility for the problems caused and had not anticipated the unique loading conditions of a miner when selecting and testing the suitability of these power supplies. You can read more about the defect in the post below.
We are now taking steps to ensure that customers are impacted as little as possible. The rest of batch 2 S4s will come with the improved power supply as standard.

The following actions are being taken for miners already delivered:
1)  If your PSU has already failed:
•   Submit a RMA request with some pictures and proof [ie with your username in the photo] of your PSU’s failure to info@bitmaintech.com.
•   We will then ship a new PSU out as soon as possible.
•   We will also issue compensation to the value of 10 days of mining profit calculated starting from shipping date
2) If your PSU has not failed and the miner is running normally:
•   We will ship a new PSU to you.
•   Please do not contact support yet, you will receive an email asking to confirm your shipping.
      

Analysis of power supply failures within the first batch of Antminer S4s

We are sorry for the inconvenience you may have experienced regarding power supply failures, or even sporadic events of smoke from our first batch of Antminer S4s. We immediately set out to investigate the reports of failed power supplies from customers, and have made immediate changes to improve the quality of future deliveries. What happened with these power supplies is not acceptable.



The power supplies failed by two different mechanisms:

1) Failed TR1 or TR2 MOSFETs on the power factor correction (PFC) circuitry.

After investigations, it was found that the unusual service conditions a miner puts on its power supply was the cause of the failure. The repeated abrupt, dynamic loading generated significant current through the PFC circuits, eventually leading to the failure of the TR1 or TR2 MOSFETs.

The replacement power supplies have significantly upgraded PFC circuits in order to improve performance and prevent a recurrence of the problem.


2) Failed MOSFET on the output Synchronous rectifier circuit

A MOSFET on the output Synchronous rectification circuit was also found to be failing, due to the repeated and sudden load changes during the miners’ operation.

During normal operation, the output MOSFET is expected to carry a current of approximately 30A and operate at a surface temperature of around 80C. The failing MOSFET was found to be heating up significantly further than this, causing the carbonized black PCBs and smoking thermal pad.

It is worth noting that although a failed output MOSFET at high temperatures may result in some smoke from the PCB and thermal pad, it will not start a fire. All internal components of the PSU meet the requirements of the UL94-V0 flame retardancy standard, which certifies that any ignition will self-extinguish within a maximum of 10 seconds.

In response to this problem, the sample filter in the Synchronous rectifier circuits have been altered to erase the excessive current, and so the MOSFET will not fail again. In addition, several high temperature prevention circuits have been added which will better protect the power supply from overloading and excessive temperatures.


Moving forwards

We always perform significant dynamic testing on chosen power supplies, however in this case we failed to recognize the special conditions and specific loading characteristics the miner would place on the power supply. Our testing has been altered to replicate and include these loading characteristics on any power supplies introduced in the future. Once again, we are sorry.

[opieum2]

I thought this was interesting. AMT claims they have no money...or they do, hard to tell as that changes post by post. BUT I think they do have money. Because well to be a sponsor, you kinda need money to sponsor someone.

http://bitcointlv.com/en/Sponsors

They are on the list. I am guessing insidebitcoins is in the business of endorsing shady companies? Wonder why they are on the list still.

[NotFuzzyWarm]

^^ I'd guess that they paid for their sponsorship earlier in the year like they did the Las Vegas show.
Wonder if they will show up?

And on the BITMAIN s4's - In BITMAIN's response to the matter, aside from their perfect handling of the PSU issue, ya gotta love their answer to concerns on any possible fire: "at high temperatures may result in some smoke from the PCB and thermal pad, it will not start a fire. All internal components of the PSU meet the requirements of the UL94-V0 flame retardancy standard, which certifies that any ignition will self-extinguish within a maximum of 10 seconds."

Very safe bet that AMT cannot make any such assurances.