ANTMINER S4 Discussion and Support Thread

[Biodom]

B10 is up now: https://bitmaintech.com/productDetail.htm?pid=00020140917060843699l3bEXYxL06C0

But now they're charging $135 (USD) for UPS shipping.  Such Wow not.

They are charging me £214 for my S3 delivery to the UK + the import duty + VAT @ 20%

I know I cant compete in mining BTC which I why I have stuck with the alt coins and trading them like mad to earn BTC.

I can see the end is nigh for me mining, this will be the last batch of miners for me.

With now crazy prices and DOA miners from the last batch of S3's I bought it's time to get out

suggestion: buy some used s3 on ebay

[lowbander80]

I want to see the day a manufacturer decides to make miners in EU or US will sell lots more miners as they will be
more atractive to buyers...but guess have to wait until I get used to

[Biffa]

I want to see the day a manufacturer decides to make miners in EU or US will sell lots more miners as they will be
more atractive to buyers...but guess have to wait until I get used to

There already were/are manufacturers, they ended up being scammers or failing miserably due to poor business practices or just having terrible customer services.

Doesn't help in the EU anyway, you have to pay VAT whether you are importing goods or buying them locally.

[dogie]

I want to see the day a manufacturer decides to make miners in EU or US will sell lots more miners as they will be
more atractive to buyers...but guess have to wait until I get used to

There already were/are manufacturers, they ended up being scammers or failing miserably due to poor business practices or just having terrible customer services.

Doesn't help in the EU anyway, you have to pay VAT whether you are importing goods or buying them locally.

Unless you are VAT registered. Then you can reclaim the VAT paid, and there is no VAT due on mining revenue [In the UK at least]. This isn't the reason I'm VAT registered, its just a side effect.

[dogie]

B10 is up now: https://bitmaintech.com/productDetail.htm?pid=00020140917060843699l3bEXYxL06C0

But now they're charging $135 (USD) for UPS shipping.  Such Wow not.

They are charging me £214 for my S3 delivery to the UK + the import duty + VAT @ 20%

I know I cant compete in mining BTC which I why I have stuck with the alt coins and trading them like mad to earn BTC.

I can see the end is nigh for me mining, this will be the last batch of miners for me.

With now crazy prices and DOA miners from the last batch of S3's I bought it's time to get out

Are you sure? When I add a pair of S3's to cart for UK it gives me:
0.65 via DHL or ~0.42 via UPS. That should be £144 or £92.

The import duty is usually £7 via UPS or DHL and is paid regardless if you order a box of air or a box of diamonds - its a handling charge.
The VAT @ 20% is charged by the government and is nothing to do with Bitmain.

[fullzero]

I just got my batch 2 S4.  It had no cgminer at all. 

Flashing the firmware was an easy fix.  Still I don't understand why there is a QC passed sticker on the miner.

[dogie]

I just got my batch 2 S4.  It had no cgminer at all. 

Flashing the firmware was an easy fix.  Still I don't understand why there is a QC passed sticker on the miner.

What do you mean it had no cgminer? I assume you meant it said "cgminer not started", which means your configuration settings were wrong.

[cdjbolton]

Hi everyone, Just wanted to ask for some advice if possible.

From reading through the forums i assume that http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/antminer/s3/4.6.1-141009/cgminer has the updated cgminer for the S3 & S4 machines.

I updated one of my troubled S3 Machines last night, and the pool hash rate has gone up slightly, Is it advisable to flash all my machines (24 S3s and 1x S4)

I also have 3 S2 machines that have a really outdated version, Would it also work for these machines too, Any advice is appreciated.

[Biffa]

I want to see the day a manufacturer decides to make miners in EU or US will sell lots more miners as they will be
more atractive to buyers...but guess have to wait until I get used to

There already were/are manufacturers, they ended up being scammers or failing miserably due to poor business practices or just having terrible customer services.

Doesn't help in the EU anyway, you have to pay VAT whether you are importing goods or buying them locally.

Unless you are VAT registered. Then you can reclaim the VAT paid, and there is no VAT due on mining revenue [In the UK at least]. This isn't the reason I'm VAT registered, its just a side effect.

Yes you can reclaim it but you still have to PAY it. And most people aren't VAT registered as a business.

[dogie]

I want to see the day a manufacturer decides to make miners in EU or US will sell lots more miners as they will be
more atractive to buyers...but guess have to wait until I get used to

There already were/are manufacturers, they ended up being scammers or failing miserably due to poor business practices or just having terrible customer services.

Doesn't help in the EU anyway, you have to pay VAT whether you are importing goods or buying them locally.

Unless you are VAT registered. Then you can reclaim the VAT paid, and there is no VAT due on mining revenue [In the UK at least]. This isn't the reason I'm VAT registered, its just a side effect.

Yes you can reclaim it but you still have to PAY it. And most people aren't VAT registered as a business.

If you want to avoid VAT, you can host your miners with Bitmain on checkout. Also avoids delivery.

[dogie]

Hi everyone, Just wanted to ask for some advice if possible.

From reading through the forums i assume that http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/antminer/s3/4.6.1-141009/cgminer has the updated cgminer for the S3 & S4 machines.

I updated one of my troubled S3 Machines last night, and the pool hash rate has gone up slightly, Is it advisable to flash all my machines (24 S3s and 1x S4)

I also have 3 S2 machines that have a really outdated version, Would it also work for these machines too, Any advice is appreciated.

I'm not sure what that string is in relation to Bitmain's string.

It won't work for S2, that firmware isn't ready yet.

[DotSauce]

If anyone needs $200 off coupons check out my last post.

[Biffa]

I want to see the day a manufacturer decides to make miners in EU or US will sell lots more miners as they will be
more atractive to buyers...but guess have to wait until I get used to

There already were/are manufacturers, they ended up being scammers or failing miserably due to poor business practices or just having terrible customer services.

Doesn't help in the EU anyway, you have to pay VAT whether you are importing goods or buying them locally.

Unless you are VAT registered. Then you can reclaim the VAT paid, and there is no VAT due on mining revenue [In the UK at least]. This isn't the reason I'm VAT registered, its just a side effect.

Yes you can reclaim it but you still have to PAY it. And most people aren't VAT registered as a business.

If you want to avoid VAT, you can host your miners with Bitmain on checkout. Also avoids delivery.

Yes thats a possibility, but doesn't really answer the whining that if EU manufacturers were around we wouldnt have to pay shipping, duty and VAT. Which we still would.

[Tigggger]

Doesn't help in the EU anyway, you have to pay VAT whether you are importing goods or buying them locally.

Unless you are VAT registered. Then you can reclaim the VAT paid, and there is no VAT due on mining revenue [In the UK at least]. This isn't the reason I'm VAT registered, its just a side effect.

According to my accountant and HMRC you cannot claim VAT back on mining machines UNLESS you are buying them in to resell.

The simple version of the rule is that you can't claim an input unless it generates an output, which because as you say there is no tax due on bitcoins mined or sold means you can't claim it back on the hardware used to produce them, this also means that you cannot claim the VAT portion of your electric bill either.

If your accountant says different it might be worth clarifying which position is correct, as you are no doubt aware errors made in regards to tax are not treated lightly here.

[moss]

I want to see the day a manufacturer decides to make miners in EU or US will sell lots more miners as they will be
more atractive to buyers...but guess have to wait until I get used to

There already were/are manufacturers, they ended up being scammers or failing miserably due to poor business practices or just having terrible customer services.

Doesn't help in the EU anyway, you have to pay VAT whether you are importing goods or buying them locally.

Unless you are VAT registered. Then you can reclaim the VAT paid, and there is no VAT due on mining revenue [In the UK at least]. This isn't the reason I'm VAT registered, its just a side effect.

Yes you can reclaim it but you still have to PAY it. And most people aren't VAT registered as a business.

If you want to avoid VAT, you can host your miners with Bitmain on checkout. Also avoids delivery.

How does that work, please?  Is it a viable option?  What if you later decide you want the machines delivered after all?
Cheers.

[Bogon]

As of 10/10/2014 - this is the firmware listed on the bitmain support site:

initramfs.bin.SD-20141003.tar.gz

Do I unpack it or just point the S4 at the tar.gz and it uploads and decompresses it
and deals with the whole thing?

Thx.

[Prelude]

As of 10/10/2014 - this is the firmware listed on the bitmain support site:

initramfs.bin.SD-20141003.tar.gz

Do I unpack it or just point the S4 at the tar.gz and it uploads and decompresses it
and deals with the whole thing?

Thx.

Unless bitmain has gotten around to uploading the working firmware, you'll need to use this:

Guys, here is the new fixed firmware. Bitmain emailed it to me as their engineer isn't avilable to upload it to their website yet.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/24462711/initramfs.bin.SD-20141003-1.tar.gz

Enjoy!

[IYFTech]

Since when did it need an "engineer" to upload a file to a website?  Anyone can do that, it's not hard at all.....

I would be very wary of using an image someone got in an email claiming to be from Bitmain, if they can email it to someone - they can also upload it to their site.

[Prelude]

You'd think so, wouldn't you. Of course, you should always be cautious.

Read the last few pages, the MD5 is posted to verify the image. If I hadn't posted this firmware for others, you'd still be waiting on bitmain to reupload the proper image to it's website. Have fun trying to flash the image on their website if you still don't trust me.

[IYFTech]

Anyone can generate an MD5 too......I can't find anything from Bitmain saying they have verified this as genuine.......maybe you can post the complete email?