I have wasted days on this API.
Sitting trying to work out the issues. Using the PHP example is okay but using JavaScript from node just does not work.
Glad I found this forum post as I thought I was going mad. I have tried every method over the past 3 days to get private responses but just get {"result":"false","message":"Error: invalid key or sign"} (no matter what is signed here using Crypto just doesn't resolve) and {"result":"false","message":"Error: invalid data"}
Even looking
http://www.cryptocoincharts.info/v2/tools/bter_balances where they have a private JS fund checker, this does not work and responds 500 Internal Server Error
All my API calls for tickers work fine but private key calls just don't. Damn you BTER i'll never get that time back.