Quote from: linenoise on March 23, 2014, 11:31:46 PM

I received an early January Cointerra end of Feb. I had to RMA it, got another unit 19 days later.
The RMA unit had something the early January batch did not, looks like an attempt to cover their butts.
It's a one page paper with username, password and networking information.

It also has a bold print box saying This unit performs ~1.6THs and if you plug in the unit you accept that, otherwise do not turn it on and call within 1 day to get a refund.

Wow, bait and switch much?

Yes this would be because of the ignorant bad design of the on-board 12VDC->0.7V power converters that power the dice (cores) in the ASICs, and the equipment's resultant poor ability to cool itself.

Who knows what other design abominations might be found in the thing.

They don't want anyone peeking, and there are 'warranty void' stickers on every seam, to make sure no one can see what they have done.

Their lying about operating temperature range being up to 90 degrees is complete, total BS.

Their lying lips are sewn shut when asked about the tolerable 'core' temperature. It is a legitimate question, so people can avoid cooking the ASICs.

A guy that knows ASICs from inside the semiconductor industry and uses their message board has posted warning about high temp, shown by math where much of the extra power is being turned into heat and how in this condition the cooling system is inadequate for published specs, and given detailed explanations about how it damages chips and burns boards over time, in the face of the total information vacuum on the Terraminer's defective design.

The thing also exhausts heat out the side, from the dual 1100W power supplies. So if you rack it. there is this huge dump of heat out the side, and it will just hit the rack wall and be sucked back in to the power supplies rear inlet. Yes, the main unit exhausts its heat to the rear, and the power supplies suck in their cooling air from the rear.. There is a deflector there as a band-aid. It makes the power supplies suck in air from the side. You know, the side where the power supplies dump their heat out. Oh no worry if you have a raised floor and can force enough air up through the rack.

I hope they have discharged the persons responsible for such engineering disasters, which any crowdsourced team of high school students with ham radio licenses would have done better.

As for the 90 degrees (F) operating temperature, which no doubt enticed many people to buy those things, the semiconductor guy has also recommended, from his experience using one of those miners, ambient of 72-75 degrees max at power step 8 which runs about 2KW. Consider that full speed (step 10, 1.1GHz?? -who knows) was supposed to only use 1600W, and that was supposed to run 2TH. A real shit product and two months late, which screwed the profit out of it.

If the unit is run at 'power step 9', which might get you 1.6-1.7TH, then the 3rd party high quality "APC" power supplies will be running right up against their 1100W limits as someone checked the amps actually being drawn. Who in their right mind for example drives their daily car with the engine up against the RPM limiter all day?

The only right thing Cointerra did was offer a refund to those that were not happy with the stated hash rate. The thing is, the stated hash rate was 1.7-1.8TH in an announcement on their site, I think, but the units have a real hard time doing 1.6TH once in the customers' hands. Reiterating the above, that would be power step 9, and it's pushing the APC power supplies to the limit, so WTH good is that? A reasonable expectation is 1.4GH raw, and that means less at the pools of course.

The later units for march april are supposed to have all of these issues fixed but I'm not holding my breath and I don't really care because I will never buy my miners from them again.

Let's be clear I am not whining about the machines I bought, or regretting them. I am only pointing out the ethics and engineering standards of that company, that contracts to one thing on a 3 month lead time and then delivers something lesser, and much later, and thinks it is OK to merely offer a refund when they have injured another company's business plan. In the real world, where there are things like IBM and Texas Instruments playing, that vendor would be outta there like beans through a burro. Cointerra got away/gets away with it because they are dealing mostly with individuals.