They sure were great miners. Probably the best I've ever owned.

I had luck selling mine locally on Craigslist. I tried selling it online but nobody wanted to pay $20-30 to get it shipped.

But good luck with sale.

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.

Bitcoin n'est pas une démocratie, et c'est très bien comme ça.
Que les pauvres en soient exclus n'a rien de choquant.

That doesnt make any sense. If people overinvested in mining, it isnt going to influence the exchange rate. Why would I sell my bitcoins lower because you (hypothetically) are out of a few tens of thousand dollars or dozens of bitcoins in unprofitable or undelivered mining gear? Getting screwed, whether its in BTC or fiat doesnt really influence btc rate. This is no different than when pirate's ponzi collapsed.

If there is an impact, it will be tiny, and probably work the other way. Those that bought these unprofitable miners may hoard their mined coins hoping to eventually break even if the price goes up. But considering how few coins are mined compared to how many are traded, its not going to make a big difference.

I confirm this.

I'm not participating in the IPO, I'm a miner, so I'm interested in having a good mining environment. The threat of having the dev dumping the pre-mined coins on the market doesn't create a good mining environment. I want the trust in the dev to be irrelevant for the pre-mined coins. At the same time, I'm curious about the concept of a "nation-coin" and would love to see this experience go farther than what we've seen until now from other coins.

The process to secure the coins is not completely defined yet, but I can give some basic elements of it.

- The process for securing the pre-mined coins will start AFTER the launch. It's to give us time to do this correctly and let JPGagnon do a successful launch of his coin. Note that for a certain period of time (couple of weeks maximum), the pre-mined QBC will be in the hands of the dev. During that period of time, I cannot vouch for the security of any of the pre-mined coins.

- The pre-mined coins will be moved to a different wallet when we start securing them. This wallet will be in cold storage in a bank vault with multiple back-ups. I was thinking of putting a copy on a CD, an USB key and an hard drive at the minimum. That way, in a case of degradation, (we fail and drop poutine with maple syrup on them!), it doesn't destroy every media in the same way.

- To access those pre-mined coins, we will need at least 2 person. The access will also be controlled by the bank. I would love to have something where the bank vault can't be physically accessed until the airdrop and the bank refuse the access before the date.

I'll keep the process transparent and will keep you informed.

Or make a quick buck off the buzz generated by this coin.

I apologize, I let my political side come out.

My personal views aside - the province has overwhelmingly just voted that they no longer care for separation.  What makes you think they will adopt an alternative to the Canadian dollar?  A separatist nation coin wont gain any traction in a province that is currently screaming for unity.

How do you plan to carry out the airdrop?  Will it be automated like AUR? Which piece of ID will you use?

I couldnt care less If JP moved the premine in a vault he or "two folks from a forum" have control over loll.

They'll need some serious contract, created by lawyers and notaries if they want "me" to take the protection seriously. This is the wildest of wild west my friends, human nature goes crazy at the smell of paper bills. I'd never invest more than a slight amount of time and money, even thought I can afford to lose it all, when I know someone(s) has the power to fuck me dry easily.

So far I love what JP has done, but I cringe every time he says "I have no plan to dump the pre-mime", or how ever he words it. We're all unpretictable, anybody can go insane tommorow.

I heard people in Quebec are hostile toward English speakers, is that generally true?

Ok now for some news, I've talked with a member of this forum from Montréal to prepare a process to secure the premine for Québec. I think it's a great idea, especially since we have long term targets for airdrops. So I'll be collaborating with him and keeping everyone updated on the process too. This way the premine will need at least 2 people to be accessed and will be put on a variety of cold storage.

The member is 'Brunic'



With his collaboration we'll be able to bring QBC to a another level of trust which will benefit the coin itself and everyone who believes in it.

Hmm... I'm not aware if health insurance numbers in Canada is sensitive info or not. I just know in the US, I probably wouldn't want to go around giving my health insurance number out. I'd expect to find myself with a dozen prescriptions charged to me, and weird doctor bills showing up.

The small distribution to select groups may help, but I still think a small distribution to everyone in Quebec would help more so. The thing is, the logical danger of a big airdrop all at once is that people cash them out. Yet if you go with a smallish amount to everyone, there isn't nearly as big a danger. And you get the benefits of more publicity and possibly quicker adoption. Give someone $100 worth of coins and they will cash out. Give someone $5-$10 worth of coins, and they probably just hold onto them, or consider how they can be used for something. 

1) Every detail concerning the number of coins is calculated to assure a great distribution in every aspect. I think this is one point which I'd like to keep the same.

2) and 3) - I'm 100% open to this idea and proposed it earlier after someone mentioned that the Aphroditecoin devs dumped a huge part of the premine on the market, which disgusted me. Since every airdrop (5 total, coinciding with every halving and the end of the mining period) is for 1/5 the coins, we can do 5 separate (paper?) wallets holding the same share of premined coins. If there is anyone trustable enough (Are hero members like yourself trustable or enough or do we need multiple 'heroes'?) we can simply do a regular transfer over the network from my premine wallet to 5 separate cold storage wallets to ensure that I don't have any backup copies of the wallet files in my possession and make it a trustless solution. These cold storage wallets can then be put into a bank account and have sealed access directly by the bank until specified dates in time. This is just a quick solution so please don't hesitate to propose better alternatives.

perhaps we can continue the OP discussion now?

OK, here's my situation in full.
I purchased a few blades which run at ~10GH each, two BE cubes and a BFL55

one cube died. (so I guess that's not going to break even)

I set a floor on the price I was willing to sell my BTC at €450

under that price, and I just plough everything I mine back into cloud mining. I see this as the only way possible that my rig will break even eventually.
I now have 170GH at home (from 205GH) and 60GH on cloud. I'll keep building the cloud with the btc I mine at home and when BTC price breaks through that floor, i'll start selling it on exchanges again.

As of now, i've not broken even. but I will, eventually because the cloud hashing - although a premium at 0.0075btc / GH, has no long term electric costs.

Hmm....i see im one of the lucky ones here 

Hehe le Québec!

Je suis de Mtl!

I bought a Antminer S1 1 weeks ago. For now on I think I will be able to get ROI but not sure.

I also bought 7 Block Erupter in nov, never get ROI and I sold them 1 week ago to get back a little bit of cash.