Problems Plague KnCMiner As Broken 'Super Jupiters' Arrive

Buyers of digital currency mining hardware developer KnCMiner’s modified Jupiter mining product are reporting serious problems with shipments.

The company originally offered the 'Super Jupiter' as a replacement for customers that didn't want to wait to receive the company's next-generation Neptune line of miners.

Disgruntled customers took to the company’s forum to voice their frustrations, with some reporting what appeared to be broken or incorrectly constructed components, including fans and heat sinks. Others said that some of the ASICs arrived malfunctioning or simply not working.

In response, the company has publicly apologized and announced that it will issue replacement cards to affected buyers.

Said the company in a 28th April blog post:

“So last week we really messed up. We sent out products to our customers which arrived broken, damaged and quite frankly unusable.”

The company went on to outline its next steps, which include a rush order for new cards and the production of an assembly video to assist buyers in fixing their Jupiter units. Additionally, KnCMiner is not requesting that the modified Jupiters be returned.

KnCMiner said:

“We will simply assume that every card was damaged in shipment even if it arrived undamaged. We will send out to every customer who had a 3TH Jupiter or several already arrive, enough cards to replace their entire collection.”

Problematic products

According to KnCMiner, the issue lies in substandard shipping practices during transit. Rough handling may have exacerbated problems with the design that many forum users said was flawed to begin with.

In a series of forum posts, users argued that the interior hard foam inside the ASIC case failed to provide adequate clamping. Another forum member suggested that plastic plugs holding some of the components in place were insufficient for normal operation.

One member on the Bitcoin Talk forum shared pictures of his modified Jupiter rig. The photos show that the thermal paste applied to the ASIC heatsinks had failed. In its statement, the company made no mention of problems with improperly applied heatsinks or other non-card components.

Issues in broader mining ecosystem

KnCMiner is not the only mining product manufacturer that has run into recent problems.

Butterfly Labs has issued a notice saying that it had delayed its 28nm Monarch mining ASIC until April, citing problems with some of the product’s components. At the time, the company said that the delay would last for approximately four weeks.

There aren’t just problems in the hardware sector of the mining world, however.

Last week, Google pulled five apps from its Google Play store after revelations that mining malware had been disguised as downloadable wallpaper apps.

Damaged package image via Shutterstock.