Bitcoin Forum

Anybody got a solar powered mining rig yet? The ZTEX FPGA rig, at <10W, with a ~1W embedded linux box as a controller and a cell phone as network access sounds doable on a 30-50W solar panel with a good battery.

Being that I've been homeless by choice for several years now, that seems like about the only way I'll be able to mine out of a backpack.

Thoughts?

-Mo

Thanks to your post, I discovered https://www.jottit.com/.

~Bruno~

I always thought that this would work well.

I didn't think much about FPGA mining at first though. Mainly because the profit of FPGA mining will go down.

I think an Atom N450 (which is my most dedicated rig) consumes less than 40 watts when it is undervolted and CPU mining at full speed.  I was able to undervolt the vid to 20 (was previously at 36, and 19 is just too unstable), so it also produces less heat.

Since CPU mining is very slow, I can only get about 1 LTC per day or about 2 bitcoin shares (yes, it is that bad) per day. When doing LTC mining on pooler's cpuminer 2.2, I get 2.39 - 2.43 khash/s. When I tried a Bitcoin CPU miner, I got like 400 khash/s. When using mtrlt's reaper v12, I got about 3.5 khash/s. When using mtrlt's reaper v13 beta 4, I got 5.3 khash/s. But SolidCoin mining is too unprofitable to even think about.

If it's solar power you want then and your some one with non-traditional home, try Power Plastic (http://www.konarka.com/). It could be included as part of your backpack or tent. Pricing is about $1 watt. They come in precut prewired sheets or if you feel all DIY buy a roll and wire it up yourself. This stuff is printed using inkjet printers and is pretty amazing, even converting low angle light sources.

This sounds like a very interesting idea. I've never though about using solar power to power a rig.

Unless you're willing to backpack around with a large battery, I don't think you'll be able to mine at night. That said, check out http://www.raspberrypi.org/ for a sweet little, low-powered pc that you could use to run the FPGA.

i'd go for one of these...
http://www.vanonpower.com/Google-plans-to-Invest-for-Offshore-solar-Hub.html

Not yet, but i'm getting solar installed next week on our house with that exact thought in mind! I'll post up pics once it's in :)

Take a look on this: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=76809.msg854205#msg854205

Phinnaeus Gage: Pretty cool, eh? Simple, free, ad-less (well, I guess, I have an ad blocker) web hosting, for simple web sites.

check_status: Very cool, thanks, I'll look into it. $1/watt is nice!

RedSky: Indeed I will need a pretty significant battery. I'll have to go with Li or NiMH for weight, and I'd like to size it for 24 hours usage, which means at 15W for FPGA, embedded computer, and phone combined I'm looking at a 30Ah 12V requirement.

NiMH D cells seem to run about 10Ah, so 30 of 'em would do the job and weigh about 11lb. Li-ion should weigh less but cost more and require a better charge controller.

I also have an idea in the works using peltiers with my wood-fired cookstove, and that might reduce my battery needs a bit if I'm going to fire it up every night. I'd have to use it to supplement the solar panel on rainy days or if I use the ham radio much, anyway.

And the RaspberryPi is on my list of possibilities for an embedded controller, thanks!

sclegend: Heh, wouldn't I look interesting walking around with a windmill on my backpack? 'Course, it'd be a good place to mount an antenna...hmmm... ;)

kr105: Good link! Solar is cost-ineffective unless you're subsidized. In my case, tho, it's about the only choice unless I want to carry around a truly huge battery and hit the grid up regularly or beef up my wood-fired generator concept considerably.

Anybody got any other ideas for off-the-grid (portable) power?

-Mo

For a battery for your application you can't beat:
http://www.a123systems.com/products-cells-26650-cylindrical-cell.htm

Talk to Bill about A123 packs and a charge controller:
http://www.killacycle.com/
He produces, or did produce, 12v car starter packs, he has access to A123 products even if most can't get them.
He's a geek and if your project intrigues him he might manufacture something specifically for you. I don't think he takes bitcoins though.

Another possible source for batteries and charge controllers:
http://www.batteriesplus.com/

Don't knock lead, you'd be suprised how small a 120AH 12v AGM battery is, maybe 6"x3"x8", probably in the 10 lb. range.

You might even be able to mine on the cell phone.

That's very cool. Thanks for the link.

I wish...it's just an old feature phone, but it's also just the right old feature phone to get cheap unlimited tethering. Don't ask... ;)

But that does raise the question: anybody using a smartphone to feed an FPGA yet? I've been reading the Modular Python Bitcoin Miner thread over at https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=62823.0 so it looks like there's a viable ARM-compatible client (important for my embedded needs if I do this), but I wonder would it work on, say, Android...?

-Mo

This is realy an ingenious idea I hope I could do something like that too

This is a awesome idea. Only problem is money wise for me but I would do this.