Could you in theory ?

[Tiger Maple]

Could you in theory run an antminer S5 direct from a 12 volt battery bank if you had a voltage regulator in between to ensure no voltage spikes? What problems do you forsee? Any workarounds on those problems?


A little about why.

I like to tinker, i knew since last week when i got into it that bitcoin was never going to be a money maker or an investment for me. But that does not stop me from blowing a little money on trying to tinker with things involving bitcoin.

I have recently ordered ONE OF THESE 800 WATTERS from ebay. I picked up a 12V 65 Amp 750 Watt charge controller, a dozen batteries, all the cables. some PCIE cables, and just incase i cant figure a way to direct wire without the PSU in the middle, a 1,000 watt inverter and Gold PSU.

90% of the year i have a steady 6-10 MPH wind 12-16 hours a day in my back yard. I intend to set up a "mine when the wind blows" little rig that converts wind into bitcoin, BEFORE ALL OF YOU START IN, i am well aware that i will never in my lifetime recover the cost of the investment i made alone by running 1 miner when the wind blows. This is simply a tinker fart around project. Last year i made a wind powered desktop PC that seeds movies to the P2P network when the wind blows and it runs smooth 6-12 hours a day without problems. I also make no money from that either.

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[notlist3d]

90% of the year i have a steady 6-10 MPH wind 12-16 hours a day in my back yard. I intend to set up a "mine when the wind blows" little rig that converts wind into bitcoin, BEFORE ALL OF YOU START IN, i am well aware that i will never in my lifetime recover the cost of the investment i made alone by running 1 miner when the wind blows. This is simply a tinker fart around project. Last year i made a wind powered desktop PC that seeds movies to the P2P network when the wind blows and it runs smooth 6-12 hours a day without problems. I also make no money from that either.

I love that line .  You would be one of the first to do this most likely.   I have heard of one other person talk about getting a quote (cannot remember name).  But I personally have not seen one shown and I am here way to often.

I think it is a neat project and I'm sure it can be done.  But the upfront cost keeps most from it.  If you are not worried about it I would think you will have a nice project to show off.  You could always look at current gen to try to get longest running you can.  The S5, SP20 (underclocked), and Avalon 4.1 (underclocked) are all miners if you could get powered with watts in the 500's.   

If you do one of those you might be able to do with a decent amount less then a 1000 watt inverter and ultimately run it longer per day.

[Tiger Maple]

90% of the year i have a steady 6-10 MPH wind 12-16 hours a day in my back yard. I intend to set up a "mine when the wind blows" little rig that converts wind into bitcoin, BEFORE ALL OF YOU START IN, i am well aware that i will never in my lifetime recover the cost of the investment i made alone by running 1 miner when the wind blows. This is simply a tinker fart around project. Last year i made a wind powered desktop PC that seeds movies to the P2P network when the wind blows and it runs smooth 6-12 hours a day without problems. I also make no money from that either.

I love that line .  You would be one of the first to do this most likely.   I have heard of one other person talk about getting a quote (cannot remember name).  But I personally have not seen one shown and I am here way to often.

I think it is a neat project and I'm sure it can be done.  But the upfront cost keeps most from it.  If you are not worried about it I would think you will have a nice project to show off.  You could always look at current gen to try to get longest running you can.  The S5, SP20 (underclocked), and Avalon 4.1 (underclocked) are all miners if you could get powered with watts in the 500's.   

If you do one of those you might be able to do with a decent amount less then a 1000 watt inverter and ultimately run it longer per day.

Thanks for the tips, i haven't looked into the SP20 as the S5 seemed to meet the draw requirements for what i was thinking so i ordered one. I guess i'll make a build thread and maybe make some video once i get it up and going and maybe track the stats for a month just to share how much money i blew and will never get back, lol. all in the name of tinkering.

[notlist3d]

90% of the year i have a steady 6-10 MPH wind 12-16 hours a day in my back yard. I intend to set up a "mine when the wind blows" little rig that converts wind into bitcoin, BEFORE ALL OF YOU START IN, i am well aware that i will never in my lifetime recover the cost of the investment i made alone by running 1 miner when the wind blows. This is simply a tinker fart around project. Last year i made a wind powered desktop PC that seeds movies to the P2P network when the wind blows and it runs smooth 6-12 hours a day without problems. I also make no money from that either.

I love that line .  You would be one of the first to do this most likely.   I have heard of one other person talk about getting a quote (cannot remember name).  But I personally have not seen one shown and I am here way to often.

I think it is a neat project and I'm sure it can be done.  But the upfront cost keeps most from it.  If you are not worried about it I would think you will have a nice project to show off.  You could always look at current gen to try to get longest running you can.  The S5, SP20 (underclocked), and Avalon 4.1 (underclocked) are all miners if you could get powered with watts in the 500's.   

If you do one of those you might be able to do with a decent amount less then a 1000 watt inverter and ultimately run it longer per day.

Thanks for the tips, i haven't looked into the SP20 as the S5 seemed to meet the draw requirements for what i was thinking so i ordered one. I guess i'll make a build thread and maybe make some video once i get it up and going and maybe track the stats for a month just to share how much money i blew and will never get back, lol. all in the name of tinkering.

It is definitely  a good project idea.  If you document the process would be a heck of a post to.   Either one  of those miners you can't go wrong.   

And bitcoin might help pay for a portion of it.  The nice thing is at end even after mining you should be able to hook it up to house and save electrical money.  I wish I could make the investment just I cant justify it right now to do solar or wind.  I envy you on this project

[BG4]

Could you in theory run an antminer S5 direct from a 12 volt battery bank if you had a voltage regulator in between to ensure no voltage spikes? What problems do you forsee? Any workarounds on those problems?


A little about why.

I like to tinker, i knew since last week when i got into it that bitcoin was never going to be a money maker or an investment for me. But that does not stop me from blowing a little money on trying to tinker with things involving bitcoin.

I have recently ordered ONE OF THESE 800 WATTERS from ebay. I picked up a 12V 65 Amp 750 Watt charge controller, a dozen batteries, all the cables. some PCIE cables, and just incase i cant figure a way to direct wire without the PSU in the middle, a 1,000 watt inverter and Gold PSU.

90% of the year i have a steady 6-10 MPH wind 12-16 hours a day in my back yard. I intend to set up a "mine when the wind blows" little rig that converts wind into bitcoin, BEFORE ALL OF YOU START IN, i am well aware that i will never in my lifetime recover the cost of the investment i made alone by running 1 miner when the wind blows. This is simply a tinker fart around project. Last year i made a wind powered desktop PC that seeds movies to the P2P network when the wind blows and it runs smooth 6-12 hours a day without problems. I also make no money from that either.

All my bitcoins I ever mined were solar powered.... the problem I see with your setup is you are converting DC to AC back to DC.... each time this is done , there is a loss.... to be most efficient ...... The only way is a grid-tie setup....

DEEP CYCLE Batterys  need to be charges at 14 to 15 VOLTS... ALSO you don't want to discharge your battery's when there is long periods of no wind.....

WIND POWER is tricky.... the more wind the more volts.. and sometimes that needs to be dumped into a resister if your battery's are charged

I HAVE A SOLAR GENERATOR on my shed....  I have 5 , 120 amp hour batterys..... you said you have a dozen batterys

I'm afraid  you don't have enough amps to keep your battery's charged  and your system/ batterys will die rather quickly


Please give more spacifics on your equipment... so I cam understand your setup and plan...

Also you need to do the math...your usage and power production and your total amp hour battery capacity .  I DONT T THINK IT WILL ADD UP...

PS. My coins were mined on a 7.5Kw grid tie setup on my house...your best bet is to grid-tie your setup and the amount of power you generate ..convert that into a dollar amount and just buy bitcoins....

[Tiger Maple]

All my bitcoins I ever mined were solar powered.... the problem I see with your setup is you are converting DC to AC back to DC.... each time this is done , there is a loss.... to be most efficient ...... The only way is a grid-tie setup....

DEEP CYCLE Batterys  need to be charges at 14 to 15 VOLTS... ALSO you don't want to discharge your battery's when there is long periods of no wind.....

WIND POWER is tricky.... the more wind the more volts.. and sometimes that needs to be dumped into a resister if your battery's are charged

I HAVE A SOLAR GENERATOR on my shed....  I have 5 , 120 amp hour batterys..... you said you have a dozen batterys

I'm afraid  you don't have enough amps to keep your battery's charged  and your system/ batterys will die rather quickly


Please give more spacifics on your equipment... so I cam understand your setup and plan...

Also you need to do the math...your usage and power production and your total amp hour battery capacity .  I DONT T THINK IT WILL ADD UP...

PS. My coins were mined on a 7.5Kw grid tie setup on my house...your best bet is to grid-tie your setup and the amount of power you generate ..convert that into a dollar amount and just buy bitcoins....

I ordered a dozen batteries because i got a good deal at 12 if i ordered that many, i dont have to use them all.

I do not want to grid tie the system as i want it to only mine when the wind blows.

The reason i was asking if anybody had any ideas as to bypassing the inverter so i could go straight 12 v from the batteries with a voltage regulator was to avoid converting dc to ac then back to dc again.

The plan is to set up an S5 so it mines only when it has power from the wind, turn off when the power is gone. To have Bitcoins mined literally from the wind and wind only. Just to say i did it.

[jonnybravo0311]

I think it's a pretty cool idea.  If I understand your ideal situation correctly, you'd like to drive the miner directly from the batteries, without having to convert from the batteries to AC, to plug in a standard PSU which drivers the miners, right?  I assume you'd need to have a way to regulate the output of the batteries to the proper voltages and figure out how to connect up PCI-e connections from there to the miner.

The S5 - at least according to Bitmain specs - pulls 590W from the wall.  At 12V, that's just over 49A.  Again, assuming equal distribution to each connector on the miner, you're looking at just over 12A each cable.

Sounds like a fun project and would be interesting to see if you can pull it off

[BG4]

All my bitcoins I ever mined were solar powered.... the problem I see with your setup is you are converting DC to AC back to DC.... each time this is done , there is a loss.... to be most efficient ...... The only way is a grid-tie setup....

DEEP CYCLE Batterys  need to be charges at 14 to 15 VOLTS... ALSO you don't want to discharge your battery's when there is long periods of no wind.....

WIND POWER is tricky.... the more wind the more volts.. and sometimes that needs to be dumped into a resister if your battery's are charged

I HAVE A SOLAR GENERATOR on my shed....  I have 5 , 120 amp hour batterys..... you said you have a dozen batterys

I'm afraid  you don't have enough amps to keep your battery's charged  and your system/ batterys will die rather quickly


Please give more spacifics on your equipment... so I cam understand your setup and plan...

Also you need to do the math...your usage and power production and your total amp hour battery capacity .  I DONT T THINK IT WILL ADD UP...

PS. My coins were mined on a 7.5Kw grid tie setup on my house...your best bet is to grid-tie your setup and the amount of power you generate ..convert that into a dollar amount and just buy bitcoins....

I ordered a dozen batteries because i got a good deal at 12 if i ordered that many, i dont have to use them all.

I do not want to grid tie the system as i want it to only mine when the wind blows.

The reason i was asking if anybody had any ideas as to bypassing the inverter so i could go straight 12 v from the batteries with a voltage regulator was to avoid converting dc to ac then back to dc again.

The plan is to set up an S5 so it mines only when it has power from the wind, turn off when the power is gone. To have Bitcoins mined literally from the wind and wind only. Just to say i did it.

first.... you need to mine 24/7..mining equipment should be turned on and left on...repeated heating and cooling is not good...when do light bulbs burn out..?...also pools like a constant hashing rate for a constant payout....how will you turn on everything when the wind blows...   second... what type of battery's did you buy... size, type, capacity. .....what is the power usage of an S5...  3rd..How much money have you spent in this wind generator and did you buy it exclusively to mine bitcoins....

With that many batterys... you should have looked into a 24v setup...or higher..

[Tiger Maple]

I ordered a dozen batteries because i got a good deal at 12 if i ordered that many, i dont have to use them all.

I do not want to grid tie the system as i want it to only mine when the wind blows.

The reason i was asking if anybody had any ideas as to bypassing the inverter so i could go straight 12 v from the batteries with a voltage regulator was to avoid converting dc to ac then back to dc again.

The plan is to set up an S5 so it mines only when it has power from the wind, turn off when the power is gone. To have Bitcoins mined literally from the wind and wind only. Just to say i did it.

first.... you need to mine 24/7..mining equipment should be turned on and left on...repeated heating and cooling is not good...when do light bulbs burn out..?...also pools like a constant hashing rate for a constant payout....how will you turn on everything when the wind blows...   second... what type of battery's did you buy... size, type, capacity. .....what is the power usage of an S5...  3rd..How much money have you spent in this wind generator and did you buy it exclusively to mine bitcoins....

With that many batterys... you should have looked into a 24v setup...or higher..
[/quote]

Thanks, i really think your missing the details or really have no clue as to 12v systems. I have a PC pulling 850 watts pretty much non stop going off one of the very same wind turbines that has shut off maybe twice in the past month. I have a steady enough flow of wind to keep the turbine going enough to keep the batteries fully charged.  I have no worries about a 600 Watt appliance turning off and on every 10 minutes.


The question was about methodologies of bypassing the inverter system to run direct 12v with a voltage regulator not about installing a wind turbine system which i  have done many times.

[jonnybravo0311]

Thanks, i really think your missing the details or really have no clue as to 12v systems. I have a PC pulling 850 watts pretty much non stop going off one of the very same wind turbines that has shut off maybe twice in the past month. I have a steady enough flow of wind to keep the turbine going enough to keep the batteries fully charged.  I have no worries about a 600 Watt appliance turning off and on every 10 minutes.


The question was about methodologies of bypassing the inverter system to run direct 12v with a voltage regulator not about installing a wind turbine system which i  have done many times.

That PC is pulling 850W constant draw?  It's doing more than just acting as a seed box then, or you've got the most inefficient hardware imaginable .

Like I wrote before, if you can throw a regulator in there that can transform the battery juice into 12V/49A, and run 4 PCI-e cables out of it, you should be good to go.  After all, your standard single rail PSU does the same thing, except it takes 120/240V AC power as input and converts it to DC 12V.  Good luck with your tinkering, and do make sure to post up a video when it's completed

[BG4]

Just because the pc power supply says 850 watts doesn't mean it draws 850 watts continuely.... and just because you bought an 800 watt windmill doesn't mean it outputs 800 watts continously. ..... based on the specs of the windmill...it will not output 49amps ....at 12 volts....based on the volt/amp curve chart   sure with the correct converter/regulater.....  anything can be hooked up... but the output of the windmill is the limiting factor and will not run a S5 very long.... as for my knowledge of 12v systems..... I'm not the one coming to a bitcoin forum with electrical questions..

.. good luck with your project...

[wh00per]

Could you in theory run an antminer S5 direct from a 12 volt battery bank if you had a voltage regulator in between to ensure no voltage spikes? What problems do you forsee? Any workarounds on those problems?


A little about why.

I like to tinker, i knew since last week when i got into it that bitcoin was never going to be a money maker or an investment for me. But that does not stop me from blowing a little money on trying to tinker with things involving bitcoin.

I have recently ordered ONE OF THESE 800 WATTERS from ebay. I picked up a 12V 65 Amp 750 Watt charge controller, a dozen batteries, all the cables. some PCIE cables, and just incase i cant figure a way to direct wire without the PSU in the middle, a 1,000 watt inverter and Gold PSU.

90% of the year i have a steady 6-10 MPH wind 12-16 hours a day in my back yard. I intend to set up a "mine when the wind blows" little rig that converts wind into bitcoin, BEFORE ALL OF YOU START IN, i am well aware that i will never in my lifetime recover the cost of the investment i made alone by running 1 miner when the wind blows. This is simply a tinker fart around project. Last year i made a wind powered desktop PC that seeds movies to the P2P network when the wind blows and it runs smooth 6-12 hours a day without problems. I also make no money from that either.

You won't get spikes from a battery bank. From a wind turbine you get ups and downs depending how the wind blows. Closer to the ground you get also wind gusts, but the turbine output goes through the controller before it reaches the batteries. You should also have a resistive load, for the times when the batteries are full (overcharging might destroy them sooner than you expect).

You should have some voltage monitoring and current monitoring on the circuit you plan to feed the miner with .. and disconnect it if the batteries are depleted.


http://helium.powerprice.info/temps/ << see the last chart here on what I get in my backyard 10m above the ground.

[Tiger Maple]

You won't get spikes from a battery bank. From a wind turbine you get ups and downs depending how the wind blows. Closer to the ground you get also wind gusts, but the turbine output goes through the controller before it reaches the batteries. You should also have a resistive load, for the times when the batteries are full (overcharging might destroy them sooner than you expect).

You should have some voltage monitoring and current monitoring on the circuit you plan to feed the miner with .. and disconnect it if the batteries are depleted.


http://helium.powerprice.info/temps/ << see the last chart here on what I get in my backyard 10m above the ground.

Thanks Wh00per. Mind sharing what software you are using to get your charting and statistics from for that graph? I got everything up and running on Friday and it has been running smooth so far since Friday but I would like to monitor the input / output and other factors like you have in that graph.

[wh00per]

The charting is done with HIGHCHARTS .. grabbing the values from a MySQL database.

The "wind sensor" is a cup anemometer giving one pulse (reed contact switch close) every turn. The unit is calibrated so that I know how many turns per minute I need for a given wind speed. I count the pulses via a "hardware counter", bought as a kit from here >> http://www.hobby-boards.com/store/products.php?product=Dual-Counter

They have also an USB adapter for the 1-Wire bus. Everything else is a little C coding triggered by CRON every minute. The code looks for the 1Wire device, gets the total number of spins from it, subtracts the previous reading and calculates the corresponding average wind speed to that delta pulse count. Then it stores everything in MySQL.

The other charts are made in a similar way, but this time I read 1Wire temperature sensors around the house.

If you're not a happy coder, there is some software to read the sensors for you, called digitemp >> https://www.digitemp.com/

It was a nice project about 4 years ago .. still working with practically no maintenance. It all started from here >> http://www.maximintegrated.com/en/products/comms/one-wire.html

And by the way .. if you're happy with a solder gun in your hands, maxim-ic offers free samples of their products ..

[Mikestang]

Cool idea, I'll follow along.  I want to do a similar set up with solar at my house, just a small set up to only power miners.

[wh00per]

If you need power meters .. I highly recommend these guys .. http://www.ccontrolsys.com/w/WattNode_Modbus .. US made, calibrated and awesome for their price.

I chart those too .. http://helium.powerprice.info/meter/ there are more than 50 variables you can extract from those (modbus type). If you're happy with the consumption only .. they have a "pulse" version you could connect to the setup in my previous post.


If you run "intelligent" miners like SP30, SP31, SP35 .. you could get the power consumption straight from them, no need for additional hardware >> http://powerprice.info/SPT/graphic.php

[mrhelpful]

This is all in theory lol.

But you would need wattage, and mobile would be your car as an option yes. In theory, but this is just a waste of time thinking about it, just go with what works by joining a mining pool instead of thinking ways to do it.