NerdMiner Setup Guide

You need the miner, a USB-C power source, a phone or computer and a Bitcoin address. No software is installed: the NerdMiner opens a small Wi-Fi network, you enter your settings on a page in the browser, and it starts hashing. Keep your Wi-Fi password and your Bitcoin address ready before you plug it in, then the whole setup takes one pass.

Which NerdMiner is this guide for

This guide is written for the NerdMiner V4 we sell, formerly sold as NerdMiner V2 Pro: the current NerdMiner V2 board with a 1.9-inch colour display in a 3D printed case, about 1 W over USB-C and around 250 KH/s with current firmware. Other NerdMiner V2 boards running the same firmware follow the same steps. If your board was sold under a different name, check that it shows a network called NerdMinerAP on start; then this guide applies as well. The NerdMiner category lists the V4 in every case colour.

Step-by-step setup

1. Power up your NerdMiner

Connect the USB-C cable to the NerdMiner and to a power source: a USB port on your computer or a USB wall adapter. The miner draws about 1 W, so any USB port will do. If the cable is missing or damaged, a spare power cable is in the shop. After a moment the display shows "Waiting config" with a QR code and the name of the setup network.

2. Connect to the NerdMinerAP network

With the QR code: scan the QR code on the NerdMiner display with your phone camera. The phone joins the NerdMinerAP network and you can jump to step 3.

By hand: open the Wi-Fi settings on your phone or computer, select the network NerdMinerAP and enter the password MineYourCoins.

3. Open the setup page

Most phones open the setup page on their own as soon as they join NerdMinerAP. If nothing opens, enter 192.168.4.1 in the address bar of the browser. The page is called WiFiManager and has four buttons: Configure Wi-Fi, Info, Exit and Update.

4. Enter Wi-Fi, pool and Bitcoin address

Tap Configure Wi-Fi. The form has these fields:

• SSID: pick your home Wi-Fi from the list or type its name. It must be a 2.4 GHz network.
• Password: the password of that network. Capital letters count; tick "Show Password" to check it.
• Pool url and Pool port: preset to public-pool.io and 21496, a solo pool. Leave both as they are unless you have a reason to change them.
• Your BTC address: the Bitcoin address that receives the block reward. Use an address from a wallet you control, ideally a SegWit address starting with bc1q. Not a deposit address from an exchange.
• TimeZone from UTC: your time zone offset, so that the clock on the display is right.

The preset pool and port are all a first setup needs. Pool address format, other solo pools, switching later and what to check when the miner stays at 0 KH/s are on our page NerdMiner pool settings.

5. Save

Tap Save. The NerdMiner stores the settings, leaves the setup mode and connects to your Wi-Fi. Reconnect your phone to your normal Wi-Fi if it does not do so by itself.

6. Read the display

After a moment the main screen appears. Expect around 250 KH/s with current firmware, version 1.8.1 or newer; older firmware shows well under 100 KH/s, and an update brings the higher rate. The screen also shows the time, so a correct time zone is an easy check that the settings were saved.

What the display shows

• KH/s: the hashrate, around 250 KH/s on a V4.
• Block templates: how many new block templates the pool has sent. It counts up every few minutes and is the best sign that the pool connection works.
• Best difficulty: the highest difficulty share the miner has found so far. A block needs a share whose difficulty reaches the current network difficulty.
• 32Bits shares: shares with at least 32 leading zero bits that the pool has accepted.
• Valid blocks: blocks found. This stays at 0 for almost every NerdMiner ever built, and that is the honest expectation.
• Million hashes and the uptime counter: total work since the last power on.

Wi-Fi networks with a login page (university, hotel, office)

Networks that open a login page in the browser do not work: the NerdMiner has no browser to complete that login, and it needs a 2.4 GHz network with a plain password. Use a phone hotspot or a small travel router with its own password; the miner then connects to that. The data use of a NerdMiner is tiny, so a hotspot is a lasting solution, not just a workaround.

Change the pool or Wi-Fi later

All settings live on the same setup page you used in step 4. To open it again with your current values, unplug the miner, keep the top button pressed and plug it back in; which button that is, is shown under "How to reset a NerdMiner" below. The miner opens NerdMinerAP: change the pool, the port, the Bitcoin address or the Wi-Fi network, and save. The miner restarts with the new values. If you use another solo pool, copy its address and port exactly; a wrong pool address is the most common reason a NerdMiner looks connected but does not mine. Every field and the switch step by step: NerdMiner pool settings.

How to reset a NerdMiner

A reset deletes the Wi-Fi, pool and Bitcoin address stored on the miner, clears its counters and restarts it. Afterwards it opens the NerdMinerAP network as on the first start, and you set it up again from step 2. Note your pool, port and Bitcoin address before you start.

1. Hold the NerdMiner so that the USB-C port points to the right. The two buttons are then at the left end, one at the top and one at the bottom.
2. Press the top button and keep it pressed for five seconds.
3. The miner restarts without settings. When the display shows the setup screen with the QR code, continue with step 2 of this guide.

Only want to change a setting? Then you do not need a reset. Unplug the miner, keep the top button pressed and plug it back in: it opens NerdMinerAP with your current settings, and you only change what you need.

Held the other way round, with the USB-C port on the left, top and bottom swap: the reset button is then the lower one. These are the functions of the official NerdMiner firmware; on NerdMiner boards with a single button, holding that button for five seconds resets the settings in the same way.

Mine to your own node

A NerdMiner does not need a full node; it mines through a solo pool. If you run a LiquidBox V5 Bitcoin node with a pool app, enter the local pool address and port of your node instead of public-pool.io, and the miner works against your own node without a third party in between.

NM Miner (NMMiner): setup and pool URL

NM Miner, also written NMMiner, is a separate firmware for ESP32 boards from another maker. It is not the NerdMiner firmware. Its maker describes it as closed source, and boards you flash yourself need a paid licence for each device. The NerdMiner firmware on our NerdMiner V4 is open source under the MIT licence and needs no licence key. To tell them apart: a NerdMiner opens the network NerdMinerAP, an NM Miner opens nmap-2.4g. We are not linked to the maker and have not tested NM Miner devices; the steps below follow the maker's documentation.

1. Power the miner. On first start, or when it cannot reach its saved Wi-Fi within about 15 seconds, it opens the network nmap-2.4g. The maker lists this network as open; some screens show the password 12345678.
2. Join nmap-2.4g. The setup page usually opens by itself; otherwise open 192.168.4.1 in a browser.
3. Enter your 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi and its password.
4. Pool: NM Miner takes the whole pool address in one field, including stratum+tcp:// and the port, for example stratum+tcp://public-pool.io:21496. Out of the box it points to the maker's own solo pool, stratum+tcp://solobtc.nmminer.com:3333, with a second pool of the maker as fallback.
5. Replace the preset Bitcoin address with one from your own wallet, in every address field, primary and fallback. According to the maker, every fresh device ships with the same demo address, and some firmware versions mine to a fallback address when your pool cannot be reached.
6. Tap Save and leave the miner powered for 15 seconds while it restarts.

To change the pool later, hold the BOOT button on one-button boards, the USER button on two-button boards, or the screen for ten seconds on touch boards, then join nmap-2.4g again.

Hashrate figures for NM Miner come from its maker and its sellers. After a few hours, enter your Bitcoin address on the website of your pool: the rate shown there is calculated from the shares the pool has accepted.

Common problems

Stuck on NerdMinerAP

The miner keeps showing the setup screen after you saved. It could not join your Wi-Fi: the password was typed wrong, the network is 5 GHz only, or it needs a login page. Join NerdMinerAP again, tap Configure Wi-Fi, check the network name and type the password again with "Show Password" ticked.

0 KH/s or no block templates

The miner is on your Wi-Fi but the hashrate stays at 0 or the block template counter does not move. Almost always the pool url or the pool port is wrong. Open the setup page, compare both with the preset values and save again. Also check that your network does not block outgoing connections on the pool port.

Wi-Fi connects but no shares

A share needs a hash above the pool difficulty, and at 250 KH/s that takes a while. Give the miner ten minutes. If block templates count up, the connection is fine. On the pool website, enter your Bitcoin address and you see the miner reporting in.

How to find the NerdMiner IP address

You rarely need it: the NerdMiner is set up through the temporary NerdMinerAP page, not through a dashboard at its own address. If you want the address anyway, look in the device list of your router; the miner appears there like any phone or laptop.

Wrong hashrate on the display

The V4 hashes at around 250 KH/s with firmware 1.8.1 or newer; older firmware shows well under 100 KH/s, so update first if your value is far lower. Right after the start it is still settling, so read it after a few minutes of uptime. A value that is far off after ten minutes is worth a message to us.

Firmware update

The NerdMiner firmware is an open-source project; new releases and the flashing tool are published on the project page on GitHub. Flashing happens over the USB-C port from a computer. Note your pool, port and Bitcoin address before you flash so that you can enter them again afterwards.

Good to know

• Block rewards: in the rare event that your NerdMiner finds a valid block, the full block reward goes to the Bitcoin address you entered; the preset pool currently charges no fee.
• Several miners: you can enter the same Bitcoin address on every NerdMiner.
• Support: anything unclear? Write to us on Telegram or through the contact form. A photo of the display helps.

Compare hashrate and power of every miner in the miner comparison; what a home miner can realistically win is in the solo mining guide.