Gizmo Miner: Efficient 5v-9v Bitcoin Mining, Solar Powered

Gizmo Miner. Runs on 5v-9v. Super power-efficient. Focused on solar energy. It's a Bitcoin miner. So, the GithubGizmoMiner Discord is all archived now. And seriously, just avoid the OSMU discord. Why? Check it out here. I've been lurking around this forum for over a decade. It’s been a goldmine for info and entertainment. I always thought it was cool you could just browse without signing up. I’m pretty introverted, so it took a lot to finally create an account and share my thoughts. I remember back in the day when saying "I mine bitcoin" felt risky, like attracting unwanted attention for your seed phrase. It was during the Silk Road days, and Bitcoin was seen as this shady thing. Many folks didn’t want that image in their professional lives. That’s why I kept my passion for Bitcoin under wraps. People tend to fear what they don’t get. Back then, not many people understood it. I finally started to shake off that fear recently. I was just a nerd who loved the idea of Bitcoin and tinkering with gadgets. Now that Bitcoin's more mainstream and a lot of that stigma has faded, it's wild to see folks rocking Bitcoin tees. It used to feel risky to wear one in public. Honestly, one of my biggest regrets is not getting more involved in the Bitcoin community back in the day. Bitcoin has played a massive role in my life, and I really want to be an active participant now.

waited a decade to post something like this meme. Used to be every single thing like this post. Would have this meme  . We are all getting old now and no one really uses these funny images anymore.

Um, new account asking for money with a long term before getting anything back. Sorry, but that's a high risk that no one should take. It's also common here on bitcoin talk and has always been fake.

I am happy that you were so inspired by the bitaxe project!! I really hope that by keeping this Bitcoin mining hardware (and firmware) open source we can start a chain reaction of development (again) in this space! I’m also pretty jealous that you are going to be working on this full time. That’s going to be awesome! If I could find a way to make that work, I’d do it in a heartbeat. As for PCB printers, what models are you looking at? I used the Voltera several years ago and decided it wasn’t quite there for prototyping with fine pitch SMD parts (everything these days). LFG!!

Solar and btc mining don’t mix well anymore. That’s because bitcoin is now at a state of being an energy consuming godzilla. You can’t satisfy this beast with solar energy anymore. It has become so big, only the most efficient ASICS can please it, and these ASICS still consume lots of powa. People still run their old miners on solar but that don’t mean they are mining “anything”

I disagree. Solar is a great way to power bitcoin mining ASICs. Especially smaller rigs, like we're talking about here.

Thank you for your warm welcome. Means a lot. Was so nervous people would be less than encouraging. Very excited to dig in and dedicate myself to this Grassroots initiative. Lot’s to learn. Focusing on your Github. The information is clear and easy to understand.  Now it is time for myself to put in some work and start contributing to the knowledge pool. Have a couple ideas that are being put together. Got the Github page up. Right now.. Studying none stop. The information on these chips is so obscure. Obscure by design my guess is.   Funny you mentioned the Voltera. This is the exact pcb printer watching. VOLTERA V-ONE PCB PRINTER (1000329) https://www.ebay.com/itm/195204066700 .Seems to be reasonably priced. This the model you have worked with? Any good? Recommendation for printers that would functions for rapid prototyping? Already started pulling ASIC chips from my  “S9, S17 and S19” hashboards today. Gathering some of the smaller parts for the next stages of prototypes.

The Voltera V-One specs are; All of the Bitmain ASICs that I have seen are 0.48mm pin pitch. So that's going to be tough. You are also limited to only double sided boards. You can do plated holes and vias with those rivets, but they are huge and a PITA to install. I had access to a very fancy LPKF PCB mill at an old job, and it was usually more trouble than it was worth -- and that had automatic tool changes for different drills. I think you could bang out some quick prototypes with the Voltera, but once you want to do anything remotely complicated you'll need 4 layer professional boards. JLCPCB, Seeed and other shops in China are soooo cheap for getting PCBs and stencils. Shipping takes a while, but if you setup a full pipeline of boards coming in, you'll have plenty to keep you busy. For small run protos I do like to assemble the boards myself. I think you'd have more benefit from investing in a laser cutter to make stencils, a stencil printer and a reflow oven. maybe even get a pick-n-place machine! (check out the LumenPnP) Maybe this is because I'm a hardware guy, but I feel like the real time consuming part is the software and firmware!

Your insight is priceless. Thank you for that. Going to be looking into compiling a new list that includes laser cutter ,stencil printer ,reflow oven and LumenPnP. That  LumenPnP so beyond cool. Watched 30+ videos last night of the Lumenpnp. Speechless on how amazing it is. Your experience in what we need full time. Others like you. If I was to solve a bitcoin block today. That would be my first order of business. I am acquiring a lot of new skill sets. These same skill-sets you already are well versed. What this grassroots imitative really needs is you working on this  9-5 monday-friday. This is something as a community we need to figure out how to make possible. Many people have walked away from Bitcoin with great wealth. They contributed nothing to the development or bettering the space in general.  They took and gave nothing.  We need to figure out a way that people like you. Who do the work and are passionate about bitcoin centered development. People who offer the work up free of charge and open source can work on this stuff full time. Made a development discord . We can all work on these things in real time

I can't comment on the laser cutter, since I don't have one. I recently upgraded my reflow oven from an actual toaster oven to this one; https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256803854956169.html and I like it so far. UI is kinda crap, but it does reflow nicely once you figure it out. I have this stencil printer and it seems to work well if you order framed stencils; https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804119257469.html LumenPnP looks really cool. I really like his videos and appreciate the enthusiasm. I wish it could do 0402. Maybe soon?

LumenPnP team look very ambitious. The reflow oven and stencil printer look amazing. I am going to start out smaller with some basic equipment most likely and then scale up.  Going to write LumenPnP team and ask about 0402.. Would be great to get a couple of their team members bitten by the bitcoin mining bug

Glad to be back! I got sick, got better, and now I'm ready to make a difference. Make this life mean something. Inspire the next generation of Bitcoin miners and torchbearers of Bitcoin.

I have officially withdrawn my endorsement of the OSMU, providing detailed explanations here, https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5523134.0

Read your reasons - and agree with - what you talked about. Marketing & money from selling their mining TOYS is definitely their focus, not supporting the open source mining community. The sole reason PublicPool exists is because most other pools will not accept running the original NerdMiner from them because of the extremely low hash rate. At least the org BitAxe are (barely) fast enough to get around that.

In the end, every scam gets exposed. What makes this one especially painful is that it was wrapped in the appearance of doing good. But behind the scenes, it was just a calculated move, a power play to manipulate people, extract donations, and funnel money into their own pockets and a shady slush fund. https://x.com/GoBrrr_me/status/1954545717378269256

Created a twitter account https://x.com/GizmoMiner64089