Do you see the grin on that dudely face? Yep, I am happy because the first ASIC miner for the new soon-to-be solar powered mining farm has arrived! Let me introduce you to the Goldshell Mini DOGE III. This miner is considered a 'home miner' because of it's lower power draw. It's the perfect mix of power efficiency, hashrate, and earnings for the project I am trying to build.
The idea now, after a conversation with my power company, that I will be building out modular setups that will run each miner. So I will be getting about 600W of solar, a good MPPT charge controller, 600W inverter, 100AH lithium deep cycle batter, and an automatic transfer switch for each unit I buy. What the transfer switch will do is let me hook the whole unit into my house. So while the battery has charge and the sun is out, the machine will work on the solar, but when it's dark or it's a cloudy day, it will automatically switch to my house power, at which time I will change it from full power to low power mode because my electricity is pretty expensive.
Anyway, let's unbox this thing!
When you open the Mini DOGE III box, you are greeted with some fun stickers that I will be finding a home for somewhere as I am kind of a sticker whore, lol. What can I say, I like stickers, haha.
Once you take the top layer of foam off, you get to see the side of the miner, which is decorated with the same animated ASIC dude that is on the stickers. Wow, such DOGE fun! I really think they did a good job leaning into the meme of it all. But remember, this doesn't just mine Dogecoin, it also merge mines Litecoin and others. So depending on the mining pool you are using, you may be earning a few coins at once. The only 2 I care about are DOGE and LTC. The rest are forked memechains that aren't worth anything and are not easily exchanged.
Anyway, back to the unboxing! When you pull the miner out of the box, it gives you some instructions on how to plug it in if you are using the PSU splitters vs a modular PSU.
Then after you take off the instructions, you will see the front side of the miner that has the plugs for the PSU as well as the ethernet port.
Speaking of PSU, this model didn't come with one, so I went out to eBay and found an older Bitmain PSU so that I can use it to connect multiple miners while I eventually grow the solar array, or until I add a miner that needs a big PSU like that, such as an older Bitmain L3+, but we'll see how it will all work out. I also have a 750W computer PSU somewhere in the shop that is packed up in a box somewhere. If I find that I will probably put it in place instead. Regardless, I ended up with a good deal on a hefty PSU.
The backside of the miner is open without any fans, so I am imagining that the 2 fans on the front side create enough airflow to keep it all cool. It's also supposed to be much quieter than a traditional ASIC miner, only running at 35db, so I won't need a muffler like I would on an L3+.
So now, it's time to find a home for the mining rigs. I am considering where I am also going to be bringing in the cables from the solar array so I can have it all organized and looking nice for good function and safety considering I am dealing with high voltage electricity.
That is the next big purchase will be the solar panels I need to power this rig! If all works out and I can pay it down fast enough with mining and Hive rewards, then I will be looking to expand the farm! I may end up looking at some older models of this miner to keep the low power efficiency and not have to completely break the bank like I did on this one... But it's worth it!
Until next time...
Be cool, be real, and always abide with you my dudes!
