As part of my journey to heat my house and pool (to come), I have a lot of studies to do. First I had to start learning how to mine at all. For that I used an S9 ASIC and the help of this video:
After feeling comfortanble with what is to mine (not profitably at all, but still…), I went on to the next step in my journey — learning how to do immersion mining. For that I had to order some equipment.
List of the things I needed for immersion
S19PRO ASIC from @kaboomracks
C1 immersion kit from @FogHashing
Coolant from @The_SLIC_Expert
2 UPSes, 2 electric meters, local cables,
micro SD card, plastic container, funnel,
teflon and a screwdriver from local shops.
Immersion firmware: After getting everything I needed I used the next video to flash Braiins firmware on the SD card. For this, the SD card has to be max 16GB.
Firmwares like Braiins has immersion mode (among other optional settings) that lets the ASIC continue running even when the fans are removed from the device.
Cleaning and Testing ASIC: Before immersion and taking off the fans it’s good to check the ASIC is working properly. If it’s brand new, it’s important to check that evreything is OK before we make the warranty irrelevant. If it’s second hand, it must be cleaned properly first.
If you need to clean your ASIC, you could use this thread as a guidance:
Taking the fans off: because I have no background at all in building stuff or dealing with hardware, I was nervous to take a ~$6K ASIC and start taking it apart. After searching for videos on how to do it I f ound the courage and eventually it wasn’t that hard.
I used this video to learn what I’m about to do. This helped me for the main ASIC fans.
For the PSU fans I needed to use this video (around 03:30 minutes) as well:
The PSU was a bit more delicate and I needed to pay more attention about how to take the case off and on, pull the cables a bit harder and make sure I remember where all the different screws were supposed to go back to.
Immersion kit installation: I used a ready made solution for this. The model is called C1 by a company called FogHashing. Pouring the special liquid on the ASIC was a lot of fun. When I first saw it, it looked very unnatural but after watching many people do it online by the time I got to do it myself it felt like home.
At first I made a mistake putting the ASIC on the side. I was strange that way, and I couldn’t figure out why it’s so hard to get the cables connected.
Fortunately enough, I published a video of my installation on Twitter so FogHashing crew could see my mistake. They wrote me to correct it and it made everything much more reasonable. Now I know better.
That way the heat has where to flow and its easy to connect the cables. After all was connected and running all I had to do is choose immersion mode on Braiins dashboard, click the C1 button to start the miner running and let it hash.
Next steps: After learning how to start mining and feeling comfortable with basic immersion, I plan to use an S9 as a home heater next winter. For that step I will have to learn how to clean the miner, use pumps and heat exchanger and a radiator — a very good preparation for the bigger project I hope to start next year.