There was a time when I was really into Bitcoin mining. I had a bunch of GPUs running and it was a fun hobby that surprisingly made me a little money as well. It was a fun experiment but I eventually ran out of time to play around with it, and it was a good time to sell everything, so that is what I did. I kept a few of the small ASIC block erupters. Fast forward 3-4 years, Bitcoin is in the news again $4000 US for 1BTC. Crazy! So I made this fun little device that will never actually make money(Unless you are lucky!) It is a conversation starter.

Step 1: Watch the Video!

Step 2: Get the Parts!

You don't need many parts for this, the Block Erupters could be hard to find.

Raspberry Pi 3 B
Block Erupter or other ASIC for Bitcoin Mining
3D Printed Files
Small Fan(recommended not needed)
8 Neopixel Strip(or more or less if you want, adjust python script accordingly)
Power Supply good enough for 6W at 5V
Plastic threading screws M2.26 for pi mounting
Zip Ties
White paint if using non white filament
Shrink tube(for fan)

Tools

3D printer
Screw driver for mounting
Jumpers to cut
Soldering Iron(for fan)

Step 3: 3D Print the Body!

The files are up on Thingiverse here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2494568

Pretty easy to print, any settings should work.

Step 4: Paint the Back White(if Its Not White)

I was using black filament, so I decided to paint the part that reflects the light, white.

Step 5: Assemble the Body With Pi.

Pi Mounts to the back. I use Torx screws, M2.26, plastic threading.

Plug in the block erupter. Hook up the fan if you are using one.

Step 6: Connect the Wiring.

I am powering everything from a 5V power supply including the Pi. Some people do not recommend this because it bypasses a fuse. You can choose your method of powering.

The Neopixels also need 5V, and then connect the data line to GPIO18 of the Pi.

Step 7: Program the Pi to Mine.

You will need to get CGMiner working. Here is the method that worked for me, you may require more knowledge in cgminer, lots of documentation online. For this to work you need to solo mine, I use NiceHash. https://solo.nicehash.com/

This was found here and updated by me: https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t...

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libusb-1.0-0-dev libusb-1.0-0 libcurl4-openssl-dev libncurses5-dev libudev-dev
wget http://ck.kolivas.org/apps/cgminer/cgminer-4.10.0.tar.bz2
tar xvf cgminer-4.10.0.tar.bz2
cd cgminer-4.10.0
./configure –enable-icarus
sudo make install
sudo apt-get install screen
screen -S miner
cd cgminer-4.10.0
sudo cgminer

Step 8: Run the Programs.

To get the Neopixels working follow this tutorial: https://learn.adafruit.com/neopixels-on-raspberry-...

To get them working with a Pi 2 and 3 you need to disable the soundcard driver, follow this: https://www.instructables.com/id/Disable-the-Built-...

I wrote a python script to run along side cgminer to work the LEDs and see if you have won or not, you can download it here: https://github.com/IdleHandsProject/BTCLotto

You need to get CGminer working and running, then run the btclotto.py program. Instructions are inside the program. btclotto.py takes the information from CGMiner so they both need to be running to have the lights displaying anything.