My Idea - An Exercise in Perpetual Motion

Perpetual Motion

For some reason Bitcoin fascinates me, and if you are here reading this and hopefully following it it does you as well. I have no interest in simply purchasing them from one of the wildly fluctuating markets available. I simply feel that the trade of Bitcoins, like a commodity, stock, or other financial asset undermines their intended use as an alternative decentralized unregulated currency. Either way a currency exchange must exist, so be it.

I am mostly interested in the process by which Bitcoins are created. Again I have no interest in investing thousands into hardware specially designed to mine them. However a little here and there wont hurt just to satiate my curiosity. Better yet if the investment provides me with new fun toys that I can use for all sorts of other pursuits I'm hooked.

As a result of my inability and lack of desire to invest a true US dollar fortune I know that I will never possess the proper equipment to potentially profitably mine. This leaves me with playing with the left overs just for the sake of it. 

The idea is to create a mining device that is basically off the grid. In the light of Bitcoin itself being unregulated, a true off the grid device would fit in quite nicely. If I can find a way to produce the electricity without increasing the bill on my apartment I would feel I have succeeded. 

Solar, Wind Power, Hydro Generator, or Hydrogen Fuel Cell? 

Water is in abundance on this planet so with the right equipment I could create hydrogen. This however would be costly and a general pain in the ass. I would also need to contain and compress it, collect it without other gasses getting mixed in and finally acquire equipment to produce electricity from it. Oh, and doing all that would require some other energy source. It seems hydrogen may at best be a suitable battery if you will. A means to store power and create a portable mining rig, but not a fully grid independent one.

Hydro generator may work. All I would need is a gasoline generator sans the motor, gearing, a paddle wheel of sorts, a river, and I could easily produce enough electricity to power a substantial rig. Hey and maybe 100 yards from my window is a huge river with plenty of energy to spare. Issues being all of those things cost a lot of money. I would also need some sharp welding skills to get the armature established to support the generator and connect the gearing and paddles. Additionally I would need a very long extension chord to run back to my apartment and most likely permits to construct such things. I also run the risk of theft of my outdoors equipment. Save this one for another day when I own land with a river running through it and have more funds available to invest in the equipment.

Wind power seems good. Its a no go however as the cost of turbines and the space needed to set them up is prohibiting.

Solar seems to be the winner, but how can I set up a solar array that provides me with enough juice to power a mining rig and takes up less space than the wind idea?

Requirements:

1. Bitcoin Mining Rig - Doesn't need to be the latest and greatest, just needs to run to prove a point.

2. Solar Electricity Generator - Has to be small enough to keep in my apartment or drop off on the roof before work. Preferably attachable to the rig itself.

3. A Container - Must be weather proof and secure. Would be used to house the rig and for mounting of the solar array.

4. Batteries - To power the rig at night and in low light situations.

5. Cooling - These things run hot and I would be placing it in the sun...

6. Overall Portability - As I aim to make this thing off grid and would need to place it in the sun it must be light enough and small enough to move around and remain relatively unnoticeable. 

My Plan

Inspiration

No need for an infinitude of TH/s. I just want to mine off the grid. Truly being off grid is impossible as I would need to connect to the internet at some point but bare with me.

I intend to acquire a Raspberry Pi to function as my controller, or head for the mining array. This little beauty is none too powerful but has proven itself a suitable unit for this task. Couple that with its power conservation friendly design and I think it will be the best option. However for the lack of size and complexity we are left with standard USB I/O so no PCIe expansion here. This is not a huge issue as there are plenty of USB mining options available.


Next up is the mining hardware itself. I'm leaning towards the Bitmain AntMiner U1 or U2, whichever I can get my hands on. The put up decent numbers for my experiment's purposes. Another option would be the ASICMiner Block Erupter however I think these are slower. Bonus is that they are cheap and small and don't require external power unless I plan on using multiple units.


As I am going with the solar idea I would need panels and DC regulators to get the power to a safe and sufficient current. These solar panels would need to be sufficient at providing power to the Raspberry Pi while it mines with one of the above listed ASIC devices. It would also need to provide a little extra to charge batteries that would power the unit at night and in low light conditions. Batteries and Li-Ion/LiPoly Charger - v1.2 should be added to this list. I plan on LiFePo if I can find something suitable. I'm not sure yet which products would be best for this purpose but I've seen specific kits out there that have been used with the Pi.

Inspiration

For a container my current thought is a plastic ammo box like the one I store my ammo in. They are a convenient size, have a handle, are drab and inconspicuous, durable, and can be waterproof. It should have plenty of space for the electronics.


For cooling I may originally use a USB-Powered fan before I finally mount everything in the box. However once inside a container airflow will be an issue. I could compromise the weather proofing and cut holes to mount fans but this could result in water penetration. Conducting the heat outside of the box through solid state means would be ideal. My current thoughts are to use aluminum plate mounted to the heat generating components then directed out of the container and finally transferred to the atmosphere by using some variety of aluminum heat sink . 

Back to perpetual motion.

I had a thought that may make my project differ from those tried by others. The heat issue is a universal one but our brilliant human scientists have long know how to convert heat into electricity. Why would one not attempt to recapture some of this lost energy for use in processing? In a sense this is like turbo charging a car. Use spent waste gas to pump more fuel and air back into the motor for increased power output. In my concept I would take advantage of produced heat, use it to produce electricity and feed that back to the battery array for use again.


Peltier chips will transport heat from one side to the other extremely efficiently with the use of electricity. Seebeck chips however will produce electricity from the heat. The constraints are that I would need to separate the hot side from the cold and that I wold need an extreme difference between the hot temperatures and cold. The ammo box should suffice to separate the temperatures. The aluminum armatures to conduct heat to the hot side of the chip inside of the box. Finally a heat sink outside to release the heat. However the heat sink may not be enough to gain the sharp contrast in temperature of the element. A fan may help but I feel this arrangement may use all the energy it creates to power said fan. Then again this may not be bad as it may dissipate the heat more efficiently than passive systems. I could always throw the entire box in the fridge and run wares to the panels and mount them outside my window if temperature difference was insufficient but then that would start a small tap on my home utility bill.


This is the experiment. Make the mining rig small and portable. Power it with solar, and cool it passively or through solid state electronics namely Seebeck chips and heat sinks.


I'll update as this project becomes more of a reality. Off to shopping for electronics :)

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