Setting up a Bitaxe & NerdQaxe: the complete guide

Setting up a Bitaxe or a NerdQaxe takes less than 15 minutes – and you need neither prior knowledge nor extra software. In this guide we walk the whole way from unboxing to your first accepted share: connect WLAN, open the AxeOS dashboard, enter your mining pool and Bitcoin address, and finally check that everything runs cleanly.

The steps are identical for all devices running the open AxeOS firmware – whether you set up a Bitaxe Gamma, a Nerdaxe Gamma, a NerdQaxe ++ or a NerdOctaxe.

What you need beforehand

• The miner and the matching power supply (it is included with our devices).
• A 2.4 GHz WLAN – important: AxeOS does not work on a pure 5 GHz network.
• Your own Bitcoin address (ideally from a wallet you control yourself).
• A phone or laptop for the initial setup.

1. Connect and power on

Place the miner on a stable, well-ventilated surface and plug in the power supply. After booting, the display – or on devices without a display, the LED – indicates that the device has started. On the very first start the miner opens its own WLAN that you use to configure it.

2. Connect to the setup WLAN

Open the WLAN list on your phone or laptop. A network named after the device appears there – for example Bitaxe_xxxx or NerdQaxe_xxxx. Connect to it. Usually a configuration window (captive portal) opens automatically. If it does not, open 192.168.4.1 in your browser.

• Select your home WLAN from the list there.
• Enter the WLAN password and save.
• The miner reboots and now connects to your normal network.

3. Open the AxeOS dashboard

After the reboot the miner is on your home network and gets its own IP address. On devices with a display it is shown directly (e.g. 192.168.1.42). Type it into your browser and the AxeOS dashboard opens. If you have no display, you find the IP in your router under the connected devices – or use the hostname AxeOS assigns.

Tip: assign a fixed IP for the miner in your router. Then the dashboard always stays reachable at the same address, even after a reboot.

4. Enter mining pool and Bitcoin address

So your miner knows where to work, you enter a pool under Settings. This is the most important step – it also decides whether you mine solo or in a pool. We explain the details in Setting up a Bitaxe mining pool: solo vs. pool. In short:

• Stratum URL & port: the address of your pool (for solo e.g. public-pool.io).
• Stratum user: usually your own Bitcoin address, optionally with a worker name in the format address.worker1.
• Stratum password: usually just x.

Enter your Bitcoin address carefully – in the worst case a typo means a reward you find goes nowhere. Best to copy it directly from your wallet. Many AxeOS versions also allow a second (fallback) pool that takes over if the first one fails – useful for continuous operation.

5. Save and first check

After saving, the miner reconnects to the pool. Now take a look at the dashboard and watch three things:

• Hashrate: after a few minutes it should settle on the typical value of your device (e.g. ~1.3 TH/s for the Bitaxe Gamma).
• Accepted shares: once numbers start counting up here, your miner is working correctly with the pool.
• Temperature: it should stay in the green range. If it gets too high, provide more fresh air or upgrade the cooling.

6. Frequency and voltage – observe first, then tune

AxeOS ships with sensible default values. First let the miner run like that for a few hours and watch hashrate, temperature and efficiency (J/TH). Only then is careful optimization in small steps worthwhile. How to do that safely, without provoking crashes, is shown in our guide AxeOS tuning: setting frequency & voltage correctly.

Rule of thumb: better 2 °C cooler and stable than 5 % more hashrate with crashes. A miner that keeps running achieves more than one that constantly reboots.

Common stumbling blocks

• No setup WLAN visible? Briefly unplug the device and start it again.
• Dashboard not reachable? Check that you are on the same network as the miner (not on the guest WLAN).
• No accepted shares? Usually there is a typo in the stratum URL or the address – more solutions in our Bitaxe troubleshooting.

Done – you are mining live

As soon as accepted shares appear in the dashboard, you are actively taking part in the Bitcoin network. From here, mining is pleasantly low-maintenance: an occasional glance at temperature and hashrate is enough. If you want to go deeper, our big guide to Bitcoin mining at home is the next logical step. And if something gets stuck during setup, we are happy to help – usually within 24 hours.