Setting up a Bitaxe & NerdQaxe: the complete guide

Setting up a Bitaxe or a NerdQaxe takes about 15 minutes, and you need neither prior knowledge nor extra software. This guide covers the whole way from unboxing to your first accepted share: connect to WiFi, open the dashboard, enter your mining pool and Bitcoin address, and finally check that everything runs cleanly.

The steps are the same on every device with open firmware: AxeOS on the Bitaxe Gamma, NerdOS (the Nerdaxe fork of AxeOS) on the Nerdaxe Gamma, the NerdQaxe ++ and the NerdOctaxe.

What you need beforehand

• The miner and the matching power supply (it is included with our devices).
• A 2.4 GHz WiFi network. The miners do not connect to a pure 5 GHz network.
• Your own Bitcoin address, ideally from a wallet you control yourself.
• A phone or laptop for the initial setup.

Which power supply does my model need?

This is the most common stumbling block of all, and it happens before the actual setup. A device that reboots during operation or collapses under load almost never has a firmware problem. It is getting too little power:

• 5V: Bitaxe Gamma 601 (1 ASIC, ~15 to 18 W) and Gamma Copper Pro (1 ASIC, ~22 W) run through the barrel jack of the included 5V/6A supply. Their USB-C port is only for flashing and the serial console.
• Also 5V: Nerdaxe Gamma (1 ASIC, ~15 W) with 5V / 6A (30 W) via a barrel jack (2.5/5.5 mm).
• 12V: Bitaxe GT 801 (~35 to 43 W, XT30 connector on its own supply, USB-C for the serial connection only), Bitaxe Supra Hex 702 (12V / 10A, ~90 W) and Nerdaxe Gaia (12V, ~25 W). A 5V supply does nothing here; the device will not start at all.
• 12V, high current: NerdQaxe ++ (12V / 10A, ~80 W), NerdOctaxe (12V / 20A, ~200 W) and NerdOctaxe Hydro (12V / 20A, ~220 W), some with XT30 or XT60 connectors instead of a barrel jack.

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 the LED on devices without a display) shows that the device has started. On the very first start the miner opens its own WiFi network, which you use to configure it.

2. Connect to the setup WiFi

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

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

3. Open the dashboard

After the reboot the miner is on your home network with its own IP address. Devices with a display show it directly (e.g. 192.168.1.42). Type it into your browser and the dashboard opens. Without a display, look for the IP in your router’s list of connected devices, or use the hostname AxeOS assigns.

Tip: give the miner a fixed IP in your router. The dashboard then stays at the same address, even after a reboot.

4. Enter mining pool and Bitcoin address

Your miner needs to know where to work, so you enter a pool under Settings. This is the most important step, because it also decides whether you mine solo or in a pool. The details are in Setting up a Bitaxe mining pool: solo vs. pool. The three fields:

• 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. A typo can mean that a reward you find goes nowhere, so copy it directly from your wallet. Many AxeOS and NerdOS versions also accept a second (fallback) pool that takes over if the first one fails, which is useful for continuous operation.

5. Save and first check

After saving, the miner reconnects to the pool. Now look at the dashboard and watch these values:

• 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 this number starts counting up, your miner is working correctly with the pool.
• Temperature: it should stay in the green range. If it climbs too high, give the miner more fresh air or upgrade the cooling.

6. Frequency and voltage: observe first, then tune

Both firmwares ship with sensible default values. Let the miner run on them for a few hours and watch hashrate, temperature and efficiency (J/TH). Only then is careful optimisation in small steps worth it. How to do that safely, without provoking crashes, is covered in AxeOS tuning: setting frequency & voltage correctly.

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

The right firmware variant (important for updates)

The firmware is built per board, so there is no single file for all devices. On a Bitaxe the board number is in the product name: Gamma 601 → factory-601, GT 801 → factory-801, Supra Hex 702 → factory-702. The Gamma Copper Pro uses the same 601 board as the Gamma, but OSM-OS gives it its own factory image at 750 MHz (factory-copperzilla). On the Nerdaxe line, which runs NerdOS, the model name is part of the filename (e.g. NerdQAxe++).

On a Bitaxe you will find your model in AxeOS under Settings → Device Model. For updates we recommend our firmware flasher: connect via USB, pick your model, and it loads the correct variant for you.

What the display tells you

Nerdaxe devices have a large 1.9" display, the Bitaxe Gamma a small OLED. Both show the same core values, so you can tell at a glance whether everything is running without opening the browser:

• Hashrate (e.g. 1.28 TH/s or 4185 GH/s): it normally fluctuates by a few percent. If it stays well below the datasheet value, heat is usually the cause.
• Temperature: below roughly 70 °C is healthy. If it runs hotter, improve the airflow, give the device more space or add a cooling upgrade.
• Accepted shares: the most important number. It must rise. If it does, your miner is working correctly for you.
• Best difficulty: your best hit so far. Solo miners like to track this number; it grows over weeks.

Common stumbling blocks

• No setup WiFi visible? Unplug the device briefly and start it again.
• Dashboard not reachable? Check that you are on the same network as the miner (not on the guest WiFi).
• No accepted shares? Usually there is a typo in the stratum URL or the address. More fixes are in our Bitaxe troubleshooting guide.

Once shares come in, you are mining

As soon as accepted shares appear in the dashboard, you are taking part in the Bitcoin network. From here on, mining needs little attention: an occasional look at temperature and hashrate is enough. What the miner costs to run around the clock and where it is best placed is covered on the home mining page. And if something gets stuck during setup, we are happy to help, usually within 24 hours.