I first heard about Bitcoin in early 2013 and decided the best way to learn about it would be to start mining. If you don’t know anything about Bitcoin, check out the video below and bitcoin.org for more.

I ordered the Butterfly Labs 5 GH/s Miner in July of 2013 and actually received it in December 2013, ASIC mining was catching on like wildfire and they had a decent backlog of orders to fulfill. The most similar product they offer currently is a 10 GH/s miner. The miner connects as a peripheral via USB, so I started mining with it connected to my Windows 7 lap top using the EasyMiner Software. This reliance on my lap top to “drive” the miner wasn’t optimal, so I found a Linux based alternative that runs on Raspberry Pi called MinePeon. Now I had a reliable hardware setup that required little maintenance and more importantly my lap top was free to roam.

The only items I didn’t purchase online were the supplies for soldering and wiring. I went with the ECG 20 Watt Miniature Corded Soldering Iron, Sn60/Pb40 Solder and 22AWG Solid Copper Wire.

With all the components and tools needed, the first step was assembling the Adafruit Prototyping Pi Plate Kit following these instructions. Once complete I built the circuit for the IR receiver and transmitter. With the assembly complete the Prototyping Pi Plate connects to the Raspberry Pi via the GPIO pins. In addition to referencing the circuit diagram these high resolution pictures from alexba.in were very useful.