Your BitAxe deserves a dedicated display.
The BitAxe is the world's first fully open-source Bitcoin ASIC miner — a tiny device that solo-mines BTC at 500 GH/s to 3+ TH/s, drawing just 12–30 W from a USB-C plug. It won't compete with warehouse-scale mining farms, but that was never the point. BitAxe is about sovereignty, decentralization, and the thrill of lottery mining: for a few dollars a month in electricity, you hold a ticket to the next ~$200 K+ block reward. And yes — solo BitAxe miners have already found multiple blocks.
So what do you stare at while the lottery runs 24/7?
This project turns the NM-TV-154 — a $6 ESP32 cube with a 1.54" IPS display — into a dedicated, always-on mining dashboard for your BitAxe. Five info-packed screens, live-updating every 5 seconds, navigable with a single touch. Hashrate, temperatures, shares, pool info, network stats — all at a glance, no browser tabs needed. And if you ever hit a block, a full-screen blinking alert makes sure you won't miss the moment.
| BitAxe miner | This dashboard | |
|---|---|---|
| Does | Solo-mines Bitcoin (lottery-style) | Shows live mining stats |
| Power | 12–30 W | ~0.8 W |
| Cost | $50–200 | ~$6 |
| Together | The perfect open-source solo mining setup on your desk |
- Five dashboard screens — touch button cycles through them with slide animations and page-dot indicators:
- Main — hashrate (GH/s or TH/s) with color-coded bar, best difficulty, shares
- Performance — detailed hashrate stats, power, efficiency
- Thermal — ASIC + VR temperatures (°C), fan speed, voltage, red warnings
- Mining — accepted/rejected shares, best difficulty (K/M/G/T), pool info
- Network — stratum URL, worker name, WiFi signal, hostname, uptime, IP, firmware
- Block found overlay — full-screen blinking alert when a new block is found, dismissable by touch
- Auto-refresh — configurable poll interval (default 5 s)
- Connecting splash — animated spinner while waiting for WiFi / first API response
- Captive portal setup — on first boot (or after reset), device opens a WiFi AP with a web form to configure credentials without recompiling
- Config reset — hold touch button for 3 s at boot to wipe NVS and re-enter setup mode
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Device | NM-TV-154 (yellow cube, ESP32-WROOM-32) |
| Display | 1.54" IPS TFT, ST7789, 240x240, SPI @ 40 MHz |
| Input | Capacitive touch button (top) |
| Power | 5 V USB-C, ~0.8 W |
| WiFi | 802.11 b/g/n |
| Flash | 4 MB |
On first boot, or after a config reset, the device starts a WiFi access point named
Bitaxe-Dashboard-Setup (open, no password). Connect to it from any phone or computer,
then open http://192.168.4.1/ (most devices redirect automatically). Fill in:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| WiFi SSID | Your home/office network name |
| WiFi Password | Network password (leave blank if open) |
| Miner IP Address | IP of the BitAxe (e.g. 192.168.1.50) |
Save and the device restarts, connects to your WiFi, and shows the dashboard.
Compile-time defaults can still be set via idf.py menuconfig under "BitAxe Dashboard".
They apply only if the NVS has no saved config:
| Option | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| WiFi SSID | your-ssid |
Network to connect to |
| WiFi Password | (empty) | Network password |
| BitAxe IP Address | 10.5.0.6 |
IP of the BitAxe miner |
| API poll interval | 5000 ms | How often to fetch data (2000–60000 ms) |
| Backlight brightness | 80 % | Display brightness (0–100 %) |
Touch pad channel is configurable under "NM-TV-154 Configuration" (default: T9 / GPIO 32).
Hold the touch button for 3 s during boot. A countdown is shown on-screen. Release early to cancel. After confirmation the NVS is erased and the device reboots into captive portal mode.
If you just want to flash the dashboard without setting up the full ESP-IDF toolchain:
- USB cable connected to the NM-TV-154 (CH340 serial)
- Windows: install the CH340 driver if the device is not recognized
- Linux:
sudo usermod -aG dialout $USERfor serial port access
Install esptool: pip install esptool
# Linux
esptool.py --chip esp32 -p /dev/ttyUSB0 -b 460800 \
--before default_reset --after hard_reset \
write_flash --flash_mode dio --flash_size 4MB --flash_freq 40m \
0x0 firmware/bitaxe-dashboard-full.bin
# macOS — port is typically /dev/cu.usbserial-*
# Windows — replace -p with the correct COM port, e.g. -p COM3- Download Flash Download Tool from Espressif
- Run the tool, select ESP32 and Develop mode
- Add the binary:
firmware/bitaxe-dashboard-full.binat address 0x0 - Set: SPI Speed 40 MHz, SPI Mode DIO, Flash Size 4 MB
- Select the correct COM port and click START
After flashing, the device boots into the captive portal for first-time setup (see Configuration above).
- ESP-IDF v5.5.x (tested with v5.5.3)
- USB cable connected to the NM-TV-154 (CH340 serial)
- Linux:
sudo usermod -aG dialout $USERfor serial port access
# 1. Source ESP-IDF environment
source ~/.espressif/v5.5.3/esp-idf/export.sh
# 2. Set target
idf.py set-target esp32
# 3. (Optional) Set compile-time defaults
idf.py menuconfig
# → "BitAxe Dashboard" → set fallback SSID, password, miner IP
# 4. Build
idf.py build
# 5. Flash and monitor
idf.py -p /dev/ttyUSB0 flash monitor
# Exit monitor: Ctrl+]WiFi credentials and miner IP are normally configured at runtime via the captive portal (see Configuration above) and do not require a reflash.
- Display and backlight initialize (SPI + ST7789 + LVGL)
- Splash screen appears
- NVS and common WiFi subsystem initialize
- Config loads from NVS (falls back to Kconfig if unconfigured)
- Boot reset check: if touch is held for 3 s, NVS is erased and device reboots
- If no config is saved, captive portal starts (WiFi AP + DNS redirect + HTTP form)
- Otherwise WiFi connects in STA mode with NVS credentials (auto-reconnect on disconnect)
- Background task polls
http://<miner IP>/api/system/infoevery 5 s - JSON response is parsed into a
bitaxe_data_tstruct - LVGL UI updates with fresh data (thread-safe via display lock)
- Touch button cycles between the five dashboard screens
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| "Connecting..." stays forever | Wrong WiFi credentials | Reboot + hold touch 3 s to reset config, then use captive portal |
| Screen shows error after connecting | BitAxe unreachable | Verify miner IP via portal reset; ensure both devices are on the same network |
| Setup portal does not appear | Config was already saved | Hold touch 3 s at boot to reset NVS |
| Browser does not auto-redirect in AP mode | Device-specific captive portal detection | Navigate manually to http://192.168.4.1/ |
| No data / all zeros | BitAxe API changed or miner is off | Check http://<IP>/api/system/info in a browser |
| Screen black | Display power not enabled | Check that GPIO 21 (power) and GPIO 19 (backlight) are both driven LOW |
| Colors wrong | Missing color inversion | Ensure esp_lcd_panel_invert_color(true) in display init |
| Touch not working | Threshold needs tuning | Check serial log for baseline value; adjust in board_config.h |