5 Must-know Tips for Helium Mining
The crypto project Helium has been growing like crazy the past couple years. However, since this is a relatively new idea, there are some knowledge gaps and the first few weeks after you get your router can be confusing. This article will go over what I wish I knew when I was getting started mining Helium — after my router has arrived.
What should I do while I am waiting for the router to ship?
- Download the Helium app and get it all set up. Make sure you keep your password safe.
- Plan for the best spot in your house to place the router.
My router has arrived — now what?
Plug it in and do nothing. Seriously.
After following the instructions and screwing in the antenna, plug it into the outlet and do nothing for 30 minutes. During this time, the hotspot will be updating its firmware and you may hear the sound of the fan running.
After about 30 minutes, press and hold the tiny button on the back of the hotspot by the blue light. Once it is flashing slowly, it is in pairing mode. Now, open the Helium app to setup the hotspot.
After you have clicked “Register Hotspot” and the Helium logo starts spinning, wait on that screen for about 15–30 minutes. Nothing will happen. You can turn off your phone if you want. This app is pretty slow, and takes awhile to update information. After waiting, open the app back up and check if your hotspot shows up in your account. If it doesn’t, then you may need to re-pair via Bluetooth and go through the setup again. Be patient though, this setup process is not instant.
Once your hotspot shows up on the app, don’t do anything else. It will take a day or two to sync — often times longer. If it has been a week and it is not fully synced, then ping the troubleshooting channel on the official Helium Discord.
If you want to check the actual percentage of the sync, you can do so in the app (and this will not mess up your syncing progress). First, make sure your router is in pairing mode by holding down the small button on the back until it is slowly flashing blue again. Open the app, click on your hotspot, click the gear in the upper right, click pair, connect via Bluetooth, click diagnostic. You should see a percentage. Bluetooth pairing mode will turn off after 10 minutes to don’t worry about turning it off manually.
In general, have some patience during the setup process because it takes nearly a week to get going.
General Tips
Here is a list of helpful tips after your router has been set up successfully.
- Do not remove or change the antenna while your router is still on! This could fry your router. If you want to change the antenna, first power off (unplug) the router.
- Don’t unplug and replug in your router too often, it could mess it up.
- The Reddit community r/HeliumNetwork is a useful forum to go to for troubleshooting advice.
- Read this blog post by Nik Hawks to get an overview of which antenna may be best for you. Generally, stick with the stock antenna that came with your router. Placement and competition is way more important.
- Try “Discovery Mode” in the app by clicking first on your router and then on the gear. This allows you to make sure that you can witness and see other hotspots around you. This doesn’t always work, but after a few tries over multiple days usually it returns consistent results. I wouldn’t use this as much to figure out where to place your hotspot, but instead just to make sure it can see other hotspots.
- Height and line of sight seem to be the best way to make the most rewards. Even stock antennas with height and good visibility make decent tokens.
- Turbo Sync: some hotspots, like SenseCap, have a turbo sync option that boosts sync time. There are official docs on how to use this feature. I used Turbo Sync when it was taking over 4 days to set up and sync my hotspot, and it fixed my issue. Generally, if your hotspot is more than 300 blocks behind in syncing, you may want to use Turbo Sync (but don’t use this too often).
- There are often official dashboards made by the different manufacturers (for example SenseCap) with a ton more info in them. This is typically a good place to start when troubleshooting and looking at syncing info. You can login and view your SenseCap dashboard at https://status.sensecapmx.cloud/.
Using the Helium Explorer Effectively
The Helium Explorer site is useful for investigating more about your earnings and progress. The “Activity” tab is especially helpful. On this tab, under “All Activity”, you can start to monitor what your router is doing:
This view is telling you that your router activity is healthy. It’s challenging other routers, it’s receiving HNT as rewards, and has activity often.
If you click into a reward, you can see the reason for it (Witness, Challenger, Data, etc.):
Common Issues and How to Troubleshoot Them
Hotspot Needs Attention
Sometimes, your hotspot will say “Needs Attention” and that it is offline and not syncing:
If yours says that, don’t panic. This happens pretty often in my experience, and usually the cause is either the wifi got disconnected or there was a firmware update.
The troubleshooting steps I take when my hotspot needs attention are:
- Unplug it, wait a few minutes, and plug it back in (classic IT move). Just don’t do this too often. Usually this ends up solving the issue. After plugging it in, give it time to sync to the blockchain and you can view the dashboard to monitor progress. If syncing is taking a long time and your hotspot is many blocks behind, you can try Turbo Sync again. Just note that the Helium app will likely have a delay in information, so it may be back to “Online” before the official app says so. That’s why I would recommend looking at the manufacturer dashboard, if yours has one.
- In the Helium app, disconnect your hotspot from the wifi and reconnect it.
- Try plugging into Ethernet.
- Go to the official Discord channel and open a ticket. Often times each manufacturer has a Discord channel as well, and at least SenseCap has been super responsive.
Your Rewards are Low
- Go to the Helium Dashboard and look at other hotspots in your hex. Are they getting similar rewards? It’s possible that there are either too many hotspots in your area, or not enough. Location is very important. The transmit scale on the dashboard will give you insights into rewards. If the transmit scale is low, you are going to have lower rewards.
- Try placing your router in a different spot in your house. The best thing to try first is to place it higher. Put it on the top floor if you can, or even in the attic. Height seems more important than line of site, if you are keeping your router indoors.
- Try connecting to Ethernet for a more stable connection.
Hopefully this article was helpful in getting started with Helium mining and closing some gaps. If you found this information useful, consider letting me know by commenting or clapping.
