While I was originally a little sceptical of the Helium Hotspot, I became a convert. It has turned out to be a profitable project, and I like that Helium is a useful project with long term prospects, unlike the trend of meme coins in the cryptocurrency market.
Like many others, it has been frustrating waiting for the Helium hotspot miner to be shipped. It was bad enough ordering in batch 3, knowing my hotspots wouldn’t arrive until May. However, the Batch one and almost Batch 2 delivery dates have come and gone with nothing shipped.
The best Helium Miner for UK Buyers (& US)
- Glass Fiber LoRa Antenna Peak Gain (5.8dbi) for £40
- Glass Fiber LoRa Antenna (3dBm) for £35.99
- Nebra HNT Outdoor Hotspot Miner for £420
- Nebra HNT Indoor Hotspot Miner for £300 – Quickest shipping
Causes of the delays
There have obviously been a lot of problems. The worst global crisis in generations has inconveniently caused issues with supply chains, then annoying things like FCC regulations have delayed things much longer than expected. In the UK it needs to be CE certified.
Nebra hasn’t been great with their communication either, they haven’t updated the shipping dates for the early batches, just stating batch 1, which was due to go out in March, is delayed. The Shipping Mega Update post doesn’t reveal much new information either.
Nebra Indoor Hotspot Miner shipping update – Order from Pi Supply, Parley Labs & Nebra miner – US & UK shipping dates
The main thing that has been holding them back in recent weeks is the FCC testing. One of the US suppliers, Parley Labs, has officially confirmed that the Indoor Nebra Hotspots have now passed the FCC testing.
[Edit] This is also confirmed by Nebra via the Discord channel
The hotspots are boxed up and ready to go, but they likely won’t ship for another week. So, orders placed on parleylabs.com should start shipping at the end of April for Batch 1, then early May for Batch 2, and sometime in May for batch 3.
So basically, Batch 3 and 4 should still be on schedule.
Outdoor hotspots are still being tested with the FCC, but it should be finalised soon, and they are currently predicting an early May shipping date for batch 1, with sometime in May for batch 2.
Any new order placed on Pi Supply, Parley Labs or Nebra will be in Batch 5. This has a shipping date of Q3 2021.
Cal-Chip Connected Devices / RAK Hotspot Miner v2 Shipping Update
Cal Chip made a status update on the 15th of April stating that Eagle and Falcon are still in transit, estimated to arrive in the US early next week. This means Eagle and Falcon should start shipping to customers the last week of April.
I don’t know why they can’t name their batch numbers in numbers. It would make much more sense.
US/CAN: Order RAK Hotspot Miner v2 now for shipments starting Summer 2021.
Europe: Order RAK Hotspot Miner v2 now for shipments starting Summer 2021.
Australia: Order RAK Hotspot Miner v2 now for shipments starting in Summer 2021.
Bobcat Miner
The Bobcat Miner has passed the CE and FCC certification. They have shipped their first batches of miners in China, but not much has been said about the UK or US orders. They just state between 8-12 weeks from the order date.
Will I earn money from a Nebra Helium HNT Miner when thousands of new hotspots come online?
This is the big question I get asked a lot. Early adopters generated a lot of HNT, with some people getting very rich off it. That’s the benefit of being an early adopter; they took a risk, it paid off. Sadly, I lacked this foresight.
Back in December, HNT was worth about $1, so even when mining a lot of HNT, the cash value wasn’t that great at the time.
The amount of HNT you will earn will massively drop in the coming months, but as the network grows and hopefully becomes commercially useful, the value of HNT should appreciate considerably hopefully.
So in a years time, you may only mine 15-20 HNT per month, but if the value of HNT is $100 it will still be extremely profitable.
Posted by Mighty Gadget Blog: UK Technology News and Reviews
