Table of Contents
- Sales Enquiries
- How can I order a Helium miner from Distrelec/Elfa?
- Can I pre-order a miner?
- Can I order more than one at a time?
- I have pre-ordered a Nebra miner early this year but I haven’t received It yet, where is my order?
- Can I cancel my order?
- Why can I not get through to your sales team?
- Where can I find product information about the Helium miners that Distrelec stocks?
- Can you give me the part number for the Nebra or SeeedStudio miners?
- Is there a mailing list I can sign up to for notifications?
- Do I need an account with Distrelec/Elfa before I purchase a miner or accessory?
- Pre-sales Technical queries
- What is a Helium miner?
- What is the difference between and indoor and outdoor miner?
- Which hotspot should I buy?
- What frequency do I need for my country?
- How can I connect the miner to the internet?
- Is it easy to setup?
- How much of my internet bandwidth is a miner going to use?
- How can I power the hotspot miners?
- What is the power consumption?
- How do I earn HNT?
- How much HNT will my hotspot earn?
- What type of antenna can I connect to the hotspot?
- What coverage will my hotspot provide?
- What other hotspots are in my area?
- What is the difference between the 2/4/8GB SenseCap M1 miner?
- After Sales Queries (Customer Support)
Sales Enquiries
How can I order a Helium miner from Distrelec/Elfa?
At the moment pre-sales of Helium HNT miners are suspended as per communication from Nebra from earlier this year (24/04/2021). If and when they will become availble again they will be released on our webshops.
Can I pre-order a miner?
Currently Distrelec is no longer accepting any pre-orders for either the Nebra or SenseCap helium miners. If you have already pre-ordered a Helium miner then your order will be fulfilled when stock arrives in our distribution centre.
Can I order more than one at a time?
If and when pre-sales are opened up again on the Distrelec/Elfa webshop, customers may purchase more than 1pcs at a time.
I have pre-ordered a Nebra miner early this year but I haven’t received It yet, where is my order?
Currently there are some delays with the manufacturing and shipping of the Nebra hotspots. This is due to a number of challenging issues that the manufacture has faced over the last year.
Can I cancel my order?
Yes, if you no longer want to wait for your order to be fulfilled then you can contact us at the below email address for your region and we will process your cancellation.
IDACH
CH – info@distrelec.com
DE – verkauf@distrelec.de
Nordics
SE – order@elfa.se
NO – norge@elfa.se
DK – danmark@elfa.se
West
East
LT – lietuva@elfadistrelec.com
LV – latvija@elfadistrelec.com
EX – export@distrelec.com (via distrelec.biz)
Why can I not get through to your sales team?
Our sales team have been working hard to answer all your queries regarding stock for the Helium and SenseCap miners but due to the high volume of queries our team can no longer support. We have provided this FAQ to hopefully answer the majority of your questions.
Where can I find product information about the Helium miners that Distrelec stocks?
You can find detailed product information for the Nebra Indoor/Outdoor miners and SenseCap M1 miner on the manufactures webpage:
Can you give me the part number for the Nebra or SeeedStudio miners?
We cannot give out the part number for the hotspot miners at the moment as we have had too many webpage requests which is causing issues with our system. Orders will be on a first come first serve basis and will be released without any notification.
Is there a mailing list I can sign up to for notifications?
We do not have a specific mailing list for the Helium miners to notify our customers about when stock is available.
Do I need an account with Distrelec/Elfa before I purchase a miner or accessory?
Yes you will need to create an account with Distrelec in order to purchase any of our products. You can register for an account here or you can create an account at checkout.
Pre-sales Technical queries
What is a Helium miner?
A Helium hotspot is a IoT gateway that uses LoRaWAN technology. Users are reward with HNT currency for providing coverage and authenticating other hotspots. The level of rewards earned are based on a number of factors. Helium miners can only be manufactured by approved venders of the Helium network.
What is the difference between and indoor and outdoor miner?
Indoor miners are designed to no be exposed to the outdoor elements and generally do not require an IP rated enclosure. They typically have a much smaller coverage for indoor IoT sensors and be easily placed.
Outdoor miners on the other hand are design to be mounted outside and can be exposed to harsh weather conditions by an IP67 enclosure (Nebra outdoor miner). Moreover, there coverage is much greater due to the outdoor positioning and also the ability to connect a more powerful antenna.
Which hotspot should I buy?
This really depends on your needs for a Helium gateway and where you plan on locating it. It is much more beneficial to mount an outdoor gateway as it should have a much bigger coverage and this better chance to mine more HNT currency.
What frequency do I need for my country?
Most countries across Europe will require a hotspot that works on the 868MHz or 433MHz frequency range. This is an unlicensed band. You can find further information about Country frequency bands from The Things Network.
How can I connect the miner to the internet?
The indoor miners have the option to connect to the internet using the built-in Wi-Fi or using the Ethernet connection. The outdoor Nebra miner can only be connected to the internet using an Ethernet cable.
Is it easy to setup?
The setup process is very quick and simple. All miners come with instructions on how to get started. There will be some initial hardware setup required to connect the antenna, Ethernet cable (if required) and also the power adaptor. One the Helium miner is powered up you can then use the official Helium application to setup the software. Once connected to the Helium network it will take approximately 24-48 hours to synchronise the blockchain.
How much of my internet bandwidth is a miner going to use?
Helium miners will use between 20-30GB per month on average as they are constantly connected to the Helium network sending data. In the future this number will be much smaller when hotspots will become Lite hotposts.
How can I power the hotspot miners?
The indoor hotspot miners will come supplied with a 5V DC power adapter. The Nebra outdoor miner can be powered using a 9-16V 2mm DC adaptor or using PoE 802.3AF 48V.
What is the power consumption?
The average power consumption for the indoor miners is around 8W and for the outdoor miners it is around 12-15W.
How do I earn HNT?
Hotspots will earn HNT by providing proof of coverage to the people network. To find out what coverage is in your area check out the Helium Explorer map.
How much HNT will my hotspot earn?
While there’s no exact formula for calculating how much HNT you’ll earn over a given period, there are some higher level concepts, design elements, and rules to keep in mind that will help better explain what you might earn and why. This section covers these, as well as some mining and token reward basics. Check out the documentation here for further clarification.
What type of antenna can I connect to the hotspot?
Any LoRa antenna that is specified for the frequency plan that the Helium miner is on will be able to connect to the miner. There are many different types of antennas with different connectors but can all be connected.
The indoor miners will have a RP-SMA connector that can be easily screwed on to the antenna connector at the back of the Helium miner.
Outdoor miners will have a much larger fiberglass antenna with a N-Type connector on that can be screwed directly on to the enclosure with the provided adaptor. You can upgrade these antennas with much larger and powerful rating that will increase the range of the LoRa signal.
What coverage will my hotspot provide?
Coverage depends on a number of environmental factors. In an ideal scenario the antenna should be located in a high position and be free of obstructions such as building, trees etc. This give the signals a clear align of site between other devices. Indoor antennas should be located near a window for maximum effective range.
What other hotspots are in my area?
As you may be aware the HNT rewards are also calculated based on the density of other hotspots in the area. The more hotspots there are the less rewards that will be earned. You can view coverage of other hotspots by visiting the Helium Explorer map.
What is the difference between the 2/4/8GB SenseCap M1 miner?
The SenseCap M1 Helium miner is based on the Raspberry Pi model 4. The Raspberry Pi model 4 comes in 3 different variations based on the available memory. When using the Helium miner the software will load the blockchain data into the available memory on the device and in some cases if there is not enough memory it will begin to use SWAP file memory (virtual memory) which can be slow. As the blockchain grows so does the demand for available memory.
Note: In the future there will be Lite versions of hotspots that will not require the download of the blockchain. You can find further info on this project here – https://docs.helium.com/mine-hnt/light-hotspots/
After Sales Queries (Customer Support)
I’m having some issues with my hotspot can you help me?
We cannot provide technical support for your Helium miner. You will need to contact the customer support channels at Nebra and SeeedStudio in order to resolve your issue.
Can I return my Helium miner if I no longer want/need it?
Please review our returns Policy here –
What other accessories can I purchase for my Helium miner?
There are a number of accessories that are available that you can purchase such as antennas, power adaptors, enclosures, LoRa nodes etc. Visit our web shop for further information.
