Monitoring Dashboards That Don’t Suck — Foreman, Minerstat, BraiinsOS, or DIY Grafana

Overview

If you’re running one ASIC at home or a small farm across Australia, your dashboard is your lifeline. A good one tells you exactly what’s happening (and what’s failing) without guesswork: hashrate, temps, fan health, board status, pool/rejects, uptime, and power draw — with immediate alerts. This guide boils the choice down to four proven paths: Foreman, Minerstat, BraiinsOS, or a DIY Grafana stack.

TL;DR (Quick answer)

• Home miners who want “set and forget”: go Foreman or Minerstat.
• Tuning-first users who like open tooling: BraiinsOS with built-in stats is great, and you can still feed data to Grafana.
• Tinkerers or those already using Home Assistant/Prometheus: DIY Grafana wins on flexibility and cost control.
• Non-negotiables: email/Telegram alerts, per-board temps, reject/stale rates, and simple uptime reporting.

What “good” looks like (dashboard must-haves)

• Clear at-a-glance tiles: current hashrate (real and 24h), rejects/stales, uptime, pool status.
• Thermal truth: per-board temperatures, hot spots, fan RPMs, and throttling flags.
• Health: board online/offline, ASIC error rates, HW errors.
• Power and efficiency: kW, J/TH, and cost overlay for your tariff.
• Alerting: email/Telegram/Discord with thresholds (temp, hashrate drop, board offline, fan failure).
• Fleet basics: bulk firmware push, profiles (underclock/off-peak), and pooled reports.
• History: 24h/7d/30d trends to see drifting fans or worsening temps.
• Security and reliability: runs when the internet blips; doesn’t expose miners to the open web.

Option 1: Foreman

Overview
A managed platform focused on mining operations, with agent-based monitoring, alerts, and fleet tooling. Strong for mixed hardware and multi-site visibility.

Pros
• Clean, alert-first UI; good uptime analytics and notifications.
• Bulk actions: reboots, pool changes, profiles, and scheduling.
• Good for growing from 1–2 units to a small farm.
• Cloud plus local agent reduces exposure of miner web UIs.

Cons
• Subscription cost per miner; internet dependence for the cloud view.
• Advanced features can feel overkill for a single unit.

Best for
Home miners who want reliability and growth room without tinkering — or anyone hosting miners across locations.

Option 2: Minerstat

Overview
A popular monitoring and management suite with strong alerts, profitability views, and support for both GPUs and ASICs.

Pros
• Quick setup; solid alerts (email/Telegram) and watchdogs.
• Profitability overlays and pool switching help casual users.
• Nice device grid for small fleets; remote commands supported.

Cons
• Subscription pricing; some features gated by plan.
• Interface is broader (GPU/ASIC) so a bit busier than ASIC-only tools.

Best for
Home and small-farm miners who want simple monitoring + profitability tools in one place.

Option 3: BraiinsOS (and stock firmware users)

Overview
BraiinsOS focuses on performance and efficiency tuning (especially on supported Antminer/Whatsminer models). It provides rich miner-level stats and can export metrics to external systems.

Pros
• Efficiency gains with high-quality tuning and per-chip insights (model-dependent).
• Solid local interface and logs; safer control than random third-party firmware.
• Plays well with Prometheus/Grafana if you want a local dashboard later.

Cons
• Firmware change has a learning curve and potential warranty implications — check your warranty first.
• Not every model or feature is supported equally.

Best for
Users who want better efficiency and visibility at the miner itself, with the option to layer a fleet dashboard later.

Option 4: DIY Grafana (with Prometheus/Home Assistant)

Overview
Build exactly what you want: miner metrics scraped locally, stored in Prometheus or InfluxDB, and visualised in Grafana. Add smart plugs (Shelly/Kasa) for kW and automated rules.

Pros
• Maximum control and privacy; runs locally even if the internet drops.
• Cheapest at scale; no per-miner SaaS fees.
• Integrates with Home Assistant for off-peak automation, noise/heat rules, and alerts.

Cons
• Setup time; you maintain it.
• Data collectors differ by miner model/firmware; you’ll match exporters to your devices.
• Remote access needs a VPN/WireGuard rather than exposing ports.

Best for
Tinkerers and cost-optimisers who already love dashboards — or anyone wanting a local-first, privacy-first stack.

Home miner in Australia: recommended paths

One or two miners, suburban home
• Easiest: Minerstat or Foreman for fast setup and good alerts.
• Quiet hours: use profiles (underclock) and schedule off-peak with your TOU tariff.
• Add a smart plug on the miner circuit for accurate kW and cost overlays.

Small farm or hosting rack
• Foreman for fleet actions and multi-site alerts.
• Or BraiinsOS + Grafana if efficiency and control are top priority.
• Keep miner UIs off the public internet; use a VPN for remote access.

Key KPIs to watch (daily/weekly)

• Hashrate (instant vs 24h), rejects/stales (<1–2% ideally).
• Per-board temps and fan RPM; watch for drift or a single hot board.
• Uptime and reboot count; catch unstable power or bad cables.
• Efficiency (J/TH) vs your target profile.
• kW and daily kWh; off-peak share and estimated $/day at your tariff.
• Alerts log: time-to-detect and time-to-recover.

Alert rules that save machines

• Temperature: warn at 80–85 °C board temps; critical at 90–95 °C depending on model.
• Hashrate drop: >10–15% below 24h average for 10–15 minutes.
• Board offline or fan failure: immediate alert.
• High reject/stale rate: >2–3% sustained.
• Network/pool disconnected: instant alert with fallback pool configured.

Power & internet in Australia (practical tips)

• TOU tariffs: schedule high-power profiles for off-peak windows; underclock during shoulder/peak.
• Internet: wired Ethernet if possible; NBN/4G/Starlink are fine — favour stability and low packet loss.
• Dust and heat: summer can push temps high; clean filters and consider ducted intake/exhaust.
• Safety: use licensed electricians for circuits; RCDs and appropriate breakers are non-negotiable.

Security basics (don’t skip)

• Never expose miner web UIs to the internet; use a VPN for remote access.
• Keep firmware trusted and current; disable default passwords.
• Segment miners on their own VLAN or guest network if your router supports it.

Decision guide (quick pick)

• “I want easy alerts and clean charts today” → Minerstat or Foreman.
• “I tune for efficiency and like open tools” → BraiinsOS (and optionally Grafana later).
• “I love dashboards and privacy” → DIY Grafana (local-first with Prometheus/Home Assistant).
• “I plan to scale to a small farm” → Foreman for fleet actions and multi-site control.

Pre-deployment checklist

[ ] Alert channels tested (email/Telegram/Discord)
[ ] Thresholds set for temp, hashrate drop, rejects, board offline
[ ] Off-peak schedules or underclock profiles in place
[ ] Accurate power metering (smart plug or sub-meter)
[ ] VPN configured for remote access; no open ports
[ ] Backups of pool credentials and configs

Where to next

• Compare ASIC miners: /collections/bitcoin-mining-rigs
• Model profitability: /pages/bitcoin-mining-calculator
• Track network hashrate: /pages/bitcoin-total-hashrate
• Need help choosing a dashboard? /pages/contact

Notes and disclaimers

This article is general information for Australian customers and is not financial, electrical or legal advice. Always consult a licensed electrician for circuits and a professional adviser for tax matters.