PV 3070 NiceHash Controller

Automatic PV-surplus control for one NVIDIA RTX 3070 running NiceHash Miner on Windows 10/11.

Architecture

• Shelly Pro 3EM: supplies current PV/grid power information.
• Controller: Python service evaluates surplus, hysteresis, runtime and safety limits.
• NVIDIA RTX 3070: controlled through nvidia-smi power limits and temperature monitoring.
• NiceHash Miner: remains responsible for profitability, benchmarking and algorithm switching.

The controller deliberately does not implement its own algorithm/profit switching.

Default control logic

• Start when PV surplus is at least 180 W for 3 minutes.
• Stop when surplus falls below 110 W for 5 minutes.
• Keep 40 W reserve for the household.
• GPU target is dynamically limited to 100–180 W, in 10 W steps.
• GPU temperature warning: 75 C; critical stop: 80 C.
• Shelly/GPU communication failures trigger a safe stop.
• dry_run: true is enabled initially.

Requirements

• Windows 10/11 x64
• Python 3.11+
• NVIDIA driver with nvidia-smi
• NVIDIA RTX 3070
• NiceHash Miner installed
• Shelly Pro 3EM reachable over HTTP

NiceHash Miner is available from the official NiceHash repository: https://github.com/nicehash/NiceHashMiner

Installation

1. Install Python 3.11+.
2. Install NVIDIA drivers and verify nvidia-smi works.
3. Install NiceHash Miner and complete its normal setup/benchmarking.
4. Copy config.yaml.example to config.yaml if desired, or edit the included config.
5. Set the Shelly IP and NiceHash installation path.
6. Run python -m src.main with dry_run: true.
7. Verify the reported surplus and GPU values.
8. Only then set dry_run: false.

Manual run

py -3.11 -m venv .venv
.\.venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1
pip install -r requirements.txt
python -m src.main

Web dashboard

The controller can serve a live status dashboard while it runs (no extra dependencies, built on Python's standard library).

Enable it in config.yaml:

dashboard:
  enabled: true
  host: "127.0.0.1"   # use "0.0.0.0" to reach it from other devices on the network
  port: 8090

Then open http://127.0.0.1:8090/ locally, or http://<pc-ip>:8090/ (e.g. http://192.168.178.178:8090/) from another device on the network. It shows PV surplus, GPU power/temperature/utilization, controller state, the NiceHash Miner process status, the active thresholds and a rolling event log - updated every 5 seconds via /api/status. It only ever shows values the controller itself measures; there is no separate NiceHash-account/hashrate data source wired in.

To reach it from another device, two things are needed on top of host: "0.0.0.0":

1. Windows Firewall rule (elevated CMD/PowerShell):

   netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="PV-3070-Dashboard" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=8090

2. Restart the controller so it picks up the new host setting.

Auto-shutdown overnight

The PC itself stays on all the time by default - the controller only pauses mining (stops NiceHash, drops the GPU to idle) when there's no surplus. To also shut the PC down after a longer stretch without surplus (mirroring the Ubuntu GPU miner's behavior), enable it in config.yaml:

auto_shutdown:
  enabled: true
  idle_minutes: 30    # no usable surplus for this long...
  not_before_hour: 17 # ...and only from this hour onward (avoids a midday cloud triggering it)

This runs shutdown /s /t 60 (60s delay, cancellable with shutdown /a from an elevated prompt if it ever fires unexpectedly). It requires the same elevated permissions as nvidia-smi --power-limit - see "Windows Scheduled Task" below.

To wake the PC again in the morning, set Power On By RTC Alarm in the BIOS/UEFI (as with the Ubuntu GPU miner) to the desired time. This is a motherboard-level hardware wake from a fully powered-off state (S5) - equivalent to someone pressing the power button - and is independent of Windows' own power plan. No powercfg wake-timer configuration is needed or relevant here; that setting only governs Windows' own scheduled wake from sleep (S3), which doesn't apply to a full shutdown.

Test it once with a wake time a few minutes out before relying on the real morning schedule, then set it back. Confirmed working (2026-09-29) on an ASUS ROG board:

• UEFI BIOS Utility (Advanced Mode) -> Erweitert -> APM-Konfiguration
• Einschalten durch RTC: Aktiviert
• RTC-Weckdatum (Tage): 0 (jeder Tag)
• Stunde / Minute / Sekunde: 8 / 0 / 0 for an 08:00 daily wake

Windows Scheduled Task

Run scripts\install_task.ps1 from an elevated PowerShell after testing interactively. The task starts the controller at boot.

Important: nvidia-smi --power-limit and (if enabled) shutdown /s both require administrator rights on Windows. install_task.ps1 registers the task to run at logon, as your own user, with highest privileges rather than as SYSTEM - NiceHash Miner is a GUI app tied to your user profile (C:\Users\<you>\AppData\Local\Programs\NiceHash Miner\...) and doesn't work reliably under a SYSTEM session.

This means the task only starts once you (or Windows) actually log this user in. If the PC also wakes unattended overnight via BIOS RTC (see above), enable Windows auto-logon so it doesn't just sit at the lock screen after waking:

# Run as Administrator. Stores the password in the registry in plain text -
# acceptable for a single-purpose mining box, not for a general-use PC.
$user = $env:USERNAME
$pass = Read-Host -AsSecureString "Password for $user" | ConvertFrom-SecureString -AsPlainText
Set-ItemProperty 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon' AutoAdminLogon -Value 1
Set-ItemProperty 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon' DefaultUserName -Value $user
Set-ItemProperty 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon' DefaultPassword -Value $pass

Not needed if the account already boots straight to the desktop without a password prompt (as on this setup) - Windows still fires a logon event in that case, which is enough for the AtLogOn trigger.

Safety

Do not use this software as the sole protection against electrical or thermal faults. The controller only manages software-level operating conditions. Hardware protections and NVIDIA driver protections remain mandatory.

License

MIT