SoloDeck Bridge

Who this is for

Anyone who wants to check their rigs while away from home and doesn't already have an always-on computer there to do it.

It's most useful on Starlink, 4G or 5G home broadband, or any ISP that puts you behind shared addressing. You can't forward a port on those connections, and the bridge doesn't need one: it connects out to Tailscale, so nothing has to reach in.

What you need

• A Raspberry Pi 3, 4 or 5. If you have one already, use it. A Pi Zero 2 W is the cheapest board the image is built for, around £15, but we haven't tested one yet. It has no ethernet socket and its Wi-Fi only sees 2.4GHz networks, so check your router still offers 2.4GHz before you buy.
• A microSD card, 16GB or larger, from a known brand. Cheap cards are the usual reason a Pi stops working after a few months.
• A power supply for the Pi, and your home Wi-Fi name and password.
• A computer to write the card, with Raspberry Pi Imager installed.
• A free account at tailscale.com, and the Tailscale app on your phone.

Check which Pi you have

A Pi 1 or an original Pi Zero or Zero W will not work. Their processor is too old and the software that makes this possible dropped support for it, so the card won't boot.

The Pi Zero 2 W and the old Zero W look almost the same. The Zero 2 W has a square silver metal lid over the chip in the middle of the board; the old one has a bare black chip. Secondhand sellers often list the old one as a "Pi Zero 2", so check the photo for the lid.

Step 1 · Point Imager at the image

This adds SoloDeck Bridge to Imager's list of systems. You only do it once.

1. Open Raspberry Pi Imager and click App Options.
2. Next to Content Repository, click Edit.
3. Choose Use custom URL.
4. Paste this and save:
   https://solodeck.app/imager.json

Step 2 · Write the card

1. On Device, pick your Pi.
2. On OS, pick SoloDeck Bridge.
3. On Storage, pick your card. Check the size matches, because this erases it.
4. Imager then goes through the Customisation screens. Don't press Skip customisation. The Pi has no screen or keyboard, so this is where it gets your Wi-Fi details.
5. On Localisation, check it shows the country you live in.
6. On Wi-Fi, enter your Wi-Fi name and password exactly as they are, capital letters included.
7. On User, set a username and password. You probably won't ever need them, but the Pi needs one.
8. Leave the other screens as they are, then let it write and verify the card. It downloads the image as it writes, so the first card takes a while.

Step 3 · Plug it in

1. Put the card in the Pi and connect the power.
2. Wait about two minutes. The first start takes longer than later ones, and a Zero 2 W is slower again.

A Pi Zero has two micro USB sockets, and only the one marked PWR IN, on the outside edge, powers it. In the other one the Pi does nothing.

Use a proper power supply, not an old phone charger. An underpowered Pi slows down and drops off the network at random, which looks just like a Wi-Fi problem.

On a Pi 3, 4 or 5 you can use an ethernet cable instead of Wi-Fi.

Step 4 · Open the setup page

1. On your phone or laptop, connected to the same home Wi-Fi, open this address:
   http://solodeck-bridge.local
2. You'll see a page that says Step 1 of 2. Press Sign in to Tailscale and sign in with a Google, Microsoft, GitHub or Apple account.

If that address doesn't load, give it another minute and try again. If it still doesn't, look in your router's list of connected devices for the Pi's address and type that instead, with http:// in front of it.

Step 5 · Approve it

Go back to the setup page. It now says Step 2 of 2. Tailscale won't share your home network until you approve it in your account.

1. Press Open Tailscale admin. It takes you straight to the right page.
2. Find the Subnets section, press Review, tick your home network and save.
3. On the same page, open Machine settings and turn on Disable key expiry. Otherwise the bridge's key expires after six months and it stops working.

The setup page turns green once it sees the approval.

Step 6 · Set up your phone

1. Install the Tailscale app from the App Store or Play Store.
2. Sign in with the same account and turn it on.

Leave it connected. It uses almost no battery and only carries traffic meant for your home network.

Step 7 · Test it

1. Turn Wi-Fi off on your phone so you're on mobile data.
2. Check Tailscale shows as connected.
3. Open your mining app. Your miners should show up as they do at home.

Leave the Pi plugged in. There's nothing else to set up.

Things worth knowing

A Zero 2 W only sees 2.4GHz Wi-Fi

The Pi Zero 2 W has no ethernet socket, and its Wi-Fi can't see 5GHz networks at all. If your router broadcasts 5GHz only, or hides both bands behind a single name and picks one for you, the Pi may never join your network and the setup page never appears. The Pi gives no sign of what's wrong.

Most routers let you turn the 2.4GHz band back on, or give it its own name, in their Wi-Fi settings. If yours won't, use a Pi 3, 4 or 5 with an ethernet cable and skip Wi-Fi altogether.

Use IP addresses, not names ending in .local

A miner saved as something like bitaxe.local works at home but not away, because .local names only resolve on your own network. Save miners by their address, like 192.168.1.42, and they work in both places.

Type http:// and not https://

Miner web pages only use http. With https the browser shows a secure connection error, and the bridge isn't the cause.

Give your miners fixed addresses

Your router hands out addresses on a lease. When a lease changes, a miner can move to a new address and your app loses it. In your router's settings, look for DHCP reservation or static lease and pin each miner to the address it has now.

Café and hotel Wi-Fi can clash

If the Wi-Fi you're on uses the same address range as your home network (192.168.1. is very common), your home network can't be reached through it. Turn Wi-Fi off and use mobile data.

If you write the card a second time

A rewritten card joins Tailscale as a new machine, so delete the old solodeck-bridge entry in the Tailscale console first. Otherwise the new one is named solodeck-bridge-1 and the old, offline one still claims your home network.

Don't change addresses in your app

Keep your normal home addresses everywhere. Don't swap them for a Tailscale address starting with 100.. With Tailscale connected the normal ones work from anywhere, and on iPhone the 100. ones don't work in apps at all.

Is this safe?

Nothing on your home network is opened up to the internet. There's no port forwarding and no public address. Only devices signed in to your own Tailscale account can reach anything, and the connection between them is encrypted end to end.

We never see your network, your miners or your keys. The bridge connects to Tailscale, not to us, and there's no SoloDeck account.

The code and the script that builds the image are public, so you can read them or build the image yourself.

If you get stuck

Email support@solodeck.app and say which step you reached. It helps to mention which Pi you're using.