Hey all, ever since I got my Apollo II, I wanted a way to schedule the miner to run and switch modes at certain times of the week without clicking through the dashboard. So Claude and I built Houston, an all-in-one application to manage your Apollo miner.
What it does
- Schedule: switch modes or only mine during certain hours.
- Control: start/stop, Eco/Balanced/Turbo (Apollo III: Super Eco and a custom TH/s target), and start/stop the Bitcoin node.
- Stats: 24-hour and 7-day charts of hashrate, power and temperature, energy use and electricity cost (including what Turbo adds), solo-mining best share and odds, node and system health.
- Bitcoin network & market: Fear & Greed Index, block height, time since the last block, average block time, next difficulty change, market cap, BTC dominance, 24h volume, sats per dollar, and the latest Bitcoin Magazine headlines.
- Alerts on your phone: when the miner stops, runs hot, loses hashrate, the node stops or the drive fills up, and when your solo pool finds a block. They come as regular notifications from the Houston app (no extra app or account needed) or through the free ntfy app.
- BTC price ticker and chart, in 7 currencies.
- Siri and shortcuts ("Hey Siri, Apollo status"), and Google Home through Home Assistant.
- Several Apollos in one place, light and dark mode, and optional desktop shortcuts for Windows, macOS and Linux.
Privacy and security
Houston runs on the Apollo as a small sandboxed service and uses the same local API the dashboard does. Away from home it works over Tailscale. The repo includes a full security review covering what it stores, every connection it makes, and how to check it yourself.
Install is two commands from a computer on your home network.
Status
Tested on my Apollo II. Apollo III support is built from FutureBit's own source code and tested against it, but not on a real III yet, so III owners would be especially helpful. Houston is unofficial and not affiliated with FutureBit.
GitHub: https://github.com/eisenreichGIT/houston-apollo
This is my first attempt at creating an application, so bug reports, Apollo III results and feature ideas are all greatly appreciated!
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EDIT: Just pushed Houston 2.3.0
- Apollo software updates from Houston: see your Apollo software version in Settings › This Apollo, get "New version v2.x.x is available!" (on Home too), and install it with one tap. Houston runs FutureBit's own updater, shows progress, follows the Apollo through its restart, and tells you when it's done. Stop/unreachable alerts stay quiet during the update.
- New alert: Apollo software update available (once per version).
- Front status light: turn the light on the front of the Apollo off or on (Settings › This Apollo). A running miner restarts to apply; the node isn't touched.
- System logs: Activity › Logs shows the Miner, Node, Solo pool, System and Houston logs. 100/300/1000 lines, filter, live refresh, copy and download.
EDIT 2: Just pushed Houston 2.4.0
- Whisper mode (Apollo II): a Houston exclusive! Half of Eco's power. 107 W / 2.9 TH/s vs Eco's 209 W / 5.5 TH/s, slightly more efficient. Works on Home, in the schedule, charts, Siri/shortcuts and #whisper links. (Shows as Custom in the Apollo dashboard: it's the dashboard's lowest custom setting.)
- Live bitcoin price: refreshes every 5 seconds while Houston is open.
- Price time frames: 1H, 1D, 7D, 1M, 3M, 6M, YTD, 1Y, 5Y, ALL. Remembered per device.
- New Home look: bigger price, Start/Stop cards that show what's possible at a glance.
- Friendlier Siri & shortcuts setup with a link to the guide; clearer version labels.