I wish I could say I managed to do the same, but I actually couldn’t pull it off this time. Still trying to figure out what works best for me. Love seeing your success though super motivating!

Really appreciate you documenting all of this you're blazing a path that's going to help a lot of people. I ran into something similar when testing small channel opens with phoenixd. From what I’ve seen, even if the fee estimate says ~1300 sats, the actual minimum can float a bit higher closer to 6,000 sats or more—likely due to internal thresholds or dust limits that aren't clearly surfaced. It’d be great if phoenixd gave a clearer error or min amount prompt when a payment falls short.

Your use of LNbits + Phoenixd as a local, self-hosted stack in low-resource settings is exactly the kind of innovation the Lightning community needs. Once you dial in that minimum for reliable channel opens, your guide is going to be gold for others working in the same constraints. Have you tried checking the logs for clues on how Phoenix handled the failed open?

Totally get that. It’s wild how a setup that felt fine with a few hundred bucks suddenly feels reckless once there’s real value involved. Diversifying storage feels less like paranoia and more like basic risk management at that point.