Starlink: Satellite Based Internet

Yup. Too much min-max on that load, couple less sats and a little more altitude and it might be okay.

Speeds are fine for our unit (but it mostly just mines helium lol)

If I’m reading this right, it says PoE 802.3bt Type 4 is 73W for the device, 90W is allowed for the power injection point. Also, I’m dubious how much more power an RJ45 can carry; it’s less about the cable and more about those skinny connector pins. Lastly, the 802.3bt spec was finalized in 2018, I’d bet that chipsets weren’t readily available until 2019, where the first “musk tweet via satellite” was oct 22, 2019, so it probably just wasn’t available yet. I wonder if the new rectangular dish uses more standard parts, or maybe the next gen one will, once chipset prices come down.

Ah, spec finalized/chips available might be part of that thing, it’s true.

Hopefully future versions will be able to lower power usage (including the heater!) sufficiently to use a proper standard PoE. Although they might still avoid it, since it might be tempting for some people to get a (relatively) very cheap one which can’t truly handle the power requirements properly. Which with something like this good power quality/stability is probably pretty important.

grumbles

Due to excessive levels of inflation, the price of the Starlink kit is increasing from $499 to $549 for deposit holders, and $599 for all new orders, effective today. In addition, the Starlink monthly service price will increase from $99 to $110. The new price will apply to your subscription on 5/20/2022.

I get the parts increasing in price, and at least deposit holders aren’t getting boned as hard as new orders, but price increase for service already? Really? Must be desperate for money to finish the SS/SH.

Interesting!

So, uh…

LAN party in the middle of nowhere, anyone?

I’ve got a power trailer for it!

But if my home of record is in the middle of a big city, but I’m planning on traveling around for several months in an RV, they probably won’t even sell me one in order to enable this. sigh

Speaking of RVs!

https://www.starlink.com/rv

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The preview on that link is just Starlink intro verbiage, might want to remove it and just leave the link visible?

I’m not actually sure how to do that. :slight_smile:

The link is to starlink / rv - it’s not the main page.

//EDIT: Ah hah! Put a space in front of the link and it won’t get preview-paned. And then wrap it in actual link tags in a code block or something.

Ooohhhh! I’m almost tempted to get it just to make sure I get the hardware at a lower cost, since I’m assuming hardware costs will end up going up, most likely. On the other hand, newer hardware is likely to be even more power efficient, which is a real thing for this, especially without a generator (which I won’t have).

Of course, my plans for doing large amounts of work from my trailer are next spring/summer, so dunno if it makes sense to invest in it now.

Sustained power use with heaters off is in the 60W range, data transfer dependent.

There’s been lots of success with removing the motors and just running it as a flat panel as well.

The biggest problem with portable use is it likes clear sky and gets obstructed fairly easily.

People you may know tangentially may be doing just that. Or streaming video. Before doing a Thing.

When Portability was unannounced but working, I drove out to a park with zero-cell access with my v1 Dishy, and was able to power on the dish and have internet in about 2 minutes. I was running off a “portable” 1000 WHr battery pack, which claimed that the AC inverter mode was using 35-40W. At 40W, 1000 WHr could power it for 25 hours.

The “take a spherical picture” mode of the Starlink app helps a lot with choosing a location. I kinda wish they had a mode to just overlay the “I need this hole to see the sky” because their “rendering” process is so slow. I guess I could just bring the spherical picture scan mode up and just walk around until I’m clear of those trees…

This weekend, I’m in a low cell (outdoors only) location, with no dsl or anything else, and I just plopped the dish down on the ground with its supplied tripod. works just fine, even though it has a partially obscured view of the sky and the app says “you should find somewhere else”. However I’ve only been running short SSH sessions and http (i.e. lost packets not really noticeable). I’ve run only 10-20 minutes of video total, and no hiccups or buffering issues. I plan to stream a movie tonight which will give a better idea of overall stability.

I turned portability on a few days before this trip and tested beforehand, since the portability for a “stationary” dish account is paid a full month at a time, and support can be very slow.

By slow support; I had a problem transitioning “off” the unannounced Portability mode (i.e. dish would not connect at my house); it took 2 weeks before they fixed it. Luckily it’s only a backup connection for me, so I wasn’t stuck without connectivity.

I designed and printed up some plastic feet, glued on some 1" rubber feet ( Starlink "Dishy" tripod feet by kjwkjw - Thingiverse lmk if you’d like me to upload the files elsewhere), and the starlink provided tripod works great on my car roof. Unless it’s windy out! Then I just open the rear hatch and it acts as a windbreak and is low enough to not interfere with the dish, even when it’s in the “north” direction. Where the silicon valley generally aims the dish straight “northward” by about 20 degrees (eyeballed).

For a semi stationary installation (i.e. vacation home), I can recommend a 4x4 post, 3/4" EMT, a 3d printed shim that fits /inside/ the dishy pole, and 3 assorted bolts to hold it all together. Two holes in the metal pipe to bolt to the post, and one small bolt to attach the dish through the 14mm hole. You need to remove the springy button and replace it with a 14mm / 1/2" rod or random bolt (I currently use 1/4" because that’s what I had lying around). I haven’t published the shim on thingiverse yet, as I need to make one more edit to it, plus design one for 1/2" water pipe (i.e. sch 40 galvanized steel), which would be more appropriate for a permanent installation (EMT is kinda thin, but again, that’s what I had in the scrap bin). Or 3d print a shim for the patio umbrella stand (I did that before I dug a hole for the 4x4 post). read: mount doesn’t have to be expensive, in fact it can be downright cheap (i.e. all scrap parts I had lying around, plus the printed shim)

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I spotted this #vanlife type the other day…

I’m a little more low tech though…

Since my last post, I have seen other users post about disabling the motors on the starlink dish and just drive around with it “flat” perpendicular to the sky, and it works just fine that way. No dome required!

Yeah, I’ve seen that sort of use as well. Mine remains pointed to the north… though I need to get mobility on it or whatever for some desert use later this year. :smiley:

I turned mobility on one week before going to the family “vacation house” (no dsl, no indoor cell reception), tested it, found an “ok” spot out on the lawn (tall trees prevent clear view of sky), but still managed over 100 Mbit. Turned it off 3 weeks later, and the billing/mo went back down. Mobility worked for me!

Holler if you need me to prioritize polishing (documentation) and uploading my 3d printed adapters to various simple kinds of pipe (like EMT).

I’m going to have to try that out one of these weekends in the fall! LAN party in the desert!

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Wait…why do you need internet for a LAN party? Isn’t that all local? Oh right, everything is always online these days, and requires their matchmaking even for local groups.

(No /s, this is not sarcasm. Ok, maybe a little.)