Setting up Starlink • Hacker News Board

Re: Setting up Starlink

#161

Post by walrus01 » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 4:47 PM UTC

justinwp wrote: post #160

In my experience, Starlink isn't suitable for many uses right now without some kind of wan bonding(speedify, speedfusion, etc). I currently have two cellular modems + Starlink bonded with some routing rules forcing connections(streaming) directly to Starlink. Since I installed in early March, it has improved significantly and I will probably switch the default routing rules to use Starlink and only use the bonded con…

This depends on your current latitude and obstructions - my starlink terminal above 49N is averaging 0.22% packet loss (1/5th of 1%) to stuff in a telecom facility in downtown Seattle. Its overall packet loss over a multi day period is actually better, and jitter is lower, than on a docsis3 cable connection at the same place.

The simultaneous density of satellites and gaps, or lack of gaps at your location will have a big impact on the terminal's availability and packet loss to gateway at the other side of the ground-to-space-to-ground link.

Re: Setting up Starlink

#162

Post by bryzaguy » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 4:58 PM UTC

freedomben wrote: post #73

I'm using Starlink right now. AMA. I'm in East Idaho. Currently my dish angles itself to the north. It rarely moves itself north/south, and slightly moves east/west throughout the day. I've read that right now it locks onto a single satellite, although they're adding multi-satellite support later. My speeds are inconsistent, and interestingly they start slow (around 60 Mbps) but after a couple seconds they'll get to…

Thank you for this! I was going to sign my parents up. They live closer to Boise.

Re: Setting up Starlink

#163

Post by toast0 » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 5:00 PM UTC

walrus01 wrote: post #152

Gwypaas wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aiming for 20 ms later this year. (Elon time) A bigger dish would not lower latency but may increase signal strength leading to better throughput. But it's not a simple parabolic antenna. It is the first consumer oriented phased array antenna tracking the satellites as they move across the sky, so that would increase the antenna cost even more. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phased_array

I have seen as low at 15.85 ms from my starlink terminal to downtown Seattle. On average it's more like 22-23 ms.

Centurylink DSL from across the sound to Seattle is generally 21ms, although there is little deviation. (Two line bonded vdsl)

Re: Setting up Starlink

#164

Post by nickysielicki » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 5:00 PM UTC

parsimo2010 wrote: post #47

poisonborz wrote: post #31

> It's powered through PoE++ (using around 100W of power continuously) Not familiar with Sat gear, but this number seems extremely high to me for just powering an antenna (and some motors occasionally)

Other users have measured power consumption around 100W constant in operation. https://www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/comments/l22f1u/power_cons... Power consumption could probably be a bit lower, but there are limits. Keep in mind that this is a phased array maintaining a relatively high bandwidth and high SNR link with the satellite. This is complicated microwave electronics design, a whole different ball game than old…

For anyone interested in a teardown, Shahriar at The Signal Path is a pro and he did one here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6MfM8EFkGg

Re: Setting up Starlink

#165

Post by walrus01 » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 5:02 PM UTC

toast0 wrote: post #163

walrus01 wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have seen as low at 15.85 ms from my starlink terminal to downtown Seattle. On average it's more like 22-23 ms.

Centurylink DSL from across the sound to Seattle is generally 21ms, although there is little deviation. (Two line bonded vdsl)

just the segment from your modem to the DSLAM is probably 14-16ms, which can be typical for VDSL2.

Re: Setting up Starlink

#166

Post by simonebrunozzi » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 5:07 PM UTC

freedomben wrote: post #73

I'm using Starlink right now. AMA. I'm in East Idaho. Currently my dish angles itself to the north. It rarely moves itself north/south, and slightly moves east/west throughout the day. I've read that right now it locks onto a single satellite, although they're adding multi-satellite support later. My speeds are inconsistent, and interestingly they start slow (around 60 Mbps) but after a couple seconds they'll get to…

Besides Starlink, I'm curious to hear more about your Protectli. Why do you like it so much? What can it do, that you can't do on your own computer with some scripting and such?

Re: Setting up Starlink

#167

Post by jon-wood » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 5:10 PM UTC

nly wrote: post #128

teh_klev wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> interestingly they start slow (around 60 Mbps) For many of us that's reasonably fast ;). In the UK, FTTC provided over POTS (often BT or some form of unbundle), the top end is 80Mbs/20Mbs. I don't know what you'd expect with cable provisioned areas supplied by the likes of Virgin (DOCSIS).

Virgin provide up to 300 or 500 Mbps depending on area

They have trial areas where they do 1Gbps lines as well, and when I was using one it would reliably hit that.

Re: Setting up Starlink

#168

Post by te_chris » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 5:24 PM UTC

jon-wood wrote: post #167

nly wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Virgin provide up to 300 or 500 Mbps depending on area

They have trial areas where they do 1Gbps lines as well, and when I was using one it would reliably hit that.

We’ve got that. We were on 200 and it wouldn’t go above 60. Since they finished the upgrade for docsis 3.1 and we switched to 1gbps it’s been what we wanted 200 to be - reliable and invisible. I hate them with a passion, but hate the UK gov more for its incompetent handling of fibre incentives and coordination nationally.

Re: Setting up Starlink

#169

Post by laputan_machine » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 5:25 PM UTC

freedomben wrote: post #122

DecoPerson wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At first I thought “30s” meant “30 seconds” rather than “thirties (ms).” My opinion of Starlink and what it means for the world was being completely reshapen until I read your comment again!

Ah yes, thanks! I did mean thirties but I changed it to `ms` to avoid confusion :-)

I have never heard of adding 'ies' onto the end of numbers to mean 'ms'. I'm (probably) not alone, fyi!

What industry is that lexicon from?

Re: Setting up Starlink

#170

Post by kortilla » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 5:27 PM UTC

jws wrote: post #127

paranoidrobot wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably because a plus code is harder for someone to screw up. Find the place on Google Maps, copy the plus code. Rather than entering lat/lon coords... except did you get the sign right, or maybe you flipped lat/lon, or got a significant digit out.

… or you used minutes with a decimal minute, or minutes and seconds, or maybe decimal degrees. There comes a time when a format has so many confusable variants, it’s best to make a new unambiguous format. I prefer “three words”. You get three words and they identify a location suitably accurate for navigation. https://what3words.com/

A system that depends on a functioning proprietary API to resolve coordinates is idiotic. That’s so unreliable that it can’t be used for anything more than an ephemeral exchange. At that point you might as well have a 3 word url shortened link.