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Starlink dishes go into “thermal shutdown” once they hit 122° Fahrenheit

arstechnica.com

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Re: Starlink dishes go into “thermal shutdown” once they hit 122° Fahrenheit

#21

Post by slownews45 »

trixie_ wrote: post #19
api wrote: post #13

So apparently one of the downsides of Starlink is that the base station is an energy pig. Doesn't surprise me all that much in retrospect but I didn't think of it when I first heard about it.

How much energy does it use?

110W peak usage.

I've seen wifi hotspots use this much and they don't have to connect to space.

Is this really "energy pig" level of usage for space based communications? My former experience was with gimbled / gyro pointing dishes which were very energy intensive by comparison. 100W and little physical movement would have been considered very efficiant.

How do other space com platforms handle deployment / install of end user terminals. I've not seen ones with the spaceX approach (simple end user install). Perhaps the professional installs get the energy use down to 10W or whatever is not considered "energy pig" usage.

As a point of reference, tesla's cars hit energy draws of 900,000W when driving. Their semi is likely to use even more. So I think worth being careful about energy pig label.

Re: Starlink dishes go into “thermal shutdown” once they hit 122° Fahrenheit

#22

Post by newacct583 »

spuz wrote: post #11

This sounds like the perfect opportunity for Linus from Linus Tech Tips to show us how to watercool a Starlink dish.

Per the article, it's already been tested and works. Just throw a sprinkler on the thing.

Clearly, though, the tolerances weren't chosen correctly when they designed the thing. 122F isn't actually that hot for a device designed to sit stationary in the sun all day.

Re: Starlink dishes go into “thermal shutdown” once they hit 122° Fahrenheit

#23

Post by gamblor956 »

BuyMyBitcoins wrote: post #9
11thEarlOfMar wrote: post #8

Parting Shot: "To all beta testers using Starlink this summer, better come up with a dish heat management system or else face no connectivity. Not surprising, considering this is a company owned by Elon Musk."

Well it is a beta test after all. This is when the design gets a real life shakedown.

For a product intended to be used by people in remote locations, temperature range is an alpha test feature, not a beta test feature, because there's a very good chance they will need to completely redesign the dish internals to operate at higher temperature ranges, especially if they expect to weatherproof the dishes in future designs.

the design process is different for hardware because you can't just fix everything with a patch after-the-fact. You have to actually anticipate problems and account for them in your design, especially when you are charging people money for the product and marketing it as a remote solution.

Re: Starlink dishes go into “thermal shutdown” once they hit 122° Fahrenheit

#25

Post by smachiz »

slownews45 wrote: post #21
trixie_ wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much energy does it use?

110W peak usage. I've seen wifi hotspots use this much and they don't have to connect to space. Is this really "energy pig" level of usage for space based communications? My former experience was with gimbled / gyro pointing dishes which were very energy intensive by comparison. 100W and little physical movement would have been considered very efficiant. How do other space com platforms handle deployment / install of…

No wifi hotspot is using 110 watts.

110 watts is a fair amount of power - at $0.20/kWh you're going to add $16 to your power bill monthly.

It's similar to leaving a desktop computer on 24/7.

Re: Starlink dishes go into “thermal shutdown” once they hit 122° Fahrenheit

#26

Post by marcinzm »

j-pb wrote: post #24

I have a starlink beta, and we're currenty experiencing a really bad hearwave here in germany ( I measured 35C in the shade ). Mine works like a charm regardless.

That's not a heatwave by US standards, that's a pretty common summer day for a decent chunk of the US. Arizona can get to around 50C.

Re: Starlink dishes go into “thermal shutdown” once they hit 122° Fahrenheit

#28

Post by slownews45 »

smachiz wrote: post #25
slownews45 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

110W peak usage. I've seen wifi hotspots use this much and they don't have to connect to space. Is this really "energy pig" level of usage for space based communications? My former experience was with gimbled / gyro pointing dishes which were very energy intensive by comparison. 100W and little physical movement would have been considered very efficiant. How do other space com platforms handle deployment / install of…

No wifi hotspot is using 110 watts. 110 watts is a fair amount of power - at $0.20/kWh you're going to add $16 to your power bill monthly. It's similar to leaving a desktop computer on 24/7.

My Netgear R8500 was 50 watts easily I'd say. My friends gaming computer DEFINATELY uses more than 100W. Basic computer use for cryptomining seems to use a lot more as well. It just doesn't seem like 100W for what this thing does is a ton.

Re: Starlink dishes go into “thermal shutdown” once they hit 122° Fahrenheit

#29

Post by andrewmcwatters »

Sort of funny that the solution for streaming is to literally turn on a stream of water.

On a separate note, even if you don’t live in Arizona, a litmus test for good engineering is whether or not you see reviews of a product melting in Arizona. Yeah, melt. Literally.

Phoenix is the fifth largest city in the US. If it doesn’t work here, it’s not mass market.

Re: Starlink dishes go into “thermal shutdown” once they hit 122° Fahrenheit

#30

Post by ethanbond »

andrewmcwatters wrote: post #29

Sort of funny that the solution for streaming is to literally turn on a stream of water. On a separate note, even if you don’t live in Arizona, a litmus test for good engineering is whether or not you see reviews of a product melting in Arizona. Yeah, melt. Literally. Phoenix is the fifth largest city in the US. If it doesn’t work here, it’s not mass market.

A good litmus test for good city location is whether or not melting objects/burns from touching objects is a daily concern
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