This sounds like the perfect opportunity for Linus from Linus Tech Tips to show us how to watercool a Starlink dish.
Honestly a closed loop solar powered(?) water cooler sounds like the perfect solution.
Starlink dishes go into “thermal shutdown” once they hit 122° Fahrenheit
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Re: Starlink dishes go into “thermal shutdown” once they hit 122° Fahrenheit
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well it is a beta test after all. This is when the design gets a real life shakedown.
It's a bit weird though to not test these at different temperatures beforehand, given that's probably pretty easy to do. Maybe it's more like an alpha test than a beta in practice.
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Re: Starlink dishes go into “thermal shutdown” once they hit 122° Fahrenheit
#213I've seen a teardown of one of these things, and it's sealed well to keep out the weather, but that also makes it hard to put in a cooling fan.
Re: Starlink dishes go into “thermal shutdown” once they hit 122° Fahrenheit
#214Starlink is in beta. The entire purpose of the beta is to find stuff like this. They found something, and I'm sure that the next iteration of this before it goes to mass market will account for it. You're just seeing the system work.
The link is mostly a honeypot for Elon Musk haters. I wonder if they have bothered looking at the operating temperatures of other satellite Internet dishes? A simple search will net you heating and cooling devices for satellite dishes. If you face more extreme temperatures, you need only go buy a heating and cooling unit. http://www.dishcamo.com/dish_heater.htm
https://www.highspeedsat.com/dw7000.htm
-30ºC - +55ºC
The previous link was only for heating dishes. I wonder if there are any products out there for cooling dishes. There are products out there for Dish TV receivers but Starlink has circuits in the dish itself. Seems more like the dw7000 above.
Re: Starlink dishes go into “thermal shutdown” once they hit 122° Fahrenheit
#215Earlier quoted context omitted.
Whoa. What guy? This thermal issue is critical.
And it's a failure in a beta, with a sample size of one. As the poster upthread points out, this is the kind of failure you want to find in a beta test of a new product. But right right... I forgot. Musk.
I couldn't agree more. But it seems some people are reading my comment literally.
Re: Starlink dishes go into “thermal shutdown” once they hit 122° Fahrenheit
#216I’ve worked on multiple projects where, at the early prototype stage, we limped along with off the shelf generic heatsinks, or even no heatsinks, for a phase or two because for some reason, it was long lead or high expense or low priority to fit a custom high performance heatsink. It sometimes seems like thermal work is as eschewed by electronic engineers as mechanical engineers often avoid HVAC.
Sound like the heat issues with the original X-box’s.
Re: Starlink dishes go into “thermal shutdown” once they hit 122° Fahrenheit
#217Earlier quoted context omitted.
And it's a failure in a beta, with a sample size of one. As the poster upthread points out, this is the kind of failure you want to find in a beta test of a new product. But right right... I forgot. Musk.
I couldn't agree more. But it seems some people are reading my comment literally.
(HN really, really doesn't like sarcasm. But this particular story just absolutely drips with irrational hate and really deserves some. Good grief, new product has correctible flaw!)
Re: Starlink dishes go into “thermal shutdown” once they hit 122° Fahrenheit
#218Parting 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."
FWIW, I have Starlink and I'm in Pahrump, NV. We hit 111F today and my dishy is in direct sunlight so easily was over 122F on surfaces. Didn't go into thermal shutdown, no disruptions in service, and I didn't have to water it either.
Re: Starlink dishes go into “thermal shutdown” once they hit 122° Fahrenheit
#219Earlier quoted context omitted.
Obviously 7 million people didn’t move there over the course of this year. If that’s what you thought I was getting at, I’m not surprised you were confused. Conditions have changed, but are people reconsidering their own decisions?
People don't decide where they want to be born.
Right, but your point seems to be getting at Starlink owing you a functioning dish in your climate, which is just kind of an odd take. There are dozens of products that are a bad fit for where I live.
If it makes economic sense, I'm sure they'll fix it or someone else will do it better eventually. If not, maybe the municipal governments can subsidize something that works there?
Re: Starlink dishes go into “thermal shutdown” once they hit 122° Fahrenheit
#220Earlier quoted context omitted.
This flaw was known to SpaceX before the beta began; SpaceX has publicly said the dishes are only certified to 104° Fahrenheit. Musk prefers to ship known broken products in the name of velocity, and out of a sociopathic contempt for the consumer. It’s happened to me more than once.
Is it even fair to call it a 'flaw' or 'broken' if they advertise the limitations? Almost all electronics will have some operational temperature range depending on power consumed and cooling available. Is there even active cooling on the unit?
Yes? If you advertise a flaw, it remains a flaw.