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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

#221

Post by iamhamm »

wumpus wrote: post #135

Several posters on r/Starlink report that they had seen their dishes at more than 122F, when this topic came up a few days ago. It's entirely possible that this story (and 122 hn comments so far) is about a dish with a loose heatsink, and not a product that always shuts down at 122F.

I have Starlink and I'm in Pahrump, NV. We hit 111F today and my dishy is in direct sunlight on the ground so it was easily over 120F. Hell, my direct sunlight thermometer showed over 130F! 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

#222

Post by yesenadam »

lakis wrote: post #168
tdeck wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mesopotamia and Egypt weren't deserts when those early civilizations got started.

Yes they were. They had rivers running through them. Civilization sprung next to the river.

This[0] suggests that the Sahara wasn't desert when ancient Egypt got started, though it depends on your definitions of those words I guess.

A timeline of Sahara occupation

22,000 to 10,500 years ago: The Sahara was devoid of any human occupation outside the Nile Valley and extended 250 miles further south than it does today.

10,500 to 9,000 years ago: Monsoon rains begin sweeping into the Sahara, transforming the region into a habitable area swiftly settled by Nile Valley dwellers.

9,000 to 7,300 years ago: Continued rains, vegetation growth, and animal migrations lead to well established human settlements, including the introduction of domesticated livestock such as sheep and goats.

7,300 to 5,500 years ago: Retreating monsoonal rains initiate desiccation in the Egyptian Sahara, prompting humans to move to remaining habitable niches in Sudanese Sahara. The end of the rains and return of desert conditions throughout the Sahara after 5,500 coincides with population return to the Nile Valley and the beginning of pharaonic society.

[0] https://www.livescience.com/4180-sahara-desert-lush-populate...

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

#224

Post by driverdan »

tyingq wrote: post #189
aaomidi wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If your engineering team had to wait for a product failure to realize an item that's going to be outdoors in the sun is going to get hot, what on earth else are they missing?

They put a non-automotive grade LCD in Teslas. I assume because they thought they knew better. I suspect hubris is at play more than full-on incompetence.

SpaceX and Tesla are separate companies with different employees. "They" did not put anything in Teslas.

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

#225

Post by krapht »

goodcanadian wrote: post #113
andrewmcwatters wrote: post #6

I’m always surprised how poor engineering gets exposed in products I purchase being an Arizona resident. No, failing at 122F is not acceptable. If your hardware is exposed to outside conditions, it should operate easily below 32F, and well above 140F. Considering that phones can operate below 0F and near 122F, that’s embarrassingly bad. Same thing in vehicles. If you’re driving consistently at interstate speeds, you…

As a Canadian, 32F seems like an oddly high lower limit to me. Things should operate down to at least -40.

Right. Snow tires, 4WD, and engine block heaters should be standard equipment on cars because obviously things should be designed to handle every environment they might reasonably encounter.

/s

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

#226

Post by swiley »

ganoushoreilly wrote: post #179
babesh wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Surprisingly, the heating element built in appears to be pretty solid, or at least that's been the responses on /r/starlink. You're definitely right that people are hating on it. Most of the people I know in real life that knocked it have access to land based internet. Once you get out into rural areas where 4g is the basis for your internet, it's amazing.

And it's not like 4g hotspots and old cell phones don't overheat either.

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

#227

Post by [deleted] »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #153
goodcanadian wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a Canadian, 32F seems like an oddly high lower limit to me. Things should operate down to at least -40.

Assuming you can keep something in the shade - does anywhere on Earth get to 140F beside inside forest fires, lightning bolts and volcanoes? There is a substantial portion of the worlds population that lives months at a time where temperatures are regularly well below freezing.

[deleted]

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

#228

Post by quickthrowman »

1MachineElf wrote: post #75
andrewmcwatters wrote: post #6

I’m always surprised how poor engineering gets exposed in products I purchase being an Arizona resident. No, failing at 122F is not acceptable. If your hardware is exposed to outside conditions, it should operate easily below 32F, and well above 140F. Considering that phones can operate below 0F and near 122F, that’s embarrassingly bad. Same thing in vehicles. If you’re driving consistently at interstate speeds, you…

Interesting. What phone operates at 0F? A few years ago I was in 15F conditions, the batteries in both my phone and my hiking partner's phone would not work at all. Going out briefly in 0F weather and pulling the phone out of the pocket of a warm jacket might be fine, but I'm doubtful a phone could continue to function when thoroughly cooled to 0F. If there's been a recent shift in phone technology, then I'd like to…

I live in MN, and if it’s cold out, I keep my phone next to my body somehow, like a pants pocket or inner jacket pocket in the chest area. This keeps the phone warm enough to work for a while at any temperature you would attempt to use a phone in (I don’t try to use my phone outside when it’s -20F because I don’t want to remove gloves, but 0F is fine) and if it’s too cold, you can rapidly warm it up by placing it between your legs/against your skin/etc.

In he summer, I don’t leave my phone in direct sunlight for extended periods or else it will overheat. Simply placing it in the shade or in a pocket prevents this. It usually only hits 100 here, so I don’t have experience with the 100-120F range and overheating.

Tl;dr Prevent your phone from reaching extreme temperatures and it will work fine.

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

#229

Post by babesh »

kbenson wrote: post #198
babesh wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

The more you hype something, the more susceptible it is to criticism. It's not necessarily that people are Musk haters (although some are I'm sure), it's that it's been hyped to hell, by Musk and others, so problems will be hyped also. You can't have a lot of positive attention without a corresponding amount of negative attention when something goes wrong.

Yeah, it’s probably a mix.

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

#230

Post by [deleted] »

swiley wrote: post #226
ganoushoreilly wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surprisingly, the heating element built in appears to be pretty solid, or at least that's been the responses on /r/starlink. You're definitely right that people are hating on it. Most of the people I know in real life that knocked it have access to land based internet. Once you get out into rural areas where 4g is the basis for your internet, it's amazing.

And it's not like 4g hotspots and old cell phones don't overheat either.

[deleted]
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