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First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini

starlinkhardware.com

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Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini

#111

Post by SXX »

adolph wrote: post #51
panick21_ wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This much more likely to be something that had been in the long term plan for many years. Amazon is announcing stuff because they are spending 10e of billions and have nothing to show for it, and wont have anything for years. They need to show progress to the quarter to quarter investor. Frankly the idea that Starlink is passivly reacting to Amazon annoucments is a bit silly. The difficult part is to actually produce…

They have at least three Kuiper launches booked in mid-2025, that’s not far off! It’s awesome that they have the flexibility to choose different launch partners and can use the most reliable and flight proven technology. https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/innovation-at-amazon/amazon...

Starlink just had launch #173 and like 70 of them was only in 2023:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Starlink_and_Starshiel...

Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini

#112

Post by felipemesquita »

teruakohatu wrote: post #45
devit wrote: post #41

Is there a way to make a Starlink dish that is viable for backpacking (i.e. 5kg at most, but preferably 0.5-2kg, including the solar panel and battery needed to power it) or is the satellite LTE service the only possibility?

If they made it possible to disable the heating element (ie. require a human to wipe snow off it) then it would be a lot more viable for hiking. The large version draws 45-70w so a airplane carry-on legal USB-C powerbank could power it for 1-2 hours.

You already can disable the heating element from the app on the current models

Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini

#113

Post by cma »

IshKebab wrote: post #84
cma wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No sure about vans, but aren't lots of cars moving to 48V?

Yeah because higher voltage reduces the cost of wiring, and 48V is still under the 50V legal limit for "low voltage". Not sure what your point is though.

> Not sure what your point is though.

If it runs off 30V all you need is a cheap resistor to run it (with 40% loss), or I believe boost convertors are less efficient than buck convertors so it is a win there.

Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini

#114

Post by sebzim4500 »

Ringz wrote: post #100

From the headline, I had hoped that they were smaller Starlink satellites that no longer spoil the night sky so much. I haven't heard from this topic for a long time. Except that there is a darker coating for the newer satellites. Does anyone know how long the individual satellites are in operation before they are sent back to the Earth's atmosphere to have hot fun there?

5 years is the stated lifetime, but some old ones were deorbited early since they became redundant.

Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini

#115

Post by corint »

sfeng wrote: post #101
samastur wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not in Scotland it won't.

Where in Scotland? There’s 5G almost everywhere.

5G almost everywhere? In Scotland?

I respectfully beg to differ. There are massive chunks of Scotland which have no cellular reception at all. There are many places where there is service from some-but-not-all providers. Of those places, there are a few where the service is glacial in performance.

Example: if you stop at The Green Welly Stop in Tyndrum (FK20 8RY), you'll have coverage from only two of the mobile networks. Vodafone and o2 have a coverage patch there. Have a look at the coverage maps (bidb.uk aggregates them all). It's absolutely patchy, and certainly not contiguous.

Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini

#116

Post by prmoustache »

wkat4242 wrote: post #37
ryukoposting wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Garmin inReach (and others like it) is probably the nearest readily-available solution for that use case. Not broadband internet obviously, but it provides access to basic, essential communication methods. It does so at a much, much lower price point than Starlink/HughesNet/etc can offer, making it more palatable as an "emergency backup" product.

Well Starlink here in Spain costs 40€ per month. That's a lot less than the unlimited Garmin inreach plan (74,99€!!) that only allows you to send short messages! And that's the regular plan. Deprioritised Starlink costs €29/month! Still way way more useful service than inreach. I have inreach and for €19,99 I get 10 SMS per month (i don't subscribe every month) and I also have to pay a €39,99 yearly fee. Starlink is…

"For internet backup I have a 4G modem right now, connected to my unifi router with auto failover and a script that adds credit to my prepay card over SMS. It serves me ok. But I'd love to have a starlink mini for backup. Just the regular one is a bit big so I didn't get it yet."

Is 4G a good backup? I am also in Spain and in my neighborhood we often suffer from power failure under heavy rain, I guess a local transformer is shorting as it impacts just a few streets around my house. But when it happens I also lose phone connectivity. The nearest antenna seems to be located in the few streets impacted and smartphone seemingly cannot reach another one nearby. This made me realize the short radius of mobile network range around a single antenna.

Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini

#117

Post by Dylan16807 »

adolph wrote: post #51
panick21_ wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This much more likely to be something that had been in the long term plan for many years. Amazon is announcing stuff because they are spending 10e of billions and have nothing to show for it, and wont have anything for years. They need to show progress to the quarter to quarter investor. Frankly the idea that Starlink is passivly reacting to Amazon annoucments is a bit silly. The difficult part is to actually produce…

They have at least three Kuiper launches booked in mid-2025, that’s not far off! It’s awesome that they have the flexibility to choose different launch partners and can use the most reliable and flight proven technology. https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/innovation-at-amazon/amazon...

> It’s awesome that they have the flexibility to choose different launch partners and can use the most reliable and flight proven technology.

Does Starlink not have that option? Do you think other launch providers would refuse to take SpaceX's money?

Also this isn't a situation where you need reliable and proven. If option A has 99.9% reliability and costs $80M to launch $20M of satellites, and option B has 95% reliability but costs $60M to launch $20M of satellites, then you should go with option B for your fleet.

Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini

#118

Post by brianshaler »

prmoustache wrote: post #116
wkat4242 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well Starlink here in Spain costs 40€ per month. That's a lot less than the unlimited Garmin inreach plan (74,99€!!) that only allows you to send short messages! And that's the regular plan. Deprioritised Starlink costs €29/month! Still way way more useful service than inreach. I have inreach and for €19,99 I get 10 SMS per month (i don't subscribe every month) and I also have to pay a €39,99 yearly fee. Starlink is…

"For internet backup I have a 4G modem right now, connected to my unifi router with auto failover and a script that adds credit to my prepay card over SMS. It serves me ok. But I'd love to have a starlink mini for backup. Just the regular one is a bit big so I didn't get it yet." Is 4G a good backup? I am also in Spain and in my neighborhood we often suffer from power failure under heavy rain, I guess a local transfo…

It sounds more like a building material or geography issue. I've used LTE upwards of 10km off shore. In areas where there isn't good line of sight or if buildings tend to interfere with signal, the access points need to be positioned more densely

Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini

#119

Post by Ringz »

hoseja wrote: post #103
Ringz wrote: post #100

From the headline, I had hoped that they were smaller Starlink satellites that no longer spoil the night sky so much. I haven't heard from this topic for a long time. Except that there is a darker coating for the newer satellites. Does anyone know how long the individual satellites are in operation before they are sent back to the Earth's atmosphere to have hot fun there?

Have you ever actually had the night sky spoiled by a Starlink?

Yes.

Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini

#120

Post by [deleted] »

swader999 wrote: post #5
poorman wrote: post #2

The lack of DC power is rough for boats, vans, and RVs. If someone wants to put this in a backpack they really need to get a DC power supply version. There are solutions out there at this point for the standard dishy but the flat high performance has a crazy power supply with it.

Most van / RV setups have an inverter but I agree, DC is best.

[deleted]
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