Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini

starlinkhardware.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 208 posts

Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini

#131

Post by jpm_sd »

contingencies wrote: post #98
Nursie wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a standard a few years ago IIRC, EasyMesh. I even bought a kit that supported it. https://www.netgear.com/au/home/wifi/mesh/mk62/ I was most pissed off when I bought another (orbi?) kit from the same vendor a couple of years later and it didn't support easymesh, and wasn't compatible at all. Does seem to be a mess!

Mesh is a mess because the government, mobile device manufacturers and cellular carriers all want you on a centralized cellular system. Money is made selling cellular plans, cellular data, cellular carrier based device distribution (especially in the US, where most devices are carrier-acquired IIRC). Google in particular don't want to encourage non-centralized models, because their whole Android-shall-prevent-Apple-f…

Don't assume a conspiracy where the underlying mathematics are a sufficient explanation! Centralized systems use RF bandwidth MUCH more efficiently.

Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini

#132

Post by hylaride »

sschueller wrote: post #82
dfadsadsf wrote: post #38

I plan to work and travel in Europe for 1.5 months this summer and I hope they will release it soon. Hotel/AirBnB wifi is often unstable and unreliable - you never know if Zoom will work or not. With Starlink I will have backup and at minimum will be able to take calls in the car. We will have rental car so planned to get regular Starlink but this one will be much better option.

I would think in Europe even on the top of Jungfraujoch you will have better performance from a 5G link.

Europe's cell phone qualities vary a lot by country. Even in western Europe, some surprising countries(1) have absolutely terrible networks. As a Canadian we have some very expensive mobile plans, but our network speeds are mostly very usable in 95% of the places I'll ever end up (I routinely stream netflix/youtube/etc on the train between Toronto and Montreal).

(1) I'm looking at you Germany, where my connection between Hamburg and Berlin was mostly edge and my LTE connections in the cities were barely useable. I even switched local SIMs from T-mobile to Vodafone because it was so terrible, but was the same result.

Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini

#133

Post by andruby »

TobTobXX wrote: post #109

For anyone wondering, these are the sizes in modern units: Starlink Standard: 59.5cm x 38cm, Starlink Mini: 29cm x 25cm

For those familiar with DIN paper sizes, that going from A2 (60cm x 42cm) to almost A4 (30cm x 21cm).

That's a large reduction. Do they mention weight difference anywhere? (couldn't find it in the article)

Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini

#134

Post by giraffe_lady »

14u2c wrote: post #36
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.

Buy a $50 inverter. They are tiny and it's not like this thing is using enough power for the efficiency hit to make a difference.

It's absolutely significant in at least some of the situations where you'd use this. A friend and I are planning on taking a small sailboat across the atlantic next year and were looking at communication options.

We had decided the normal starlink is just not feasible on a small solar-only boat so this caught my attention. It's still too high though. It would take slightly more power than all the other systems combined if it were DC. With an inverter it pushes it over and there just isn't that much prime panel space on a sailboat.

Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini

#135

Post by mathsmath »

dboreham wrote: post #130
skybrian wrote: post #12

I think a great use case for this would be as a backup for when the regular ISP goes out in a rural area. But I don't think they have any subscription plans priced for that? And there might be issues after a storm if everyone started using it at once.

> But I don't think they have any subscription plans priced for that? As a former owner of a WISP, this idea of a "backup service" doesn't really work (read: I make no money from you).

Sure it does! I’m rural and our phones/ISP went out last week.

I activated our Starlink roam (you can access the captive portal while service is disabled) & all the remote working neighbors came over and shared the connection. It worked great!

Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini

#136

Post by michaelt »

stavros wrote: post #9
IshKebab wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not many devices that run off 30V will run off 12V too. It's too big of a difference. But 12V to 36V boost converters are readily available and very cheap.

I imagine most of those devices have a buck converter inside, no?

If you're drawing 30V 2A (60W) through a connector rated for 2.5A, and you try to draw the same 60W at 12V i.e. 5A you're in trouble because the connector's not designed for 5A.

And not every DC-DC converter is sized for a wide range of input voltages. A DC-DC converter with a "2:1 input voltage range" might accept anything from 18 to 36 volts, whereas a converter with a "4:1 input voltage range" might accept 9 to 36 volts. The wider input voltage range generally costs a bit more too.

Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini

#138

Post by Scoundreller »

multjoy wrote: post #88
mattlondon wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WTF? Entry price for starlink is £75/month in UK! ADSL is typically ~£25-30 for unlimited 80/20 for comparison

If you can get 80/20 ADSL, you're not buying Starlink.

Some people underestimate how much hate we can have for our legacy ISPs.

I’d be happy to pay a premium to never give them another dollar ever again.

Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini

#139

Post by trompetenaccoun »

theodric wrote: post #92
stanislavb wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup, my issue with Starlink is giving money to a company owned by Musk. I will avoid that as much as possible.

Tesla and SpaceX collectively employ 113,000 people, and I really think the story should be more about them than the guy who has the keys to the nicest office in the building. Gwynne Shotwell is a hell of an administrator. Without Starlink, I wouldn't have broadband! Elon Musk makes his questionable opinions public, but we don't know if the Hughes or Chevrolet CEO has bad opinions for which they must be cancelled, be…

In a liberal and civilized society no one "must be cancelled" for opinions. And I personally much prefer they openly share their convictions than sneakily hiding behind corporate speak. What you're describing is done out of cowardice and greed. Maybe Tesla's stock would be higher if Musk let his PR team do the tweeting, like Bezos does. But why would anyone sensible want to listen to that? They'll say anything as long as it makes their boss look good. More importantly, what kind of person has that kind of wealth and yet is still concerned mainly with the share price and not what their conviction tells them to stand up for? There are more important things in life than money.

Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini

#140

Post by Scoundreller »

SXX wrote: post #106
sofixa wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depending on what you mean by "Europe" (Madrid? Waldhufen? A bunch of cabins in the north of Sweden? A random beach on Rhodes?), 4G/5G coverage is pretty good. Local SIMs are usually affordable, and thanks to the EU, roaming comes with a lot of things included. As a reference, I have a 20eur/month pay as you go plan from Free (France) that gets me unlimited 5G, calls, messages in France, and unlimited calls and messa…

I can confirm Free offer is pretty good. Just keep in mind that after some time outside of France (like 6 month?) sim will stop working, but you can of course always register new one. Also anyone can buy and activate Free esim outside of France.

Need a system where I can put my physical SIM card into a serial convertor and it “plugs” into a phone located in some other country so it can ping elsewhere every once in a while.

Dunno if providers will pick up on me teleporting around.

Maybe the better way is some kind of 700mhz repeater-over-IP.

Post reply on HN