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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

#141

Post by rusk »

robertlagrant wrote: post #126
contingencies wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, with current consumption being "everyone wants a global DNS and global network access" it's semi-pointless. But that's just a chicken and egg problem. All of Wikipedia, libgen, thingiverse, open source packages, etc. can be locally cached somewhat trivially. Most oldschool games will run P2P fine over arbitrary networks. That's quite powerful indeed. Now we just need some localtalk apps (reinvent 'talk' and BBS…

If only the users were better and didn't want to stream video, or talk on Facebook, or video call each other, I could run a brilliant service!

It seems to me an approach would be to purposely deoptimize such a P2P network for these applications. Optimise for time-insensitive best effort delivery like the internet of old. Still plenty of applications can work to that model and it is “good enough” for doing business.

Keep the bandwidth heavy applications on different channels with a different QoS guarantees and cost structure.

Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini

#142

Post by adolph »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #117
adolph wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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% relia…

> Does Starlink not have that option?

Starlink already uses "the most reliable and flight proven technology" (imho) so, yes, they have that option.

And yes, I should have added something about cost effective.

Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini

#143

Post by trompetenaccoun »

hylaride wrote: post #132
sschueller wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 bet…

The German mobile network is a joke. Many developing countries have better coverage.

Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini

#144

Post by yencabulator »

michaelt wrote: post #102
contingencies wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Mesh is a mess because meshes do not, in fact, work very well. You set up a mesh network to provide community internet access to an underserved community? 99.9% of traffic will be going to or from the node that connects to the internet at large. That means that although notionally adding a node to the network adds more bandwidth to the network, in practice that's only true if the new node happens to add extra bandwid…

I don't understand how anyone would expect to gain more bandwidth from a mesh. What you gain is coverage, as in distance from uplink.

And at least with earlier meshes, you decrease bandwidth even if you use only one device, because now in laptopAProuter both links compete for the same airtime.

Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini

#145

Post by bklyn11201 »

Scoundreller wrote: post #138
multjoy wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Everyone hates their ISP.

What are your current expectations around price and bandwidth as the Starlink service becomes more popular in your area?

If you have the opportunity to have a fibre or copper connection directly to your unit, it seems like a crazy decision to consider Starlink.

Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini

#146

Post by jes5199 »

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.

there’s a less advertised monthly/mobile mode that you can turn on when you need it. $150/month but only when you use it

Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini

#147

Post by yencabulator »

cma wrote: post #67
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.

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

Some manufacturer RVs and DIY builds are 48VDC now with stepdown converters for the legacy stuff that expects 12V. The problem with that is that practically every RV gadget on the market assumes 12V. It's a chicken-and-egg problem.

Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini

#148

Post by adolph »

dotnet00 wrote: post #87
adolph wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

3 launches in mid-2025 isn't really all that promising an indicator for a constellation that needs to launch thousands of satellites. They'd need signs of an extreme ramp up in launches coming, particularly since so many of these earlier launches will have to be on external providers like ULA and ArianeSpace, who are already running delays, need to build entire rockets each time and have little experience with high l…

> a constellation that needs to launch thousands of satellites.

If I were the folks at Kuiper or any other would-be LEO RF communication constellation:

  * Starlink is proving the value prop to investors and consumers
  * This is an early stage this sector--there will be tech improvements
  * Improvements in satellites mean competitors can enter at vN+1
  * SpaceX/Starlink has some anti-trust risk--they might throw a bone to a weak "competitor" a la Apple/Microsoft 1997 [0]
0. https://youtu.be/WxOp5mBY9IY?t=44

Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini

#149

Post by yencabulator »

fragmede wrote: post #91
IshKebab wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

if the are power electronics chip they use is rated to handle 12 VDC to 48 VDC, which 30 VDC happens to be in-between, then they could just use that chip and you could give it 12V or 48V, whichever you had handy. If all cars are moving to 48V, that makes that more likely.

That's a very wide range and to build a gadget to take that range would cost more, and thus it's not done.

Most "12 V" gadgets only accept the rough range of what a 12 V battery might give them, which is usually only up to 15.4 V while charging.

Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini

#150

Post by yencabulator »

lazide wrote: post #58
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.

There are poe injectors that also fit the weird plug on the dishy and work well (48v). That said, you’re still talking 50-80 watts which is significant on a battery. It takes awhile for the signal to stabilize too, so it’s not the type of thing that does well turning it on for 15 minutes of usage.

> for the signal to stabilize too

Weirdly analog expression, considering a device that hops from satellite to satellite very frequently.

It takes ~10 minutes for Dishy to get a GPS fix and to do a wide beam slow-bandwidth download of exact satellite location data.

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