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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

#181

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!

Just need a decentralized system where people could be rewarded financially for providing network access.

Imagine a plug and play system where people with a satellite link could sell network access to their neighbors without a headache. Clients would just need to specify how much they are willing to pay for GB and nodes how much they want to get paid in their routers.

There are many great things that could be done but AFAIK nobody is investing in making that a reality because governments and those that benefiting from the established status quo would definitely get in the way. So Starlink is the way as there's not much that governments can do to get in the way of thousands of satellites controlled by company outside their territory.

Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini

#183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

USB-C 3.1 PD does 240 watts by raising the voltage to 48V, so the chips to accept that already exist, even if they're expensive right now.

Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini

#184
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They do have a heater in some versions - uses another 30-50 watts and is for melting snow.

It's just running the chips hot.

previous HN thread on this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29943898

Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini

#185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Well home 5G wifi has trouble covering all rooms at decent quality, I guess because the walls are thick, so building material may be an issue. I obviously never tried going on the roof to check because it happens when it is raining.

If you have good service anywhere in your house, the issue is WiFi

Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini

#186
post #6
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do we know it's not DC?

Page 7 of the linked FCC application says: > Power requirements: 30 V DC / 2 A via 100-240V AC/DC adaptor Presumably, when people talk about "running it from DC power" they mean a standard 12V automotive power supply, which would require a 12V to 30V step-up converter to replace the supplied AC adapter.

It's DC with support for USB

Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini

#187
post #180

I wonder if it can use ethernet instead of wifi? There have been reports of starlink dishes being located on the ground because of their wifi access points in ukraine.

They've always been instructed not to use WiFi.

The reports have to to with Apple mapping

Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini

#189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fairly sure the heat is just a byproduct of the phased array antenna no?

I think you may be right, I read a HN comment a long time ago saying that they had a heater but it seems they do not.

They have it.

This is from the official docs [1]: Snow Melt Capability: Up to 25mm / hour (1 in / hour)

[1] https://api.starlink.com/public-files/specification_sheet_mi...

Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini

#190
post #121
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?

This new dish should be under 5kg.

It weights 1.16 kg (2.56 lb) with Kickstand. It's quite impressive.

Source: https://api.starlink.com/public-files/specification_sheet_mi...

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