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.
I guess any sufficiently inefficient computer is indistinguishable from a space heater.
First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini
191–200 of 208 posts
Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini
#192I 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
but will this access point require wifi?
Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
Average disposable income in Ireland is a lot higher than in Spain (source: I moved to Spain from Ireland myself). So there must be more at play there than just purchasing power. If it was purely based on that it would be more like 70 euro compared to Spain's 40. Could be saturation indeed, as Ireland is very sparse in rural areas. And so is Spain, outside the few urban centres.
I'll grant that Spanish people are on a bit less than the Irish, but please don't be misled by GDP Per Capita numbers. Irish people are hurting , especially in the parts of the country beyond greater Dublin. Dublin is well-served by €20/mo all you can eat 5G that seems to hit 300Mbps without effort, so there's no reason to compete with that. But out in the Cork mountains, where the broadband readiness date has now sl…
I know, I lived in Galway for a while. The best I could get for a long time was this "ripwave" crap from Irish Broadband. Which wasn't actually broadband, on a good day it would approach dialup speeds. On a bad day it wouldn't actually work at all. It was ridiculously bad.
It was no wonder that people started rolling their own WANs with point to point wifi connections until things finally picked up.
But starlink would be a good option there, right?
Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini
#194Earlier 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…
Interesting. It sounds like you're referring to Garmin's "Safety" plan, which in the States is $15 per month, and the unlimited plan is $65. Meanwhile, Starlink starts at $120 per month.
Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini
#195Earlier quoted context omitted.
Did some quick research on a major American car parts retailer's website. The biggest batteries they sell are rated as high as 188Ah (though they use a weird industry-specific unit to say that). Many are closer to 25-50Ah. Definitely enough juice to power a terminal for several hours. This lines up with my personal experiences. I have personally used a car battery to keep a big gaming laptop charged for an entire wee…
You likely wouldnt be running this off a lead acid car battery. You’d have a lithium battery and an additional power source, like solar or generator, to top that battery off.
I was operating under the assumption that the system would be wired into the boat/car's existing electrical system, which in most cases will use one or more lead-acid batteries.
Edit: a vanlifer showed up and informed me that Lithium conversions are a thing. Turns out you can have your Lithium and eat it too. Cool stuff.
Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini
#196Earlier quoted context omitted.
Did some quick research on a major American car parts retailer's website. The biggest batteries they sell are rated as high as 188Ah (though they use a weird industry-specific unit to say that). Many are closer to 25-50Ah. Definitely enough juice to power a terminal for several hours. This lines up with my personal experiences. I have personally used a car battery to keep a big gaming laptop charged for an entire wee…
Normal car batteries really hate if you discharge them anywhere close to their capacity. You can get deep-cylce lead acid batteries built for that, but at that point just get lithium iron phosphate batteries.
That's the whole thing, though - shove a large enough lead-acid battery into the boat/car's electrical system, and you won't need to discharge the battery very far at all. 60W on a 100Ah 12V battery is nearly a full day's worth of battery life.
Now consider that the real power draw is probably well below the supply's rating, so it's actually 40ish watts on a 1200Wh battery. Now we're pushing 30 hours.
Now consider the real sickos of the "rich boat owner" class. These people have large engines in their boats, and those engines have alternators. All cars have those, too. That's a power source already integrated into the boat itself. A simple DC step-up regulator wired into the boat's existing electrical system is a much more elegant solution than a second set of batteries and a second power source to charge those batteries.
Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
Did some quick research on a major American car parts retailer's website. The biggest batteries they sell are rated as high as 188Ah (though they use a weird industry-specific unit to say that). Many are closer to 25-50Ah. Definitely enough juice to power a terminal for several hours. This lines up with my personal experiences. I have personally used a car battery to keep a big gaming laptop charged for an entire wee…
Pretty much all of us in the vanlife/overland space run Lithium batteries now, the smallest of which is basically 100Ah. I'm just about to put either 300Ah or 400Ah into my new Jeep camper to run an induction cook top, water pump, hot water, lights, charging and a lot more. I also just mounted 600W of solar on the roof. The power needs of Starlink is a tad annoying, but certainly not a deal breaker for anyone living…
Interesting. How does the cost of the lithium conversion compare to the Starlink terminal?
With sat, the power needs are mostly a physics problem. You can't generate a 30 watt signal unless you draw 30 watts from somewhere. It's just the nature of the beast. It's also why lower-power sat systems like Iridium or Apple's thing have relatively limited functionality.
Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini
#198Earlier quoted context omitted.
Roam is effectively the data plan, this is a new hardware dish, but I suspect it will be the preferred dish for most Roam plans.
Except if it's 1/4th of the bandwidth, in which case it won't be the preferred dish for many who actually work in remote places.
It would be interesting to know the average Roam user profile - I suspect that most don't need multiple simultaneous HD streams or the ability to transfer massive files quickly. I suspect many are RVers or people who just want to check email, make a video call that doesn't need to be high-res, and maybe browse social media.
But point taken that many users will want an upgrade option
Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini
#199Earlier quoted context omitted.
Except if it's 1/4th of the bandwidth, in which case it won't be the preferred dish for many who actually work in remote places.
It would be interesting to know the average Roam user profile - I suspect that most don't need multiple simultaneous HD streams or the ability to transfer massive files quickly. I suspect many are RVers or people who just want to check email, make a video call that doesn't need to be high-res, and maybe browse social media. But point taken that many users will want an upgrade option
Lots of people working on the road say the upload speeds are already problematic for them in certain areas, as the usual mobile plans are deprioritized.
Re: First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini
#200I wish “mesh” WiFi was more standardized. I don’t think there’s any good reason that a device like this should require specifically a Starlink mesh mode instead of an industry standard WDS device.
The new first non-cellular 5G standard DECT NR+ does support mesh. You can use this portable Starlink mini as a backhaul access link to the Internet in remote or rural areas together with DECT NR+ [1].
[1] DECT NR+: A technical dive into non-cellular 5G: