Setting up Starlink • Hacker News Board

Re: Setting up Starlink

#81

Post by andreasley » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 2:35 PM UTC

parsimo2010 wrote: post #47

poisonborz wrote: post #31

> It's powered through PoE++ (using around 100W of power continuously) Not familiar with Sat gear, but this number seems extremely high to me for just powering an antenna (and some motors occasionally)

Other users have measured power consumption around 100W constant in operation. https://www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/comments/l22f1u/power_cons... Power consumption could probably be a bit lower, but there are limits. Keep in mind that this is a phased array maintaining a relatively high bandwidth and high SNR link with the satellite. This is complicated microwave electronics design, a whole different ball game than old…

More like $10/month, not a penny.

Re: Setting up Starlink

#82

Post by 7e » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 2:37 PM UTC

tyingq wrote: post #65

Denvercoder9 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right now, that's not really the case though, as the satellite interlinks aren't operational yet. All your traffic goes through a base station relatively close to you, and continues over "regular" fiber around the world.

This article and accompanying videos are interesting in that regard: https://www.circleid.com/posts/20191230_starlink_simulation_... It suggests they could be lower latency than a great-circle path ground fiber without the satellite interlinks.

If you’re paying 20+ms per bounce through the atmosphere, no chance.

Re: Setting up Starlink

#83

Post by freedomben » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 2:37 PM UTC

rsyring wrote: post #11

person_of_color wrote: post #5

The prices aren’t competitive for metros.. what am I missing?

That this service is designed for customers who don't have other good internet options and are therefore somewhere between willing and _thrilled_ to pay $100 a month for good service.

Exactly. The absolute fastest I can get without Starlink is a flakey WISP with ~20 down (they advertise more, but well, it's a lie). That's why I bought Starlink as soon as I could.

Re: Setting up Starlink

#84

Post by ericmay » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 2:37 PM UTC

7e wrote: post #76

freedomben wrote: post #73

I'm using Starlink right now. AMA. I'm in East Idaho. Currently my dish angles itself to the north. It rarely moves itself north/south, and slightly moves east/west throughout the day. I've read that right now it locks onto a single satellite, although they're adding multi-satellite support later. My speeds are inconsistent, and interestingly they start slow (around 60 Mbps) but after a couple seconds they'll get to…

Can you compare with T-Mobile’s 5G home Internet plan? Similar numbers advertised, $60 a month, no caps.

I can't compare but I think one of the selling points is going to be the satellite coverage for Starlink versus T-Mobile's cell towers.

I do like T-Mobile's offering as an alternative to these crappy cable companies.

Re: Setting up Starlink

#85

Post by freedomben » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 2:40 PM UTC

7e wrote: post #76

freedomben wrote: post #73

I'm using Starlink right now. AMA. I'm in East Idaho. Currently my dish angles itself to the north. It rarely moves itself north/south, and slightly moves east/west throughout the day. I've read that right now it locks onto a single satellite, although they're adding multi-satellite support later. My speeds are inconsistent, and interestingly they start slow (around 60 Mbps) but after a couple seconds they'll get to…

Can you compare with T-Mobile’s 5G home Internet plan? Similar numbers advertised, $60 a month, no caps.

I can't because the nearest city to me with 5G is several hours away. The 4G at my house is super spotty. I've used it for Webex calls when my home internet went down and it will mostly handle that, but I would never want to rely on it for my primary connection.

Re: Setting up Starlink

#86

Post by Robotbeat » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 2:47 PM UTC

Denvercoder9 wrote: post #74

labcomputer wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Latency in this case is dominated by time-of-flight to the satellite. At 100 Mbps with a 40 ms latency, there are about 2 megabits in the air between the ground station and CPE.

> Latency in this case is dominated by time-of-flight to the satellite. Is it though? Starlink orbits at 550 km, time-of-flight from ground to satellite to ground would be only 3.7ms, twice that makes ~20% of the roundtrip latency.

550km is the closest approach. Usually it will be at least sqrt(2) times that (ie at least a slant angle of 45 degrees), maybe 2 times that. Plus the latency from the Gateway to the actual server. And the Gateways can have even greater slant angle to the satellite than the mobile terminals.

Re: Setting up Starlink

#87

Post by stochastician » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 2:47 PM UTC

freedomben wrote: post #73

I'm using Starlink right now. AMA. I'm in East Idaho. Currently my dish angles itself to the north. It rarely moves itself north/south, and slightly moves east/west throughout the day. I've read that right now it locks onto a single satellite, although they're adding multi-satellite support later. My speeds are inconsistent, and interestingly they start slow (around 60 Mbps) but after a couple seconds they'll get to…

This is OT but can you share a little bit more about what it's like living in East Idaho? I grew up in Boise and now live in Chicago but with the way things have been going lately I've been considering moving back, and there's a real appeal to living in a smaller town in the eastern part of the state (my dad was from Twin Falls). Internet access is always a bit of a concern though, which maybe Starlink ameliorates? Sorry to be so off-topic but you're the first person I've seen on HN from eastern Idaho!

Re: Setting up Starlink

#88

Post by Robotbeat » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 2:48 PM UTC

7e wrote: post #82

tyingq wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This article and accompanying videos are interesting in that regard: https://www.circleid.com/posts/20191230_starlink_simulation_... It suggests they could be lower latency than a great-circle path ground fiber without the satellite interlinks.

If you’re paying 20+ms per bounce through the atmosphere, no chance.

Not true as the slant angle can be pretty large for Gateways. It is still in principle possible to beat fiber.

Re: Setting up Starlink

#89

Post by throw4738 » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 2:49 PM UTC

lxgr wrote: post #14

person_of_color wrote: post #5

The prices aren’t competitive for metros.. what am I missing?

I live in the city center of a major city and the only wired provider available at my address peaks out at 0.3 Mbit/s upload during workdays. 4G is better, but not by much (given that apparently everyone of my neighbors has already switched to that in favor of the cable provider). One of my neighbors has already pre-ordered Starlink.

Try to downgrade to 3G, it is in phone setting, you should get 3 Mbps easily.

Re: Setting up Starlink

#90

Post by fastball » Sat, Apr 10, 2021, 2:50 PM UTC

andreasley wrote: post #81

parsimo2010 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Other users have measured power consumption around 100W constant in operation. https://www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/comments/l22f1u/power_cons... Power consumption could probably be a bit lower, but there are limits. Keep in mind that this is a phased array maintaining a relatively high bandwidth and high SNR link with the satellite. This is complicated microwave electronics design, a whole different ball game than old…

More like $10/month, not a penny.

Yep, for me it would be $8.50.

For reference, this is an order of magnitude greater than the typical power consumption for existing satellite dishes / 4G modems, which typically operate at around 10W of power consumption.