Power for Starlink?

[sailingunity]

Would be nice if someone made a flat mount for it where the arm on the back is retained, but doesn't do anything. All I've seen are ones that replace the back with a low profile back - but require hacking the antenna or disabling the motor.

[shimari]

Originally Posted by Jon Hacking

Jordan, you post some excellent information.

You may not have heard, as it's a fairly recent discovery, but the antenna itself runs on 12v! Starlink hops it up to 48v to minimize losses in the thin wires of the ethernet cable supplying power to the antenna, but at the antenna they convert it back down to 12v. Someone published a hack where they disabled that down-converter in the antenna & fed it 12v directly. I think this is what the OP is talking about.

here's the link -

https://olegkutkov.me/2023/06/09/how...dc-converters/

This is an option if: 1) you're doing surgery on the dish to make it flat, and 2) you're comfortable with modifying electronics.

The author does note that you can't exceed 15v or you might fry the dish. So, this project is a bit more complicated than just blindly following the blog post. I'd add over voltage protection etc.

Saving the loss of a good 12/24 to 48v converter isn't worth it to me to try this, and I'm more than comfortable doing this mod.

[northwestsailor]

Check out star-mountsystems.com for SL conversions and power supply options. We neutered our dishy and couldn’t be happier. Makes it super easy to transport from boats and van.

[shimari]

Originally Posted by northwestsailor

Check out star-mountsystems.com for SL conversions and power supply options. We neutered our dishy and couldn’t be happier. Makes it super easy to transport from boats and van.

There's also a DIY version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRSnTMrUPrQ

if you have access to a 3D printer.

The above is going to be my winter project. I've been adapting the CAD drawings he provides to make it suitable for a Seaview pole mount.

[Jon Hacking]

Originally Posted by sailingunity

Would be nice if someone made a flat mount for it where the arm on the back is retained, but doesn't do anything. All I've seen are ones that replace the back with a low profile back - but require hacking the antenna or disabling the motor.

Unity, this is exactly what I'm planning to do on our sailing catamaran.

Most cruising sailboats have an electronic arch at the back, where they put various antennas as well as solar panels. So I'm going to mount a pair of aluminum rails, either channel or just angle, to the undersides of my solar panel frames, spaced at the correct distance so Dishy can slide in between them, held by the edges. Lash the ends together & bingo! A cheap holder that doesn't use the center mount & doesn't need the motors disabled, yet keeps Dishy pointing straight up. This can also probably be done with PVC pipe, by cutting a slot in the sides, which would be a bit more floppy, but non-metallic, which has some advantages.

[Slovak]

Originally Posted by jordanbigel

There is no carving up of the dish to use 12v power.

No dish surgery required. You are probably confusing the operation which some people do to disconnect the dish's motors and force it to be flat. This is not required if your goal is simply to power the dish from 12vdc.

You do have to cut the ethernet cable which normally goes from the SL router to the dish in order to crimp on a standard ethernet connector since SL uses proprietary connectors, but that does not affect the dish in any way, just the cable.

Also, you do not need to modify the SL router (not a modem) in any way, mine is stuffed in a locker in case I ever need it.

Exactly the same approach here. I did buy a female-to-female network connector (RJ45 Coupler) so that I can rejoin the cable with the other half of the cable, which is also pinned out with the same cable crossover SL nuance. Once the cable rejoined, I can use the SL router again if needed.

Originally Posted by Cheyne

our NAS which also runs off 12v.

Which NAS do you use aboard?

[Cheyne]

Originally Posted by Slovak

Which NAS do you use aboard?

I have a Synology Diskstation with 4 x 20Tb drives in it.

Cheyne

[Slovak]

Originally Posted by Cheyne

I have a Synology Diskstation with 4 x 20Tb drives in it.

Thanks for the prompt response. Any conversion needed to make it run on 12V? How is the power usage with those spinning HDDs?

[Cheyne]

Originally Posted by Slovak

Thanks for the prompt response. Any conversion needed to make it run on 12V? How is the power usage with those spinning HDDs?

Not really sure on power consumption. I haven't measure to see what it uses, but with our power I don't worry about it.

To convert I just cut the power cable. It had a 110v to 12v power brick. It says on the back of the old brick it draws 6 amp at 12v.

Cheyne

[CarlF]

There are multiple reports that Starlink power needs are going down. The V2 dish and included router used to average 45 watts. I saw one report of 30 watts off a Victron inverter

. Maybe this is due to improvements in the software or the larger number of satellites requires less searching.

This means that the benefit of a 12v conversion becomes pretty small. Maybe 10 watts. Maybe less. A lot depends on how good your 45v converter is. Many of those sold on Amazon are much less efficient than a quality inverter like a Victron.

[MVDarlin]

I use an inverter as well. It has a watt meter. Starlink routinely uses 30 to 60 watts, but jumps higher when the antenna adjusts.

[sailcrazy]

Following. We currently cruise in the Caribbean, and buying Internet time from who-ever the local provider is....after you find their outlet....is getting really old!

[westernspirit]

Ours runs off inverter; averages about 60 watts. It seems like ours only does it’s motorized searching , when it first boots up. It doesn’t appear to be moving at all while we sail/tack etc.
of course it must be said that another solution is to just turn it off when not using. We only have it on for weather/wind, checking in with family couple times a day, some evenings Netflix etc. so total daily power consumption hasn’t prompted me to mess with trying to have a DC solution

[westernspirit]

Originally Posted by westernspirit

Ours runs off inverter; averages about 60 watts. It seems like ours only does it’s motorized searching , when it first boots up. It doesn’t appear to be moving at all while we sail/tack etc.
of course it must be said that another solution is to just turn it off when not using. We only have it on for weather/wind, checking in with family couple times a day, some evenings Netflix etc. so total daily power consumption hasn’t prompted me to mess with trying to have a DC solution

Sorry, that’s wrong (60 watts) have been watching it just now on amp meter. Thru inverter uses a brief 60 watts on start-up but then bounces around from 30-40 watts. Interestingly while motor was adjusting starlink there was very little change in power draw. So majority of time it is on it’s about 36 watts

[boating4ever]

We installed starlink with the Yaosheng adapters, Peplink MAx Br1 Pro inside Poynting EPNT-1, and interior access point running off of PoE. We typically run the generator away from the dock but during the switch over there is a power loss and keeping it DC keeps the system on at all times and some times we turn off the generator while under way. System is robust as we have Starlink on ethernet WAN, cellular SIMs in the Peplink, and WiFi WAN on 2.4 and 5ghz. Multiple WANs for multiple situations. Icing on the cake is Peplink's Speedfusion, we use the Smoothing function for WiFi calling, video conferencing, and other high availability requirements.