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shagginwagon83
Samba Member
Joined: February 07, 2016
Posts: 3794
Location: VA/TN
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 Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2022 7:20 pm Post subject: Starlink satellite internet |
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I just paid my deposit for my Starlink and should be getting the setup in about two weeks. This should be game changer for me working and traveling. I just checked and I have used 140gb of data in the past 30 days. I don't really watch or download movies either.
If anyone doesn't know, Starlink is SpaceX's satellite internet. Users can expect to see download speeds between 100 Mb/s and 200 Mb/s and latency as low as 20ms in most locations. $110 a month. $550 for the hardware.
Has anyone mounted one of these to their Vanagon yet? I can't wait to get mine in and mount it up!
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Brandon
"Jo Ann" - '83.5 Westfalia EJ22e w/Peloquin
Instagram @joannthevan |
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Alaskaberrys 
Samba Member
Joined: June 19, 2016
Posts: 1001
Location: SE Alaska
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| Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2022 12:17 am Post subject: Re: Starlink satellite internet |
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I was thinking the same - would be handy when traveling as it seems small enough.
Put in my deposit two years ago (don’t tell my star gazing friends or they’ll beat me with a rubber hose) Hasn’t made it this far north yet, but is close.
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'91 Westfalia, Bordeaux Red Pearl 2.1L 2wd Auto
'91 T3 Syncro Doka, Escorial Green 1.9L TD AAZ “Gremian” (to provoke, irritate, exasperate, vex...) |
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Robw_z
Samba Member
Joined: April 28, 2007
Posts: 983
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| Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2022 2:25 am Post subject: Re: Starlink satellite internet |
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Can you use it anywhere or are you limited to a grid block?
Forgive me I’m not in the loop on the latest with Starlink, last I heard it wasn’t set up to be fully mobile yet. I am excited when/if the day comes you can go anywhere with it.
-Rob |
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CdnVWJunkie
Samba Member
Joined: February 01, 2004
Posts: 1110
Location: Sarnia, Ontario, Canada
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| Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2022 4:17 am Post subject: Re: Starlink satellite internet |
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| shagginwagon83 wrote: |
| I just paid my deposit for my Starlink and should be getting the setup in about two weeks. |
Hold your horses. I paid my deposit in Feb '21. Still no satellite. Big back log. Check out FB Starlink group to validate, if you so choose. Lots of reports there of happy users and almost equally people who are still waiting. |
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djkeev
Samba Moderator
Joined: September 30, 2007
Posts: 32574
Location: Reading Pennsylvania
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shagginwagon83
Samba Member
Joined: February 07, 2016
Posts: 3794
Location: VA/TN
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| Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2022 5:29 am Post subject: Re: Starlink satellite internet |
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| CdnVWJunkie wrote: |
| shagginwagon83 wrote: |
| I just paid my deposit for my Starlink and should be getting the setup in about two weeks. |
Hold your horses. I paid my deposit in Feb '21. Still no satellite. Big back log. Check out FB Starlink group to validate, if you so choose. Lots of reports there of happy users and almost equally people who are still waiting. |
Sorry poor choice of words on my part. I too paid my deposit in Feb '21. Just got the email to pay for the price of the hardware. ETA 2 weeks.
| Robw_z wrote: |
Can you use it anywhere or are you limited to a grid block?
Forgive me I’m not in the loop on the latest with Starlink, last I heard it wasn’t set up to be fully mobile yet. I am excited when/if the day comes you can go anywhere with it.
-Rob |
I have read they plan to allow for Starlink to work mobile. I read somewhere a trucker updated his location 80 times last year in his account. Does this process take like 5 minutes?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p3sr4Zb3Qw
I believe you can flip a 'roaming' switch on in the configurations and it would enable roaming.
Obviously, I will beta test this on weekends before I go full send and go cross country.
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Brandon
"Jo Ann" - '83.5 Westfalia EJ22e w/Peloquin
Instagram @joannthevan |
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jimf909
Samba Member
Joined: April 03, 2014
Posts: 7462
Location: WA/ID
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| Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2022 6:47 am Post subject: Re: Starlink satellite internet |
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I paid my deposit in May '21 and am told mid-2022 for arrival of the equipment. A friend paid their deposit in Jan '21 and has ad the equipment for a couple of months so it seems they're making it through the backlog.
Starlink uses AC and reports say it uses 100 watts which will require a proper solar system to support. The heater used to melt snow on the antenna is a factor (I don't know if it's on 24x7 or only when temps drop to snow accumulation levels). If I run Starlink 24x7 at my off-grid location it will be the #1 power consumer (my pig of a fridge uses about 1.8kwh per day) so I'll plan to turn it on only when using the internets.
Apparently cats like the heated antenna:
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- Jim
| Abscate wrote: |
Do not get killed, do not kill others.
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Current: 1990 Westy Camper - Bostig RG4, 2wd, manual trans w/Peloquin, NAHT high-top, 280 ah LFP battery, 160 watts solar, Flash Silver, seam rust, bondo, etc., etc.
Past: 1985 Westy Camper - 1.9 wbx, 2wd, manual trans, Merian Brown, (sold after 17 years to Northwesty who converted it to a Syncro). |
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charleslabri
Samba Member
Joined: December 08, 2019
Posts: 615
Location: Nashville/Yosemite
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| Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2022 6:52 am Post subject: Re: Starlink satellite internet |
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ive had starlink for almost 1.5 years now at my cabin in yosemite.
Couple things to note:
This thing will be the right tool for the job if they let you.
Geo-fencing
So currently its sort of geo-fenced. If you take it out of your address (i.e. slap it on the van), they will throttle you so that your speeds drop.
Now about the speeds:
When i got it, iw as getting about 100/100. Now that number is dropping to somewhere around 25/5. My guess is that there are a lot more subscribers on each satellite node. Ive seen at least one of the starlink terminals on the outside of a neighbors place.
About power draw:
I havent measured the current directly (its VAC), but do mind you that it has a really large brick which provides PoE to the terminal itself, which in turn has ice melt heaters, etc. Not sure how much juice it draws on the regular, but it certainly has the capacity to suck down.
About the setup:
Another thing to note is that you need their router and cant use your own low power one since they use a proprietary protocol for routing.
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shagginwagon83
Samba Member
Joined: February 07, 2016
Posts: 3794
Location: VA/TN
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| Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2022 6:59 am Post subject: Re: Starlink satellite internet |
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100 watts AC is I believe roughly 10 amps DC. That is quite a bit of load. I might have to step up to 600ah LiFePo4 and 400w rooftop (as opposed to 200w). Not a huge deal but I wish that power consumption was half. I can max out my 15amp solar controller right now in 'ideal' conditions with 200w rooftop and 130w portable. But a cloudy day, I would be in the negative.
Anyhow, I can work through that. Just running out of space in this small van. I would obviously have to work at a campground during rainy/bad weather...or travel daily and charge by DC-DC.
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Brandon
"Jo Ann" - '83.5 Westfalia EJ22e w/Peloquin
Instagram @joannthevan |
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jimf909
Samba Member
Joined: April 03, 2014
Posts: 7462
Location: WA/ID
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| Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2022 7:24 am Post subject: Re: Starlink satellite internet |
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| djkeev wrote: |
How is the signal affected by weather?
I've had satellite TV in years gone by and bad weather certainly scrambled and pixeled the signal.
Dave |
I'm not sure about weather, but the antenna needs a fairly clear view of the north sky (different from other satellite systems that generally point south). Starlink provides an app that allows you to scan the sky to see what the reception will be. It doesn't take much to disrupt the connection to a satellite, even a tree cause occasional problems so a cabin or campsite nestled in the woods is not a great location.
That said, I know a few people who love their Starlink and gladly dropped high-earth orbit internet providers for remarkably improved performance (speed and latency) provided by Starlink.
_________________
- Jim
| Abscate wrote: |
Do not get killed, do not kill others.
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Current: 1990 Westy Camper - Bostig RG4, 2wd, manual trans w/Peloquin, NAHT high-top, 280 ah LFP battery, 160 watts solar, Flash Silver, seam rust, bondo, etc., etc.
Past: 1985 Westy Camper - 1.9 wbx, 2wd, manual trans, Merian Brown, (sold after 17 years to Northwesty who converted it to a Syncro). |
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Abscate
Samba Member
Joined: October 05, 2014
Posts: 22639
Location: NYC/Upstate/ROW
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| Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2022 7:53 am Post subject: Re: Starlink satellite internet |
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| jimf909 wrote: |
I paid my deposit in May '21 and am told mid-2022 for arrival of the equipment. A friend paid their deposit in Jan '21 and has ad the equipment for a couple of months so it seems they're making it through the backlog.
Starlink uses AC and reports say it uses 100 watts which will require a proper solar system to support. The heater used to melt snow on the antenna is a factor (I don't know if it's on 24x7 or only when temps drop to snow accumulation levels). If I run Starlink 24x7 at my off-grid location it will be the #1 power consumer (my pig of a fridge uses about 1.8kwh per day) so I'll plan to turn it on only when using the internets.
Apparently cats like the heated antenna:
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Cat 5 cable link, obviously
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vanis13
Samba Member
Joined: August 15, 2010
Posts: 3091
Location: ABQ NM USA.... Except when not
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| Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2022 8:00 am Post subject: Re: Starlink satellite internet |
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| Abscate wrote: |
| Cat 5 cable link, obviously |
HA!
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83.5 Westy with Subaru 2.5, 4 spd manual, center seat, COLD A/C on 134a!, Winter camp heated with an Espar B4 gasoline furnace
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charleslabri
Samba Member
Joined: December 08, 2019
Posts: 615
Location: Nashville/Yosemite
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| Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2022 8:37 am Post subject: Re: Starlink satellite internet |
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yeah, take note of a few things as well---
my gen1 circle model has the CAT6 hard wired into the satellite. This is a total pain since they give a 100' cable. Just get ready to cut and crimp. I believe they use the B standard.
Second, that obstruction issue is HUGE. My plan to eventually use this requires some serious telescoping of that antennae. Even the slightest tree in the way will cause this thing to just cut for 3-5 second periodically as satellites pass.
By no means is this the great internet we crave to work from timbuktu, but its the best thing out there in '22.
Amazon just launched their first satellites, lets hope some ol' fashion capitalism drives the price down and quality up-well see.
pic of my little treefort with starlink:
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bobbyblack
Samba Member
Joined: May 21, 2015
Posts: 4348
Location: United States, Iowa
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| Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2022 9:02 am Post subject: Re: Starlink satellite internet |
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I can verify that 10 to 10.5 amps is what I have seen, as I first tested my SL in my bus back a year when I got it. That was with 5 concurrent users all in the bus on handheld stuff, and one TV playing a Netfilx or such. The SL load was on top of the other loads I had going at the time, and my 120ah LFP would have only held out for around 10 hours. I haven't checked my donw/up lately, but my service has actually improved; I don't see as many sat-handoff drops as I first did about a year ago. I do network and systems work and have had decent connectivity for vid-conferencing, and commandline remote sessions.
I would like to support a local ISP, but for now I have SL and it is adequate. The price jump is aggravating.
I did not take my SL very far to 'test mobility' so no further data on that.
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charleslabri
Samba Member
Joined: December 08, 2019
Posts: 615
Location: Nashville/Yosemite
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| Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2022 9:19 am Post subject: Re: Starlink satellite internet |
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yes, that price gouge jump.. grr
Most def my `beta downtime` is almost completely eliminated and the service has become more stable, just been heavily reduced in throughput. I also work in the tech infrastructure space
| bobbyblack wrote: |
I can verify that 10 to 10.5 amps is what I have seen, as I first tested my SL in my bus back a year when I got it. That was with 5 concurrent users all in the bus on handheld stuff, and one TV playing a Netfilx or such. The SL load was on top of the other loads I had going at the time, and my 120ah LFP would have only held out for around 10 hours. I haven't checked my donw/up lately, but my service has actually improved; I don't see as many sat-handoff drops as I first did about a year ago. I do network and systems work and have had decent connectivity for vid-conferencing, and commandline remote sessions.
I would like to support a local ISP, but for now I have SL and it is adequate. The price jump is aggravating.
I did not take my SL very far to 'test mobility' so no further data on that. |
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Red Ryder
Samba Member
Joined: June 26, 2021
Posts: 951
Location: Northern California
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| Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2022 11:34 am Post subject: Re: Starlink satellite internet |
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I am more of a “settler” than a “pioneer” when it comes to new technology. Think I will wait until it is safe out their in Indian Country!
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dobryan
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Joined: March 24, 2006
Posts: 16501
Location: Brookeville, MD
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shagginwagon83
Samba Member
Joined: February 07, 2016
Posts: 3794
Location: VA/TN
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| Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2022 11:46 am Post subject: Re: Starlink satellite internet |
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| dobryan wrote: |
| Do you need Starlink because you will be in areas with zero cell signal such that a cell booster could not work? |
Yes and the fact I go through 150GB a month. I work for a digital agency and frequently pulling down projects.
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Brandon
"Jo Ann" - '83.5 Westfalia EJ22e w/Peloquin
Instagram @joannthevan |
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charleslabri
Samba Member
Joined: December 08, 2019
Posts: 615
Location: Nashville/Yosemite
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| Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2022 11:47 am Post subject: Re: Starlink satellite internet |
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dont want to hijack.. but i chose to get into starlink due to data caps.
Couldnt run video calls on zoom 5x10days a week on a mifi, they end up capping out at pretty low data limits and then set your priority down to peon status where you cant even check email
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dobryan
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