Starlink Mini installation, cracking the 12 Vdc barrier . . . or not!

[jd1923]

15 hours ago, Tideline77 said:

When the mini is deployed away from the camper to get clear sky , Is it a reasonable idea to power our mini with two Milwaukee Forge tool batteries ? 
we have the batteries in our tool box with a few Milwaukee M18 tools , inflator, impact wrench for tire emergencies, rolling out and rolling up a power cord seems like a burden "………….after doing it for 45 years 

Thank you, Robert! 😎

I've been preaching this for over a year now! No takers to date!

All these complex setups, and I too spent a day adding a Victron 12/24 DC-DC charge controller and Ethernet for input to our Pepwave router. Cool setup, but what a waste since we haven't used it yet! Yep, cords are a pain!  🤣 

You have Milwaukee M18 tools, and we have several DeWalt 20V tools that we bring with us (flashlight, vacuum, impact and leaf blower). I purchased two 10 Ah batteries just for the Starlink Mini, each will run the dish for 8 hours. You want two so one is always charged. I have an extra DeWalt charger permanently mounted in the Oliver attic. Looks like you'd be in business for only $23! BTW, 1 1/2" PVC pipe fits the Starlink Mini included mount nicely too!

https://www.amazon.com/Starlink-Battery-Adapter-Compatible-Milwaukee/dp/B0FDWP191V/?th=1

 

Edited yesterday at 06:00 PM by jd1923

[Zodd]

I like the idea but it has a couple challenges for me. 
 

1- Most of those do not have a low power shutoff. So if you forget to unplug it you may kill your battery. A direct connection to the TT batteries avoid this. 
2- This leads to the challenge of having to go outside to turn it off. Not so fun when warm inside and ready for bed and you remember it is still on. 
3- Even with low power shutoff if you have to wake up early in the morning to get some work done you have to jump outside and switch the battery out. 
 

I am leaning more toward something like this. About the same cost but still has cables and some manual labor to get wired in. A little lower cost and a little less setup with no need to switch inverter on and off. 
https://a.co/d/03RI49lb

Edited 13 hours ago by Zodd
Grammer

[jd1923]

11 hours ago, Zodd said:

I like the idea but it has a couple challenges for me. 
1- Most of those do not have a low power shutoff. So if you forget to unplug it you may kill your battery. A direct connection to the TT batteries avoid this. 
2- This leads to the challenge of having to go outside to turn it off. Not so fun when warm inside and ready for bed and you remember it is still on. 
3- Even with low power shutoff if you have to wake up early in the morning to get some work done you have to jump outside and switch the battery out. 

Yes, the DeWalt XR 20V 10Ah batteries we use do go dead every night, sometime after we fall asleep. Early on we had an older 6 Ah battery go dead once and fail, but it was date coded over 5 years old when that occurred. Our new 10 Ah batteries, date codes 2025, turn off a few hours before we change them out the next morning and they recharge in an hour or two. We've done this without issue for more than 20 overnights.

Regarding your point #3, if you cannot climb out of you trailer day or night, then you're back to a wired solution, at that point you could bury the cables and stay in bed for weeks! 🤣 Chris takes our dog out every morning and/or I'll go outside, soak in the sun with a morning cup of coffee! First one out usually swaps the batteries. We much prefer this over laying out and winding up the 50' cord every few days.

And if you're going to a wired solution, why not just use the supplied Starlink power cord with 30V AC adapter, but you do need an inverter for that. If going for the DC wired solution, get a quality DC-DC 12/24 charger, like the Victron @Snackchaser used and I installed (I might use it some day)! For about $20 more it's not the Amazon/China cr@p! 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01D082AX8/?th=1