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 March 17 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 March 18 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

[Zodd]

hehe, well now @jd1923 you are just trying to make me sound really lazy 😉

The absence of a cord is really convenient, but when I need to wake up at 5 AM for a work call, I try to be quiet so I don’t disturb my wife. This becomes challenging when I have to open and close the door. So far, I've been using the AC adapter and turning the inverter on and off as needed. I'm considering options that don't require the inverter to be operational, so I can keep it running continuously.

Still trying to weigh cost/effort/reward. So far using AC adapter has been fine and I have never been short on power. 

[jd1923]

1 hour ago, Zodd said:

but when I need to wake up at 5 AM for a work call

Yeah, you’d want to be plugged in, if this is a regular occurrence!

[Ronbrink]

18 hours ago, Zodd said:

I'm considering options that don't require the inverter to be operational, so I can keep it running continuously.

On occasion when I have to locate the SLM away from the Oliver I simply place it on the TV, via the magnetic mount, and park as close as possible to the Oliver for clear skies. A 100Ah portable power station is used, rather the the TV’s battery, so the SLM is continuously operational. I get great reception inside the Oliver with this setup configuration; no cables, no power concerns, no reception issues, no worries! Generally however, I just use a dedicated sectional pole with suction cup mounts to strategically position the SLM anywhere around the trailer where the best exposure at a break in the tree canopy is found.

[Tideline77]

We just got our mini and activated it from our home base, then switched the subscription to pause 

so I am not too swift on the operation but I thought I saw the option on the phone APP to turn off the mini via IPhone 

so I thought it could be turned off by APP without us  streaking in our camp site 

 

also on ETSY and EBay are some pretty cool offerings that accommodate two batteries and have a small shroud cover that covers the batteries and holds the mini

giving the batteries a small amount of weather protection 

look pretty neat to me

[jd1923]

7 minutes ago, Tideline77 said:

option on the phone APP to turn off the mini via IPhone 

So, is this true?

It would be great to power down the Mini via the Starlink app! I would do that each night from bed and would then have ample battery left for the next morning! 😎

[Tideline77]

Edit

AI search shows the APP sleep mode can be set via APP

sleep mode is not a complete shutdown but is a low power mode designed to conserve battery use

 

so its sleep mode you want to set on your APP

———————————————————

For sure Need to review the APP to confirm this because my mind and memory are not 100% anymore. Plus I only played with it for 3-4 evenings 

i can get mine out tomorrow and double check

Edited Friday at 02:10 AM by Tideline77

[Tideline77]

The Entrepreneur made twin M 18 battery housings listed on eBay and ESTY would be the cats meow . They must be three D printed plastic 

if these makers could take that idea one step further and use a short pole to get the mini out of the brush or grass and maybe get a little better sky reception 

Hope I didn’t derail this thread two much 🙄🙄🙄

Edited Friday at 08:51 PM by Tideline77

[Rarebear.nm]

Can any provide a link to purchase the "“three pin” 5.5 mm female socket" described in this post?  I'm referring to the one where the 3rd pin is switchable.

Please email to rarebear.nm@gmail.com

 

Thanks

[Snackchaser]

1 hour ago, Rarebear.nm said:

Can any provide a link to purchase the "“three pin” 5.5 mm female socket" described in this post?  I'm referring to the one where the 3rd pin is switchable.

Please email to rarebear.nm@gmail.com

 

Thanks

Here are a couple of Amazon  choices: https://a.co/d/0g1OKRNy     https://a.co/d/04v0KCjE

[Rarebear.nm]

I do not see where either of two choices have a built-in switch as described in the post.