Starlink Mini Roam $50.00 a month

[Patriot]

@rideandfly 

Bill,

Can you have the Anker power pack plugged in and charging and still run your Mini while it’s plugged in for pass through use while still charging the Anker?  
 

 

Edited October 16 by Patriot

[rideandfly]

12 hours ago, Patriot said:

@rideandfly 

Bill,

Can you have the Anker power pack plugged in and charging and still run your Mini while it’s plugged in for pass through use while still charging the Anker?  
 

 

David,

Tested the Anker power pack while at 100% charge, the power pack output USB-C1 port is 0 Vdc output when charging on the Anker charging dock, but the Anker charging dock also has three output ports and there is 19.9 to 20Vdc output from the USB-C1 port rated for 100W when testing with the 6' cord plug that connects to the Mini, this should be enough power to run the Mini, will test with the Mini later today. The Anker 100W charging dock also has an AC input of 100 to 240V 50-60Hz.

Here is another thread where Snackchaser successfully powered the Mini with a 12V to 24Vdc Victron converter. I'm learning a lot from folks here.

 

Edited October 16 by rideandfly

[Patriot]

Starlink Mini power cord storage solution.

On our recent long trip I decided I needed to come with a solution to store our Starlink Mini power cord when we are traveling. After a deep dive, I ordered this reel and it will hold the entire 50’ SL mini power cord nice and neat. Winding up the power cord by hand each time was time consuming and usually it ended up looking like a rat nest.

This musicians cord reel should be easier for deployment of the power cord as well as retracting when packing up our SL mini. Everything SL mini packs up nicely in our HF 3800 hard side storage case.

I ordered a second reel for our spare SL mini power cord.

Happy Camping from Hull #634 XPLOR

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07WYCR42L/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

 

 

Edited October 23 by Patriot

[jd1923]

just noticed this wording in the other thread cited here, "the router is built into the dish."

Are all the Starlink Minis built this way? When I installed our Pepwave system, January of this year, they were asking $2,500 for Starlink HW and to my knowledge no mini was available. I want to add Starlink soon, but I do not want another router. The Pepwave has a WAN RJ45 input port, and it has the smarts to choose between the WAN source and cellular.

I also want to install ours on our tow vehicle like I did the cellular antenna. Maybe I need another Starlink product vs. the Mini?

[Patriot]

1 hour ago, jd1923 said:

just noticed this wording in the other thread cited here, "the router is built into the dish."

Are all the Starlink Minis built this way? When I installed our Pepwave system, January of this year, they were asking $2,500 for Starlink HW and to my knowledge no mini was available. I want to add Starlink soon, but I do not want another router. The Pepwave has a WAN RJ45 input port, and it has the smarts to choose between the WAN source and cellular.

I also want to install ours on our tow vehicle like I did the cellular antenna. Maybe I need another Starlink product vs. the Mini?

 

Starlink Mini Dish

Open Source info -  

This compact, portable kit includes a built-in router that supports 2.4 and 5GHz bands, 802.11ax, and 3x3 MIMO. It also has an Ethernet port for connecting wired devices. 

 

Based on our experience we see no other reason to mod our Oliver with any other comm now having used our SL mini on a 48 day trip through 14 states. We won’t leave home without it. At the extraordinary rocket powered pace that Elon and SpaceX are deploying more satellites, SL will rule the day in comm. We are considering a SL home dish based how much we liked our mini on this last trip. Just plug it in to a power source with no obstructions and your on line. 

 

Edited October 17 by Patriot

[MAX Burner]

14 hours ago, Patriot said:

At the extraordinary rocket powered pace that Elon and SpaceX are deploying more satellites, SL will rule the day in comm. We are considering a SL home dish based how much we liked our mini on this last trip. Just plug it in to a power source with no obstructions and your on line. 

Concur, 100%, brother!

[Zodd]

On 10/17/2024 at 1:53 PM, jd1923 said:

just noticed this wording in the other thread cited here, "the router is built into the dish."

Are all the Starlink Minis built this way?

Yes. This creates some pros and cons for the dish. It is small and compact and very easy to deploy. However, the further away you have to deploy it, the weaker your single and, in turn, your speed gest. So far, I have not found this to be a problem. The power cord is only so long and it can only get so far away. 

We just got back from our fall trip and had to put the SL mini as far away as we could to try and clear obstructions. Speed was still fine ( >80 mbps). The issue was still obstructions. As you can see we were pretty clear but had one section on the horizon that caused us to go between 97% ping success to 87%. At 87% zoom conference calls become an issue. 

Because of this I don't plan on mounting the mini to anything permanent on the TV or Ollie. I am looking for a stand to get it up higher but also mobile. This gives me the most flexibility to avoid obstructions. 

Also in case anyone is wondering. Here is what the power draw jump looks like when the mini needs to kick on its heater. 

Edited October 21 by Zodd
spelling

[Patriot]

An interesting video on using Anker Prime portable battery packs to run the SL Mini. Naturally the larger Anker Prime battery  provides a little more run time. This is all subject to how one intends to use the mini. Nonetheless kinda cool data. 

 

 

[rideandfly]

Just returned from our first camping trip using the Mini.

Our campsite was covered with many trees, but managed to find a small opening in the following photo. Since it was a Rally, we spent a little more time in Ollie than normal. It was windy with tree limbs & leaves moving/falling, believe that affected the Mini's reception, too. Did not document obstructions like Zodd's previous post (I will next time). Used 11GB of data with three days of use streaming mostly with the ROKU device set at 720p resolution.

Very pleased with the Mini's performance! 👍

View to NE (030)

 

 

Edited October 27 by rideandfly

[SeaDawg]

Is it possible to start and stop the mini? To save on fees when not in use?

[Patriot]

5 hours ago, SeaDawg said:

Is it possible to start and stop the mini? To save on fees when not in use?

No. SL does not offer a prorated plan at least for now. Once you start the new monthly subscription, you can pause it and still use the days left on the plan. After that when you unpause, you pay for another month of use. So for example ours runs out on Nov 2, I paused it upon our return from our western trip. If we want to unpause and use our mini after Nov 2, we pay for another month. 

edit and update -

mid-billing cycle, you will only be charged for the remaining days in that cycle, especially when using the "Roam - 50GB" plan associated with the Mini; this applies to both pausing and unpausing your service.

 

Edited October 28 by Patriot

[Patriot]

21 minutes ago, rideandfly said:

Used 11GB of data with three days of use streaming mostly with the ROKU device set at 720p resolution.

It will eat up GBs quickly which is why we opted for the unlimited plan on our recent 48 day trip. 
 

[Zodd]

It does pro-rate based on start date. Our billing cycle is on the 11th of each month.  In September we started on the 15th of the month and only paid $45. But it is only pro-rated based on start as regardless of when you pause you get it through the end of the billing cycle.