[Starlink] Starlink power use & satellite tracking

[David Lang]

I've also seen people shorten the dishy cord and replace the inverter and 
internal power supply with a 12v -> 48v converted and had the dish power draw 
drop significantly. (search youtube for starlink on 12v, I'll try to find the 
link and send it to you later)

they have a snow melting function that draws a lot of power, the app lets you 
completely disable that.

David Lang


  On Fri, 17 Feb 2023, Ulrich Speidel via Starlink wrote:

> Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2023 12:08:02 +1300
> From: Ulrich Speidel via Starlink <starlink at lists.bufferbloat.net>
> Reply-To: Ulrich Speidel <u.speidel at auckland.ac.nz>
> To: "starlink at lists.bufferbloat.net" <starlink at lists.bufferbloat.net>
> Subject: [Starlink] Starlink power use & satellite tracking
> 
> In the aftermath of our cyclone here, I got dragged out for a bit of media 
> comment and, downstream, a few questions came up on dishy power use. Here's 
> what I know and can glean - comments welcome:
>
> * Starlink's own specs say 50-75 W "Average Power Usage":
>   https://www.starlink.com/specifications. But that's average, not
>   peak, and peak is what matters when people start recommending that
>   Starlink could be run out of a small inverter and a car battery in a
>   disaster.
> * Small inverters usually come with cigarette lighter cables, and
>   cigarette lighter sockets are typically fused with 8 or 10 A fuses.
>   That puts maximum safe power outputs in the 96W to 130-something W
>   range depending on battery voltage.
> * Our lab's "RV" subscription rectangular dishy & router regularly
>   clocks in at around 80-100 W, and I've seen it go as high as 108 W
>   on one occasion. I've also seen it go as low as 30 W for the first
>   time last night.
> * I have a user report from an older round dishy owner having seen up
>   to 200 W on occasion.
> * Assuming conservatively 90% inverter efficiency, that could mean up
>   to ~120W and maybe more for the rectangular version and over 220 W
>   for the circular one.
> * If dishy goes over cigarette lighter fuse capacity, people may lose
>   their ability to charge phones from their car - also a critical
>   capability in a disaster.
>     o Not everyone takes kindly to the suggestion that advising
>       inverter + car battery use could potentially be counterproductive.
> * So, what's the peak power use you have seen on your version of dishy?
> * It appears that the current mode of operation here is that dishy
>   uses several satellites in parallel if these can all see a gateway
>   and have capacity to carry traffic.
>     o So for us in urban Auckland with few Starlink users in the cell
>       and three gateways in the vicinity, our dishy is spoiled for
>       choice and usually gets to use maybe three or more satellites at
>       once. That takes a corresponding amount of power but also means
>       great data rates a lot of the time.
>     o For a rural user with more Starlink users in the cell and
>       further away from gateways, the satellites that the cell can see
>       and that  can also see a gateway may be fewer in number. This
>       means dishy only gets to talk to maybe one or two birds at a
>       time and so uses a lot less power, and you get more average data
>       rates there.
> * If this is so, then it begs a question:
>     o If Starlink could cap the number of satellites dishy can use in
>       an emergency area, they would be able to keep your fuse intact.
>       Should they aim for that, even if it means that you might see
>       lower data rates in a situation when many people depend on one unit?
>
> Starlink is currently being touted as THE comms solution for emergencies as 
> large swathes of NZ's northern and eastern North Island remain without 
> terrestrial or mobile Internet coverage after cyclone Gabrielle. This is the 
> outage map of one of the larger mobile phone providers just for these areas:
>
> Most of these are due to power outages to sites, but there are quite a few 
> backhaul cable issues as well.
>
> One of the biggest problems is that electronic payment systems don't work 
> without Internet. In our largely cashless society, this is leading to 
> situations where emergency services can't refuel their vehicles because their 
> fuel cards won't work, supermarkets and other stores can't sell anything 
> because customers have no means of paying, and the air force is flying in 
> hard cash in order to help the locals buy food.
>
>
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