Starlink router

[Lepke]

I have a big inverter but I also planned and have a big battery bank. I never turn off the inverter or Starlink.

[sailingharry]

Originally Posted by Simi 60

Get a decent battery bank
Stop worrying about the little things.

Batteries don't make power, they only store it. You have power generation that we all envy, most smaller sailboats have a generation deficit. Unless the OP's problem is not getting through the night (probably not his issue), a larger battery only allows him to go longer between engine or generator cycles (but then they have to charge longer). My AGM battery is 800Ah, but I still struggle daily to make enough power to keep it full. I turn my inverter off when not using it, use a 80W inverter for laptop charging, etc. An 8A/24Hr (ie, 200Ah/day) would double my daily energy requirement.

[skalashn]

I converted my starlink to 12V. It works well and draws about 3A once stabilized. Cost of conversion was approximately CAD$60 including a decent used router.

[JimStarkey]

Originally Posted by wholybee

Also note that the router doesn't use much power, probably no more than whatever you replace it with. The antenna is what uses the power. So, the not so simple modification to allow it to run on 48VDC only saves the inefficiency of running an inverter, replacing that with a 12V to 48V power supply.

8 amps is higher than most users report. Does your friend have the larger mobile version of the antenna, or the standard version. The mobile version uses much more power.

Not so. I have a 12 to 48 volt converter plugged into a POE injector with the dish connected to a Raspberry Pi 4B configured as a wireless router. The whole rig draws from about 3 to 4.5 amps. Switching to an RPi 3B would probably knock another half amp off.

[FlyingScot]

We have the standard rectangular dish plugged into a Victron 800VA inverter. Lately it is the only thing plugged in to that inverter. The Cerbo displays 50-90W pretty much all the time. Sometimes more but never less. It is a significant draw for 24 hour operation. We have a huge solar and battery bank so we can handle it, but I know many other boats it becomes a chore to keep up with the consumption. Seriously, that's 1-1.5 KWh just for Starlink.

[RedneckRedcoat]

We have our starlink plugged into our victron 3000watt inverter and it only draws 4-5amps in heavy use. I work remotely so am pulling 50gb of data a day.

I have a couple of issues with running the starlink every day using 12v and Poe.

First in the year we have used it like most routers it does need to be rebooted everyday. We have found performance can drop off over time.

Second why do you need it to run it at night ?? We have ours go into sleep mode when in a marina and turn the thing off at night. You’re just wasting electric con something that’s not even being used .

Lastly you void any warranty if you plug some other POE. starlink customer service is bad enough for warranty and tech support without introducing other complexabilities

We haven’t made any modifications , drilled holes to disable motors for a reason, it really is not necessary to run it effectively straight out of the box and how it was designed

[sailcrazy]

Following. We're currently using a MiFi for onboard wifi, but when we leave the US(US Territories) we lose all signal

[FlyingScot]

Originally Posted by RedneckRedcoat

We have our starlink plugged into our victron 3000watt inverter and it only draws 4-5amps in heavy use. I work remotely so am pulling 50gb of data a day.

I have a couple of issues with running the starlink every day using 12v and Poe.

First in the year we have used it like most routers it does need to be rebooted everyday. We have found performance can drop off over time.

Second why do you need it to run it at night ?? We have ours go into sleep mode when in a marina and turn the thing off at night. You’re just wasting electric con something that’s not even being used .



Lastly you void any warranty if you plug some other POE. starlink customer service is bad enough for warranty and tech support without introducing other complexabilities

We haven’t made any modifications , drilled holes to disable motors for a reason, it really is not necessary to run it effectively straight out of the box and how it was designed

A single Victron 3000 uses 20w before you include the SL setup. If running nothing else, this would be a highly inefficient way to power it.

Starlink lists 50-75w as average power use. Heavy use would be more.

How are you measuring?

Victron specs with a 50w load on that 3000w inverter is 71.3% efficient. That's ideal and under lab conditions. Real world will be worse.

Ours is powered up 24 hr/day right now for the Blink security cameras while we aren't on the boat. Marina WiFi sucks. We live 0.5 mi away.

I just did a speedtest from the SL app and watched the Cerbo display go up an additional 40-50w. I did this 3 times with similar increases.

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by RedneckRedcoat

.

I have a couple of issues with running the starlink every day using 12v and Poe.

First in the year we have used it like most routers it does need to be rebooted everyday. We have found performance can drop off over time.

Very rarely do we have an issue
Stow and unstow needed occasionally to reset the pointing direction for better signal

Second why do you need it to run it at night ?? We have ours go into sleep mode when in a marina and turn the thing off at night. You’re just wasting electric con something that’s not even being used

.

For us it being able to leap out of bed at 2am, get online and check weather radars and see how big the approaching storm is that woke us up and get out of dodge before it hits if needs be.

[jordanbigel]

Originally Posted by FlyingScot

A single Victron 3000 uses 20w before you include the SL setup. If running nothing else, this would be a highly inefficient way to power it.

My Victron MP2 3000 uses about 8w according to my batt monitor when on but not in use. I turn it off at night, at anchor.

[Simi 60]

I have no idea what our Victron 5000/120 draws and don't care.
Statistical noise
Has been on 24/7 for our 7 years out here
As have the fridges, freezers, hot water system, computers, monitors, TVs, anchor light, side deck lights and other stuff that I've forgotten about.

Battery and solar are cheap in the scheme of things

[boating4ever]

Originally Posted by Simi 60

Very rarely do we have an issue
Stow and unstow needed occasionally to reset the pointing direction for better signal
.

For us it being able to leap out of bed at 2am, get online and check weather radars and see how big the approaching storm is that woke us up and get out of dodge before it hits if needs be.

starlink doesnt work well in storms. every big storm this summer it lost connectivity. cellular kept going.

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by boating4ever

starlink doesnt work well in storms. every big storm this summer it lost connectivity. cellular kept going.

Well, I did say approaching storms.
It's rain that knocks our reception down or out

And, cellular doest work much more than 10nm out
Ok if playing coastal and near civilisation but thats becoming less and less for us, hence why we got Starlink.