Category: Starlink

StarLink - Complete!!

8/15/2024

I let the sloppy "science fair" project run on the kitchen counter for several days to be sure that everything was reliable.

There have been no issues, so, yesterday, I cut a hole in the kitchen wall and drilled a hole through the outside wall for the StarLink cable. I cut about 20 feet off the StarLink cable after running it into the house.

The wall is 2x8 construction with an inch of spray foam and 6.5 inch pink fiberglass bats.

I transferred the components to a steel plate and mounted that inside the wall.

I let it run overnight to be sure that the power supply wouldn't overheat. This morning it was reading 99 degrees which is totally acceptable. So, I installed a decorative grill and did some cleanup at the network hub. Windstream is now disconnected.

The grill is from Saba Home Decor. They have a lot of cool designs.

Performance is better than I expected. WOW!

Elon Musk is now officially my hero!

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StarLink Update

8/9/2024

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Background
I installed a StarLink Gen 2 “DISHY” on the roof more than a year ago with the goal of replacing Windstream as our internet provider.

Note: Gen 2 with the rectangular dish was the current product at the time. Gen 3 has recently been introduced.

I made a mount that attaches to the vertical “seams” and does not penetrate the roof. The roof slope is 2/12 which is roughly 9.5 degrees. The roof slopes directly north which is ideal for StarLink.

Full Time StarLink
The goal is to eliminate the Windstream DSL service AND the StarLink WiFi Router.

I don't want to keep paying Windstream for inferior service.
The StarLink router doesn't allow the use of a VPN.

The dish operates over POE (Power Over Ethernet) but it requires far more power (up to 150 watts) than my existing POE switches can provide. The power for the dish is normally supplied by the StarLink WiFi Router but a POE Injector can be used instead.

Note: The dish normally uses about 50 watts but it has an internal, thermostatically controlled heater for melting ice and snow. The dish can consume about 150 watts when the heater is engaged.

Although the StarLink cable is just a weather-resistant CAT6, the Gen 2 dish uses proprietary connectors rather than a CAT (RJ-45) connector. (they fixed this for Gen 3). Fortunately, there are now a couple of companies making cable adapters and high-power POE injectors. I can buy components rather than reverse engineering.

I decided to buy a cable adapter and a 200 Watt POE injector from Yaosheng. I also need a substantial 48 volt DC power supply (POE requires 48 volts). Since I plan to mount the power supply inside the kitchen wall, I decided to buy a sealed, weather-resistant unit with a 400 watt rating.

Here are the components. The power supply is a whopper but it won't overheat.

The final configuration looks like this:

I've been experimenting with this for a couple of days and was surprised that the StarLink App still works without the StarLink Router. Apparently all the intelligence is in the dish and the router is nothing more than a POE power supply and WiFi hotspot.

The new power supply, POE Injector and cable adapter will be located in the kitchen wall where the StarLink cable enters the house. The new router replaces the Windstream DSL modem in the network hub in the basement.

This morning I replaced the Windstream DSL modem/router with the new router. I had a few problems with static IP addresses (neoTerra is wired like a small business and my network skills have become a bit rusty) but the house is now running on StarLink!

Results
I have a bunch of "housekeeping" to do (cut a hole in the kitchen wall, mount components, patch and cleanup) but the system is now operational.

The house is surrounded by huge trees so we have a lot of obstructions that diminish the StarLink performance. That said, we now have download speeds that are 3.5x - 4x faster than Windstream. YAY!!

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Starlink In The Forest - Part 1

9/17/2022

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Background
Like many people in the rural hinterlands, we get our internet service through Windstream. Our DSL service is limited to about 25 MBps, which is adequate for two people who aren't working from home.

Four - five years ago the service was only 10 MBps and was not too reliable. They have improved their speed and reliability since being bought out by Kinetic.

Though their service is adequate, we've noticed that they censure our e-mails so we've been looking at Starlink as an alternative.

Starlink Hype
Like any Elon Musk endeavor, Starlink is front-loaded with a lot of hype. Back in 2020 I paid my $99 deposit to get on the wait list for Starlink, which would be 'coming soon'.

I've been on the wait list for about two years. A few weeks ago I received a message that 'full service' will not be available here in Southern Appalachiastan until 2023 (or maybe even 2024). However, they offered me reduced "Best Effort" service for the non-discounted full-service price.

I iz a geek... so, of course I plunked down another $500 bucks to get inferior service for $110/month. YAY!!

Starlink is SO generous. When full Residential service finally becomes available they will upgrade my account for FREE. Oh, wait, I'm already paying full price.

Starlink Has Arrived
They weren't supposed to ship for two to three weeks but Starlink arrived in just a few days. The technology is really impressive. The dish (appropriately named 'Dishy') is compact, motorized and self-aiming. It is shipped in a 'Stowed' position and everything snaps together in less than a minute!

Starlink In The Forest
I honestly didn't think that Dishy would work here because it needs a clear view of the sky and we're in a dense forest. But that's OK because I have a few days to evaluate and send it back for a refund.

I won't go into the Setup process because it is totally automated.

Download the Starlink App to your phone
Put Dishy outside
Plug Dishy into the Router
Wait... wait... wait

The first thing Dishy does is point straight up and acquire its exact location from GPS satellites. I'm lazy so I put Dishy out on the deck for the inaugural test.

Dishy managed to get its precise location but, no surprise, it was unable to get any satisfactory connections to the Starlink satellite constellation. We had zero internet. I was thinking about sending it back for a refund.

Geeks Don't Give Up
I waited two years for my opportunity to give Starlink a try so I wasn't ready to throw in the towel. I made a roof mount out of aluminum bar and clamps... and hauled Dishy up to the highest point on the Great Room roof.

Note 1 - My homemade mount clamps to the standing seams so there are no penetrations into the roof. YAY!
Note 2 - I don't like being up on the roof.

Preliminary Results
It took Dishy several hours (overnight) to get oriented and resolve the satellites.

The results are not very promising. It indicates that the trees will cause an obstruction roughly every 44 seconds. It will definitely not work for live applications, such as Zoom meetings.

But I decided to try a speed test. After a short delay (caused by an obstruction) Dishy hooked up and we got 89MBps... more that 3X faster than Windstream!

This was encouraging. So I tried streaming a High-Def movie from Netflix. I was pleasantly surprised that the 2 hour movie played flawlessly despite having a 5-20 second interruption every minute.

YT also worked with no problems.

In spite of the frequent dropouts, I've decided to keep Dishy as a science-project (we will keep Windstream for now). We'll get our tree service to 'vista-prune' some of the trees and hope that our view of the sky will improve.

YAY SCIENCE!!

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StarLink - Complete!!

StarLink Update

Starlink In The Forest - Part 1

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