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diy solar

Starlink is a game-changer

I believe the official spec on say a normal standards based 802.3bt POE or something is 48-56v, but we know Starlink POE is not quite standard, as they tweaked it somewhat. However, these POE PDE devices have boost/buck converters on their inputs and are fairly flexible, if you run a little higher voltage it will draw a little less watts and be fine. Cable length plays a role too. Longer cable, it doesn't hurt to run closer to 56v and keep the current levels lower.
The tweak is the non standard wiring for the POE. The information I shared is from groups that are mobile. ( cable length is less of an issue in that application)
 
Also the newest router teardown showed the the power for the POE is set at 50 volts.
 
I'm currently at 6800 feet about 35 miles from Goblin Valley in southern Utah as the crow flies with scenic butte's all around and speeds of 188 mbps down and 20 up..... what a game changer.
 
I just had my first outage with the Starlink in the middle of the night last night when a thunderstorm came through with lots of hard rain. It went down for maybe an hour, until the storm passed and it came right back up. I guess Starlink uses the Ka, Ku, and V Bands, which are fairly high frequencies, so they would be subjected to weather phenomena somewhat easier than if they had some C band or something.

It must've been a thick storm last night though, because I've had other downpours here where the Starlink kept working fine. Last night's storm was particularly fantastic...
 
My Starlink RV arrived today!

Will have to find a way to mount on roof of RV. Also very interested in POE injector so I can run it on DC.
 
My Starlink RV arrived today!

Will have to find a way to mount on roof of RV. Also very interested in POE injector so I can run it on DC.

Did you see this guy's videos yet?

Example:


I've also seen some of the Van Life groups on FB where they're into cutting off the pole part to do flat mount...
 
Is it a Cat 6 Ethernet cable between the dishy and the WiFi router inside? I'm trying to figure out how to get the cable from outside the trailer to inside the trailer.
 
Is it a Cat 6 Ethernet cable between the dishy and the WiFi router inside? I'm trying to figure out how to get the cable from outside the trailer to inside the trailer.
Its some proprietary plug.
They have a $20 ethernet adapter that goes between the two where you can plug in a standard cable.
 
Is it a Cat 6 Ethernet cable between the dishy and the WiFi router inside? I'm trying to figure out how to get the cable from outside the trailer to inside the trailer.

Yeah, you can cut the cable if needed, it is basically a Cat5e/Cat6 shielded cable (with proprietary ends), so to cut it, you need the shielded RJ45 ends, and just do a T568B termination on both ends.

I used these ends on mine:

I used these crimpers for the above terminals:


You can also add in a power injector so you can inject DC power and eliminate their router (without using their Ethernet adapter, and bypass mode)...

https://www.mccowntech.com/product/outdoor-gige-ethernet-poe-injector/ (Streakwave and ISP Supplies sell them too)

This is a special POE injector with jumper headers on the board so you can custom-set the power output configuration in regards to polarity (since Starlink uses non-standards based POE implementation). The McCown injector allows you to set 1,2,3,6 as + and 4,5,7,8 as - (by setting left 2 jumpers to left side, and right 2 jumpers to right side.

If you don't care about POE or anything like that, then a simple splice and an RJ45 connector matching wire for wire is all you need. The above I mentioned is only needed if you want to delete their router as a POE PSE source, to add your own DC 48-56v power injection, and BYO router.

I can provide more details if necessary.

Also more info and pictures can be found here about the POE mod:
 
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Thanks for the information @Samsonite801. I've crimped RJ45 here at home but I've never seen a pass-through RJ-45 end connector.

Yeah sure no prob... If you don't use the crimpers with the pass-thru wire cutters built-in, then you have to use a sharp razor blade to manually cut off the wires that are passing through. Make sure it's a clean flush cut, so that none of the conductors are frayed and could touch an adjacent one.

You don't have to use those pass-thru style, but they do need to be for shielded..

Not sure if you have the ground crimper, or suitable equivalent:

On mine, it didn't reach around good enough for my liking, so I wrapped some stranded wire around the ground sleeve after crimping it (with the wrong tool) and just soldiered it to make the ring contiguous... Mine don't look pretty, but it's sturdy and it functions well.

Regular 4-twisted pair, shielded cable:
1653939973686.jpeg



Ready to crimp:
1653940079948.jpeg

1653940039214.jpeg

Ugly soldier job, but stiffened up the ground crimp:
1653939513269.jpeg

Here's an extra pole adapter part I acquired on eBay (which I turned into a tester adapter to fit their proprietary ends):
1653939712937.jpeg

Continuity testing my cable with the fresh RJ45 crimp:
1653939648620.jpeg
 
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For anyone who goes the McCown POE injector method (to inject their own DC power source and delete Starlink router), here's a pic of the POE injector showing the jumper pin config (assuming you use left power feed as + and right power feed as - (on the blue DC power input connector)... That will get you the correct power output onto the twisted pair of 1,2,3,6 + and 4,5,7,8 -

1653943961450.png

Also, ground the big nut on there to copper ground rod, as this injector also offers Ethernet surge protection.
 
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To heck with the internet, Im more impressed you own your own heavy equipment. What is that, a skip loader? Backhoe?
If I lived in the boonies an excavator and a bulldozer would be necessities. Neighbors piss me off Im building a moat... Or a hole their car would fall into like that movie with Christian Slater.
Dolans Cadillac.

 
To heck with the internet, Im more impressed you own your own heavy equipment. What is that, a skip loader? Backhoe?
If I lived in the boonies an excavator and a bulldozer would be necessities. Neighbors piss me off Im building a moat... Or a hole their car would fall into like that movie with Christian Slater.
Dolans Cadillac.


That my friend, is a 1972 Hyster H180E forklift hehe... Should be getting it mobilized hopefully soon. Finally found a hydraulic pump to put on it.

A tractor will hopefully come in the future (maybe even an EV conversion), but in the meantime I joined into an equipment group on my co-op with several other guys and we purchased a Bobcat mini-ex and a JD Skid Steer to share, so I do have access to some tools to help me develop my property...

I think a moat would be fun to have, just to lay down in a floating raft and relax in... We have no hostile forces out where I'm at, just a bunch of happy hard working driven folks here who love to help their neighbors. No need to get all up in arms (although we have our arms ready if the need arises)...
 
That my friend, is a 1972 Hyster H180E forklift hehe... Should be getting it mobilized hopefully soon. Finally found a hydraulic pump to put on it.

A tractor will hopefully come in the future (maybe even an EV conversion), but in the meantime I joined into an equipment group on my co-op with several other guys and we purchased a Bobcat mini-ex and a JD Skid Steer to share, so I do have access to some tools to help me develop my property...

I think a moat would be fun to have, just to lay down in a floating raft and relax in... We have no hostile forces out where I'm at, just a bunch of happy hard working driven folks here who love to help their neighbors. No need to get all up in arms (although we have our arms ready if the need arises)...
When you order that pump get a lot of replacement seals... Hydraulics that dont get used will leak like crazy...
 
Starlink.jpg

Stainless steel mount from Amazon. A 5/16" bolt and nut hold the starlink into the SS pipe. The head of the bolt is just a bit wider than the slot in the starlink mounting. When the nut is tightened the bolt head clamps down and holds it in place.

Starlink2.jpg

Comcast/Xfinity is out at the street. They want $7800 to run a cable to the house. 400 ft. Straight run through a hay field. They are crooks.
 
As I am continuing to develop my homestead property out in the desert where there is no easy power or easy Internet, several of our other shareholders on our co-op use traditional satellite Internet solutions, in which they complain about their service quality constantly. They tell me video streaming is impossible for the most part with these traditional solutions (without severe buffering issues, or highly reduced video quality). One old guy here compares the speed to the old dial-up modems on computers back in the day (which I remember about of course).

I decided to hold off on these traditional solutions because they all forced you into a 1 or 2 year contract. So in the meantime while I waited the YEAR + for Starlink to become available to me (once I paid the $99 reservation fee), I would just come out to my lot and not have connection to the world at all.

I never realized before about, how we've learned to take the Internet for granted. There were times where I realized I couldn't Google something, and I would have to write down all the topics I had questions on so I could remember to Google for the answers later on once I went back to where the connection was (since a lot of the time I would forget all the things I had wanted to check on later)...

Well it finally happened, Starlink shipped my equipment, I wired it in last night (finally), and all I can say is wow, this is a game-changer for the off-grid people to get a nice connection now. Installation was simple, it aims itself, basically you just put the equipment where you want it, plug a couple wires in, and run the app on your phone to set a couple things up and it just works and says Online...

Since there is no cell service out here either, I enabled the Wi-Fi calling on my iPhone, and was making phone calls that sounded perfect, no echo or delay (like people pausing, interrupting, or delaying to respond due to latency differential), You Tube works perfectly, of course HD quality plays great, low latency.

Just sitting out in the middle of a bare valley and I feel connected to the world again, I am happy to have waited longer for the good stuff, and not getting stuck into a contract (Starlink says you can cancel at any time).

View attachment 84505

I fashioned an 18000 pound non-penetrating ground mount system in my installation here so it's super strong for the desert winds:

View attachment 84504


I wired it to a tiny 300w inverter (so I don't have to run the big 2800w inverter in the motorhome all night), so I checked the amps on it real quick. It's at about 60w right now, sometimes fluctuates a bit, on boot-up it went as high as 7a for a few seconds (maybe to self-test the heater circuit in the dish or something):

View attachment 84506

The next step is, I am going to wire a 48v POE into the router-to-dish Ethernet cable (the one with funky connectors on both ends), so to not use AC input, and make it run on DC power directly.

Yes, it is possible to do (to convert the Starlink Gen 2 equipment, rectangle dish model, to work on DC power directly, finally found some people who've done it)...
Just got mine today.

It’s on a Best case scenario until they upgrade the service in my area.

Excited to see how it does..
 
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