Starlink

ttmott said:
Orlando - whatever Maxmarine is doing with the domes the issue with coverage and stable signal is going to continue until the satellite constellation has filled the gaps. The objective is to have an array lay flat pointing up and always see a satellite. The dish pointing motors, I think, are a temporary feature that will go away. In Florida that objective seems to still be several years away. It seems the dual array marine application is to look in two different locations at the same time which will always have a spacecraft in view; a temporary fix. I can't seem to find any data on how and when Sx are populating the constellation. For me this is still a bit of a novelty, so I'll wait for a bit.
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Tom - Totally agree with this 100%, my wanting to use a dome is to make the SL look like it should be there and not something else. Also I suspect the dome will degrade the signal to a degree at times. In the current configuration having the array lay flat is the only way to not go through 20 min of setup after you get some where. And to your point, I also think that is there goal in the end as the array needs to jump from sat to sat and not track just one like everyone else does.
 
SKybolt said:
Tom - Totally agree with this 100%, my wanting to use a dome is to make the SL look like it should be there and not something else. Also I suspect the dome will degrade the signal to a degree at times. In the current configuration having the array lay flat is the only way to not go through 20 min of setup after you get some where. And to your point, I also think that is there goal in the end as the array needs to jump from sat to sat and not track just one like everyone else does.
Click to expand...
They have to jump from sat to sat as the satellites are in motion relative to the earth - over 17K mph in motion. Objects placed in low earth orbit like the Starlink constellation cannot remain geo-stationary (over one point on earth) as they will succumb to gravity and fall. This is why the TV satellites are so far away - that balanced location where their geo-stationary location speed is perfectly counter to earth's gravity.
So, when a Starlink satellite moves across the sky and is communicating with a ground antenna there must be another come into the antenna's field of view before the first moves out.
 
ttmott said:
Orlando - whatever Maxmarine is doing with the domes the issue with coverage and stable signal is going to continue until the satellite constellation has filled the gaps. The objective is to have an array lay flat pointing up and always see a satellite. The dish pointing motors, I think, are a temporary feature that will go away. In Florida that objective seems to still be several years away. It seems the dual array marine application is to look in two different locations at the same time which will always have a spacecraft in view; a temporary fix. I can't seem to find any data on how and when Sx are populating the constellation. For me this is still a bit of a novelty, so I'll wait for a bit.
Click to expand...
There doesn't seem to be a public launch schedule beyond the next month or so at any given time. But, SX is currently sending up better than 5 rockets with 50+ satellites per month. If they are able to keep up that cadence, it looks like the already approved constellation may be up by this winter. The satellites currently going up are now equipped with inter-satellite laser (ISL). Once ISL is fully up and operational, there will be much less need for ground stations since the satellites will relay amongst themselves, which is key to polar and for maritime coverage beyond close to shore.
I understand that, even when the initial constellation is up and running there will be limitations on subscribers and bandwidth beyond what the market is likely to want. SX has developed a V2 satellite that will greatly enhance capability but is larger than the V1. Those are only going to be deployed at scale if and when the Starship heavy lift rockets are available. No telling when that will be but SX does continue to produce and deploy at an impressive pace.
SX and T-Mobile just announced a partnership with will place cell-band modules on V2 satellites. This will theoretically
allow for cell phone connections anywhere on earth. It's not projected to have significant bandwidth but should enable voice and text.
 
@ocgrant Grant here is a video of how to remove only the motor wire plug:



Looked so easy so I voided my warranty as well. Going to install tonight/tomorrow will post back on how it works out.

Dishy-Motor.jpg
 
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Orlando,

I have been swamped with work and month end and not had time to give Max a call to find out what their knowledge and plan is. If you want to call him and share what they are planning please do. 754-220-6565
SKybolt said:
Also it looks like it is very easy to remove the router from the picture as well. Just put a new connector (Swapped wires needed) on the cable end and use a standard POE injector with 48v. Going to give this a try after I get it installed. That way it will plug directly into the Peplink without all of the extra add on's.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/comments/sb4dei/homebrew_poeethernet_adapter_for_rectangle/
Click to expand...
looking forward to your feedback on both of those.
 
SKybolt said:
Got mine partially mounted tonight. Partially because I just need to splice the cable back on with the punch down box @alnav posted in this thread. Will post back on how this works out.

View attachment 133103
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Orlando, in case you haven't seen, I've read that the dish and radars don't like each others you want to make sure not to operate both at the same time. I wish I had bookmarked where I read that. Otherwise, looks good and I hope it works great.
 
ocgrant said:
Orlando,

I have been swamped with work and month end and not had time to give Max a call to find out what their knowledge and plan is. If you want to call him and share what they are planning please do. 754-220-6565

looking forward to your feedback on both of those.
Click to expand...

Sure, I am headed out tomorrow with the boat, but will give him a call. I am not in a rush to get the POE working, but is on the list. I would like to get the dome installed if it is possible or just use that flat mount I posted earlier in this thread.

alnav said:
Orlando, in case you haven't seen, I've read that the dish and radars don't like each others you want to make sure not to operate both at the same time. I wish I had bookmarked where I read that. Otherwise, looks good and I hope it works great.
Click to expand...

Nope, I have read all of that as well. I have a 1' extension on it's way, but the radar is about 1" below the dish as it stands right now. So going to test this out this weekend and most likely add the extension when it comes in.
 
Orlando, that looks great. I wish i could have kept mine that low. Damn open aray screwed that up.
 
LOL just found this in the app... 46 more sats heading into service



upload_2022-8-31_20-47-38.png
 
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ocgrant said:
... If you want to call him and share what they are planning please do. 754-220-6565 ...
Click to expand...

Grant, gave them a call this morning. Vince is working on the project and says it's close next week or two he should have something. He's going to email me and let me know what's what. But preliminary prices are ~$800 for the dome w/dome base and ~$500 for a mount, not clear on what the mount was. The dome will allow the array to keep the motors working.
 
I have the ethernet adapter working and the SL wifi router disabled, meaning it is only being used to power the array. The adapter is plugged directly into the Peplink's wan port. Now in theory the SL goes down the WiFi will pick up. I say in theory as I haven't had time to test everything as it needs to be, except that the array is working nice a flat with a workable DL speed ~50Mbps and 6 up. The speed does increase the longer the array is up, so we shall see. I am going to test the signal while in motion in a little while (hopefully if my reservations get confirmed).
 
SKybolt said:
I have the ethernet adapter working and the SL wifi router disabled, meaning it is only being used to power the array. The adapter is plugged directly into the Peplink's wan port. Now in theory the SL goes down the WiFi will pick up. I say in theory as I haven't had time to test everything as it needs to be, except that the array is working nice a flat with a workable DL speed ~50Mbps and 6 up. The speed does increase the longer the array is up, so we shall see. I am going to test the signal while in motion in a little while (hopefully if my reservations get confirmed).
Click to expand...
Looking forward to your testing on this.
 
This is crazy

 
@ocgrant Had some time to test the new mount setup yesterday. I had YouTubeTv on while also streaming music. Cruised around 60 miles round trip and hung on the anchor all day. Not one interruption or spinning circle waiting on the stream. Worked better then I could have ever imagined, worked at cruise, going 10kts and spinning on anchor. It also worked with the radar going. The array is about 1" above the beam path and no issues what so ever and ran that way for hours.
 
Thats awesome.... Did you pump it through the Peplink WAN or you were using the SL router?
 
ocgrant said:
Thats awesome.... Did you pump it through the Peplink WAN or you were using the SL router?
Click to expand...

I have the SL ethernet adapter plugged directly into my Linksys router acting as a cable modem. I disabled the SL router in their app. so the SL router is only acting as a power supply, soon to be omitted with a POE adapter.

The Peplink needs a Wan license, although I thought it was included in the fail-over license, but there is no wan option in the dashboard. It worked briefly but stopped almost immediately. I ordered the new license yesterday but have not received the email yet. My plan is to use the Peplink with the SL, as all of my reading on this always includes a Peplink for fail-over. I should have all that setup this week and will post back what was needed to get there.

One thing to note Grant, I am in a non service area for the SL and it still works great. At times I don't have very fast download speeds, only around 10-20Mbps on average. But that is more then enough to stream anything you want. Some web pages are a little slow but totally workable and still no spinning circle on anything.
 
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