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12/13/2022 9:24 am  #1


Starlink early adopters

Starlink now offers a motor-free, phased array antenna designed to be used in motion, which has been an early constraint when trying to use Starlink systems.  Price point appears to be US$ 2500 for the hardware and $135/month for a data plan (the recreational vehicle data plan). Data rate is silly high, and de-prioritizes to "only" 1 Mbps or so when in a congested area. Certainly enough for downloading weather data. 

The link below goes to an article written in Nov 2022 by a recreational power boater in the Seattle area who tests a LOT of electronics and computer-related equipment. 

https://seabits.com/starlink-flat-high-performance/

Has anyone tried this on a moving offshore sailboat, and importantly, one with carbon sails? 

 

2/21/2023 4:56 am  #2


Re: Starlink early adopters

Hi there:

We will be testing this next week and hopefully using on the Cabo Race in a few weeks. Will try and respond on how it works here. If anyone has experience please post. 
 

 

2/23/2023 5:39 am  #3


Re: Starlink early adopters

There is a U-Tuber SailLife who is using Star Link in Europe.  It works very well under sail.  The dish auto tracks when under sail.  His boat only goes 5 knots so......not sure how starlink would perform on a bouncy race boat.    He is now on his way across the Atlantic.  Mads as he is called is a little bit of a tech head so it's good to hear what he has to say.  

When you have a moment check it out.

https://www.youtube.com/@SailLife

Tom

 

3/22/2023 3:16 pm  #4


Re: Starlink early adopters

Using it aboard our boat, and just live streamed and video called while sailing from Puerto Williams to Ushuaia. Also uploading videos ;) https://www.youtube.com/@sailingsweetruca

IMO anyone racing without it at this point may be at a big data disadvantage. Just use the standard windows network connections with Expedition. I really should keep this a secret until after the Mackinac races, but what the heck! 

 

3/23/2023 10:56 am  #5


Re: Starlink early adopters

Hi

Sounds great 

Have you done anything different when installing this or just whacked it on the roof etc ?

Do you get any shading etc when sailing 

I assume that you have not had to take a dremel out and operate on the new toy etc?

Look forward to your reply 

Kind regards

Bruce

 

3/23/2023 11:54 am  #6


Re: Starlink early adopters

Bruce Sutherland wrote:

Hi

Sounds great 

Have you done anything different when installing this or just whacked it on the roof etc ?

Do you get any shading etc when sailing 

I assume that you have not had to take a dremel out and operate on the new toy etc?

Look forward to your reply 

Kind regards

Bruce

Just tossed the legs of the stand in the trash and dropped it into a west marine fishing pole holder next to the iGo antenna and ran the cable through a clam on the stern. Right now it is partially obscured under our wind gen (who has a wind gen? its a cruising boat, OK) but the app doesn't think it is obstructed.

In the last 8 hours we have had about 7 minutes of down time. Current speed is 208 Mbps down and 14 up.

We have a set of carbon sails on board, but aren't using them at the moment as we are about to sail up the Patagonia fjords (best to beat up the old cloth). Also not attempting surgery to do the motor removal and 12v conversion, but surely would if we were in a place where online order delivery was measured in days instead of months. Once gutted it will use much less electricity and weigh less than a Fleet One/Broadband.

 

 

7/21/2023 7:04 am  #7


Re: Starlink early adopters

To update, after using it onboard while racing, I wouldn't use anything else. Happy to find that carbon sails had no significant effect when mounted on the transom. 

With that, it would be beneficial to add functionality within Expedition to take advantage of the higher bandwith availability.

 

9/23/2023 2:56 am  #8


Re: Starlink early adopters

Great update @airacer. Thanks. Have seen a Long Island Sound race boat (carbon sails) with transom mount and also heard good performance. Considering it after doing power upgrade to lithium batteries. 

     Thread Starter
 

1/26/2024 5:32 pm  #9


Re: Starlink early adopters

airacer wrote:

To update, after using it onboard while racing, I wouldn't use anything else. Happy to find that carbon sails had no significant effect when mounted on the transom. 

With that, it would be beneficial to add functionality within Expedition to take advantage of the higher bandwith availability.

I'm curious, what is the electrical system powering your install?  AFAIK Starlink requires somewhere between 6 and 10 amps to power?  Cheers

Last edited by WoobaGooba (1/26/2024 5:32 pm)

 

1/27/2024 6:11 am  #10


Re: Starlink early adopters

I installed a HP flat dish on a SORC racer last month with a Xantrex PROwatt SW600 inverter. Starlink calls for 500W capacity. I have seen power draw of 200W during operation (I think when it hunts for new satellite to connect). Also has a surge on startup -- but I didn't have my proper Fluke meter to measure that. Normal power draw is about 60-75 W ... a little more than the small iFleetOne/Inmarsat VSAT. 

HP dish was exceptional. No problems with carbon mainsail. You have two options now with data plans in the USA: mobile priority, $250/month for 50GB, or mobile regional which is $150/month for unlimited data while on your continent. You need the mobile priority when offshore or when exceeding 8.5 kts. When you go offshore, toggle on mobile priority for $2/GB. This lets you do the bandwidth-sucking software updates while at the dock--and stream stuff--and then while offshore you pay only a trival amount for weather, tracking data, etc. 

Last edited by TimSnyder (1/27/2024 8:03 am)

     Thread Starter
 

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