Powering starlink

NYSail

NYSail

.
Jan 6, 2006
3,132
Beneteau 423 Mt. Sinai, NY
Hello all….. so got my wife a starlink mini for Christmas (boat present). Looking for simple suggestions for powering the unit. By inverter I would want it dedicated to just the starlink separate from my older 3000 watt house inverter which I’m pretty sure is modified sin wave. Can a cigarette lighter plug in type function in this capacity? I know it would have to be pure sun wave. All suggestions welcome!

thanks!
 
D

dlochner

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Jan 11, 2014
12,379
Sabre 362 113 Fair Haven, NY
I think the Mini can be powered directly from 12v so you don't need the inverter. If I had a mini I would hard wire to the 12v system with a dedicated circuit breaker. Here's one third party cable you might consider.

www.trioflatmount.com

Mini 12V DC Power Cable — TRIO Flatmount Starlink Mounts

** Now shipping in the order received ** The Starlink Mini dish accepts 12-48V input but can be difficult to use at 12V due to voltage drop along small gauge wire. Thus we came up with our own 14 AWG power cable with over-sized weatherproof barrel connector so that you can plug directly into the s
www.trioflatmount.com www.trioflatmount.com

One more thing, be sure to disable the Snowmelt feature it draws a lot of current and sometimes comes on when its not needed. It can be done on the app. I'm pretty confident that you won't be sailing in the snow.
 
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NYSail

NYSail

.
Jan 6, 2006
3,132
Beneteau 423 Mt. Sinai, NY
dlochner said:
I think the Mini can be powered directly from 12v so you don't need the inverter. If I had a mini I would hard wire to the 12v system with a dedicated circuit breaker. Here's one third party cable you might consider.

www.trioflatmount.com

Mini 12V DC Power Cable — TRIO Flatmount Starlink Mounts

** Now shipping in the order received ** The Starlink Mini dish accepts 12-48V input but can be difficult to use at 12V due to voltage drop along small gauge wire. Thus we came up with our own 14 AWG power cable with over-sized weatherproof barrel connector so that you can plug directly into the s
www.trioflatmount.com www.trioflatmount.com

One more thing, be sure to disable the Snowmelt feature it draws a lot of current and sometimes comes on when its not needed. It can be done on the app. I'm pretty confident that you won't be sailing in the snow.
Click to expand
yea no….. only thing cold we like on the boat are beers and cocktails
 
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colemj

.
Jul 13, 2004
200
Dolphin Catamaran Dolphin 460 Mystic, CT
While the mini operates on 12V, there are many reports of it failing when directly wired because 12V is the minimum limit and voltage drop comes into play, particularly when it is operating hard getting first fixes. So it might be beneficial to use an inexpensive 12-24V converter, or at least make the connecting cord as short as possible. Otherwise, our Gen2 works fine off an inexpensive 250W cig-plug type inverter, and it draws twice what the mini does.

Mark

Edit: I didn't notice dlochner's link that says the same thing I just did about 12V being a minimum.
 
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M

marcham

.
Jun 17, 2022
154
Hunter 380 Comox BC
The simplest dc power source is one that has usb PD, able to deliver 20V. As long as the cord is short (15 ft or less), this will work. Another option is the cigarette lighter socket adapter that starlink sells. A 3rd option would be installing a boost converter and adjusting it to 20-30V, using the starlink supplied cord with this type of adapter.





Note that many of the usb cables on Amazon have the wrong connector size for the starlink side, it should be a DC5525.

12 v will only work on a very short cable.
 
Last edited:
NYSail

NYSail

.
Jan 6, 2006
3,132
Beneteau 423 Mt. Sinai, NY
I was thinking about installing a dedicated inverter for the starlink
 
D

dlochner

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Jan 11, 2014
12,379
Sabre 362 113 Fair Haven, NY
NYSail said:
I was thinking about installing a dedicated inverter for the starlink
Click to expand
The mini can be powered from 12 to 48v so that it can easily work on the DC systems in cars, RVs, and boats. Using an inverter to go from DC to AC and back to DC will introduce a lot of inefficiency as each time the the power is changed from AC to DC and back, it will lose 5-10%, so that is somewhere between a 15% to 30% waste of energy.

Wire the Mini to your DC system and use 10 ga wire and keep the run as short as possible as possible. If there are perfmorance issues, then get a DC-DC charger or a DC Buck Boost to raise the voltage to 24v. According to the specs, the Mini will draw from 25 to 40w, that's a max of 3.33a at 12v. According to the ABYC ampacity tables, 10 g is good for 60' at 5a for a 3% loss and 170 feet for a 10% loss. Don't use a cigarette lighter type plug they are not reliable.

If you don't want to cut off the end of the supplied cable, then oder a 12v connector pig tail (Amazon Link) and make up your own power cable. No need to over think this installation.
 
M

marcham

.
Jun 17, 2022
154
Hunter 380 Comox BC
dlochner said:
The mini can be powered from 12 to 48v so that it can easily work on the DC systems in cars, RVs, and boats. Using an inverter to go from DC to AC and back to DC will introduce a lot of inefficiency as each time the the power is changed from AC to DC and back, it will lose 5-10%, so that is somewhere between a 15% to 30% waste of energy.

Wire the Mini to your DC system and use 10 ga wire and keep the run as short as possible as possible. If there are perfmorance issues, then get a DC-DC charger or a DC Buck Boost to raise the voltage to 24v. According to the specs, the Mini will draw from 25 to 40w, that's a max of 3.33a at 12v. According to the ABYC ampacity tables, 10 g is good for 60' at 5a for a 3% loss and 170 feet for a 10% loss. Don't use a cigarette lighter type plug they are not reliable.

If you don't want to cut off the end of the supplied cable, then oder a 12v connector pig tail (Amazon Link) and make up your own power cable. No need to over think this installation.
Click to expand
Have you been able to make yours work with 12V input at 60 feet? The only people I've exchanged with so far that were successful at 12V were with very short runs, ie: 10 feet or less.
 
D

dlochner

.
Jan 11, 2014
12,379
Sabre 362 113 Fair Haven, NY
marcham said:
Have you been able to make yours work with 12V input at 60 feet? The only people I've exchanged with so far that were successful at 12V were with very short runs, ie: 10 feet or less.
Click to expand
I have a Gen 3, that requires 54v it runs on a dedicated buck boost to raise the voltage from 12 to 54.

Whether it works on 12v or really requires a higher voltage depends on more than just the voltage. What gauge wire are they using? How is it connected to the battery? What condition is the battery in? What other devices are running concurrently, what's the total amp draw on the system? How big is the battery bank? When they report 10' cables is it 10' from the battery or 10 feet from the connection to the system? Do they have snowmelt turned off? All of those factors can make a big difference.

It doesn't take much to drop the voltage on a LA battery from 12.5 to below 12. That is as likely a cause of the poor performance as the short cable.
 
Hello Below

Hello Below

.
May 7, 2012
1,508
Hunter e33 Maple Bay, BC
marcham said:
Note that many of the usb cables on Amazon have the wrong connector size for the starlink side, it should be a DC5525.
Click to expand
I see that the Starlink Mini manual shows a 2.5mm barrel plug in their specs; yet, the half dozen or so of the online articles I have read states it’s a 2.1mm. Maybe I will wait until after I receive my mini to double check. I do like the idea of a USB-C to barrel cable and a USB-C PD 100W+ car charger. Simple and clean.
 
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M

marcham

.
Jun 17, 2022
154
Hunter 380 Comox BC
Yup, that one puzzles me as well. . I haven't found a cable with a 2.5mm socket.
 
dLj

dLj

.
Mar 23, 2017
3,907
Belliure 41 Back in the Chesapeake
Hello Below said:
I see that the Starlink Mini manual shows a 2.5mm barrel plug in their specs; yet, the half dozen or so of the online articles I have read states it’s a 2.1mm. Maybe I will wait until after I receive my mini to double check. I do like the idea of a USB-C to barrel cable and a USB-C PD 100W+ car charger. Simple and clean.
Click to expand
Perhaps it's a typo in the manual?

For sure when you get the unit, let us know what it is....

dj
 
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Hello Below

Hello Below

.
May 7, 2012
1,508
Hunter e33 Maple Bay, BC
marcham said:
Yup, that one puzzles me as well. . I haven't found a cable with a 2.5mm socket.
Click to expand
They do exist. A search using “DC5525 cable” will get you a number of choices but not connected to the Starlink mini.
 
Hello Below

Hello Below

.
May 7, 2012
1,508
Hunter e33 Maple Bay, BC
dLj said:
Perhaps it's a typo in the manual?

For sure when you get the unit, let us know what it is....

dj
Click to expand
Yup. It appears to be a misprint in the manual. I took the chuck end of a 3/32” (2.38125mm) drill bit and it did not fit into the female plug that came with the Starlink Mini. Thus the actual connector would be a DC5521.
 
joe28532

joe28532

.
Sep 29, 2016
74
Lord Nelson Lord Nelson 35 3 Full time cruiser
NYSail said:
Hello all….. so got my wife a starlink mini for Christmas (boat present). Looking for simple suggestions for powering the unit. By inverter I would want it dedicated to just the starlink separate from my older 3000 watt house inverter which I’m pretty sure is modified sin wave. Can a cigarette lighter plug in type function in this capacity? I know it would have to be pure sun wave. All suggestions welcome!

thanks!
Click to expand
We have the mini. We run it directly off the 12 volt system with the below linked DC to DC converter.

 
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joe28532

joe28532

.
Sep 29, 2016
74
Lord Nelson Lord Nelson 35 3 Full time cruiser
You have to use a female to female connector so you can plug the connector from the converter to your star links cable.
 
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