Thread: Starlink Mini Kit

Thought I'd do a wee review of sorts since I have managed to put this kit together and have had it running a bit to test.
I have mixed feelings about the development of communications for the backcountry as on the one hand safety and efficiency benefits, and the other hand some of the magic and solitude of being completely off the grid suffers.
However, I feel that I need to stay connected in some part due to my wife having to run the farm when I'm away etc and the Starlink Mini offers me the freedom to get away whilst knowing that I can contact home via video call etc if I needed to explain anything or take a look at any issues. I can't say I wouldn't be tempted to watch a couple of Tasmans adventures on YouTube on a wet tent day either.

So I bought the starlink unit itself from Noel Leeming. The unit cost was $649.
https://www.noelleeming.co.nz/p/star...eRhZiaNYP_s2ke
The kit comes with the dish and a pole mount for mounting it permanently on an RV, Boat etc, and it comes with a wall plug and a power cord that is about 50ft long!
I wanted to run it from a power bank so after watching a few YouTube videos I settled on the 45,000mah Xtorm 67w series power bank from outdoor action. This seemed to give the ideal balance of weight vs runtime and ability to actually run the Starlink, vs the likes of other potential units like the Anker offerings. The starlink will draw up to around 40w on start up and generally settles between 20w and 40w draw when running so you need a powerbank that will provide at least 40w via its USB-C outlet. The Xtorm is 173.25wh so will power the starlink continuously for around 6hours at 30w draw. (I plugged the unit into the USB-C outlet on my boat which has a display and it settled at around 23-28w whilst streaming YouTube.
https://www.outdooraction.co.nz/prod...BoCdLEQAvD_BwE
You also need a USB-C cable to power the unit if you plan on running it from a powerbank, even if the factory supplied cable worked you don't need 50ft of cable!
These are actually hard to come by "off the shelf" in NZ but the likes of aliexpress etc have plenty listed and I picked up a nice short 1m version for the grand sum of around $8 delivered.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005...RoCP_0QAvD_BwE
I took the unit with us down to Te Anau last week and we went up through the narrows to the glaisnock in the boat and it performed perfectly, under tree canopy it struggles like any sattelite based equipment but in a clearing or a river bed etc it is fine and on the tops there would be zero issues.
It packs away into my pack fine and I have packed it away as a trial run with all the gear I'll be taking to fiordland for the first period. The complete setup weighs just under 2kg, I haven't weighed my complete kit as yet but I manage to keep it pretty lightweight in any case including the "luxury" starlink and helinox chair zero
Should allow for a comfortable 30-40mins of use each day over the 10 day period and my sister who I am hunting with will also be carrying a fold out 40w solar panel to throw some more juice at the powerbank when we get any chance. The paper beside the unit is A4 for scale.

As a techy guy, I love this. I agree that I get out into the bush for the solitude, but it's amazing that you are able to fit it into your pack and have remote internet.

Just ordered one of these myself to throw in the back of my ute/for emergencies. On sale for $324 on the starlink website if anyone is after one, although there is $40 shipping on top.

Cheers for the review, looking forward to setting mine up.

That is bloody cool!
What are the plans worth?

$90/50gb or $222/unlimited a month

Thank you for this, if the plans come down a touch it will be a serious option for an emergency contact kit if the brown stuff hits the whirly thing. I will have to have a look and see if they offer some sort of combo deal with a residential plan...

Originally Posted by No.3

Thank you for this, if the plans come down a touch it will be a serious option for an emergency contact kit if the brown stuff hits the whirly thing. I will have to have a look and see if they offer some sort of combo deal with a residential plan...

The plans are not contracts so you can start and stop them when you need

From memory the plans run month to month, meaning 1st to the 31st. If you span a couple of months you will be hit with two months charges. Still worth it if your need is high enough.

Originally Posted by Ryan_Songhurst

The plans are not contracts so you can start and stop them when you need

Be nice to combo it in with the main residential plan though and data-share when you need it. Not likely Elon will be into that though when he can charge two plans the bugger. I recently dropped back to the residential lite plan after XR500 mentioned he hadn't noticed any difference in speeds etc - saves $80 a month and to be fair I haven't noticed any throttling effects either.

I'm not planning on "using" the lite setup at any stage - it's more that it's an awesome connectivity backup if we have a Gabrielle situation or White Island shite's itself or a main fault lets go sort of thing - not requiring the fuel aspect to run a generator to power comms would be very handy. I have a solar panel and a 12v battery and it would run the little unit virtually indefinitely from what I can tell.

Question for you starlink guys, if the plan is on pause, can you re activate it though the SL data? Or reactivation has to be done though a active data conection?

Originally Posted by striker

Question for you starlink guys, if the plan is on pause, can you re activate it though the SL data? Or reactivation has to be done though a active data conection?

Good question, something i haven't actually put any thought into, you'd be shit out of luck if you fired it up and you couldn't make it work because your subscription wasn't up to date! We had an old vodafone phone that got shared around on the farm with a few different apps etc on it and it was on prepay and it would run out of credit and you couldn't use the app to put more credit on it because it had no data! Was a pain in the bum!

Yeah I'll be asking that before I buy, multi use hunting use and back up phone/data coms rather than an inreach

Yep, can access the starlink website/use the app on your phone to reactivate through a starlink unit without other connectivity. Double checked that before buying mine.

Can you do this with the std $159 residential plan or do you need the roam plan if you are traveling the country?

Originally Posted by Looseunit

Can you do this with the std $159 residential plan or do you need the roam plan if you are traveling the country?

Have to have a roam plan