Thread: Starlink Mini Kit

Originally Posted by Ryan_Songhurst

Not sure I understand this whole needing to be logged in thing? Take starlink, turn on, connect, away you go. Been using mine the past couple of weeks in fiordland and up on the main divide etc and never needed to be logged in to anything?

Its fine if you have a current subscription, more of a pain if you have it on hold and are trying to restart it without an internet connection

Originally Posted by Ryan_Songhurst

Not sure I understand this whole needing to be logged in thing? Take starlink, turn on, connect, away you go. Been using mine the past couple of weeks in fiordland and up on the main divide etc and never needed to be logged in to anything?

Do you stop and start or just a continuous subscription on a credit card?

Yeah, only an issue if you have the unit's subscription on pause and decide to restore it to active status but need to log in to do so and are not in coverage or for some other reason can't receive the two-step verification email. If you can't log in you can't unpause the subscription, so the unit is useless. You could as an alternative go via the Starlink helpdesk service as an emergency step but that requires coverage as well.

If the unit's subscription is not on pause, there isn't any issue and if you remain logged into the app you are also OK as you don't need to log in via two-step authentication.

The reason this is an issue for me is I have a Gen 2 Starlink setup attached to my house two stories up - which is my usual unit on a Residential Lite plan. The Starlink Mini is my travel and emergency back up setup, and with the plan options they did have it was either $90 a month or $150 a month for a subscription I was only using every other month for a couple of nights or as an emergency backup. This is why the Mini kit's subscription was on pause most of the time.

As noted above I had a really good constructive chat with a Starlink rep about this issue after he called me basically straight back from the US after a couple of emails back and forwards to their support desk, I was actually really impressed with the level of service as a lot of people have found it's hard to actually talk to them. I explained what I wanted to achieve with the Mini kit, and what the issue with the two-step setup was and also gave a couple of examples like Gabrielle and the Edgecumbe flooding. It would seem that the result of that is the $17/10Gb a month plan noted above, which I think is a really good compromise. I'm happy to pay $17 a month to keep the unit live and avoid the issues with the two-step authentication - and if I need more data I can either upgrade the plan to one of the other Roaming options or pay the $/Gb fee for extra as I can use the Mini to log in to the Starlink app with no issues.

Originally Posted by striker

Do you stop and start or just a continuous subscription on a credit card?

The plan's run month by month or pro-rata if like me you already have another unit active and you join another subscription plan onto it. The monthly fee is by automatic payment to whatever you set it up to.

Because I move my Gen3 between two addresses (typically a few weeks at each then swap location) it's needs to be on Roam @ $222/mth . I asked them if I access a 2 address, active at only 1 address at any time type plan. No deal.
Then asked if it'd remain $222/mth if I brought a second set of hardware to avoid the hassle of removing it and the cable from roof mount and transporting it. No deal, in fact worse as wanted 2 x fixed @ $159 each per month, or 2x $79 for the Lite plan however I'm sure about it's speed for work. The person did suggest that I could put one of them on pause each time I moved. That doesn't work as my moves rarely coincide nicely with calendar months. A bit frustrating really.

(I brought a aliexpress cable to partially help with the transport hassle)

Originally Posted by No.3

The plan's run month by month or pro-rata if like me you already have another unit active and you join another subscription plan onto it. The monthly fee is by automatic payment to whatever you set it up to.

Yeah i meant as a credit card sub, it can be set up to direct credit each month unless you pause it

Originally Posted by striker

Yeah i meant as a credit card sub, it can be set up to direct credit each month unless you pause it

Yep, mine is auto payment each month on credit card. They just send a payment reminder a few days before and an invoice when they bill.

Ah yea i just have mine rolling over so it's always active anyhow

Originally Posted by uk_exile

Because I move my Gen3 between two addresses (typically a few weeks at each then swap location) it's needs to be on Roam @ $222/mth . I asked them if I access a 2 address, active at only 1 address at any time type plan. No deal.
Then asked if it'd remain $222/mth if I brought a second set of hardware to avoid the hassle of removing it and the cable from roof mount and transporting it. No deal, in fact worse as wanted 2 x fixed @ $159 each per month, or 2x $79 for the Lite plan however I'm sure about it's speed for work. The person did suggest that I could put one of them on pause each time I moved. That doesn't work as my moves rarely coincide nicely with calendar months. A bit frustrating really.

(I brought a aliexpress cable to partially help with the transport hassle)

If it helps I have not noticed any speed difference on the Residential Lite plan to when we were on the Residential version. It is a bit quicker on the Gen 2 than the Mini hardware, but not sure if that is the Roam plan on the Mini unit or the hardware's capability? Having said that the Mini is achieving somewhere between Tauranga fiber broadband and VDSL so it's very very acceptable - I was seeing between 90Mbps and 120Mbps when I was playing with it which is not far behind the Gen 2 setup.

If you look around you could pick up a decent second hand kit for around a couple hundy (as long is it is unlocked and the plan transferred to you as if it's new it's locked to the first owner for 6 months). That way you could avoid relocating the kits and drop back to the Residential plan, take a couple of months or so but you'd be saving long term?

@No.3 I really did think about trying the Residential Lite but missing end one of two important work calls would cause more hallse than the $222 vs 2 x $79 so for now I'll stick with the $222 Roam single kit. Suspect there will be quite change in this market over the next 2-3 years. Really impressed by the reliability over the last few months.

Interesting little adapter out of China - converts an 18v powertool battery to power the Starlink Mini.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005...Cquery_from%3A

You can screw an adapter to the top of the battery converter doohickey that has a piece of plastic the same diameter that the Starlink Mini's tube mount fits onto so that the Starlink Mini fits to the top of the 18v battery pack. I'm picking that a 6AH standard power tool battery would give a decent runtime too, be a good day of use if an airline approved power bank will give 6 or 8 hours or so. I can't see any issues with low power being supplied being a nominal 18v battery pack - this is similar to what the Starlink AC charger and also the USB-C charger supplies to the dish...

you see this idea?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oaS8F9a0AQ4

Pretty cool, very portable. I would like to see it done with a lid over the batteries and a power connection that has the rubber waterproofing boot so the dish retains it's IP rating (I think that's slightly more important in NZ especially if we are plonking it on the ground with dew etc).

One of the key things I saw from that video was his point about some power tool batteries not all being low-voltage protected on the battery and that a lot of brands rely on the tool to do this - I wasn't aware of that as I have only really used Hitachi/Hikoki, Stihl and Makita type gear that the protection circuit is in the battery. Seems pretty dodgy to me to do it on the tool, as you are relying on the connections to be good to manage the battery - a dodgy or dirty connection on the sense controller circuit could allow the voltage to drop below a safe level even if only for a short time, and you can't really use the main contacts for this as high load currents could show an artificially low voltage and shut the tool off early... Also, the protection circuits are often prone to damage and destroying that writes off the tool and not just a battery. I'd like to find out which tools/brands are like this and add to the "Avoid" list!