Thread: Starlink Mini Kit

Originally Posted by Happy Jack

Basically it gives you portable wifi supposedly anywhere through the starlink satellite train

Thank you sir

Just placed the order for the mini kit, the half price thing Starlink have on offer at the mo ends tomorrow (30/1). Interestingly, the Starlink site is close to one of the hardest websites I've used and I could not for the life of me get it to line the order up on the cheaper $90 per month for 50GB plan. It defaulted to the full price unlimited roam plan at $190/month with 2 months as the only option (extra $380) - so that got unchecked. I'll wait for the kit to arrive and sort the plan out then.

Mine arrived last week. It's super easy to set up. It arrived after about 3 - 4 days as well. I took it away in the campervan on the weekend fishing and it was bloody awesome. I'm going to find a replacement shorter cable with different plug options so I can plug it straight in to either a 12v leisure battery socket so I don't have to use the inverter, or a USB so I can make it more portable.

Originally Posted by Ducksnchips

Mine arrived last week. It's super easy to set up. It arrived after about 3 - 4 days as well. I took it away in the campervan on the weekend fishing and it was bloody awesome. I'm going to find a replacement shorter cable with different plug options so I can plug it straight in to either a 12v leisure battery socket so I don't have to use the inverter, or a USB so I can make it more portable.

Follow the link that the OP put up to the 2m cable from Aliexpress, $8.50 or so delivered. Seems to be the most efficient option!

Maybe I am missing something, being a retard on the tech front.
For the last 9 years plus I have been running off Vodafone rural at 99 bucks a month with heaps for my needs . I could take the modem with me on a road trip as it is not tied to my physical address.
Tell me why I need to by from little Hitler

Originally Posted by Pengy

Maybe I am missing something, being a retard on the tech front.
For the last 9 years plus I have been running off Vodafone rural at 99 bucks a month with heaps for my needs . I could take the modem with me on a road trip as it is not tied to my physical address.
Tell me why I need to by from little Hitler

Good luck getting internet on your vodafone modem in the back of fiordland or other such places

I hope to test it in the not too distant future

If you can't get reception you won't get internet with a vodafone rural modem as they just run off the 4g network. So you're better off just using your phone as a Hotspot if you want internet on the go as it will get the same coverage as your modem

Originally Posted by Pengy

Maybe I am missing something, being a retard on the tech front.
For the last 9 years plus I have been running off Vodafone rural at 99 bucks a month with heaps for my needs . I could take the modem with me on a road trip as it is not tied to my physical address.
Tell me why I need to by from little Hitler

You don't need to - especially if you're happy with your current provider but 4G mobile internet is like a garden hose trying to blow a water cannon away compared to Starlink. Starlink is in my experience comparable to urban ultrafast fiber and I've had no issues at all with speeds - maybe the odd bit of latency when jumping between satellites but what surprises me is no issues at all with dropping out in thunderstorms or really crappy weather that kills off other satellite comms. In comparison 4G mobile data is crap. Unreliable, shite speeds and drops out regularly in my area.

Originally Posted by No.3

You don't need to - especially if you're happy with your current provider but 4G mobile internet is like a garden hose trying to blow a water cannon away compared to Starlink. Starlink is in my experience comparable to urban ultrafast fiber and I've had no issues at all with speeds - maybe the odd bit of latency when jumping between satellites but what surprises me is no issues at all with dropping out in thunderstorms or really crappy weather that kills off other satellite comms. In comparison 4G mobile data is crap. Unreliable, shite speeds and drops out regularly in my area.

And if your cell phone supports "wifi calling" then as long as your phone is connected to starlink wifi and wifi calling enable, then you can have crystal clear phone calls even if your cell service signal is pooze.

Originally Posted by Pengy

Maybe I am missing something, being a retard on the tech front.
For the last 9 years plus I have been running off Vodafone rural at 99 bucks a month with heaps for my needs . I could take the modem with me on a road trip as it is not tied to my physical address.
Tell me why I need to by from little Hitler

We use Wireless Nation 4G who are a reseller of VF, we can get signal in places where our cellphones don't, however it isn't as good in the real remote as Starlink but I'm also not paying money to support Tesla which in my book is a win win.

I wish there was an alternative to Starlink but there isn't so I'll avoid it as long as possible.

Originally Posted by Happy Jack

We use Wireless Nation 4G who are a reseller of VF, we can get signal in places where our cellphones don't, however it isn't as good in the real remote as Starlink but I'm also not paying money to support Tesla which in my book is a win win.

I wish there was an alternative to Starlink but there isn't so I'll avoid it as long as possible.

Wireless nation were running off Spark towers here, we had to shift to them from Spark as Spark had the area on 'Stop/Sell' meaning that they had already allocated all of the theoretical data so would not alter our plan to give us more data. So we went to WN, same modem, same towers, same everything and saved $20 a month to get the next plan up.

Worked great for a couple of years until Chorus repositioned the transmitters to service town better (we are 6Km out of the urban boundary) and now we had to go to Starlink as no other options!!!

Well that was a whoops. My Starlink Mini knockoff 2m cable turned up today from Aliexpress - 8 days to my letter box on Rural Delivery, every step tracked to perfection as per normal. Except it wasn't a 2m cable, it was a 5.5x2.1mm DC-DC male-female power adapter to allow you to use a different power supply cable in the back of the dish and still retain the IP67 watertightness rating (effectively a short sealed male plug and a female socket). Hmmm. Ahhh yep that'd be right, the cart had a stuff up on me and I had to reload it and restart the order and obviously didn't check the item was still correct - du'oh!

Oh well, go back and order the right one, this time a 5M cable so I have a bit more length. I found a car charger ex JB Hifi that has the same (or slightly higher) USB-C PD rating as the Starlink Mobile adapter kit's charger, $28 with the NZDA discount there which is much more acceptable than the $170 Starlink wants for the factory kit! Still waiting for Starlink to ship the damn thing though, probably have all the accessories and still be waiting for it to arrive.

Did a West Coast jet boat trip last March with the inflatable. Took both our home modem and a brand new Starlink kit with us so we could share all the GoPro footage with friends and family. Tried to upload a few 150-250 mb videos via YT. Modem with 3 bars coverage was still spinning its wheels 3 hours later. So dragged out the Starlink, set it all up, connected. Bam! all three videos uploaded in under 9 minutes. That's the sort of difference you will experience.

Originally Posted by No.3

Well that was a whoops. My Starlink Mini knockoff 2m cable turned up today from Aliexpress - 8 days to my letter box on Rural Delivery, every step tracked to perfection as per normal. Except it wasn't a 2m cable, it was a 5.5x2.1mm DC-DC male-female power adapter to allow you to use a different power supply cable in the back of the dish and still retain the IP67 watertightness rating (effectively a short sealed male plug and a female socket). Hmmm. Ahhh yep that'd be right, the cart had a stuff up on me and I had to reload it and restart the order and obviously didn't check the item was still correct - du'oh!

Oh well, go back and order the right one, this time a 5M cable so I have a bit more length. I found a car charger ex JB Hifi that has the same (or slightly higher) USB-C PD rating as the Starlink Mobile adapter kit's charger, $28 with the NZDA discount there which is much more acceptable than the $170 Starlink wants for the factory kit! Still waiting for Starlink to ship the damn thing though, probably have all the accessories and still be waiting for it to arrive.

He is otherwise occupied