Starlink - pre-order available in NZ

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75 posts

Master Geek

#2768800 30-Aug-2021 13:47

sidney:

Zander:

PS - my guess is that he stood on his roof, and used the App.

Yes, looking at the details in his picture, like the stripes on the floor in front and behind Dishy being the same width, I would say there is no foreshortening going on, and the wall and trees are certainly in the way.

I'm about to cancel my order too, I don't see any practical way to get Dishy higher than the hill to the south now that I know that's the direction I need.

Sorry to hear :( One idea is to work with neighbours who have a better view, then use Ubiquiti gear to link up? That's going through my mind at the moment.

e.g. 2 of these perhaps - https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/NETUBI0508/Ubiquiti-LiteBeam-LBE-5AC-Gen2-airMAX-ac-CPE-5GHz4

andypen

51 posts

Master Geek

#2768812 30-Aug-2021 14:12

Zander:

...

Sorry to hear :( One idea is to work with neighbours who have a better view, then use Ubiquiti gear to link up? That's going through my mind at the moment.

e.g. 2 of these perhaps - https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/NETUBI0508/Ubiquiti-LiteBeam-LBE-5AC-Gen2-airMAX-ac-CPE-5GHz4

This is exactly what I am looking at for a couple of mates who have exactly this issue. I'm going to build a demo set-up with solar and batteries to check feasibility of placing them at a high point that doesn't have power but has a good view of the satellites and then beaming down to the main house (or even a few neighbours). Sure, not necessarily legal in terms of the terms of service, but surely a slim chance of being an issue.

sidney

81 posts

Master Geek

#2768815 30-Aug-2021 14:25

Zander:

e.g. 2 of these perhaps - https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/NETUBI0508/Ubiquiti-LiteBeam-LBE-5AC-Gen2-airMAX-ac-CPE-5GHz4

That was something I considered years ago because my neighbour has line of sight to a WIMAX ISP, but I don't even have line of sight to any neighbour's house, nor anywhere else that has power.

I do have beautiful views, though :)

pih

649 posts

Ultimate Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#2768832 30-Aug-2021 14:38

andypen:
...

This is exactly what I am looking at for a couple of mates who have exactly this issue. I'm going to build a demo set-up with solar and batteries to check feasibility of placing them at a high point that doesn't have power but has a good view of the satellites and then beaming down to the main house (or even a few neighbours). Sure, not necessarily legal in terms of the terms of service, but surely a slim chance of being an issue.

You'll need a serious solar setup if you want 24/7 connectivity. On a cloudy/rainy day you may only get 20% of the rated output of the panel, so some napkin calculations mean you'll need (worst case):

110W x 24h = 2640Wh / day

250W panels x 5h peak producing hours x 80% total efficiency = 1000Wh / day

110W is for the Starlink antenna plus networking hardware, max. So you'll need 3 X 250W panels plus ample storage for best case summer usage. Worst case winter usage you'll need around 13 panels 😯

I'm probably off by a bit, but I don't think it's going to be really feasible with the current gen hardware, even with the modest firmware updates that will likely lower usage somewhat. Next gen should be much lower powered and may be more feasible.

Shrapz

126 posts

Master Geek

ID Verified

#2768853 30-Aug-2021 15:02

Sorry if this has been covered already but is there any plans / talk about a POP in NZ vs going to Sydney?

andypen

51 posts

Master Geek

#2768865 30-Aug-2021 15:24

Zander:

I guess even $5k to $10k of solar and batteries is almost always cheaper than even a semi-rural fibre install though.

My initial fibre "quote" before they started the scoping exercise was for around $150k. I am lucky that I appear to have an unobstructed view, so in my case I will host a disk on my property and then bounce off a high site to those that don't. We have also negotiated the possibility of installing Fibre at the local school and then using that to feed the WISP but I am amazed at how difficult it is to get anything out of the ordinary working with Chorus. Also, I don't really want to become a WISP owner. I worked in the ISP business in a past life and I'm over that. But if it's just a few local farmers and it's our only option, then we'll do it.

I'm also lucky that I already have 3kW of solar installed but also grid connected so I can play without having too much capital outlay.

doctortea

42 posts

Geek

#2768868 30-Aug-2021 15:26

Shrapz:

Sorry if this has been covered already but is there any plans / talk about a POP in NZ vs going to Sydney?

As per a commenter earlier in the thread, Google Cloud are opening a POP in New Zealand, it is not clear when this will be available. Ping is fantastic to Australia, but not so flash domestically.

https://www.reseller.co.nz/article/690085/google-rolls-new-melbourne-cloud-region-kiwi-pop/

Sharesies

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

olivernz

497 posts

Ultimate Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2768872 30-Aug-2021 15:35

pih:
andypen:

...

This is exactly what I am looking at for a couple of mates who have exactly this issue. I'm going to build a demo set-up with solar and batteries to check feasibility of placing them at a high point that doesn't have power but has a good view of the satellites and then beaming down to the main house (or even a few neighbours). Sure, not necessarily legal in terms of the terms of service, but surely a slim chance of being an issue.

You'll need a serious solar setup if you want 24/7 connectivity. On a cloudy/rainy day you may only get 20% of the rated output of the panel, so some napkin calculations mean you'll need (worst case):

110W x 24h = 2640Wh / day

250W panels x 5h peak producing hours x 80% total efficiency = 1000Wh / day

110W is for the Starlink antenna plus networking hardware, max. So you'll need 3 X 250W panels plus ample storage for best case summer usage. Worst case winter usage you'll need around 13 panels 😯

I'm probably off by a bit, but I don't think it's going to be really feasible with the current gen hardware, even with the modest firmware updates that will likely lower usage somewhat. Next gen should be much lower powered and may be more feasible.

New grey Dishy seems to have an average consumption of 44W and a max around 60W.

andypen

51 posts

Master Geek

#2768877 30-Aug-2021 15:43

olivernz:

New grey Dishy seems to have an average consumption of 44W and a max around 60W.

Great. Now if my grey dishy would just climb on the plane in Sydney and fly across the ditch to me I will be able to start testing.

doctortea

42 posts

Geek

#2768878 30-Aug-2021 15:44

olivernz:

New grey Dishy seems to have an average consumption of 44W and a max around 60W.

Also some speculation on Reddit that they have reduced power consumption of Dishy by 10W~

https://www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/comments/pdz82b/10_watt_power_use_reduction_on_latest_firmware/

Shrapz

126 posts

Master Geek

ID Verified

#2768883 30-Aug-2021 16:03

doctortea:

Shrapz:

Sorry if this has been covered already but is there any plans / talk about a POP in NZ vs going to Sydney?

As per a commenter earlier in the thread, Google Cloud are opening a POP in New Zealand, it is not clear when this will be available. Ping is fantastic to Australia, but not so flash domestically.

https://www.reseller.co.nz/article/690085/google-rolls-new-melbourne-cloud-region-kiwi-pop/

Thank you!

pih

649 posts

Ultimate Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#2768884 30-Aug-2021 16:05

olivernz:
New grey Dishy seems to have an average consumption of 44W and a max around 60W.

Yeah, I was erring on the side of caution using the original figure, but still that means half a dozen 250W panels to keep Dishy happy 24/7 over winter.

Maybe that's acceptable. Maybe it could be supplemented with a small wind turbine, since he mentioned it would be on a hill. But it's still a lot to keep it running.

eonsim

398 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#2769010 30-Aug-2021 21:00

pih:
olivernz:

New grey Dishy seems to have an average consumption of 44W and a max around 60W.

Yeah, I was erring on the side of caution using the original figure, but still that means half a dozen 250W panels to keep Dishy happy 24/7 over winter.

Maybe that's acceptable. Maybe it could be supplemented with a small wind turbine, since he mentioned it would be on a hill. But it's still a lot to keep it running.

24/7 might be over the top, could get away with a smaller setup but just shutting down the system between 11pm and 6am (or similar). Internet tends not to be critical when sleeping and while it's nice for big downloads if you can get a couple of hundred mbps during the day most things will take care of them selves when there is sunlight.

richms

28187 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2769024 30-Aug-2021 21:49

If you have crappy copper, then you could possibly get some form of load balancing to turn dishy on when it is needed, and for overnight when its just the lightbulbs sending data back to china, the DSL would be enough.

Richard rich.ms

Linuxluver

5828 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

#2769551 31-Aug-2021 23:17

I've got my Starlink service running. It was super easy.

Ookla Speedtest puts the download speed around 288mbps (to my phone over wifi) while Fast.Now linked to by the Starlink app puts my download speed at 150mbps.

Upload speeds in both cases are about 30mbps

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