Starlink Installation / Experience

[Ephraim]

Originally Posted by DaveP

Ephraim & GMFL,

Can I ask you what poles and pole clamps you bought and from where?

Thanks, Dave

Parts used:

25FT Telescoping Flag Pole Kit


HOUSE TUNING Bar Clamps 2.25 inch - 4 pack


MTC 800-GIGE-POE GbE PoE Surge Suppressor High Voltage


Powerstream 12 volt to 48 volt DC/DC Converter


(2) 3/8” x 1.5” Bolt
Ace Hardware

(2) 3/8” Wingnut
Ace Hardware

Starlink Gen 2 Pipe Adapter

[DaveP]

Thanks. Ephraim! How did you hook up the DC-DC?

[Ephraim]

Originally Posted by DaveP

Thanks. Ephraim! How did you hook up the DC-DC?

The 12V side connects to the (+) bus in the Power distribution box of the trailer on the 24hr circuit. However, I put an Anderson connector on the power supply side of the DC-DC so I could physically disconnect it if I didn't want that parasitic draw while it wasn't being used. S switch would have done the same thing, but I had Anderson connectors and would have had to delay the project while ordered the switch.

On our Airstream, the poe injector and DC-DC converter is right under the foot rest of the recliner so it's easy to access.

[DaveP]

How do you connect to the Starlink box?

[Ephraim]

Originally Posted by DaveP

How do you connect to the Starlink box?

I don't. My installation does away with the Starlink router. In my case, it is redundant and less featured than the Peplink that the Airstream has. I use a POE injector to inject power directly into the cable that feeds Dishy. The DC-DC converter converts the trailer 12V into the 48V that Dishy needs. Dishy is put into "passthrough" mode which allows the Peplink to take the place of the Starlink router and now I have seamless failover. Dishy has highest priority. If it's connected, that is what the Airstream uses. If it looses connection because of obstructions or isn't connected, the Peplink will use it's Campground WiFi as the external link. If that is not available, it will use a cellular link as the Internet connection. While Campground WiFi is prioritized over Cellular, if I don't like how miserably slow it is, I just tell the router to remove that connection and it then ignores it.

What this means is I pretty much always have Internet. While in a Campground, I typically have fast internet (either through Starlink or through Campground WiFi) and while on the road, I still have Internet through Cellular. Occasionally (like recently in Red River, NM, we are given a site that can't use Starlink because of the trees so the system uses either Campground or Cellular.

[DaveP]

Ephriam,

Got it. I will be using the Starlink router so I guess I will be running the inverter.

Thanks,

[DaveP]

Used the Starlink for the first time this week. Happy Meadows has high rock prominences particularly to the north. Starlink hooked right up with 150 Mbps and 11 down. Doing a Zoom meeting tomorrow night from here. [emoji16]

[2012FB]

Disappointed with Starlink. First use at ViewPoint RV park in Mesa, AZ where I had good speed it would not stream Netflix with out periodic low quality imaging and then error out. Second use at Sun Outdoors San Diego Bay resort same exact thing. In both cases switching to lower speed resort WiFi Netflix streamed perfectly. Ideas?

[foobar]

Originally Posted by 2012FB

Disappointed with Starlink. First use at ViewPoint RV park in Mesa, AZ where I had good speed it would not stream Netflix with out periodic low quality imaging and then error out. Second use at Sun Outdoors San Diego Bay resort same exact thing. In both cases switching to lower speed resort WiFi Netflix streamed perfectly. Ideas?

Before we try and help with suggestions, can you please share some more info on your setup? If the details are in an earlier posting, please feel free to point me to that.

Some questions to get started:

1. Is your starlink setup virgin? I.e. not modified and uses the starlink router for wifi and to power the dish?

2. Related to #1 above, have you cut your cable to eliminate the use of the starlink router and use something else? If yes, did you use shielded cat5 or better for all cabling and connections? What power supply are you using? How are you handling the POE injection (what are you using)?

3. Do you have a clear view of the northern sky down to the horizon?

FYI : The starlink service is currently oversubscribed for the number of satellites that are available in the lower latitudes, especially in the southwestern states (many more satellites are available in the northern latitude states). This will improve over time and/or Starlink will eventually have to throttle folks to manage bandwidth (I think that is inevitable anyway).

Let's start with the above questions.

[2012FB]

The Starlink is brand-new and unmodified. It is on a pole located in front of the trailer and the dish is well above the roof. There is an an unobstructed view to the sky. I have the Starlink hardwired adapter connected directly to the WAN input on the Peplink with the LAN output going to a brand new latest model 4K Apple TV. The Apple TV is HDMI hardwired to a brand new Samsung 32 inch smart TV. With the Starlink as the primary for the Peplink, I get poor image quality, drop out and finally it errors out! If I switch to the campground Wi-Fi as primary then Netflix works fine. The Starlink and Peplink speed test is above 50mbps. Campground is around 35. Very frustrating given the expense and installation.

[foobar]

Originally Posted by 2012FB

The Starlink is brand-new and unmodified. It is on a pole located in front of the trailer and the dish is well above the roof. There is an an unobstructed view to the sky. I have the Starlink hardwired adapter connected directly to the WAN input on the Peplink with the LAN output going to a brand new latest model 4K Apple TV. The Apple TV is HDMI hardwired to a brand new Samsung 32 inch smart TV. With the Starlink as the primary for the Peplink, I get poor image quality, drop out and finally it errors out! If I switch to the campground Wi-Fi as primary then Netflix works fine. The Starlink and Peplink speed test is above 50mbps. Campground is around 35. Very frustrating given the expense and installation.

Not sure I follow your starlink connections architecture. How are you connecting the peplink to the starlink stuff if the starlink stuff is not modified?

First question: Did you put the starlink dish in what I think is called bypass mode? This mode is used when you don't have a starlink router handing the internet packets and you want a 3rd party router to handle routing duties instead.

Moving on to additional debug.

Do you have the starlink router with you? If you do, I recommend doing the following:

Set up the starlink system all by itself. I.e. Starlink router connected directly to the starlink dish.

Power the Starlink dish using the star link router powered via 120v inverter.

Connect to the starlink router wifi network SSID using a cell phone. Try and stream Netflix to your phone.

If the cell phone works, then connect the Apple TV to the starlink router using starlink wifi SSID.

If that works, then connect the Apple TV to your starlink system using the starlink ethernet adapter.

If that works, then I suspect that you have a setup/config problem with the pepwave and/or you don't have the dish in bypass mode.

I'm having a pepwave based system and starlink installed in my trailer as we speak (by an installation company). I'll get it back in a couple of weeks and then I can probably help with more details at that time.

[bobzdar]

If you have it set up for a few hours, you can use the phone app (connected to the starlink wifi) to view connection statistics including any drop outs, speed over time etc. If that is showing all good, then the issue is likely in your pepwave setup and not starlink (as above).

[2012FB]

Starlink has an optional hardware interface that allows you to plug into an RJ45, which I direct connect to the Peplink WAN input.

I forgot about the Starlink bypass mode i so just enabled that. Will try again this evening.

[2012FB]

Mi install.

[foobar]

Originally Posted by bobzdar

If you have it set up for a few hours, you can use the phone app (connected to the starlink wifi) to view connection statistics including any drop outs, speed over time etc. If that is showing all good, then the issue is likely in your pepwave setup and not starlink (as above).

Good idea bobzdar. I forgot about that capability.

[foobar]

Originally Posted by 2012FB

Mi install.

Nice and clean! Good installation.

What HDMI splitter are you using?

Side note: the Sony blu-ray player can be directly powered from a 12v supply if you haven't already made that change. Just cut off the wall wart and use the remaining cable to connect to a 12v supply.

[2012FB]

Amazon. Seems to work well. I have 400A BattleBorn Multiplus II so no need for DC sources.

[foobar]

Originally Posted by 2012FB

Amazon. Seems to work well. I have 400A BattleBorn Multiplus II so no need for DC sources.

Huh, when I was looking for hdmi 2.1 splitters on amazon, I didn't see any Amazon branded products. I will look again.

[2012FB]

Well putting the Starlink in bypass made no difference. Switched campground WiFi to priority 1 on the Peplink and Netflix played perfectly.

[foobar]

Originally Posted by 2012FB

Well putting the Starlink in bypass made no difference. Switched campground WiFi to priority 1 on the Peplink and Netflix played perfectly.

Try going through the debug process that I suggested.

Could be a problem with cables, connectors, etc. anywhere along the signal path.

Could be a problem with the dish not getting power due a miswire, so the poe voltage is not on the right signal pair.

Take your poe setup out of the picture and put the starlink system back into the configuration it came out of the box with and start from there for debug.