5 ms·

Any issues with snow etc?

robbiet480 6y ago
Dishy will actually intentionally heat up to melt snow. I’ve seen YouTube videos of it melting a good amount of snow per hour and service remaining stable.
- bombcar 6y ago
  Dishy also seems to continually pull 100 watts even when not in melt mode.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - state_less 6y ago
    That’s some large continuous power consumption for off grid use. Curious if they’ll come up with a way to put it into some sort of low power idle mode during low utilization?
    - bombcar 6y ago
      Yeah https://conversation.sevarg.net/t/starlink-satellite-based-internet/397 https://conversation.sevarg.net/t/starlink-satellite-based-i... talks about it - 100 watts idle is too high if you’re on battery. It’s noticeably high so I assume at some point it’ll be reduced unless it’s caused by continuous “transmission” so the satellite doesn’t lose the connection.
      - gpm 6y ago
        Depends what sort of battery you're on. The cheapest car Tesla sells (or at least that is displayed to me when I visit their site), for example, has a 54 kwh battery. It could run a 100 watt load for ~22 days between charges (not counting driving). Or to put it another way, if you charge every day, and you never turn the dish off, this would only drain 1/22nd of your range.
        state_less 6y ago
        Tesla batteries are sweet, but ~22 days isn’t long enough if you’re off grid full time. I am trying to keep power generation 100% solar rather than burn diesel/gas to charge batteries when I can. So 2.4kwh per day might require roughly 500 watts of additional solar panels in a sunny locale. More solar could be added, but there are some space and weight limitations on a vehicle. I’m at 1400 watts of solar now. Anyhow, just hoping they can figure out how to get the average power draw down over time.
        Dylan16807 6y ago
        > Tesla batteries are sweet, but ~22 days isn’t long enough if you’re off grid full time. If you start running low you can stop letting it idle. > More solar could be added, but there are some space and weight limitations on a vehicle. It can be a problem if you're off-grid and moving around, yeah. For general off-grid use it's annoying but not a big deal to set up an extra panel or two.
  - grecy 6y ago
    Elon has said more than once reducing the power needs is a goal. (so it can be more easily used on small boats, RVs, etc.)
Topgamer7 6y ago
I was thinking it might generate enough heat to keep it warm. But the comments in this thread appear to think it has a heater inside of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JSq6xB591M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JSq6xB591M
- kristofferR 6y ago
  There's absolutely no heater inside it, as this great disassembly/destruction shows: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOmdQnIlnRo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOmdQnIlnRo
  - ZoF 6y ago
    Depends on your definition of a heater, certainly there's no separate heating module but here's[0] a SpaceX team member saying it has 'self heating capabilities' in their reddit ama. [0]-https://old.reddit.com/r/Starlink/comments/jybmgn/we_are_the_starlink_team_ask_us_anything/gd3pt80/ https://old.reddit.com/r/Starlink/comments/jybmgn/we_are_the...
    - gonesilent 6y ago
      700+ chip count makes some heat.
- someperson 6y ago
  I wouldn't be surprised that the Starlink dish can melt snow. It's literally an antenna that shoots high energy microwaves into space over many hours. 100W of microwaves according to another comment here. By contrast your microwave oven might emitting 800W for a few minutes. Unlike the few watts of a Wifi router or phone, it emits high power electromagnetic radiation. It's definitely something you attach to your roof and pointed at the sky, not something you want to be sitting in front of for hours.
  - Dylan16807 6y ago
    > It's definitely something you attach to your roof and pointed at the sky, not something you want to be sitting in front of for hours. I could say the same thing about a light bulb, couldn't I? It heats your skin slowly, and it can't get far enough into your eyes to hurt your retina or anything.
jmreid 6y ago
Zero issues from my experience. The dish has a snow melt "mode", and I didn't have to manually clean it at all after a large snowfall.
alextheparrot 6y ago
None that she has mentioned, though I don't think they’ve had any really really bad storms this year.

Dishy will actually intentionally heat up to melt snow. I’ve seen YouTube videos of it melting a good amount of snow per hour and service remaining stable.

bombcar 6y ago
Dishy also seems to continually pull 100 watts even when not in melt mode.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- state_less 6y ago
  That’s some large continuous power consumption for off grid use. Curious if they’ll come up with a way to put it into some sort of low power idle mode during low utilization?
  - bombcar 6y ago
    Yeah https://conversation.sevarg.net/t/starlink-satellite-based-internet/397 https://conversation.sevarg.net/t/starlink-satellite-based-i... talks about it - 100 watts idle is too high if you’re on battery. It’s noticeably high so I assume at some point it’ll be reduced unless it’s caused by continuous “transmission” so the satellite doesn’t lose the connection.
    - gpm 6y ago
      Depends what sort of battery you're on. The cheapest car Tesla sells (or at least that is displayed to me when I visit their site), for example, has a 54 kwh battery. It could run a 100 watt load for ~22 days between charges (not counting driving). Or to put it another way, if you charge every day, and you never turn the dish off, this would only drain 1/22nd of your range.
      - state_less 6y ago
        Tesla batteries are sweet, but ~22 days isn’t long enough if you’re off grid full time. I am trying to keep power generation 100% solar rather than burn diesel/gas to charge batteries when I can. So 2.4kwh per day might require roughly 500 watts of additional solar panels in a sunny locale. More solar could be added, but there are some space and weight limitations on a vehicle. I’m at 1400 watts of solar now. Anyhow, just hoping they can figure out how to get the average power draw down over time.
        Dylan16807 6y ago
        > Tesla batteries are sweet, but ~22 days isn’t long enough if you’re off grid full time. If you start running low you can stop letting it idle. > More solar could be added, but there are some space and weight limitations on a vehicle. It can be a problem if you're off-grid and moving around, yeah. For general off-grid use it's annoying but not a big deal to set up an extra panel or two.
- grecy 6y ago
  Elon has said more than once reducing the power needs is a goal. (so it can be more easily used on small boats, RVs, etc.)

Topgamer7 6y ago

I was thinking it might generate enough heat to keep it warm. But the comments in this thread appear to think it has a heater inside of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JSq6xB591M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JSq6xB591M

kristofferR 6y ago
There's absolutely no heater inside it, as this great disassembly/destruction shows: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOmdQnIlnRo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOmdQnIlnRo
- ZoF 6y ago
  Depends on your definition of a heater, certainly there's no separate heating module but here's[0] a SpaceX team member saying it has 'self heating capabilities' in their reddit ama. [0]-https://old.reddit.com/r/Starlink/comments/jybmgn/we_are_the_starlink_team_ask_us_anything/gd3pt80/ https://old.reddit.com/r/Starlink/comments/jybmgn/we_are_the...
  - gonesilent 6y ago
    700+ chip count makes some heat.
someperson 6y ago
I wouldn't be surprised that the Starlink dish can melt snow. It's literally an antenna that shoots high energy microwaves into space over many hours. 100W of microwaves according to another comment here. By contrast your microwave oven might emitting 800W for a few minutes. Unlike the few watts of a Wifi router or phone, it emits high power electromagnetic radiation. It's definitely something you attach to your roof and pointed at the sky, not something you want to be sitting in front of for hours.
- Dylan16807 6y ago
  > It's definitely something you attach to your roof and pointed at the sky, not something you want to be sitting in front of for hours. I could say the same thing about a light bulb, couldn't I? It heats your skin slowly, and it can't get far enough into your eyes to hurt your retina or anything.

jmreid 6y ago

Zero issues from my experience. The dish has a snow melt "mode", and I didn't have to manually clean it at all after a large snowfall.

alextheparrot 6y ago

None that she has mentioned, though I don't think they’ve had any really really bad storms this year.