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> The original dish we bought for $500 I think I read actually cost closer to $3k for them to manufacture $3k? Were they mining the metal by hand and then usin
by markdown 5y ago
> The original dish we bought for $500 I think I read actually cost closer to $3k for them to manufacture
$3k? Were they mining the metal by hand and then using only the most hipster blacksmiths shipped in from Portland to hand press the steel for the dish?
- matthewfcarlson 5y agoIf I remember correctly there’s a fair bit of expensive electronics and fancy materials. The phase steered arrays I worked on in college were expensive and they were tiny. https://hackaday.com/2021/01/11/starlink-satellite-dish-x-rayed-to-unlock-rf-magic-inside/ https://hackaday.com/2021/01/11/starlink-satellite-dish-x-ra...
- BenjiWiebe 5y agoIt's not really the dish that's expensive (and it's not even a "dish antenna"). It's the integrated electronics and phased antenna array (which takes expensive tricky electronics to make it work).
- oxplot 5y agoThere are 1500 antennas, and accompanying electronics for each, plus main board to deal with all that, GPS, motors. You also get a Wi-Fi router. Even $3000 is mindbogglingly cheap once you see what's inside of that "dish" and what quantity these are produced at (in 100K vs millions like smartphones).