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Starlink provides a router with their ISP package. For the last year the router comes without an ethernet port. Wireless only. They've never said why but I assu

Starlink provides a router with their ISP package. For the last year the router comes without an ethernet port. Wireless only. They've never said why but I assume it's because of a chip shortage. (There is an add-on for ethernet you can order for a modest price.) ResMed started selling a version of their popular AirSense 10 AutoSet sleep apnea machine without a cellular modem. Normally the product uploads treatment data to some cloud service that ResMed then resells to your doctor. Again they haven't said explicitly but it sounds like they couldn't source the part they needed, so did without. (Hilariously the branding for this is "Card-to-Cloud", as in "you carry an SD card to your PC and upload the data manually to the cloud".) I guess what bugs me is these companies are selling things with important features removed but aren't acknowledging they are lesser products.

dylan604 4y ago
>some cloud service that ResMed then resells to your doctor. Why would they resell to the doctor, or why would the doctor be buying the info? Seems like the user should be the one charged for the data that could then be shared with their doctor. I just don't see the business sense for it being purchased by the docs unless the docs just turn around and upcharge the patient?
- NelsonMinar 4y ago
  I should clarify I'm talking about the American system. Doctors pay for access to ResMed data. It's a convenience; otherwise the patient has to carry the SD card into the doctor's office and hope they bother to upload and analyze it. (Yes, this is stupid.) While I'm at it, patients really interested in their sleep apnea data can use OSCAR or https://sleephq.com/ https://sleephq.com/ to analyze the data from the ResMed SD card themselves. These don't use the cloud service. ResMed also has a limited site for the patient themselves to see a limited version of their cloud data.
- mitchdoogle 4y ago
  >I just don't see the business sense for it being purchased by the docs unless the docs just turn around and upcharge the patient? Seems like you understand perfectly. The doctor is the one who can interpret the data, so they can ask their patient to come in for regular checkups and make sure everything is going great
- bluesquared 4y ago
  I've commented on this before on HN. I have sleep apnea and a ResMed CPAP. A very US-centric response: Insurance also seems to have access to this data in one way or another (not sure if direct with ResMed or via your doctor). If you don't hit your "compliance target" for treatment, insurance will cease paying 'their share' of the cost. So I found myself in a downward spiral of 0. Struggling to sleep with sleep apnea. Tons of ramifications of not getting good sleep that I don't need to get into. 1. Struggling to adapt to sleeping with this device strapped to my face. I would take it off unconsciously.. I would often find the hose laying next to me in the morning still "pumping", or be told by my wife of belligerent (unconscious) responses to her prompting me to put it back on in the middle of the night. 2. Losing sleep from constantly waking up throughout the night because of the CPAP/from anxiety 3. Anxiety over not meeting my compliance target of 4 hours of use per night (as interpreted by the CPAP knowing the proper amount of back-pressure when in use i.e. not just turned on and not worn). 4. Getting charged more because I did not meet my targets for enough time 5. Eventually owning the CPAP outright 6. Eventually discontinuing therapy and somehow having slightly improved levels of sleep that I've never bothered to attempt to restart therapy
  - GiorgioG 4y ago
    It took me weeks to get used to mine, but I find I do sleep better with it than without my CPAP machine. With respect to insurance, I replaced my original machine without going through insurance. It would have cost me more out of pocket for the doctor visit and on-site sleep study. The state of health “insurance” in this country is mind-boggling. But we continue to vote for politicians that vote against our own best interests. We need more than these two f’d up parties.
    - alistairSH 4y ago
      We need more than these two f’d up parties. I've said it in other threads, but these "two f'd up parties" are the expected end result of our electoral system[1]. While we very occasionally see one of the parties replaced with an upstart, the parties eventually return to a similar status quo. Grassroots movements to implement run-off elections, approval voting, or other similar plans are seeing some traction. If you really want to see change, searching for these groups locally (and volunteering or donating) might be worth the effort. 1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duverger%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duverger%27s_law
walrus01 4y ago
there is no shortage of 1000BaseT PHY and ethernet chips or you would see absolute chaos in the market of $50 to $150 home/small office routers and ethernet switches. The sort of all-in-one CPU/RAM/ethernet chip that's built into a small router like the starlink one already implements ethernet it just needs the PHY to do it If mikrotik and ubiquiti can still source the chips to build $50 routers, which is the case, there is no extreme shortage that spacex could not handle through its own ability to find manufacturers and vendors. The starlink v2 terminal coming with a weird proprietary copper cable interface and wifi-only-to-clients is for entirely other weird spacex related reasons. edit: here is a photo of the starlink proprietary-connector-to-1000BaseT adapter, there is not a whole lot going on here. https://www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/comments/rxoz16/gen_3_ethernet_dongle_teardown/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/comments/rxoz16/gen_3_ethe...
- lnsru 4y ago
  Well there is shortage of PHY chips. Decent TI chips go for 50$ a piece over broker. Minimum order quantity 200 pieces. We took ancient Realtek parts for 7$ from broker. Normally it’s <4$. These are sad news from last 2 months. Regular distribution channels have zero stock with funny lead times of 1,5 years.
  - walrus01 4y ago
    At the quantities and price constraints that spacex is manufacturing the low cost home router/poe injector for the v2 and v3 standard model starlink terminals, however, i don't think they have any difference in purchasing power or use of low cost PHY compared to what you'd find in like a $50 mikrotik: https://mikrotik.com/product/hex_s https://mikrotik.com/product/hex_s https://viva-telecom.org/images/MIKROTIK/hex-s_6.jpg https://viva-telecom.org/images/MIKROTIK/hex-s_6.jpg
- askvictor 4y ago
  Co-incidentally, today I started looking for PHY chips for the product we're working on, and indeed, there's basically nothing available at 10/100.

dylan604 4y ago

>some cloud service that ResMed then resells to your doctor. Why would they resell to the doctor, or why would the doctor be buying the info? Seems like the user should be the one charged for the data that could then be shared with their doctor. I just don't see the business sense for it being purchased by the docs unless the docs just turn around and upcharge the patient?

NelsonMinar 4y ago
I should clarify I'm talking about the American system. Doctors pay for access to ResMed data. It's a convenience; otherwise the patient has to carry the SD card into the doctor's office and hope they bother to upload and analyze it. (Yes, this is stupid.) While I'm at it, patients really interested in their sleep apnea data can use OSCAR or https://sleephq.com/ https://sleephq.com/ to analyze the data from the ResMed SD card themselves. These don't use the cloud service. ResMed also has a limited site for the patient themselves to see a limited version of their cloud data.
mitchdoogle 4y ago
>I just don't see the business sense for it being purchased by the docs unless the docs just turn around and upcharge the patient? Seems like you understand perfectly. The doctor is the one who can interpret the data, so they can ask their patient to come in for regular checkups and make sure everything is going great
bluesquared 4y ago
I've commented on this before on HN. I have sleep apnea and a ResMed CPAP. A very US-centric response: Insurance also seems to have access to this data in one way or another (not sure if direct with ResMed or via your doctor). If you don't hit your "compliance target" for treatment, insurance will cease paying 'their share' of the cost. So I found myself in a downward spiral of 0. Struggling to sleep with sleep apnea. Tons of ramifications of not getting good sleep that I don't need to get into. 1. Struggling to adapt to sleeping with this device strapped to my face. I would take it off unconsciously.. I would often find the hose laying next to me in the morning still "pumping", or be told by my wife of belligerent (unconscious) responses to her prompting me to put it back on in the middle of the night. 2. Losing sleep from constantly waking up throughout the night because of the CPAP/from anxiety 3. Anxiety over not meeting my compliance target of 4 hours of use per night (as interpreted by the CPAP knowing the proper amount of back-pressure when in use i.e. not just turned on and not worn). 4. Getting charged more because I did not meet my targets for enough time 5. Eventually owning the CPAP outright 6. Eventually discontinuing therapy and somehow having slightly improved levels of sleep that I've never bothered to attempt to restart therapy
- GiorgioG 4y ago
  It took me weeks to get used to mine, but I find I do sleep better with it than without my CPAP machine. With respect to insurance, I replaced my original machine without going through insurance. It would have cost me more out of pocket for the doctor visit and on-site sleep study. The state of health “insurance” in this country is mind-boggling. But we continue to vote for politicians that vote against our own best interests. We need more than these two f’d up parties.
  - alistairSH 4y ago
    We need more than these two f’d up parties. I've said it in other threads, but these "two f'd up parties" are the expected end result of our electoral system[1]. While we very occasionally see one of the parties replaced with an upstart, the parties eventually return to a similar status quo. Grassroots movements to implement run-off elections, approval voting, or other similar plans are seeing some traction. If you really want to see change, searching for these groups locally (and volunteering or donating) might be worth the effort. 1 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duverger%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duverger%27s_law

walrus01 4y ago

there is no shortage of 1000BaseT PHY and ethernet chips or you would see absolute chaos in the market of $50 to $150 home/small office routers and ethernet switches. The sort of all-in-one CPU/RAM/ethernet chip that's built into a small router like the starlink one already implements ethernet it just needs the PHY to do it If mikrotik and ubiquiti can still source the chips to build $50 routers, which is the case, there is no extreme shortage that spacex could not handle through its own ability to find manufacturers and vendors. The starlink v2 terminal coming with a weird proprietary copper cable interface and wifi-only-to-clients is for entirely other weird spacex related reasons. edit: here is a photo of the starlink proprietary-connector-to-1000BaseT adapter, there is not a whole lot going on here. https://www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/comments/rxoz16/gen_3_ethernet_dongle_teardown/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Starlink/comments/rxoz16/gen_3_ethe...

lnsru 4y ago
Well there is shortage of PHY chips. Decent TI chips go for 50$ a piece over broker. Minimum order quantity 200 pieces. We took ancient Realtek parts for 7$ from broker. Normally it’s <4$. These are sad news from last 2 months. Regular distribution channels have zero stock with funny lead times of 1,5 years.
- walrus01 4y ago
  At the quantities and price constraints that spacex is manufacturing the low cost home router/poe injector for the v2 and v3 standard model starlink terminals, however, i don't think they have any difference in purchasing power or use of low cost PHY compared to what you'd find in like a $50 mikrotik: https://mikrotik.com/product/hex_s https://mikrotik.com/product/hex_s https://viva-telecom.org/images/MIKROTIK/hex-s_6.jpg https://viva-telecom.org/images/MIKROTIK/hex-s_6.jpg
askvictor 4y ago
Co-incidentally, today I started looking for PHY chips for the product we're working on, and indeed, there's basically nothing available at 10/100.