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How to modify Starlink Mini to run without the built-in WiFi router
- Aspos 1y agoI know exactly what power-constrained application you have in mind, Oleg, and I like it.
- justsomehnguy 1y ago[flagged]
- wat10000 1y ago[flagged]
- mattmaroon 1y agoI like guns when they are used to stop a school shooter, but not when they are used by a school shooter.
- justsomehnguy 1y agoGuns, just like a StarLink terminals are a mere tools. Some people are totally okay when the tools are used the way they like. Unsurprisingly they are quite vocal about how these tools are bad when they are used not the way they like.
- wat10000 1y agoUsually people are positive or neutral about tools. People are happy to have a screwdriver when they need it, and don’t generally get upset about screwdrivers as a general tool when one is used to, say, assemble a terrorist bomb. Guns are a special case since their sole purpose is to kill, which is inherently somewhat more morally fraught than turning fasteners.
- justsomehnguy 1y agoYes. Drones/quadrocopters along with the civilian trucks delivering the merchandise are the tools. And their purpose isn't for kill, yet you can see a lot of people who praise when these tools are used against the people they don't like - and you can bet a way more than $20 what they would condemn these tools if or then it would be used against them. You can ask the commenters up there if they would be OK with if the same thing would be used against the things they do value. At best you would get only downvotes. At worst... you can see the dead ones, if you chose so. PS check the 'about me' of the article author. Take a note of the dates. Draw your own conclusions.
- wat10000 1y agoSounds like you're just making things up to argue against. I don't doubt they'd decry using these tools against themselves. But I doubt they'd decry the tools. I don't see a whole lot of people arguing against drones as a general thing, the way some people argue against guns. I see plenty of people criticizing the use of drones for evil, but it's the "use for evil" part that's important in that.
- CamperBob2 1y ago[flagged]
- 100721 1y agoWhat is the specific use case you have in mind?
- mattmaroon 1y agoWell the author is Ukranian so I have a guess.
- michaelt 1y agoGiven that the blogger is based in Kiev, Ukraine? Good chance this goes on some sort of long range, Predator-style drone.
- mft_ 1y agoWouldn’t this give Starlink the ability to track and/or turn off operations in real time?
- mattmaroon 1y agoYes but they’ve mostly not been doing that (they probably are selling a lot of dishes) and what’s the alternative?
- michaelt 1y agoYes, you may recall some controversy a few years back when Musk made some threats along those lines. There are alternatives if you only need short range, or if you can tolerate high latency. And of course there are fire-and-forget cruise missiles that don't need communications at all. But there aren't all that many other options. Historically, satellite internet companies like Iridium, Globalstar and Teledesic have not fared well.
- lxgr 1y agoIridium works extremely well for what it was designed for – truly global, low latency communications without requiring a directional antenna. Unfortunately, that also means very low data rates. It only gained packed-switched data with the second generation satellite network, but data rates are still very low (think hundreds of kbps, and I believe even that needs high-gain antennas).
- mattmaroon 1y agoRiding piggy back on a drone?
- someothherguyy 1y agohttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIt3pHOMxwpTXTgIVB_N1Gg https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIt3pHOMxwpTXTgIVB_N1Gg
- rozhok 1y agoStarlink is already used for «Nemesis» night bombers as well as «Magura» sea drones.
- 0xbadcafebee 1y ago[flagged]
- wltr 1y ago[flagged]
- donohoe 1y agoArchived version: https://archive.ph/UTFTK https://archive.ph/UTFTK
- 15155 1y agoFascinating that they chose to use modulated board-to-board Ethernet instead of just running RGMII from MAC to MAC.
- MOARDONGZPLZ 1y agoA lot of this is pretty POC-y. Agree digital to analog to analog to digital is kinda inefficient, and in the abstract MAC to PHY (which is probably what you mean when you say MAC to MAC) with RGMII is probably better. My off the cuff guess is that it is likely the written-up interface is easier to access or requires less diving into internals. Not sure where the RGMII lines are, and depending on the design of the Starlink mini itself (I am ignorant of this) the lines might have been buried deeper and less accessible, who knows.
- msgodel 1y agoEthernet seems far easier to prototype with. There's almost no off the shelf stuff for talking to RGMII whereas Ethernet you can just plug into your laptop for testing. If it's two different teams building things it seems like it would be a lot easier to just agree on Ethernet as the interface and then delay integration testing or release earlier.
- 15155 1y agoA $3 breakout PCB with an RGMII PHY and MagJack on it would solve this problem without resorting to analog communication.
- msgodel 1y agoAssembly isn't free, either an engineer or the PCB fabricator has to put that together. Also the design isn't free and it's certainly not necessarily going to match the behavior of the device on the other side. But your laptop's Ethernet adapter comes free with your laptop (both in terms of money and waiting to get it since it's already on your desk) and possibly even more importantly you know the laptop manufacturer and users have QAed it for you so it's absolutely going to behave the way you expect which is important when the device you're designing isn't behaving.
- cdg007 1y ago[flagged]
- brcmthrowaway 1y agoWhat SoC does Starlink use? Broadcom?
- inemesitaffia 1y agoMediaTek
- b112 1y agoHasn't Broadcom bought them yet? What an evil company.
- brcmthrowaway 1y agoOnly evil since Hock Tan
- b112 1y agoMaybe. So? That seems like a decade ago, a lifetime in this industry. And it's not just vmware. They're predatory, they make Google or Oracle seem like good guys in comparison. They take acquire + squeeze customers to a new level. If you have any contact with any broadcom product, you'll bleed.
- leoh 1y agoHow did the author figure out the pin out for Ethernet? Wild stuff. Also kudos for them using GRPC. Suggests that there are some competent folks around not rushing things.
- chatmasta 1y agoI’m confused by the end. He implies that the “disablement codes” (geoblock, speed violation, etc.) are enforced by the user terminal, meaning they could be circumvented? > The user terminal itself has no knowledge of service plans, countries, regional, or velocity restrictions – it simply follows commands received from the Starlink satellite Surely this would be enforced at DHCP time? Or maybe not, since you could get an IP address then start going too fast… is this blog actually a ”wink wink nudge nudge” guide to bypassing Starlink policy restrictions?
- kortilla 1y agoHe’s saying the sat sends the code to the terminal because the terminal doesn’t even know it’s blocked. This is so you as a user can see why your internet isn’t working.
- ahoka 1y agoProbably it works like all other ISPs and terminal is in a VLAN?
- sharpshadow 1y agoIf they actually figured out which disablement codes can be tricked or circumvented, they wouldn’t share that. I guess it would all depend on how strict Starlink checks and enforces for unauthorised usage. For a US company operating on this scale I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s between very strict to just the basics or on demand. A commentator here mentioned that Starlink also works in Russia, which it shouldn’t? Maybe some devices delivered to Ukraine can be used in Russia too.
- purpleidea 1y agoThis was great. I wish Starlink actually provided a dish+modem service exactly like this and real IPv4 not CGNAT nonsense. I think they do for business plans which are much more expensive though.
- kortilla 1y agoThis is the name of the game in new ISPs. You can’t get v4 block purchases approved without a good address utilization plan. Giving a public IP to every residential customer doesn’t really pass muster anymore as a good use of v4 space.
- dboreham 1y agoYou can tunnel through Starlink to get a public IP. Not 100% efficient due to MTU reduction and the extra hop to the tunnel end, but it works.