It appears Starlink is rolling out an update which now requires 100w of power to use the mini dish. This will be problematic for those using older power banks such as the Anker 521 over USB (lighter jack and AC will still be fine).
Apparently the result is faster speeds, but more power draw. Just a heads up for anyone experiencing issues trying to figure out what’s gone sideways.
No insight yet on changes with the constant power draw level as my plane is in maint so can’t personally test. I really hope that they’re not going to suck the life out of batteries for the sake of speed… I’d rather have a reasonably speed and more battery life as I’m sure many others would as well who use this for hiking, off-the-grid, etc. use cases.
Stay tuned, I’m sure there will be more to come on this topic.
It does. Was that update recent? Or maybe a few weeks ago and coincided with those problems.
Who knows. I got an update a couple of days ago. No idea what it was for but the unit worked after the update so if it was that it is not affecting mine. That could be because of my wiring choices rather than using USB power.
So a cigarette lighter adapter at 28v x 5 amps is just going to make the 100w cutoff?
My mini still works fine on my 20v x 5 amp battery (not in plane) … that’s how I play with it.
Used it yesterday on my boat with 12v and still works fine via 2.5mm connector to 12v battery… I can monitor amps via Bluetooth to lithium battery and didn’t notice any mega draws
From what I can tell the update was a few weeks ago, but seems to perhaps be staggered a bit (or maybe this part of the update was activated on dishes over time) as I’ve just now started having folks reach out to me this weekend. They reporting it worked fine on flights a few days ago but not now. Changing the power source to an appropriate one resolved the issue.
In fairness to Starlink, they do specify 100w is required and specifically lay this out now on their site. In the past people were “getting away with” what it really needed for boot up running 65w USB C’s… Now it seems to be enforced that it must use the full 100w or no joy.
To be clear… The 100 watts of power is required to be available. It won’t use the full 100 watts; it will only use what it needs. This will still be in the 25-30 watt range in most cases.
This update is to ensure that the USB-C PD source/cable is capable of the max power requirements for the unit under the “worst” conditions (high speed, few satellites, snow melt, bad alignment, sky obstructions). This is likely being updated to eliminate support issues in the future.
The Direct DC Power option takes the “smarts” out of it. Feed it 12-48 volts with enough amp availability, and it will be happy.
Is anyone having overheating issues with their Starlink? I keep mine on the copilot dash and when the sun is hitting it in the flight levels, my starlink keeps shutting down. I think it’s overheating. Is also possible that my power source is not that reliable as I am using a cigarette lighter adapter. But I seem to have more issues when the sun is shining and not so much when it’s cloudy, sun is behind me, or I am in IMC.
If you open the starlink app on your phone, it will report an overheating situation.
They can overheat
I had mine suction cupped to the underside of the moonroof my Tesla, and it shut down. I had mounted it so that it was in contact with the glass, and the glass was too hot to touch. I flipped the mount over which left a gap between the glass and mini.
I would assume it can overheat but don’t know that for a fact. The heat from solar gain through a window at high altitude is significant. And there is not a lot of air moving across it.
Mounted outside in the elements as it is built to do it would get moving air so the temp it overheats is probably quite high. Take a laser temp gun with you and see what temps you are getting when it shuts down.
The install is in a TBM850G not SR22… I am gonna get a Anker battery bank and see if the reliability improves. I may just have to have 100w USBC plug installed at next annual
They certainly can overheat, but I’ve found they handle high temperatures very well (I’m in Florida and have a mini mounted on my hangar as well). That being said, there’s airflow as it’s outside.
This is completely speculative, but my feel is if you’ve got it in the front window there’s a different airflow than in the back. The dash area seems to be more stagnant air wise. My speculation is based upon using a camera system in a car for rally’s. If I suction a rig to dash area in the front window it overheats very quickly. Yet when the camera is relocated more in the “cockpit” area of the car where there’s vents pushing air in the vicinity it can run all day long with no issues. Meanwhile, it’s the same enclosed cabin, the big difference is the airflow in the particular region (still has direct sunlight exposure). I could certainly see this being similar in an aircraft.
All that being said, power that’s been mentioned here is worth noting as well. Until you’ve got that resolved where you know you’re pushing out a solid 100w of power (even though it doesn’t use that much) then you can move on to diagnosing if there’s actually a heat issue as well.
Ive let my Starlink under my back canopy window on a ramp in Florida for 5 to 6 hours (and forgot to cover it)… and the cabin was as hot as it could get…. And it worked just fine…..
So I have Local Priority and I am trying to change Global for the next couple months as I have several international / over water trips planned. The app won’t let me switch and when I opened a ticket, a rep told me that Mini does not support a Global plan. This doesn’t sound right. Anyone else running into a similar problem ?
I hope this isn’t true… I have a trip coming up in 3 weeks and I was planning to switch to Global Priority for a month. Please let us know if this gets resolved.
