[venti]

Is anything know about the power consumption of the Starlink antenna? Does the maritime version use less power than the conventional unit?

The fixed-location version of Starlink consumes around 60 to 100 W constantly which is problem if you want to e.g. use solar panels on a sail boat to supply the device.

[scrumper]

I think at those prices you'd have a boat big enough to have the power budget. It's clearly aimed at commercial or scientific use with a side of super yacht.

I'm guessing a more affordable version more like the RV product will become available for cruising sailors in time. I think the mammoth price delta over RV is because it'll be usable offshore (starting Q4 this year) and presumably that requires some more complex satellite-to-satellite data exchange (which at a guess they want to limit usage of until it works well.

[venti]

Yes, you are right. I had not seem the price tag when I posed the question. This product is for merchant ships or yachts and does not make any sense for small boat owners.

[tsimionescu]

> I think the mammoth price delta over RV is because it'll be usable offshore (starting Q4 this year) and presumably that requires some more complex satellite-to-satellite data exchange (which at a guess they want to limit usage of until it works well.

Sure, just like Tesla Autopilot is right around the corner, Starship will be flying this year, the Cybertruck has been released 2 years ago etc.

[dreamcompiler]

This is different. The problem of providing offshore satcom with LEOsats is a quantified engineering problem. IOW, the industry knows quite well what technologies will solve the problem and Starlink has those technologies in place. The only unknown is how fast, accurate, and reliable the laser-based intersat comms will be.

None of that is true for the self-driving car problem. That problem still contains a multitude of unknowns, including unknown unknowns.

Cybertruck is yet another kind of problem. I don't know what the issue with that is but I'd guess it's about manufacturing capacity.

[tsimionescu]

> The only unknown is how fast, accurate, and reliable the laser-based intersat comms will be.

Those communications are still an unsolved and hugely difficult engineering problem. It will be awesome if SpaceX has actually achieved this: getting the kind of precision required to communicate over direct laser links between specks of dust hundreds of km apart traveling at thousands of km per hour is no easy feat.

[Johnythree]

If the satellites are flying in formation, most link headings will be fixed or change very slowly.

[rngname22]

If you can afford $5000 a month for internet maybe you're more likely on a Silent 60 (17 kWp solar) than a Catalina 30.

[dzhiurgis]

FWIW if they ever to offer 10 Mb/s plans for ~$150/mo, the power use becomes a question again.

[roflyear]

Not really. You won't run it all the time on a cruising yacht. Just when you need it. You probably don't care about having internet constantly under passage just for short times to get weather and to send out updates to friends and family.

[dzhiurgis]

At 50-100W you might not, that's close to what your fridge uses. Make it 10-20W and it becomes no brainer to keep always on.

[simplecto]

You probably would not run it 24x7 on a boat.

[brk]

You probably would. At that price point they are targeting boats that are going to have multiple gensets, and be carrying 1,000+ gallons of fuel.

The additional load of the Starlink, relative to the chillers, water makers, and other onboard systems would be nothing.

[usrn]

If you're set up for electric propulsion that's not too bad. That plus my work machine would be under half what a properly sized motor should draw at 50% throttle. It only needs to work for ~6-7 hours a day.

[joeyh]

You can approximately half the power consumption by eliminating starlink's wifi router and using a DC POE injector to power the square terminal. I have not done it yet but have seen others report ~30 watts.

[virtuallynathan]

Current dishy is 30-40W under normal operating conditions, i’d assume a bit less than double for the twice-as-large dish.

[Johnythree]

Most off-grid solar users simply switch it off when not in use.