Great info. This has been my recommendation to those wanting to use the 50' Starlink power cable back to a 12V power source. Straight 12V over the 50' cable typically does not work due to the long run. But 12V connected to a USB-C PD adapter will kick the power up to something like 20V and the Mini generally seems to work just fine in that configuration (as you show in your video). I have been able to make straight 12V connections work for shorter runs...say, 10-15 feet.
Great info on that pure 12v testing. I was looking at wiring things up that way, but the cost of larger wire and the added amps needed made me nervous for the long run. Plus I really like that the cord that it comes with keeps it water tight. I know I will fall asleep watching videos and wake up in a rainstorm with it getting drenched 🤣..
I’ve been following two facebook groups for weeks trying to get an answered to if this could be done this easily and not one person suggested this. This is perfect. Thank you!
You are most welcome. I have to admit that I was not sure it would work. When I was buying the stuff I was already planning to use it to charge my laptop if it didn’t work.
@@OverlandCalling I think it was a combo of not having a connection and me telling my wife your story that did it for her. Also, we opted for the 50 bucks a month plan for now to try it out. But she did say I know by next year your going on a long trip and I want a way to connect. So that was helpful.
@@mtnmnchronicles ahh nice! My wife was pretty supportive as well especially since I could check in better when really remote. I only get 10 texts a month with my emergency satellite communicator. That goes quick when you have a teenage daughter 😂
I spent hours on Amazon looking for a simple adapter - Usb C male to 5521 female with no luck. I even went to Microcenter and Best Buy, apparently a simple conversion plug doesn't exist so I just ordered the cable and female to female connector that you supplied the QR code for. Thank you. 😎
I felt your pain! I was already late leaving for a cross country camping trip and scrambling to fine something that worked before leaving. Glad it helped you out!
Hi everyone. I wanted to let you know that Starlink has finally released their new USBC power cord. You may want to check out that option instead if the USBC power cord I tested.
Thank you for bringing that up in comments on the last video! You kept me from leading anyone else down what may have been a bad path. I hope the 12V plug solves your problem. I did about 2 hours of testing with everything using the USB-C and starlink cable together with zero breaker trips. Seems like this may be a good way to solve the problem and it actually keeps things at Starlink spec for the 100W.
Great info! Got the items from Amazon. It worked? Only issue was the cigarette plug in got warm. Not hot but warm. Didn't trip any things. But I wouldn't probably leave it on long periods. Next project is to do the 12v to 24v converter and see how that works. Thanks again!!
Thanks for the info on heat. I was testing in the middle of a heatwave, so didn’t notice it. Once I am out camp working I will check both out for long interval use.
I did some long term testing for 8 hours on each of the adapters and they ran well. Temps were in low 80’s for the testing. I also ran that 12-36 boost converter for 4 days straight and it worked like a champ! So far that is my favorite.
Useful vid, thanks, short and to the point but full of information. Could you test out the wifi range, would be interesting to see if there is any significant drop in wifi speed or increase in packet loss, when you are 50ft away from the dish/router. Sometimes you will need to do this to get the dish away from obstructions out in the wild. Thanks.
Backyard testing using Starlink app Speed test and the Speedtest 3rd party app showed no repeatable loss of speed at 50ft with no obstructions. I could not test past 50ft in my yard, but will do a full video on speed with different distances once I get out camping next week.
@@AmandaandAustinC cool. I have seen videos where people are over 100ft away getting usable signal. I can’t think of anytime when I will actually need to go that far either.
No stupid questions....just stupid answers LOL. Per the Wotobus spec it converts 12V to deliver between 17 and 20V at 5amps. From my understanding the PD protocol determines the voltage change needed to get Starlink the power, but not 100% certain on how the magic happens. .
Not a dumb question at all. I can’t test it in my Jeep (since it is still in the shop waiting for a part), but I just finished running it for 20 min in my wife’s Nissan Rogue and it worked just fine with the usual 10 min initialize time and 10 min streaming video.
I tested in my Jeep for in motion testing and it worked fine 4-6 hours of driving across Wyoming. Only thing I found that worried me a little bit was that when I was running heat it did get pretty warm. With the AC on it stayed nice and cool.
yes this is the newest version. I hope to leave later this week. Waiting for my Jeep to get out of the shop and then I hit the open road. I am itching to go!,Other than Wyoming I don’t really have much of a plan. Figure I will just go with where the wind takes me.
Wow I just checked the spec sheet on Starlink.com and sure enough it says 2.5 now for the cord. I am certain that when I first checked it was 2.1mm for the inside dimension. I have a friend that just ordered a mini. I will check with them to see if the cord connections have changed.
I put a request into Starlink for clarification on the pin size on the dish and confirmation of the cord size. Of course no answer yet. I had a buddy that just got his Starlink and the 2.1 size USB C cord and adapter piece worked. If I hear back from Starlink I will post it up.
@@benjaminschneider Starlink gave me the run around and wanted a bunch of pictures of things that didn’t matter when all I asked was if the drawing was correct and what size pin the dish had. That cord seems to work just fine. I have been using it for about 1000 miles on my roadtrip testing it out. Also the USB C cord in the Amazon link has a 2.5 adapter. Of course all the adapters are sitting at home since I didn’t bring them on this trip.
Thanks for the video. I have a solar system connected to my Jeep battery. Would it work if I spliced the original starling mini cable with a powerpole connector and plug to my battery?
most likely it would not work with the mini cable. Everything I have seen on the web is that the cable that comes with the mini is not thick enough for 12v input. you would likely need to run thicker wire or get a 12v to 36/48v boost converter to wire off your battery. I would use thick wire to get the boost converter out of your engine area for temp reasons, put a switch in to not have the draw when not in use, and then run that to plug for the mini cord.
@@OverlandCalling thanks for the reply. What do you think about a female barrel to USB-C PD connector then the connected to a cigarette lighter type USB-C PD that goes up to 80w?
@@relentlessfpv1822 that may work. If you already have it I would try it out before buying for sure. I was getting it to run off of 65w for 30 min testing and didn’t have a problem.
I was looking for a way to hardwire a USB-C port into my RV for use with the Starlink Mini. I haven't had any luck finding one that can deliver 100W. I don't want to install a cigarette lighter plug and use a 12V car adapter.
I would recommend my other video linked at the end of this one. At about the 11 min mark I go over how I wired up a 12-36v boost converter into my Auxillary battery system and test it out. It worked like a champ and was drawing an average of 24W. It also used the stock 49 foot Starlink cord to keep costs down and the total system was very affordable.
oops I never actually answered your question about the USB C. Sorry about heading off on a tangent. I ran across the Coolgear ChargeIT 100w PD while I was looking at options for different power options. They are currently not available on Amazon, but likely it can be sourced direct. It looked pretty cool, and exactly what you are looking for. They also come with the option for a second port if you want to also charge a computer or something. www.coolgear.com/product/chargeit-100-watt-usb-type-c-charger
@@CannedNirvana awesome! Please let me know how it works out for you once you have a chance to use it. I am considering building it I to a future upgrade for my office power box. The one I use now for my laptop power is only 65W and sometimes my computer gets a bit unhappy not getting 100w of power.
@@OverlandCalling I’m heading out to Missouri tomorrow. I’ll probably gone be gone for a few weeks so I won’t be able to do anything in the interim. Once I get back, I’ll order the Starlink and start the installation process. Thanks for the help! I’ll keep you posted.
@@OverlandCalling Awesome! Thanks for what you do, amigo! I was Army intel. Living out of duf bags for years and it's like home when traveling around and living out of my Jeep with Starlink and a cozy tent. If only we had these for deployments!
For reliability have you considered using the 12v cigarette lighter output of the Yeti 500? going into a 12v to 24 or 36v buck and then a female 5.5mm connector? this'll remove any USB PD negotiations.
I didn’t for use with the Yeti, but I did actually wire a 12v to 36v booster directly into my main custom Auxillary 12v lithium battery system I have. I don’t see why wiring it with a 12v plug would not work just as well since the draw only seemed to be only 24W. It worked absolutely perfect and it will be my primary power with this as USB-C option as my portable backup. The video link at the end of this video takes you to the previous video where I show how I set it up (about the 11 min mark). I chose the 12-36 boost since I could only find 2.1 barrel connectors with 18 AWG wire and wanted higher voltage for that. Do they sell pre-wired 12v cigarette style adapters? I could not find any when I was looking, so I ended up just buying the parts and wiring my own.
I purchased the pad for 100w and the adapter you listed and used 2.1 female to female connected to the Starlink 49’ cord/ pluged it into my solar generators 100w usb-c / got no power to the star link/ I am lost for idea on that/ any help ? thx
I just had this happen to a friend of mine. We swapped cords with the ones I use and it still didn't work. I let him use my 12v 100W cigarette style adapter and it worked like a charm. The best we can figure is that his 100W USB-C plug didn't have the programming needed for PD 20V/100W to talk with the Starlink mini. If you have a 12V cigarette style plug on your powerstation I would recommend testing it with a Wotobus adapter or another one that lists being able to do PD with multiple voltages and especially the 20V/100W.
@@OverlandCalling I will give it a try Sunday on my power station in the cig adapter as you mentioned/ with the adapter (wotobeus) let you know what comes about on that/ thx
@@OverlandCalling gave it a try/ worked with the cig adapter/ that’s good to know/ however doesn’t do me much good/ as I run my Dometic frigs off the cig plug in/ was hoping I could run star link off,usb-c / thinking maybe I should send it back/ less I can come up with a better option/ thx
@@dta97392 oh dang I will do some internet searching and see if I can come up with anything. All I can think of now is to email ECOFLOW and see if there is a software update they have that may fix it. My guess is that there is a mini computer in these things and possibly they have a way to update them.
Not a bad question as all. I am by no means an electrical expert, but my understanding is that the Starlink spec of 5 amps would make it need a 5 amp minimum requirement for the socket.
The Starlink spec says 100W, and there will be some efficiency loss converting 12V to 20V, so probably a 12V 10A (120W) outlet should be safe. This seems to be a pretty common rating for these ports, both my Pecron E600LFP and Anker SOLIX F2600 have similarly rated 12V outlets.
@@eddy802 The power starts at 12v at the power supply, and it's less than 12v at the other end of the cable. The longer and thinner the cable, the lower the voltage at the other end. That's why people are having trouble powering the mini from 12v power sources, by the time the power gets to the mini, it's under 12v. You can solve this by bumping to 20v so that you're still above 12v at the other end of the cable. It doesn't take much, a 50 foot 18AWG copper power cable doing 4 amps at 12 volts will have roughly 9.5 volts at the other end of the cable. Usually power supplies output a bit more than 12 volts to compensate for this, but it can only go so far. If we assume 12.8 volt output, the maximum cable length (again, 18AWG copper, 4 amps) is only 15 feet before the voltage drops below 12 volts. Resistors drop voltage, and cables are resistors. The longer and thinner the cable (and the worse the material), the more resistance, and thus the less voltage.
