Starlink RV installation and use

[gsgriffin]

Originally Posted by n2zon

Starlink box came a couple of days ago. Setup is, as others have noted, a snap.

I looked at the fiberglass masts, but between some of the user feedback and the instructions on the site I concluded I wanted something more rigid to make it easier for one or two people to set up. So...it was off to the local metal supplier. I came home with 2" .065 wall stainless steel tubing. I bought a 20' piece, and had it cut into two 6' pieces and an 8' piece. The thought is that 14' will be enough most of the time, and if it's not, I am hopeful that 20' (really closer to 22" 6" with the Starling dish mast and the adapter I made) will be enough.

Then, I made two 12" long adapters from thick wall aluminum tubing for the dish, bored to the size needed to accept the tubing on the dish itself, with a bored internal slot for the quick release lock. I drilled and tapped 1/4-20 holes in the tubing and made acetal (Delrin is a common brand name) knurled screws to hold the assembly in place so it wouldn't rotate in the wind. One is for the motorhome mast, the other to be mounted on my radio tower at home.

Then I made 4" long couplers from aluminum for the sections of mast, drilled and tapped radially for one 1/4-20 machine screw on one end and drilled for a 1/4" pin on the other. So the two bottom sections have bolted-on couplers and the middle and top sections are drilled for the pins to go through the couplers.

Next, I made a base from a handy piece of aluminum plate and a piece of round aluminum stock turned down to slightly less than the ID of the SS tubing, bolted through the plate into the short aluminum cylinder, and a ring for the top section for eyebolts for guy wires. Finally, I made an acetal adapter to get from the SS tubing to the aluminum tubing the dish mast snaps into.

Getting the 14' mast up is quite easy with two people, and puts the dish about 15' 6" high. Getting the 20' mast (which would put the dish up about 21' 6") up is somewhat harder, and I wouldn't want to do with with just us two in any significant wind. As I write this, the mast is bungeed to the ladder (ladder mount to follow) and lightly guyed in case the wind kicks up, and Starlink is refining its satellite tracking with a couple of hours to go.

If anyone wants pics, PM me and I'll send them. I just got down from some tower cleanup activity (DirecTV dish and Channel 7 VHF antenna now gone!) to make room for the dish where I want to put it, and I just don't have the patience to resize all the pictures this afternoon.

I already had the rope, 1/4" nylon. The SS tubing, assorted other hardware and such came in a bit under $300. I probably used another $25-50 worth of materials I already had in the shop.

But here's the result, shown here with the 14' mast:

Looks good and solid, for sure!!!

[gsgriffin]

Originally Posted by caryt

Getting a new Starlink RV dish and would like to install the Modem in a storage bay that has a 115v outlet.
This bay is directly under the floor of the TV entertainment area. I'm assuming the WIFI should easily work with the Nivida Shield 2' over it.
The bedroom TV will have another Shield and its approx 23' away. Has anyone done something similar?
I would prefer to hard wire all but that's not a easy job on my coach.
Another item I need is a Modem wall stand, only ones I find are on esty...any other options? I would prefer not to wait 2-3 weeks to receive it.

You will have to try, but chances are pretty good. Wifi signal is strong that Bluetooth, and I can reach some of my Victron MPPT in the rear-most bay from the front of our 40' Class A. The problem comes with how much metal is in the way and how solid. You can try moving it around a little in the bay to see where you get the best signal to your devices.

[jerhofer]

Originally Posted by caryt

Getting a new Starlink RV dish and would like to install the Modem in a storage bay that has a 115v outlet.
This bay is directly under the floor of the TV entertainment area. I'm assuming the WIFI should easily work with the Nivida Shield 2' over it.
The bedroom TV will have another Shield and its approx 23' away. Has anyone done something similar?
I would prefer to hard wire all but that's not a easy job on my coach.
Another item I need is a Modem wall stand, only ones I find are on esty...any other options? I would prefer not to wait 2-3 weeks to receive it.

I have a Phaeton 37BH and I placed my modem in the storage bay just behind the passenger front wheel, which is below the TV. It worked perfectly there and I had no problem with linking it to the rear TV. I did not mount the modem as, when I am moving, I place the Starlink antenna and the modem in the original box to make sure nothing is damaged by something shifting in the basement bay.

I leave the cables in the bay when traveling. When we go to Florida this winter for a couple months, I will find a more permanent solution to the wiring. One plan I have in mind is to place the antenna on the roof of the motorhome directly above that bay and run the cable down alongside the slideout. I can probably tuck the cable in behind the slideout seal.

[caryt]

Thanks I'll report back once I test it out..

[caryt]

Well its works great even with the slide closed, bottom of the slide is steel and when closed is directly over the bay with the wifi strength of the Router. Both tv's work, the one in the living area directly over the bay and the other in the bedroom 23' away. Should have a even stronger signal with the slide open.

Very pleased with the Router that Starlink provides no need to use one of my Asus Routers.

Next on the list is permanently mount the Router run the cable to where I'll have the WEBOOST pole attached and save up for 2ea replacement TV's OLD LED's that just have a lousy picture.

[hypoxia]

Has anyone made their own cables, antenna to modem?

I would like to hardwire from the modem inside the coach to the rooftop as well as to one of the bays with a receptacle to plug the Starlink antenna cable in to at each position.

[gsgriffin]

Originally Posted by hypoxia

Has anyone made their own cables, antenna to modem?

I would like to hardwire from the modem inside the coach to the rooftop as well as to one of the bays with a receptacle to plug the Starlink antenna cable in to at each position.

You should be able to use shielded CAT 6. If you are not familiar with making cables, you might want to have someone help. You can do it, but you will want to have a RJ45 crimping tool to add connectors to the ends or get wall terminal jacks to plug in patch cables.

I personally have shied away from making any of this permanent. When you park in some locations (like where I am with tall pine trees around me), I needed to extend the dishy up nearly 40ft to get a solid signal. When I'm down in New Mexico, the location I park is the best reception with the top-front of the motorhome. Other locations, I could imagine wanting to run it 100' to the side (which may be in 2 weeks in a location we are heading).

I understand you want to build this in and probably make it look best and easiest. I totally get that. For me, as an option to consider, I found it easiest to have my modem at the front, run the cable to the dishy through the firewall to the gen bay and then the cable runs outside to anywhere I need it: front, back, side, far away. I have enough room to store the dishy and the cables in the gen tray....I so never have to plug it in or unplug to change locations of the internals.

[brandss]

For those that want to get the SL router inside so it can connect via ethernet to another router, here is what I did.

I too wanted it cleaned up but quickly found the issue described above by Griffin, never know where the dish will ultimately sit. I ended up running the SL router into my outside tv compartment which has more room than most and it stores the router, dish, cables, etc inside. When I get to my location I then can use the dish base that came with it or one of two poles to mount on the ladder or out away from the coach.

I added a SL mesh router (I think that is what it is called) to the inside of the coach. It connects to the original SL router and then I run an ethernet cord from the mesh router to my Pepwave router. This allows me to now have a backup source (Tmobile sim inside Pepwave) for the times the SL drops out. Since I have had it set up this way, I have not had any lost connections on streaming or work calls via Microsoft teams.

Just thought I'd pass this along in case someone wanted a solution like I needed.

[caryt]

I used this but am rethinking these printed mounts I'm just not sure its not going to fall apart as I'm driving the coach. I understand I could remove the router when driving but I don't want to do that. So your thoughts especially anyone that is using one while driving. Picture of mine attached.

I may just mage my own similar to the brackets made from Aluminum..picture attached but out of steel.

[vtwinwilly]

Originally Posted by caryt

I used this but am rethinking these printed mounts I'm just not sure its not going to fall apart as I'm driving the coach. I understand I could remove the router when driving but I don't want to do that. So your thoughts especially anyone that is using one while driving. Picture of mine attached.

I may just mage my own similar to the brackets made from Aluminum..picture attached but out of steel.

I'm using the mount in the first pic. I purchased it on Etsy. I mounted the SL Router almost exactly as it is shown in the pic. Just took my first trip from DFW to Colorado and back, and it didn't budge at all. The mount shows NO signs of cracking or coming apart. I plan to keep an eye on it, but I'm certainly not going to worry about it.

In my setup, the SL Router is mounted in the basement compartment with an ethernet cable run up to a cabinet inside where my Pepwave Max-Transit lives. This setup allows me to put the antenna (pole mount or std SL Mount) anywhere the 75' cable will reach for best reception.

One additional thing I did was plug the SL Router into a Kasa Smart Home Plug allowing me to power the SL Router off and on from my phone. So when not in use - such as driving down the road - the SL Router is powered down, and I can verify that from my phone.

The entire arrangement is pretty easy to setup/break down, and integrates well with my PepWave MaxTransit. The only problem I had was sometimes the SL Router and the MaxTransit Router don't communicate to well with each other. I read on Reddit where others solved this problem by inserting a network switch between the two routers. This seemed to triple my transmission speed, though I don't understand exactly why. Someone explained that the network switch acts as an interpreter so the two routers can talk to each other more efficiently. Go figure!

One last note on that . . . I also read on Reddit that this "miscommunication" seems to occur mostly in the MaxTransit line, and PepWave is working on a solution. Hopefully it's just a software upgrade.

BB

[caryt]

Great info thank you!

[gsgriffin]

Originally Posted by caryt

I used this but am rethinking these printed mounts I'm just not sure its not going to fall apart as I'm driving the coach. I understand I could remove the router when driving but I don't want to do that. So your thoughts especially anyone that is using one while driving. Picture of mine attached.

I may just mage my own similar to the brackets made from Aluminum..picture attached but out of steel.

Is that PLA? You appear to know what you are doing. Looks nice. Which way are the layers oriented? For something like this, I'm guessing it would be strongest with the layers being horizontal to the mounted position. Might add a top bracket to reduce the "wobble" the modem will want to have and then that wobble breaking the base bracket.

I'm sure your layer height and fill is sufficient, and it not, the Starlink device is durable and most likely will have not problem falling that short distance. Then make V2 of the mount

[hypoxia]

Originally Posted by gsgriffin

You should be able to use shielded CAT 6. If you are not familiar with making cables, you might want to have someone help. You can do it, but you will want to have a RJ45 crimping tool to add connectors to the ends or get wall terminal jacks to plug in patch cables.

Starlink uses Cat 5 and the ends look like micro USB. There are no RJ45 connectors on it.

[gsgriffin]

Originally Posted by hypoxia

Starlink uses Cat 5 and the ends look like micro USB. There are no RJ45 connectors on it.

That's good to know on the newer ones. Mine is original and not like that at all. Suppose we need to ask people when they got their dishy to be clear.