Share your Starlink RV install and experiences

[marc2912]

I will add to my last post that dropping this thing on it's head aside, one of the things I noticed is that these things just aren't made to be moved etc. There is a known problem of bad connections with the ethernet connectors and the dish definitely feels like it's not built in a way that expects the user to be putting this thing up and down regularly. I'm expecting us to see a much larger failure rate for Starlink in the RV community than in the homeowner one. I'm working on deciding how I'm handling on my wiring to permanently have all connections done. The goal is to open my storage bay, pull dishy out and that's it, I don't want to play with these connectors more than I have to.

 

[Neal]

Agreed and I hope we'll actually see a more portable friendly setup WITH 12V power and not requiring 120V. Something that is more sturdy and secure in its connections. We're only at the beginning of this new venture, I'm sure we'll see frequent upgrades and improvements in the road ahead.

 

[Buly]

Like Marc, I was tempted few times to put the dishy on the roof of my Honda. But I know better.
Have left few items on the roof before.
On the other hand, I. Pinched the wire in the slide couple of times. One of them this morning

 

[lemondrop9344]

For what it's worth........... I am using a tripod that I purchased from

Account Suspended

They have an option to select the components you want. I also purchased the Starlink pole adapter & Ethernet adapter from the Starlink store as well as the 150' cable........ just in case.
I'm using the residential plan with roaming or whatever they call in enabled. I set up the tripod in an area that looks like it might work (minimum to no possible obstructions) & turn it on. I am a firm believer Murphy is alive & well. I try to set things up so as to minimize him impacting my life.
Have not figured out how I want to permanently run the cable. For the time being I have it run through a window (yes, I know that's tacky).
In time I feel confident the 'aftermarket' will create a variety of devices to support this product. So far, I'm really happy with the performance of the Dishy with my Peplink device.
By the way, Peplink has a Starlink webinar on 10/19.

 

[Neal]

I have a tripod as well as outlined in this post. That is what I used first here and didn't get any signal probably as it was too close to the back of my coach thinking it only needed to see northwest. When I talked to another RVer here he said it works for him so I tried again. I figured it would be easier just to put the dishy on the roof and it would be if it didn't fall out of the sling that came with something, I think the pole mount adapter, don't know. Live and learn but yes, I have options and from now on will be using the flagpole buddy or one of the tripods (king or included four leg mount).

 

[Hoofaaa]

Use this thread to share how you setup Starlink in your RV and also share your experiences in your travels and how it's working for you and anything else you care to share. Be sure to include pictures as they always help to show an install or setup.

For sharing your Starlink Internet speed tests please use the Starlink Travel Log which is just like the Cellular Travel Log.

To order Starlink for RV's click here. If you are on the residential waiting list you may need to sign out and use a different email to order as it may show Starlink not available yet in your location which is not the case for the RV orders.

Starlink

High-speed internet. Available almost anywhere on Earth.

www.starlink.com

Setup was as easy as it gets. It was great at first, but the last month, it’s been terrible. Barely get to a download speed of 20 during the day

 

[ehochuli85]

Setup was as easy as it gets. It was great at first, but the last month, it’s been terrible. Barely get to a download speed of 20 during the day

Thank you, Hoofaaa, and everyone for the contributions to this thread. I'm on the verge of pulling the trigger, as we travel pretty much full-time. Your post says that recently, you "barely get to a download speed of 20 during the day" . . . but that gives you plenty of speed to stream TV without any buffering, doesn't it? I currently use a couple hotspots, and there are places in which the best I can get on either of them is 4 or 5, but I can usually stream without buffering at those speeds. Are you ever unable to stream TV without buffering using Starlink?

Thank you, Ed

 

[Scotttkd2]

Hi Ed, the generally recognized industry standard is 3-4mbps to successfully stream, but the senders end can cause issues as well, so their is no guarantees at any download speed. I have had as little as 5-6 down occcasionally on the Starlink and never an issue streaming. The latency is normally a lot higher on cellular than on Starlink, and that's can also affect the streaming capability on otherwise similar "speeds" of internet connection.

 

[ehochuli85]

Thanks everyone for all the great information. I bought the RV setup a week ago, and so far, it's working out good.

I'm looking for advice on the Starlink "Mesh". I have my router in one of the basement bays, but being in the bay is clearly costing me some signal strength inside the coach. (The floors are quite thick and well insulated on this coach.) Most of the time I get plenty of signal inside the coach, but at peak time, not so much.

My thought is to buy the Starlink Mesh, ($130), and use it inside the coach to relay the signal. I don't really want to run the dish wire in thru a window, or run a wire, or some of the very cool connectors some of you have installed . . . I have trouble making my coffee in the morning, much less setting up some of the stuff you folks do! (Besides, I have another use for the mesh - we spend 3 months in a casita next to our RV site in Gold Canyon, AZ, and I figure the mesh will allow me to use the Starlink there, instead of paying $180 for wifi coverage for the 3 months. It will pay for itself in 2 months).

Thoughts? Problems? Do any of you use the mesh to extend your signal?

Thank you, Ed

 

[Neal]

@ehochuli85 congrats on taking the plunge! These puzzles are always fun. I have no experience with the Starlink Mesh but I have run mesh wi-fi in my house so I'm familiar with them. My concern is that if the main router can't get a good signal to the mesh unit then how good is it really going to work?

Ideally it would be nice if you could get an ethernet cable run from the basement into the coach. You could then get the ethernet adapter for the Starlink setup and it could send its signal up the ethernet cable. You could then use another wi-fi router of your choosing or go with a Pepwave such as many here use.

In the end, it's not a big expense to try it out and see. Other options per above are all more expensive than that option typically.

I defer to anyone with Starlink Mesh experience and keeping in mind the barrier you describe.

P.S. I also suggest moving your Starlink router to different basement locations and see what results you have. You can still have the cables and plugs in the same place and just push wires over walls assuming that's possible like with Newmar and you may be able to find a more central and centered location.

 

[marc2912]

So to really simplify it for you picture this, you're in a motel and you're in the first room. The people in the next can hear you pretty well because the walls are badly insulated. The people in the room after them though can't hear you as well because, well between the two walls and the space in the middle room, the insulation is overall much better. Now if you talk to the people in the middle room they could relay your message to the room at the end. In this case your message to the last room gets delivered without an issue. The people in the middle room are you mesh unit. Now the issue with your setup is that you don't have a room in the middle, the first room is your basement and your living space is that 3rd room. If you put your mesh unit in the third room it won't help as the message is already 1/2 lost. This is why, sadly, you'll probably want to run a wire somehow to inside the RV.

Is there any other way? Potentially. You could check if different locations in the basement for the Starlink unit helps, depending on what's around it and above it you might have better luck, also try different orientation for the starlink, standing, on it's side etc. Try to connect to it with a device as close to it as possible from within the living space. Are there places in the basement and living space where you can, when close, get an ok signal? If so, can you place the mesh unit there? If you can't find a good connection that way then you'll struggle no matter what.

Regardless of if you do find an ok connection I still think hardwire is the way to go. Next time you have RV service done ask if they can run an ethernet cable from anywhere in the living space to the basement? See if you can work with that for Access point location in the RV.

I actually have the WI-FI turned off on the Starlink and have it, via ethernet, going to a Ubiquiti Amplifi Access Point (pic of my AP) but could have really used any cheap Access Point since it's wired in. That's what all my devices connect to.

Best of luck.

 

[ehochuli85]

All great points, marc2912, thank you.

Without wasting your time on why, I'm pretty limited on the bays I can use. The most practical is the front driver side bay. I get pretty good signal strength in the front of my coach, but by the time I get back to the bedroom, the signal has significantly deteriorated. So my thinking is that if I put the mesh inside in the front of the coach, my signal in the bedroom should be very strong, because that's only 30 or 40 feet, with no obstructions at all. Is that correct?

Also, does the mesh amplify the signal at all? In other words, if the signal strength where the mesh is placed is 30 mb down, does the mesh simply forward the 30 mb down, or does it increase that signal strength and forward on a stronger signal than 30 mb?

Thank you!

 

[lemondrop9344]

Marc2912,
An informative post, however, I am confused if you are using a mesh WiFi setup or access points. Would you please calrify? As I understand it, mesh WiFi can be more expensive & might be overkill (in a RV) when one can accomplish the same thing (WiFi signal distribution) with an access point.

I normally prefer hard wiring all the nodes in a LAN if it can happen without too much hassle. I've found setting up a LAN in a RV presents a variety of opportunities. Integrating Starlink into your RV LAN creates a few more.
I've been using a Residential Gen 2 Starlink on Roaming for around a month. I'm not real fond of their proprietary connectors & have yet to decide how I want to connect the DISHY to the router as a permanent setup.. In so far as I elected to mount the DISHY on a tripod for ease of placement, I run the cable through a window in close proximity to my hub. Sort of tacky, but it's working.

Unlike many others with Starlink, I elected to have the Starlink router communicate with my hub router (Peplink device) via WiFi. Starlink broadcast on both 2.4 & 5 Ghz bands.

Looking at the Starlink Android app, it suggests the Starlink router is sending the WiFi signal to the Android phone approximately 4 times faster than the DISHY is sending it to the Android phone. I assume my Peplink device (MAX BR1 PRO) is more efficient than my phone, so the speed to my hub router would be as good or better than what I observed with the phone. While I don't dispute that hard wired Ethernet connections are considered better, based on these observations, the transmission speed of the signal is bottle necked at the DISHY to the Starlink router. I will readily admit I could be mis-interpreting the results & I'm very open to someone correcting my interpretation.

When I initially installed my Peplink device, I discovered WiFi signals in a RV seemed to be less efficient than they were in a stick & bricks location. I had difficulty in connecting to the ROKU's in the front & basement of the RV. There are many Android apps (suspect IOS apps also) which allow one to measure WiFi signal strength & channels. I used WiFi analyzer to determine the signals to the ROKU's were most likely blocked by the washer/dryer & the pantry filled with can goods. By placing a hard wired access point with a direct line of sight to the ROKU's, the WiFi signal issue was resolved.

Every RV installation will prevent a variety of opportunities we must deal with. Those who camp/boondock in remote locations with out access to 120 VAC might have to run their setups off 12 VDC. Others may use an inverter with a combination of solar & battery banks, or generator & battery banks.

Please understand, I'm no trying to refute anything in your post. I'm suggesting there are viable alternatives when one doesn't want to deal with hard wiring devices.

 

[marc2912]

Also, does the mesh amplify the signal at all? In other words, if the signal strength where the mesh is placed is 30 mb down, does the mesh simply forward the 30 mb down, or does it increase that signal strength and forward on a stronger signal than 30 mb?

The Mesh unit will be limited to whatever connection speed you have between it and the main unit in the basement.

Examples:
Max speed to the main Starlink router is 30mb down and 5 up.
As long as the connection between the mesh unit and the router can cover that then it has the ability to make use of the full avail bandwidth. Now just because it can cover the full bandwidth doesn't mean your device will. If you're too far from the mes unit and your connection is spotty you might be limiting that. You have to remember there's 4 signals to cover:

Starlink <-> Your dish <-> starlink router <-> starlink mesh <-> your device.

Only 3 really matter, the dish to router is wired so you'll never have an issue there. The weakest connection out of the three leftover is you weak point and final bottleneck.

 

[marc2912]

Marc2912,
An informative post, however, I am confused if you are using a mesh WiFi setup or access points. Would you please calrify? As I understand it, mesh WiFi can be more expensive & might be overkill (in a RV) when one can accomplish the same thing (WiFi signal distribution) with an access point.

I normally prefer hard wiring all the nodes in a LAN if it can happen without too much hassle. I've found setting up a LAN in a RV presents a variety of opportunities. Integrating Starlink into your RV LAN creates a few more.
I've been using a Residential Gen 2 Starlink on Roaming for around a month. I'm not real fond of their proprietary connectors & have yet to decide how I want to connect the DISHY to the router as a permanent setup.. In so far as I elected to mount the DISHY on a tripod for ease of placement, I run the cable through a window in close proximity to my hub. Sort of tacky, but it's working.

Unlike many others with Starlink, I elected to have the Starlink router communicate with my hub router (Peplink device) via WiFi. Starlink broadcast on both 2.4 & 5 Ghz bands.

Looking at the Starlink Android app, it suggests the Starlink router is sending the WiFi signal to the Android phone approximately 4 times faster than the DISHY is sending it to the Android phone. I assume my Peplink device (MAX BR1 PRO) is more efficient than my phone, so the speed to my hub router would be as good or better than what I observed with the phone. While I don't dispute that hard wired Ethernet connections are considered better, based on these observations, the transmission speed of the signal is bottle necked at the DISHY to the Starlink router. I will readily admit I could be mis-interpreting the results & I'm very open to someone correcting my interpretation.

When I initially installed my Peplink device, I discovered WiFi signals in a RV seemed to be less efficient than they were in a stick & bricks location. I had difficulty in connecting to the ROKU's in the front & basement of the RV. There are many Android apps (suspect IOS apps also) which allow one to measure WiFi signal strength & channels. I used WiFi analyzer to determine the signals to the ROKU's were most likely blocked by the washer/dryer & the pantry filled with can goods. By placing a hard wired access point with a direct line of sight to the ROKU's, the WiFi signal issue was resolved.

Every RV installation will prevent a variety of opportunities we must deal with. Those who camp/boondock in remote locations with out access to 120 VAC might have to run their setups off 12 VDC. Others may use an inverter with a combination of solar & battery banks, or generator & battery banks.

Please understand, I'm no trying to refute anything in your post. I'm suggesting there are viable alternatives when one doesn't want to deal with hard wiring devices.

I think the use case here is really poor signal propagation between the basement and the main living space. My recommendation is not to try to find a way to mesh between the two but to use a hardwired line as meshing between the two could lead to an extra bottleneck. IMO, with starlink, the connection to the satellite should be the bottleneck not a poorly configure local network. That's the way mine is currently wired, i have wifi off on the starlink router and wired from it to my AP using the spare port on the back of the router. Why would you not wire your starlink to the peplink?