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Comment by Tepix | Hacker News Reader

Starlink Mini improved the power consumption a lot. Does Starlink Mini 2 improve things further? The page lacks specs.

I read elsewhere the battery has 71Wh and lasts 4.5h. That's 15.77W/h if it indeed uses 100% of the battery's capacity.

It's cool but 4.5 hours feels low for what you'd want. Between sometimes not fully charged, degradation, not wanting to fully deplete the battery your average comfortable use-time is going to be more like 2.5-3 hours. A burst of work but an entire half day of work is pushing it. It also competes with your phone hotspot, and is more of an advantage where you dont have cell coverage (more remote - where you are more sensitive to lower battery life because you cant recharge as easily).

Let me reiterate. I think this is actually awesome and I'm sure 4.5hrs is a big accomplishment. Starlink is awesome. I just think for any product you need to discount the stated battery life significantly.

I wouldn't look at the battery as a way of powering the day. Look at it as a way of getting temporary service up and running without having to hunt down a power source. Or seamlessly moving between power sources. Or something that can help buffer from fluctuations in solar output.

I love my mini 1 but occasionally I have to move it around and it's annoying to wait minutes for reconnect if the power cable is adjusted.

Yeah I kinda saw this partially as a few hours of service after the sun goes down not an attempt at all day service.

Probably makes more sense as a thing to keep the internet running in a truck/RV between periods while the engine is stopped.

The specs say Mini 2 works with a 60W power brick. Mini 1 requires a 100W source. So at the very least, the peak draw is better.

Mini 1 absolutely does not require 100W. I used mine off a 60W battery just fine and as others mentioned, it's ~45W during startup and more like 25 average during normal use. I think the reason it states 100 is that it also has a heater built in. It is supposed to turn on when the top surface gets covered by snow or ice to melt it.

If you divide Watthours by hours you just get watts not more Watthours.

If it's 71Wh and it lasts 4.5h, the h cancels out and it just becomes 15.78W.

15 W is the Mini 1's rated "idle" power draw [0], so it's hard to tell if they're just being very generous with the "up to" figure (assuming the dish isn't being used at all) or if efficiency is improved. You'd think they'd mention if it was.

[0] - https://starlink.com/support/article/18836c7e-2d97-6153-fe67...

My mini draws about 40-50w at start then stabilizes at 25w-30w at steady state. I put mini in my backpack next to my laptop with a 86Wh power brick and go hiking.

Phone now has satellite that makes me reachable. In case of emergency I bust out the mini and the laptop and I join the bridge.

This is not in theory, I actually joined emergency calls a few times.

Probably don’t need mini2 at this time. It only removes the power brick for me.

I find it's funny, when some hikers try to save every ounce of weight, to even using the Haribo powerbank because it's slight lighter than average.

Then there this guy who hiking with a laptop, a big ass powerbank and a starlink lol.

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