FIXING a Broken Starlink (I HOPE) - I think I voided my warranty in the last video - Sorry SpaceX!

[@MykSr]

I’ve been patiently waiting, and cautiously optimistic but I’m SOOO happy to see you’re still “in the game” with this dish. It’ll be exciting to see this come to fruition … this will be a “game changer” for me. Thanks for your fearless efforts❗️👍

[@MikeOnSpace]

Yes, I took it slow on this video to make sure things worked :) Next step is figuring out a good watertight enclosure so I can take it out and start testing! Thanks for watching!

[@MykSr]

@@MikeOnSpace … can’t wait to see what you come up with, exciting times❗️ 😎

[@AppaTalks]

When you started this project, I was thinking vacuum forming a shell. Very excited to see your end result!

[@chrish4483]

Mike I'm super glad you were able to get this dish back up and running. Kudos to you and I look forward to see where this goes...One request though (bc I just recieved my square dish) Could you please show us folks an overview of the inside of the backing plate and motors, specifically where it might be good to drill circular holes in the back plate to dc the motor wires to take advantage of in motion roaming....I am planning on doing this when I install our dish on the folding mount on the rv roof.... and it would be great to have run through on whats and where's inside there

[@Pete_YT]

Glad you were able to get it going. That was a hardcore fix. I just received mine and looking forward to building a car mount.

[@MikeOnSpace]

Nice! It is really amazing - I hope Starlink leaves the functionality enabled. I wouldn't be surprised if they made it a higher tier or another package costing more. Thanks for watching!

[@pendefig]

Best practice when specifying bypass capacitors for any high speed circuit is to use three different values of caps, usually spaced by factors of 10 to widen the frequency response. Just picking a a cap at random may not get you the actual value that you need to replace. That being said, the number and value bypass caps are generally over specified, and you are most probably ok just leaving them off the board. If you still plan to replace them, do not forget to make sure that the voltage rating on the replacement cap is higher than the output voltage of the supplies.

[@lawrenceyuen152]

Welp, I tripped over the ethernet cable while testing my Starlink on my rooftop patio and cracked the edge of the housing. Some interesting info that might be of benefit to you -- the white housing has a channel that is filled with porous gray foam type adhesive. The white on the face of the dish appears to be just a vinyl sticker. The whole of the face piece is actually gray as far as I can tell, and I could most likely go around the whole unit with a putty knife and cleanly separate the two halves. So it is doable if someone wanted to disassemble it that way, although getting the initial leverage would be quite difficult. With that said, the stack height of the internal electronics is taller than the front half of the dish, so it is most likely a better solution to retain some of the back half of the housing as you have done. I'd love to do a permanent low profile mount on the top of my van, but the front face and a corner is damaged from my mistake, and water ingress is a major concern. Would need a completely new housing made. I've sent in a request for a new unit for now but am looking forward to your future videos! Let me know if you'd like to see some photos of the damage my unit sustained.

[@mitchellbarnow1709]

Awesome video, Mike! I am so glad that it's alive again. I got a little carried away with the Star Trek talk last time, I hope that you didn't mind too much. After I read "It's dead, Jim", I just lost myself in memories of seasons long ago.

[@dronsen1]

Great work Mike! Thank you for posting. I am ready to cut my rectangular antenna...any chance you could forward your 3D model? How are you manufacturing your enclosure? are you 3d printing your standoffs? If so, do you have designed yet? New video posting soon? Thank you!

[@novaleighwheeler746]

Thank you for this video! My dumb rear end thought mine was full of water from heavy rains. So I took a super sharp knife and carefully separated the back plate from the board. No water *surprise surprise*. This video gives me hope that I can put it back together 😂

[@paulrautenbach]

Looking promising. I'm pleased you were able to get it going again.

[@MikeOnSpace]

Me too! I Still need to come up with a good way of making it waterproof, but should be ready to test on the move soon! Thanks for watching!

[@tramvaj12]

@@MikeOnSpace Just be careful because if it is to tight it might overheat.

[@prational]

Another great informative video. Currently I have my first gen on top of my RV on swivel mount that I use to stow it when I'm driving. I would love to be able to mount it flush to the roof and not have to crawl up on the roof each time I want to relocate. I'm hoping that starlink will soon come out with a mobile antenna.

[@MikeOnSpace]

Yeah, I figure they'll have to come out with a purpose-built unit. It's just such a great use case! Hopefully something designed for low power consumption as well, 12V or similar. Thanks for watching!

[@andypag1071]

Really happy you got it working again.

[@JonathanLyon]

Love what you do and great video. I just wish there was an update and you had the time to respond to comments in a timely manner. It’s 6 months since your last comment. Hi from New Zealand :-)

[@leapnlarry]

I ran over my Starlink antenna with my truck today and broke the gear mechanisms, I am able to still connect my Starlink by leaning it up against a stool at the approximate angle it was before. I’m gonna order a replacement antenna from Starlink, so I am going to do a teardown of my broken Starlink Antenna and I’m going to see if I can 3-D print some new gears so I can reuse this antenna. As I saw in your video, splitting the shell will be the challenge, I will use a dremel, slowly by hand, I don’t want to have to fix caps. I will also be working on a 3d printed enclosure. Larry

[@makingitwithnick]

Like a couple others here, I would really like the weight of the panel with it's back taken off. Have you had a chance to measure it yet?

[@joetakayama1866]

Fun to watch! Can you give me the coordinates of the motor and Ethernet connectors in inches? I would like to keep the original shell intact so I can use the dish in flat or original configuration setup. Thanks!

[@adamehrmantraut6838]

Have you had a chance to measure the weight of the Gen2 panel?

[@ManuelRuiz-mq4fn]

My dish fell and broke. Most parts should be good for DIY/replacements. Hit me up if you are interested, selling dirt cheap

[@locodiablo8130]

You THINK you voided the warranty? I’d say you voided it as soon as you ripped into it!! Not a big deal considering your end goal! Looks good! Good luck!

[@MarkFinley-sl8mv]

Mike awesome video - I did a semi DIY conversion - used the Starmounts 12V all -in-one . At first couldn't get it working as I was only using a 5 amp fuse to the hot side of the 12v supply . Then checked w Starmount and learned they specify using a 10amp - I had it working for a couple of days and I believe that I let it plugged in AND switched on when parking under my home carport. Is this something that would "fry" any component ? Now every time I turn on the 10a fuse pops almost immediately .

[@esgarath2]

I might have missed it in the video, but do you say how much it weighs without the backplate?

[@glebskudnov1937]

Mike, what about cutting connections to individual radiating chips to downsize the area of the array?

[@LivingTheVanLife]

Hi Mike, How exactly were you able to "extract" your ethernet/power cable out of the pole assembly? I am interested in cutting/removing the pole, yet keeping the plug with out removing the domed back of the dish. Thoughts?

[@golferguy140]

Great video Mike! I want to mount my rectangular dish to the top of my motorhome pointing straight up and then when I am at home would like to move it to the roof of my RV cover. While on the RV I think I would need to disable the motor. Then when parked under the RV cover be able to reconnect the motor. Here's my ask. Can you measure where I would need to drill a 2" hole in the back to be able to get to the motor disconnect. I could drill a hole and unplug the motor then later re-plug it in using a water proof plug to cover the access hole in the back panel.

[@JC-jw6dp]

Hi Mike, I have a question on the Ethernet cord. Where it connects to the board about 6 inches up is a (round thing) that the cord goes through. I cut that out and just ran the Ethernet cable straight to the router. I now don’t have a signal to the router. Do I need the (round thing) and if so where would I find a replacement. And do you think I hurt anything on the board?

[@Cabinlab]

You mentioned linking the 3D model. Any chance you have it available? Even just the footprint with the support locations you showed in the video would be super helpful. Trying to reverse engineer the dimensions from the perspective drawing is going a little slow. 😆

[@raymondstevenson902]

I have a dead antenna ,customer came back after winter break and his dish was frozen solid ,tried to get going and no joy. Starlink wont replace as they say it is storm damage but would love to know what happened to it ,dont have anyone in UK that could do an diagnostic on it ,could send to you if interested

[@Clipzzy-123]

Hi Mike I cut my dish and damaged the either net connector. My question is can it get fixed? Would it be worth it?

[@johnmournahan]

Hey Mike great job on the walk through. I'm having a issue finding a short, same power supply dropping but I'm not finding the short. Think you could help me out with some questions?

[@adoxographian]

I'm curious, how much does the unit weigh without the back cover and motor assembly?

[@scottsfull-timebasementlife]

Do you know if there is wifi off the dish itself. I see you mention Ethernet connection but I was wondering if you knew if it had a wireless adapter on the dish?

[@burtonkent4549]

How would you know that the capacitor has the same specs is the same as the ruined ones? My limited understanding is for filtering they use different sizes to catch different transients. Also, THANK YOU for doing this, I bought the v3 dishy and want to mount it to the roof of a van I'm building.

[@nodxarb]

I love the production value with your videos! great work. Wind recently knocked my Starlink off my roof and broke the shaft/motor assembly, the board works fine and i still get strong connection when I prop it up. do you think if I used a waterproof hard case (Pelican, Skb etc..) that it could send a signal through the case? or would that not be possible? thanks for your help!

[@ederalago]

Please do you have parts for starlink circular dish? I need a gear.

[@Mkpeterpan]

Any update to the rectangle project? (Keep up the great videos!)

[@joelcarroll2870]

Hi Mike, what does the package say on the 16 relatively evenly spaced STMicro chips on the PCB? I think you referred to these as "signal chips" in a previous video. You also noted the smaller chips all over the board to be the phase shifters - do you know the manufacturer? I would appreciate any more details that you have on these chips. I'm very interested in the supply chain for these user terminals. Thanks in advance!

[@steamfire]

Amazing @mikeonspace! Could you please measure the mass of the board in the configuration you have stripped it down to?

[@GALAXI10R]

excellent video, could you tell me what colors are the cables of that connector. Are they like the ones on the network cable? greetings from Mexico

[@runningjack3105]

Can you show more details on the radiating side?

[@Safeala-c1j]

I need data sheet for this dish

[@cr-us9ch]

I had a hail storm come through and now i loose signal from about 12 noon to 5 pm. Then it starts working again. I wonder if it damaged my board somehow. I didn’t have this problem before. I wonder if theres anyone who repairs them?

[@PentaxLife]

What is the DC voltage it uses. And have you thought of maybe putting it in your sun roof would be protected by weather .

[@paulshannon4576]

Did you see on another KZbin channel that Starlink/SpaceX is warning that to use it in motion might get your service canceled?

[@paulencarnacion]

Mike, at 4:09 in the video you mention that some people have a problem with the connection seating properly. I am having that issue. It seems to seat and I can’t really get it in further, but Starlink complains that it’s not connected. Any advice on what I can do to seat it properly? Are there certain known manufacturing defects that require replacement?

[@Lighthouse6b]

Will there be trapped heat in the thinner backing?

[@MikeOnSpace]

Yeah, GREAT question! I've been thinking the same thing myself. What I'm planning on doing is having the enclosure milled out of aluminum. I'm thinking of including in the design small "fingers" from the enclosure down to the chips (and anything that gets hot) with a small gap for thermal paste between them. This would turn the aluminum enclosure into a large heat sink that I'm hoping would be enough to remove the heat even in hot outdoor environments. This is all just ideas at this point - I'm not sure how hot it will get with the smaller-volume enclosure, but definitely something on my mind as well. Thanks for the great question!

[@eliprotiva222]

What’s the part number on the switcher mosfets? I need to put 65v into dishy and trying to figure out if it will work

[@ferysery]

how u measure microfarade capacity of a healthy smd capacitor?

[@FlorentHenry]

Where is the follow up? :)

[@johnpoldo8817]

Mike, this EE felt you had only 5% chance of repairing the pcb w/o a schematic. Did you cut any traces too? What makes you think the value of damaged capacitor is the same as another capacitor? Too bad you can’t reach out to someone who is familiar with the circuitry. Based on your luck, I recommend playing the lottery. Anxious for next video in this series. Great job!

[@MikeOnSpace]

I was definitely "lucky" on where I damaged the PCB. In the output stage of the power supplies, each has a bank of filter capacitors in parallel between the power supply output and ground. So you're right that they COULD be different values, but in this type of configuration effectively they're just trying to pack as much capacitance as possible into the given board real estate. There wouldn't be much point to use different values for each. There are probably thousands of other components that if I had damaged them I would be out of luck :) No need to cut or bridge any traces since I was just removing some of the parallel capacitors that were damaged. Just curious: I've been thinking of starting some live streaming to answer this type of question, that's not "big" enough to need a separate video, but still potentially interesting to many viewers. Do you think you'd find that format interesting? Mixed in with my regular videos? Thanks for watching!

[@johnpoldo8817]

@@MikeOnSpace MIke, I think there are some subscribers interested & able to participate in live streaming. But, like me and many others, have work, family commitments, routine acivities with friends, etc. so cannot participate. If you live stream, most likely I'll only get to see recording.

[@elizeuarco-verde]

How I know If my dish capacitors are damaged

[@logiesasquatch5999]

I've been thinking of buying a Solar generator to use Starlink on the go. Any suggestions what else I can use for Mobile starlink. Or how to go mobile in my vehicle

[@zhengdaozhang260]

If L3775 is the first chip after XMFR. Then starlink must adopt a none standard PoE

[@simplyjjay]

Are you using a logic probe to test semiconductor on circuit board?

[@Safeala-c1j]

I need to know about this pic ‏wich Ander ope

[@beetwing]

I bet every Tesla roof will soon have an antenna integrated with the option to subscribe to a SpaceX plan. This will be the end of data cap/throttle for cell data service and on top you won’t be limited by a cell tower that these cell companies don’t want to place in rural spots or in remote location

[@OffGridAussiePrepper]

eXCELLANT WORK MY DEAR WATSON.

[@MikeOnSpace]

Next steps are probably the enclosure and some more work on running on battery and solar power off-grid. Thanks for watching!

[@OffGridAussiePrepper]

@@MikeOnSpace BTW u mentioned the enclosure 10 million times in the same vid... dont u script ur vids?? hahahaha

[@mikemilner2124]

@@OffGridAussiePrepper lol, yeah, this one was harder since I had to film it in many parts over a few days because I didn't know if the fix would work or not until I'd tested it :)

[@guardianzx9640]

Reflow stations are less than $50 usd, you need one.

[@justinwalker9178]

How long does it take to get ur obstructions cleared up I go a red dot on my map there's nothing in its way do u know whats up with that ?

[@MikeOnSpace]

I think the obstruction map updates over a 24 hour cycle. I'm not sure but I think if there's no actual obstruction that it should eventually clear. How long has it been there so far? Thanks for watching!

[@justinwalker9178]

@@MikeOnSpace 48 hours I thought it was a dirt on the dish but there's nothing on it now

[@KeithStrang]

Nice work man, you’re obviously an EE!

[@MikeOnSpace]

Yup! Although my soldering skills are a bit rusty :) I spend a lot of time on software these days - it's fun to spend some time with some circuit boards! Thanks for watching!

[@KeithStrang]

@@MikeOnSpace I'm in a very similar boat, although I mostly do mechanical and software engineering now. I have a CNC mill and might be able to help with this project... assuming I can fixture a block big enough. Could also start with 3D printing the mount in pieces on some FDM printers or pay for a one-piece off a larger printer. I'm guessing metal for heat dissipation really isn't necessary as the wattage is pretty low AND the original mount wasn't metal.

[@YouTube_username.]

@@KeithStrang i noticed spacex seem to have deleted that part, the metal back plate that was in the round v1 dishy, as they are wont to do 👍

[@PhotonLukas]

Interesting video but these "Power Supply" Chips are Synchronous Buck Converter. I don't want to be picky but it just triggerd me every time you said "Power Supply" Chip.

[@MikeOnSpace]

I know - I stumbled over it constantly :) My channel has a "split" audience where many are deeply technical and DO care about the details of them being synchronous buck converters, but many just want to hear about Starlink stuff. If I could do a "poll" of you as someone who DOES care: I've been thinking about starting to do some live streams that would lean more to the technical side, to talk about stuff that might not be as interesting to the broader audience, but still really interesting to those interested in the technical details, etc. Do you think that format would be interesting? Along with my regular videos? Thanks for watching!

[@lenpalmeri6228]

@@MikeOnSpace I barely know the difference between a capacitor & resistor but am still fascinated by the work you are doing on this project. I vote for more tech details😀

[@elizeuarco-verde]

Plz help