Starlink Gen 3 Standard DC-DC Power Supply | Efficiency Testing and Review

[@discrete57]

Awesome review. I have been waiting for someone to review this product, and you are the first I think. I was assuming I could use this off my Jackery Explorer 1000 Plus, but it's going to be a no-go per your Pecron `experience. So I am pretty disappointed and do not see Starlink selling a lot of these for the Gen 3. Thank you so much; you saved me a lot of greif.

[@StarlinkHardware]

Someone commented just after you that their Jackery 1000 wouldn’t boot the dish up either, so it seems like I came to a valid conclusion as far as the 12V outputs of portable power stations. A DC source with more power should work fine like I was able to show by hooking up to the battery. You could still use the Jackery inverter and accept the few % you lose with the inverter.

[@davetee3589]

Thanks for the review, I've been looking all over the internet and youtube for this kind of setup review but no luck. So I bought the DC to DC power supply when it came out hoping to use it with my Ecoflow 12v cigarette plug but no luck. Very disappointed and wasted $100 for something I can't use.

[@drewski1775]

Thsnks for doing this video. It really changed my mind and I ordered the mini as it was on sale. I was wondering if you tried it on your tesla? I ordered the mini dc adapter, will you be making a video on that new accessory.

[@StarlinkHardware]

I haven’t tried the Gen 3 Standard DC adapter in my car yet, but the Mini yes. I have a couple in motion testing videos on the channel if you want to see how that works out. In short, the Mini works awesome and is my preferred dish for basically any mobile or travel application.

[@JPE-B]

Thanks !!

[@wesley0a]

I think the long cable running right from 12v is going to cause the voltage to drop enough to be below the power adapter's operating voltage. I jumped straight to usb-c as a source and cable for the mini for this reason since it can operate at a much higher voltage.

[@StarlinkHardware]

Ya I’ve seen the issues on 12v with the Mini so I chose a cable similar to what I use with the Mini. The cable in the video is only 10ft and it’s 14awg wire. The car adapter cable I use with the Mini is longer and 16awg so I figured I would be fine.

[@viyusavery248]

It depends on the guage of the wire and the length

[@dmk_5736]

@@StarlinkHardware Mini consumption is much lower, so i don't think cable is fine.

[@felaxchow207]

Ahh the P = E × I problem. I run into that issue all the time when anyone tries to run Starlink Gen2 or Gen3 off of a low voltage power supply especially from a portable power station. Majority of them are current limited to 10 to 12 amps and Dishy can surge up to 20 amps upon bootup. At the higher input voltages, I find the surge is around 5 to 10 amps at nominal 48 volts DC. The good thing it only lasts for about 2 to 3 seconds, but current limited protection circuits will cause a significant voltage drop at the input of the DC to DC converter to act quite erratically.

[@StarlinkHardware]

Sounds like that is what could be happening here, and it tracks with Starlink recommending 30A at 12V to account for that boot up current.

[@NC2024-q5k]

Thanks for sharing this review. This is super helpful! (1) Is Starlink's DC-DC more or less efficient than the DishyNOAC you've reviewed earlier? (2) Is the efficiency gap of only 3-5 watts similar when the Starlink is mostly idle (e.g. when a phone is connected to Wifi and ready to receive text messages but there is no heavy internet usage)

[@StarlinkHardware]

I found the DishyNOAC to be more efficient, probably because it completely replaces the Gen 3 router and power supply. The gap in efficiency was similar with and without a load on the network. It was consistently 3-5%. I've noticed that internet usage doesn't change the power usage of the dish very much, if at all.

[@W6LND]

My Jackery 1000 will not boot up like your it's over drawing the 12 volt outlet. I hooked up my Redodo 100 AH Battery and it booted just fine. On a 12 volt battery it will spike over 100 watts DC and stays about the 65 - 84 watts range most of the time. I have found in my case the Jackery is about the same draw using the AC inverter.

[@StarlinkHardware]

Good to know I’m not alone or overlooking something, seems like support is correct, just needs more power available for the initial boot up that power station DC outputs can’t provide.

[@dmk_5736]

@@StarlinkHardware Car Battery Jump Starter(cheapest would be enough) can be used in parallel, but needs to be careful not to burn out main power source by current from jump starter(diode?, but it will drop voltage by 0.7v and dissipate heat and losing efficiency), if maximum voltage of jump starter less or equal to main power source max V all should be ok(assuming both are 12v rated) , and obviously it will all burned by wrong polarity, so all connection should be correct and good enough for high current, your cable is too long for such currents, starlink heater should be disabled, otherwise it will discharge jump starter battery eventually...

[@MoizCOUK]

When the device is constantly plugged in, it probably needs to pull a lot of power to change the canisters or something.

[@FrankRizzo804]

Thanks for the review. I'm not familiar with XT60 connectors - if you cut off one end of the included cord to fit your own interface, is there a way to tell which lead is positive and negative? Thanks.

[@StarlinkHardware]

There is insulation for each conductor, red for positive and black for negative.

[@coenjoosten6454]

Good Film. Is there something like that for Starlink Mini. Greathing from Europe NL

[@StarlinkHardware]

You can get Starlink’s Mini USB-C cable and plug it right into a power station or power bank that has 100W USB-C output. They also sell a 12V car adapter accessory for the Mini if you would rather use the 12V car outlet.

[@discrete57]

New member here. Since the Starlink DC to DC Power Supply does not work off the Pecron 12V 10A receptacle, I am looking for solutions. I just watched your other earlier video covering the DishyNOAC. Your Gen3 dish worked fine off your Pecron's 12V 10A receptacle in that video when using the DishyNOAC(another great video by the way!). So can I assume a Gen3 will work off my Jackery 12V 10A receptacle assuming I am using a DishyNOAC in the mix? If it worked off your Pecron it seems it should work off my Jackery. Finally, what does the DishyNOAC do, that the new Starlink DC to DC Power supply does not, in the case of using a portable battery's 12V 10A receptacle?

[@StarlinkHardware]

First, thanks for supporting the channel, and welcome! I'm still trying to get some answers from Starlink customer support on this issue. It seems like I'm not the only one having issues with using 12V power stations. I believe the cause is one of two things, both pointed out by viewers of the channel: 1. Voltage drop from a longer DC power cable. The cable in the Starlink DC power supply video is around double the length of what I used in the DishyNOAC video. It could be that the extra length is dropping the voltage enough to stop the boot cycle. 2. 12V/10A outlets regulate the output too much and interfere with the boot up process. It's probably a combination of both in my case. I measured the Starlink dish using more than 10 amps (12.3V) during the boot up phase when running off my RV battery. Most power stations aren't going to like that on the 12V/10A outlet, and may regulate it enough to cause issues. As to why it worked with the DishyNOAC, it could have been a firmware change or perhaps I just squeezed through with the slightly higher voltage on the shorter DC cable from the Pecron. Since I ultimately used the DishyNOAC directly off my Scamp battery I haven't had any issues. I'm out of town right now (since publishing the video) and haven't had a chance to play around with the length of the power cable. Until then, I can't confidently recommend 12V/10A outlets for the Standard dish until I confirm a few things. You could of course just use the inverter on the Jackery with the Starlink AC power supply in the meantime.

[@discrete57]

@@StarlinkHardware Thank you so much for your reply and comments. I will be watching this video's comments like a hawk for further hints and suggestions and any follow-up you may provide. Another note. I have a Gen 2 actuated dish. I built a DC power supply for it with a cigarette plug connector. It works great off an older Jackery 1000's 12V 10 A receptacle. Perfect. But my new Jackery 1000 Plus trips when it is booting using the same DC power supply I built. I called Jackery, sent them a video documenting the performance differences on the two Jackery's. They requested I send in the 1000 Plus for a replacement. But it's been 2 weeks and nothing back yet. Not sure why I am so driven to make the DC work, as your tests do show the AC inverter pretty close on power consumption. But I would like to go DC anyway ........

[@samariagraham4502]

The DC to DC doesn't work on either of my power banks. I wish that the tech team was more knowledgeable about the fact that there is currently no way to use the DC to DC POWER supply with a power bank. I had a few tickets opened for assistance and no solution as of yet.

[@StarlinkHardware]

I would recommend the Mini dish if you want to use a small power bank and not a full featured power station. Power banks are designed for small electronics like phones and laptops. The Standard dish uses too much power for a power bank. The Mini, on the other hand, can run directly off of USB-C if the port supports 100W PD. I have multiple videos testing the Mini with power banks, works great!

[@viyusavery248]

All i can say is that AC power SUCKS, i wish every device had DC connects it just more inherently efficient