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A comment on First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini. Parent comment

Re:First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini by teruakohatu on Sunday June 16, 2024 @08:31PM (#40701274)
If they made it possible to disable the heating element (ie. require a human to wipe snow off it) then it would be a lot more viable for hiking.

The large version draws 45-70w so a airplane carry-on legal USB-C powerbank could power it for 1-2 hours.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini by iknowstuff on Sunday June 16, 2024 @09:31PM (#40701549)
Fairly sure the heat is just a byproduct of the phased array antenna no?
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Re:First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini by teruakohatu on Sunday June 16, 2024 @09:51PM (#40701644)
I think you may be right, I read a HN comment a long time ago saying that they had a heater but it seems they do not.
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Re:First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini by lazide on Sunday June 16, 2024 @10:17PM (#40701768)
They do have a heater in some versions - uses another 30-50 watts and is for melting snow.
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Re:First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini by gonesilent on Sunday June 16, 2024 @10:49PM (#40701927)
It's just running the chips hot.
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Re:First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini by RockRobotRock on Tuesday June 18, 2024 @02:53AM (#40714800)
previous HN thread on this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29943898
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Re:First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini by lazide on Tuesday June 18, 2024 @10:36AM (#40718339)
I guess any sufficiently inefficient computer is indistinguishable from a space heater.
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Re:First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini by funcDropShadow on Wednesday June 19, 2024 @06:04AM (#40726723)
I thought it was for comforting cats.
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Re:First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini by eDameXxX on Tuesday June 18, 2024 @09:48AM (#40717839)
They have it.

This is from the official docs [1]: Snow Melt Capability: Up to 25mm / hour (1 in / hour)

[1] https://api.starlink.com/public-files/specification_sheet_mi...

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Re:First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini by mlindner on Monday June 17, 2024 @04:58AM (#40703658)
It's not just a byproduct. There's a definite mode it switches into, that can be disabled, that draws additional power in order to heat the dish up. There is no heating element, but the community understanding is that the radio elements are themselves used to do the heating.
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Re:First look at the upcoming Starlink Mini by felipemesquita on Monday June 17, 2024 @06:35AM (#40704163)
You already can disable the heating element from the app on the current models
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