Starlink and a Delta 3 Plus

Just want to do a quick post about running a Starlink Mini on a Delta 3 Plus, and there really is not much to it.

First, there is no difference between the wattage used by the AC brick that comes with the unit and an adapter you can get from Amazon to run it off the USB-C and the power cord that comes with the unit. But of course, since the inverter has a power loss due to the conversion and the wattage the Mini is pulling is so low, you are really wasting a lot of power going the AC route.

You can run the unit off the 12 volt port if you have a very short cord. Anything longer than 3 feet and the voltage drop will cause the unit to power cycle. If you try it with the cord that comes with the unit, it has 5521 barrel connectors just like on the power units. It won’t even turn on due to the voltage drop.

They do sell 12 volt adapters that step up the voltage to 20 volts, the same voltage you get from the USB-C, and are listed at 96% or so efficient. I may buy one down the road to use with my older power box that only pushes 30 watts out the USB-C.

As for the actual wattage, it depends. Idle, it bounces between 15 and 20 watts. Simple web browsing will be between 20 and 25 watts. As for streaming, Prime and YouTube would every now and then jump to 30, but most of it is in the 20 to 25 watt range, just like browsing. I even downloaded an audiobook and stayed in that channel.

Uploading large files is where it really jumps to 35 watts and stays there, with spikes up to 40 watts. Also, every now and then it will just randomly spike to 50 and then drop back down. I think that is just a hardware event and is the norm.

The unit also has a sleep mode, but all it does it shutdown the internet the average power usage only drops a bit, unplug it instead to save power.

Overall, after a week with the Mini I couldn’t be happier. This is my referral link. If you use it, you get your second month free. https://starlink.com/?referral=RC-DF-15384767-80772-11&app_source=share