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@darconeous
Last active November 8, 2024 16:20
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Hacking the Rectangular Starlink Dishy Cable
@jbowler
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jbowler commented Feb 21, 2024

The PoE injector will support up to 120W. Once I have it more juice from the bench power supply, it all got stable. The 5A current limit was starving Dishy.

Ah! Yes; this is a reported problem with boost converters. It seems from my measurements that there is a sudden very brief amp draw at pretty much exactly the time you reported the PoE/dish reboot. Here's the data:

https://gist.github.com/darconeous/8c7899c4d2f849b881d6c43be55066ee?permalink_comment_id=4466245#gistcomment-4466245

So there is a large inrush (maybe) just after 40s; around 3.4A (see the comments at the end of my post). Buck converters seem to handle this ok while some (at least) boost converters do not. The Yaosheng is apparently designed for a battery supply (12V or 24V) and that would give it a large surge capability. One contributor above uses a super-capacitor on the output side but I don't like that because, while it would handle an inrush, it could fry the connectors or the ethernet magnetics; better to put it on the supply side of the boost converter.

Here's an earlier, and more conservative, measurement of the power requirements, the amperage graphs above are likely to be more accurate:

https://gist.github.com/darconeous/8c7899c4d2f849b881d6c43be55066ee?permalink_comment_id=4463407#gistcomment-4463407

I couldn't find Yaosheng documentation either. It seems likely that they have done the measurements properly (i.e. using better equipment than I have) to get robust designs but that doesn't mean they designed the 120W version to work off anything other than a battery...

On average the current draw at 48V without snow-melt or pre-heat is under 1A. During boot it goes up to maybe 1.4A but this corresponds to the effects (on the average) of the large inrush at 45s (3.4A). Adding snow melt (etc) seems to add maybe 0.25A. Solar systems with a 48V battery should be fine but they need to provide at least 1A continuous (over 24 hours) to keep the Dish up and running.

@sjkjs
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sjkjs commented Mar 21, 2024

Is anybody else experiencing the dish going into a reboot loop in the past couple of weeks (possibly related to a recent firmware update)?

As soon as my dish comes online and obtains internet access, it reboots within about 5 seconds. It's in an infinite loop having done this for a few days straight now.

I've replaced the cable with a brand new genuine Starlink cable, crimped with a new RJ45 on the end. I've also replaced the power supply with a quality industrial 48V 2.5A supply. The problem persists.

At this point I was confident that the dish had gone bad, but interestingly if I plug it into the stock Starlink router, it works perfectly. Something has changed which is preventing my setup from working. Nothing was changed on my end (the parts I replaced were replaced after the fault started).

Considering it reboots shortly AFTER coming online, I suspect that Starlink is detecting that I'm not using the stock router and is issuing a reboot command.

Update: Of course, after spending the past 2 days on this problem and spending money trying to fix it, I solved (or at least made some progress) 30 minutes after making this post. I unplugged the cable between the POE injector and the network switch but left the dish plugged into the POE injector. So basically the dish was receiving power but did not have anything on the other end of the wire to talk to. It booted up and came online then started downloading a firmware update. After installing the update it rebooted (normal update process). After coming back up on the new firmware I plugged the cable back into the switch. It stayed online this time and, at least for 30 minutes so far, has been rock solid. I have no idea what happened but for some reason the previous firmware threw a fit when there was something on the other end of the cable.

@torrmundi
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torrmundi commented Mar 21, 2024 via email

@bghira
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bghira commented Mar 21, 2024

sounds like you needed an update.. it worked once you plugged into stock router, probably then downloaded the update, and applied it later.

@WIMMPYIII
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WIMMPYIII commented Mar 21, 2024

Is anybody else experiencing the dish going into a reboot loop in the past couple of weeks (possibly related to a recent firmware update)?

As soon as my dish comes online and obtains internet access, it reboots within about 5 seconds. It's in an infinite loop having done this for a few days straight now.

I've replaced the cable with a brand new genuine Starlink cable, crimped with a new RJ45 on the end. I've also replaced the power supply with a quality industrial 48V 2.5A supply. The problem persists.

At this point I was confident that the dish had gone bad, but interestingly if I plug it into the stock Starlink router, it works perfectly. Something has changed which is preventing my setup from working. Nothing was changed on my end (the parts I replaced were replaced after the fault started).

Considering it reboots shortly AFTER coming online, I suspect that Starlink is detecting that I'm not using the stock router and is issuing a reboot command.

Update: Of course, after spending the past 2 days on this problem and spending money trying to fix it, I solved (or at least made some progress) 30 minutes after making this post. I unplugged the cable between the POE injector and the network switch but left the dish plugged into the POE injector. So basically the dish was receiving power but did not have anything on the other end of the wire to talk to. It booted up and came online then started downloading a firmware update. After installing the update it rebooted (normal update process). After coming back up on the new firmware I plugged the cable back into the switch. It stayed online this time and, at least for 30 minutes so far, has been rock solid. I have no idea what happened but for some reason the previous firmware threw a fit when there was something on the other end of the cable.

I had a client yesterday that had similar problems. Several power cycles router and injection brick and patiently waiting 30 minutes between. update went through and everything was fine after that.

@morehardware
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morehardware commented Mar 22, 2024 via email

@UnknowUser0815
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Hello, can someone please help me get an answer to the questions with the question marks?

I don't want to damage my hardware.

Is this setup possible or do I also need the Dish-RJ45 adapter?

If not, how do I patch the CAT cable between Dish (https://amzn.eu/d/9qXAmcy) and Edup PoE Injector (https://amzn.eu/d/1gppFWD)?

Thanks

2

@WIMMPYIII
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WIMMPYIII commented Sep 7, 2024

Hello, can someone please help me get an answer to the questions with the question marks?

I don't want to damage my hardware.

Is this setup possible or do I also need the Dish-RJ45 adapter?

If not, how do I patch the CAT cable between Dish (https://amzn.eu/d/9qXAmcy) and Edup PoE Injector (https://amzn.eu/d/1gppFWD)?

Thanks

2

Just cut 568b. All these purpose built injectors flip the power for you internally so all you need is standard 568b ends.

@UnknowUser0815
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Thx WIMMBYIII

Normally you use a second additional Edup device (Starlink to RJ45 adapter) into which you plug the end of the original router and this device also has a T-568B output connection to the PoE Injector. So you don't have to X-swap the cables.

But I don't want to use the original cable/router, just keep it for safety.

I was concerned about how the small adapter is pinned from the dish to RJ45, but I also assume T-568B.

@WIMMPYIII
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Thx WIMMBYIII

Normally you use a second additional Edup device (Starlink to RJ45 adapter) into which you plug the end of the original router and this device also has a T-568B output connection to the PoE Injector. So you don't have to X-swap the cables.

But I don't want to use the original cable/router, just keep it for safety.

I was concerned about how the small adapter is pinned from the dish to RJ45, but I also assume T-568B.

Yep and you can cut the router end and make a spx-90 to 568b pigtail and couple it if for whatever reason you want to use it.

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