Greetings.
I do a lot of camping trips where I'll work remote during the day. I got one of the first RV subscription starlinks, and mounted it in the basement. I don't use its built in wifi, but rather have MOCA adapters installed in the compartment above the TV, with a travel wifi router installed there. The router is up there primarily because:
But, it really was a huge pain to park somewhere, find sufficient sky access (if even possible), and get the tripod set up somewhere. Best case, it took me a half an hour to get the dish out from under the bed, out onto the ground on the tripod, and then feed the cable (possibly up to 100 feet) through the water port under the nautilus. If we stopped for the night enroute to our final destination, it was a PITA to set up, so I usually just didn't.
So, as of tomorrow, I'll have both parts of the permanent roof mount high performance in-motion starlink antenna, to replace my existing RV service.
Originally, I thought I was just going to run the starlink cable into the cabinet with the router, and avoid the basement - providing me the benefit of a 120v plug from the inverter (best I can tell, the only inverter backed outlet in my model which is solar ready & generator equipped is the TV and the fridge).
But silly me, I realized that of course this is on the slide. I can't just run it through a hole in the top of the cabinet!.
So, I know there is a roof access point which runs to the basement. So, I've switched my strategy towards utilizing this entry point. But, it leaves me with two options:
It really appears option #2 is going to be a royal PITA. I see a bundle of cables which are suspended under the slide, and go up in a wiring loom, with the number of cables appearing to match up with the outlets in the TV cabinet, and I presume power for the electric fireplace. My fear is that assuming I can get the cable routed through the belly (looks like I'll have to take the belly down, not easy to access that area from the passthrough compartment.
So, option #1 looks like the most likely option, with the only question: is the power outlet that's mounted near the inverter inside the bay actually hooked to the inverter? If so, that would be a convenient place for me to tap into power. If not, does anybody know if the 2000 watter inverter that GD uses is hooked up in a way which one add an additional outlet in the area with the water heater/inverter/etc? I'm not sure how they wired the power outlets w.r.t to the power panel up in the inside of the unit. This afternoon, I plan to empty out my stuff in the belly, so I can open the compartment to the inverter and check it out. I'm concerned it may be a proprietary wire/connection that runs up to the panel inside, making the install difficult.
We really want the inverter option so that we don't lose internet while traveling or boondocking. We had a number of issues with boondocking & starlink because when the generator (either the internal propane, or external gas gennies) would run out of fuel, the power would fluctuate. Unfortunately, starlink sees rapid resets as the sequence to do a factory reset!!
As an aside, I'd love to convert one of the kitchen outlets to be backed by the inverter, but again, not sure how the wiring is behind the panel. Suppose I'll need to open the panel and do a closer inspection.
Edit: Overall, I'm also looking for feedback on the options I've listed above, and if there are any alternatives I've overlooked to get the cable from the roof Starlink dish to the power supply & Starlink modem, and finally to the inside cabin of the RV.
Thanks!
(And I've appreciated browsing this forum since last year, just haven't had a need to post until now)
I do a lot of camping trips where I'll work remote during the day. I got one of the first RV subscription starlinks, and mounted it in the basement. I don't use its built in wifi, but rather have MOCA adapters installed in the compartment above the TV, with a travel wifi router installed there. The router is up there primarily because:
- Before Starlink, I would use it to rebroadcast a campground's wifi, or my mobile hotspot to my well known SSID, avoiding changing wifi for onboard devices and laptop, etc
- Direct Ethernet to some media devices in the cabinet
But, it really was a huge pain to park somewhere, find sufficient sky access (if even possible), and get the tripod set up somewhere. Best case, it took me a half an hour to get the dish out from under the bed, out onto the ground on the tripod, and then feed the cable (possibly up to 100 feet) through the water port under the nautilus. If we stopped for the night enroute to our final destination, it was a PITA to set up, so I usually just didn't.
So, as of tomorrow, I'll have both parts of the permanent roof mount high performance in-motion starlink antenna, to replace my existing RV service.
Originally, I thought I was just going to run the starlink cable into the cabinet with the router, and avoid the basement - providing me the benefit of a 120v plug from the inverter (best I can tell, the only inverter backed outlet in my model which is solar ready & generator equipped is the TV and the fridge).
But silly me, I realized that of course this is on the slide. I can't just run it through a hole in the top of the cabinet!.
So, I know there is a roof access point which runs to the basement. So, I've switched my strategy towards utilizing this entry point. But, it leaves me with two options:
- Leave starlink modem & power below deck, and utilize existing MOCA adapter to provide ethernet in the cabin
- Run starlink cable through basement, through the belly, and up into the slide.
It really appears option #2 is going to be a royal PITA. I see a bundle of cables which are suspended under the slide, and go up in a wiring loom, with the number of cables appearing to match up with the outlets in the TV cabinet, and I presume power for the electric fireplace. My fear is that assuming I can get the cable routed through the belly (looks like I'll have to take the belly down, not easy to access that area from the passthrough compartment.
So, option #1 looks like the most likely option, with the only question: is the power outlet that's mounted near the inverter inside the bay actually hooked to the inverter? If so, that would be a convenient place for me to tap into power. If not, does anybody know if the 2000 watter inverter that GD uses is hooked up in a way which one add an additional outlet in the area with the water heater/inverter/etc? I'm not sure how they wired the power outlets w.r.t to the power panel up in the inside of the unit. This afternoon, I plan to empty out my stuff in the belly, so I can open the compartment to the inverter and check it out. I'm concerned it may be a proprietary wire/connection that runs up to the panel inside, making the install difficult.
We really want the inverter option so that we don't lose internet while traveling or boondocking. We had a number of issues with boondocking & starlink because when the generator (either the internal propane, or external gas gennies) would run out of fuel, the power would fluctuate. Unfortunately, starlink sees rapid resets as the sequence to do a factory reset!!
As an aside, I'd love to convert one of the kitchen outlets to be backed by the inverter, but again, not sure how the wiring is behind the panel. Suppose I'll need to open the panel and do a closer inspection.
Edit: Overall, I'm also looking for feedback on the options I've listed above, and if there are any alternatives I've overlooked to get the cable from the roof Starlink dish to the power supply & Starlink modem, and finally to the inside cabin of the RV.
Thanks!
(And I've appreciated browsing this forum since last year, just haven't had a need to post until now)
. Since my house is also running a residential starlink, I use IPv6 to have a publicly routable IP address to access my lab and dev environments
