I am a sailor (2010 Jeanneau 53) and I have a Starlink Flat High Performance Dish and I believe the Gen 2 router. I want to eliminate the SL router due to the 150 watts of power usage. I have heard that many boaters are eliminating their Starlink router and replacing it with a new router and power system. I also have the Peplink B One Router.
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Does anyone have experience eliminating and replacing their SL router? And if so, can you share specifically what you did, and/or what I should consider?
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Does anyone know if my Peplink B One Router can do the job? In addition, I want to be sure that the Peplink will be as fast as the Starlink. For example, PredictWind has their DataHub and I understand their is a way to use it; however, the Data hub is limited to 100mbps. SL is capable of 250-350mbps. The Mikrotik WAP AC is capable of 800mbps, for example.
Thank you for any help on this!
The concern with power usage isn’t the router, it’s the power supply that supplies the terminal. The router itself doesn’t use that much power but the terminal uses a significant amount. There are tons of people that have done the conversion to DC which saves a bit of energy (5-20% loss from AC > DC). You can power the terminal directly from DC with modifications (these modifications will, of course, void the warranty). We prefer to use StarMount kits for this, but Yaosheng makes good DC to Starlink power injectors if you don’t need the full mount system.
The Peplink device is definitely a better choice for a router and I would recommend using it to control the Starlink as well as provide wifi for your vessel. With Peplink you also have additional settings to bond cellular + Starlink near shore, and you can use your Starlink’s GPS to feed into the Peplink device so you can have a location feed in InControl2 (or another system you can forward your location data to via native abilities inside of the Peplink).
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