Jim McGarvie

1 minute ago, Ivan K said:

The v2 router's power supply actually downconverts the 120V to ~50V to power the dish through PoE and 12V for the router so it is a bit more involved to make it run on DC but it has been done if someone wanted to.

Thanks for that clarification.

6 minutes ago, birdshill123 said:

Sorry, I confused the rv service plan with the rv designed system. The latter uses a different dish and has a roof mount. It also costs $2500. I did not confirm but it may be a 12 volt  system. Have you traveled lately with your Starlink and encountered unusable low speeds. The net is full of complaints. 

Oh, right. I think they call it "in-motion." It probably is a 12 volt system, but a bit rich for my blood.

We have only had our system since September, but we have traveled with it a few times and have always had acceptable speeds. Well, except for that weekend buried in a dense forest with no open sky....

I am very happy with it so far, both at home and when traveling in the coach.

Unless something has changed in the past month or so, the RV "system" is identical to the residential equipment. It is a different service with different rules, not a different system. Our son and his wife are full-time RV'ers, so bought the RV service because they didn't want to wait and don't have a land base residence. I bought the residential service, since we have a home base and didn't want our service to be deprecated when we are at home (which is probably 80% of the time). When we will be traveling in our RV we activate the portability option for one month at a time, and pay the extra $25 for each whole month. When we will be home for a full month we deactivate portability and save the $25 fee. Our equipment is identical to that of our son. And it is NOT 12 volts. There is hope that will become available in the near future. When one is boondocking, the requirement to run the inverter to power the Starlink from the coach batteries is not very efficient. The inverter has to convert the 12 VDC from the batteries to 120 VAC to power the Starlink, which then converts it back to 12 VDC for its operation. A pure 12 VDC system should use significantly less power.

13 minutes ago, Grampy OG said:

That being said I am very disappointed at the throttling hit that the RV users take even though we pay MORE for the service.

I know where you are coming from, Grampy. But I realize when I am traveling away from home with my Starlink I am competing for a finite number of bits and bytes with folks who live full time in my temporary location. So far I haven't encountered what I consider to be an unreasonable reduction in bandwidth. I am very grateful for the availability. But as always, YMMV.

5 minutes ago, Ivan K said:

Is anyone successfully running their Starlink v2 from a Trace MSW inverter? I am reading conflicting reports but nothing specific to the older Trace and mostly with the previous "dishy" version that I guess had a separate power insertion. Would prefer to know ahead of time what to expect before I take it down from the roof and pack it with us. I suppose I could run a 100' extension from the bus just for test but maybe someone here already knows?

Thanks.

Have you checked with Starlink? I think you are wise to make sure before taking the chance....

29 minutes ago, bradc344 said:

thank you everyone for the suggestions will try nw rv supply great idea to show the pdf on the tv thanks again Brad

Another HUGE advantage to the PDF version is its searchability feature!

You mean you are sometimes in your motorhome without your laptop??? 🙂

Thanks for the reply, Kenneth. It's an intermittent problem, so hard to narrow it down. I actually opened it up and checked the sail switch, and it seems to function normally. I replaced it with new a couple of years ago.

Our Atwood 8535-IV-DCLP has given us fits off and on for a couple of years. I think I've resolved most if not all of the previous issues, and I am very happy with our MicroAir EasyTouch programmable thermostat.

But on our last trip the furnace would bring the temperature up from 62 to 72 as programmed, but didn't restart to maintain 72. I turned it off and back on (from the warmth of our bed; thanks MicroAir!) and it restarted and brought it back up to temperature. It cycled normally for a while to maintain 72, then again stopped coming on when required.

Has me baffled. Anyone experienced that?

Thanks.

Jim

Initially I tried running the cable through the seal on the bedroom slide, but it was too difficult getting the connector on the end of the cable through the seal. I followed the example of someone else who puts the router in a basement compartment that has a 120 VAC receptacle, and run the Starlink cable into that compartment. Piece of cake, and the router is plenty powerful enough to give a strong WiFi signal both inside the coach and outside.

Make sure you search for the item on the Amazon US website.

We went through a couple of the cheaper collapsible hoses around the house and they did not hold up. When we decided on one for the RV we went with the ZeroG, and wish we had done so long ago. I love it!

Unfortunately I see I didn't get the potable version as I thought I had. But I'm not too worried about it.

Jim

4 hours ago, Walker said:

I was having similar problems with mine.  Mine had some t-tap connections that were not in the the best of shape(loose crimps and corrosion).   I replaced them and a few of the spade connectors. That fixed it for me.

Thanks Matt. I cleaned up all of our connections, but haven't had the same low voltage situation since. Hopefully that fixed it for us as well.

We've had some instances of our Atwood 8535-IV-DCLP not lighting when the batteries have been low. The blower runs, I can hear the gas valve opening and I think I hear the igniter clicking, but no burner light. I understand the furnace won't function properly at very low battery voltage, but I thought it would work down to maybe 11.0V or even lower, but our issue was with a battery voltage of 12.0 and 12.1 volts. Anything above that it works fine.

My question is this: What component of the furnace is voltage-critical, that I should try replacing? Or might the problem be unrelated to voltage and just a coincidence?

Thanks.

Jim

8 hours ago, Tom Wallis said:

I just got back from a 10 day trip into Oregon staying at 5 different locations. We used Starlink at every one with great success. The only place I thought we may have a problem was in the middle of Oregon in a river canyon with lots of trees and no cell service. I worked great. I'll include photos. I'm now leaving the router in the basement where I plug it in. When I want to set it up I just pull out enough cable to reach the top of my pole, crab the dish out of the box, plug it in, place it on the pole and extend the pole if necessary. I only had to extend the pole once on this trip. All of this takes less than 5 minutes.

I saw a Youtube video of a guy that mounted his securely to the top of his RV and uses it while moving. I'd be reluctant to do that because you lose the ability to locate the dish in different locations when necessary.

 

Thanks for the encouraging report, Tom.

2 hours ago, JDCrow said:

What would like to know? I have both a residential dish and an RV dish 

Thanks JD. I don't have any specific questions at this point, just hoping to pick up tips and reports of actual experiences with the system. I got on the waiting list for a residential system, because to pencil out it has to replace my cable Internet service which means I can't tolerate the lower priority performance of an RV system. I hope to be able to get by with just the one system and move it between home and RV.

2 hours ago, Tom Cherry said:

I apologize for the flippant and distracting comments….and will cease and desist.

Thanks, Tom, but no apologies necessary. It is actually an interesting conversation.

And thanks to for the good info. If it can replace our cable Internet service at home the cost will be about a wash, and well worthwhile.

33 minutes ago, BigNick said:

I guess I'll un subscribe from this one, it has strayed.

Me too. I was hoping to learn more about Starlink....

On 7/21/2022 at 7:39 AM, JDCrow said:

😂 The ones that catch mice. Come on son. 
 

Ha! OK, I asked for that. Thanks for the links.

8 hours ago, JDCrow said:

Tomcat traps. The best. Just got another pack Rat that somehow made it into the 5vr. For the life of me, I can’t find a hole. 
 

Anyway, use their green bait, it’s way better than peanut butter or can cheese. 

Which Tomcat trap? Amazon has a few.

18 hours ago, Tom Wallis said:

I've just returned from my first trip with Starlink and I love it.

Here is a tip. We've all been thinking we need to run the cable inside the motorhome to the router. However, if you don't need an Ethernet connection inside you can just keep the router in the basement near an electrical outlet. That's what I did. I still had full strength wifi throughout the motorhome and outside. It's much  easier to run the cable out of one of your compartments and up the ladder. And even if you do need an Ethernet connection inside it might be easier to just run an Ethernet cable from the basement into the coach.

Great tip, Tom. Thanks.

17 minutes ago, Land Lubber said:

I have put bleach in my fresh water hose then hooked up to the fresh water inlet connection then turned on the water to fill the tank. This will sanitize your hose too. Another way is if you have an extra water filter housing, ensure there isn't a filter in it, put the bleach in it then connect it inline & turn on the water.

I too put bleach in the hose then fill the tank.

Great idea, Scotty! Unfortunately our coach did not come with videos... and we picked it up from the factory. Otherwise I would be happy to share.

X3

2 hours ago, waterskier_1 said:

Jim, hope you are doing well.  The only proper "NEC compliant" way is to run a neutral wire from his power panel to that welder outlet.  It is prohibited to tie the neutral to ground anywhere except at the entrance of the power to the power panel.  If you didn't have a neutral, it would allow voltage between legs to "float" based upon the current in each leg.  If only one A/C (for example) were turned on, you would have 15-20 Amps in one leg (for talking purposes, since without a neutral, you really don't have legs) which would cause the voltage on the opposite leg to rise, potentially to a dangerous (for the coach and electronics) level.  

That said, I do know some who either intentionally or out of ignorance, have tied a "false neutral" to the ground at the welder outlet, or a new parallel outlet, and it will work.  The danger comes when someone tries to service the system and doesn't know there is another ground on the neutral and that can cause voltage problems.  

  -Rick N.

Thanks Rick, we are doing great and hope you and your dad are as well.

And thanks for the info. Confirms my suspicions, and we don't want to mess with anything like that not recommended, even if it "might" work.

Jim

11 minutes ago, Dr4Film said:

Is his RV 30 amp or 50 amp? Based on your post and mentioning the use of a 50-amp to 30-amp dog bone I am assuming that his RV is 30 amp.

I did something similar to use when visiting my brother in the Finger Lakes area at his farm except I wanted 50 amp versus 30 amp. He had a three-prong 40-amp welding outlet next to his service panel. I went to the local electrical supply store and purchased the same configuration plug that would go into his outlet, plus some 6-4 wire, a metal box and a 50-amp four prong RV receptacle. I used the two 120 VAC wires and the neutral to wire from the receptacle to use for the 50-amp receptacle then used the 4th wire for a ground connection at the panel.

Worked like a charm until the adapter box got ripped off at a service shop in Orlando. Didn't realize it until I got to my brother's house once again and started looking for my adapter box, GONE!

So, the next day I went to the local electrical supply house and purchased everything I needed to have a 50-amp RV hookup located next to the electrical service panel. Now when I visit my brother, I don't have to be concerned about using any adapter box.

 

Thanks for the prompt reply, Richard. Maybe I didn't word it correctly, but his coach is 50A and the dog bone would allow it to plug into a 30A outlet. But I'm not sure that is germane to the issue.

I made an adapter similar to yours for a visit to a friend, but I decided it was more likely he would have another RV visitor than I would need the adapter elsewhere, so I left it with him.

Jim