This week has been full of news regarding Starlink’s highly anticipated “Mini” dish. For the third day in a row we have another information dump. This time, the Starlink web team has uploaded the official accessory guide for the Mini, and it has left me utterly confused.
You see, everything up until now has led me to believe the Mini’s target market is digital nomads, the RV crowd, van lifers, hikers, and other types of adventurers. People that need a portable, lightweight, low power consumption satellite internet terminal to stay connected in remote areas.
But when I take a look at the initial accessory lineup for the Starlink Mini, it appears Starlink is outfitting the new dish for fixed home installations, not mobile applications. I assumed I would find different kinds of DC power adapters, a battery bank, maybe even a solar panel. And I definitely thought I would see the USB-C adapter mentioned in the Mini specifications.
All of the accessories that will launch with the Mini are designed for homes, not for vehicles or camping. Maybe the official accessory catalog will expand over time, but for now, it’s up to 3rd party companies to develop the types of adapters and mounts relevant to portable use cases.
Here is a run down on what is currently in the shop for the Starlink Mini.
Mini Wall Mount
The Mini Wall Mount is designed to install to your roof’s gable or fascia. Ideally, you would install the mount as high as possible, near the peak of the roof, to avoid any potential obstructions. It looks like Mini Wall Mount is similar to the Standard Wall Mount.
It costs $32, and you can find it on the Starlink shop here.
Starlink says the wall mount is compatible with up to 4 inches of roof overhang. The kit contains everything you need, including lag screws, silicone sealant, and cable management clips. The mast can rotate in the mount, making the manual alignment process a breeze.
Mini Pivot Mount
If you’d rather mount your Starlink Mini directly to a shingled roof, that’s where the Mini Pivot Mount comes in. Using two included lag screws, the Mini Pivot Mount is designed to be secured directly into the roof. Like the name suggests, the mount can adjust up to 90 degrees to accommodate virtually any roof pitch.
It costs $38 from the Starlink shop. You can find the product listing here.
Just like with the Mini Wall Mount, the Mini Pivot Mount looks very similar to the Standard dish version of the mount. Be sure to check out my review of that accessory for more information on the installation process.
Mini Starlink Cable – 15M
This one has me a bit confused. At first glance, the Mini Starlink Cable seems like just a typical 50′ Ethernet cable, designed to connect devices directly to the Mini’s built in router via the Ethernet port on the dish. But now I’m not so sure.
Starlink calls it the “Mini Starlink Cable”. With other dish models, anything called a “Starlink Cable” carries both power and data between the dish and router. In other words, if this is truly a Starlink Cable and not just an Ethernet cable, that means the Mini can be powered not only by the DC input port, but by POE (power over Ethernet) as well. It’s plausible that you could use a Gen 3 router to power the Mini using this cable.
But Starlink doesn’t explicitly say that anywhere in the setup guide, specifications, or on the product page. In addition to the naming, the other reason that I’m convinced this cable can provide power to the dish is that it makes no sense to require the customer to run two separate cables up to the dish mounting location. Think about it. We know the Mini comes with a 50′ DC power cable to provide power. If this is just an Ethernet cord to use a different router from the built-in one, it’s a silly design choice to force people to run both the DC cable and the Ethernet cable to the roof.
In any case, the Mini Starlink Cable costs $50, you can find more info here.
Is the Mini actually intended for homes?
Am I the only one who is confused with these accessories? After all, the Mini has a built-in Wifi router. Can you imagine mounting this to the roof of your home, and having your Wifi signal come from outside the house? I’m sure that would work fine in some cases, but even in smaller homes, it’s not ideal, and the design choice certainly wasn’t necessarily or advantageous if the dish was intended for home use.
Let’s say you needed to add a network switch later to plug in your new security system cameras. You would have to go up to the roof and run a new cable just to access the Ethernet port on the dish.
What if you needed to perform a factory reset of the router? Or even just check the status LED on the dish to for troubleshooting purposes? Either of those tasks would involve breaking out the ladder and making a trip up to the roof.
Seems kind of silly, right? If Starlink intended this dish as primarily a home internet dish, they made some odd and impractical design choices.
As always, let me know what you think in the comments below. Maybe I’m missing something here, so I would love to hear your feedback.
All Ethernet cables support poe. The mini has a waterproof connector for the dish and an Ethernet connection for indoors it is not waterproof for indoor only. The earlier version was waterproof on both ends so the router could be used outdoors. I have one Starlink indoors and another completely out doors outback on 200 acres using solar the range is about a 1/4 mile it is up high on a hill line of sight works great I’m a master electrician with my amateur radio lic and Microsoft certified too
Would not be surprised to find that a lot of current Starlink home customers have metal roofs for snow management so having a roof top WiFi router so well shielded would put this configuration at quite a disadvantage in addition to all the other accessory/wiring/reset issues.
Agree, this new mini certainly desirable for RV/mobile – though we’re using our gen 2 on a boat for close-in coastal use (except for an early on failed cable, it’s working great, even in a salt water environment) so again putting the router outside is perhaps not advantageous for us either.
“If Starlink intended this dish as primarily a home internet dish, they made some odd and impractical design choices.”
Wouldn’t be the first time. 🙂
Elon, start paying more attention to TSLA STOCK, the stock and the company is in the toilet, PLEASE.
Musk has 11 children with three different women. Obviously he spends all of his time indoors and can’t relate to people who have a need for his product in the wide open spaces outdoors.
I’m sure he reads your comments, to here goes. Elon, buddy, I watched your Starlink launch last night, it was awesome! But hey, those of us who recreate outdoors would really appreciate an easily portable Starlink dish powered by 12 volts. We don’t need snow melting capabilities or a built in wifi because at time we have to locate our dish our from under trees. So a dish, a separate modem, 75′ of wiring and a 12 volt cigarette lighter plug in would be perfect. Thanks Elon! You the man .