very low information post. Cigarette lighters can be up to 180w. Even more with nominal voltage of 13.4v. Starlink is already just around 180watts. But it depends on what you ahve, rev1, rev2, rev3. And then there's proto1 proto2,3,4. Each one draws different watts from 35w-250w. There's no information about which version of the hardware and what it was and what it is suppose to be. I just wish starlink would send an email with details instead of a tweet.
This seems like it is just meant for Ukranian users temporarily.
Is this how Elon makes feature requests to the Engineering team? It make me appreciate Jira a LOT more.
Perhaps more importantly:
> Mobile roaming enabled, so phased array antenna can maintain signal while on moving vehicle.
I saw somewhere that Elon's jet has roaming Starlink installed. I'm gonna guess mobile roaming adds more load to the system (switching satellites more often, etc).
I wonder how that works on a bumpy ride? A phased array helps create a narrow beam aimed at a satellite. I wonder how the system reacts to sudden angular changes when driving. Phased arrays are super fast at changing direction so maybe they're always tracking the target and adjusting?
The other thing I wonder, how narrow is the beam? Perhaps if the road is only moderately bumpy it wouldn't be enough to disconnect from a satellite.
That's not how it works. The phased array can only slew the beam along one dimension across the shy. The motors in the mount are used to align this with the path of the satellite so that the dish needn't move once it has calibrated itself. However the dishes which are used in mobile applications have much more sophisticated rotators which can rapidly move in two dimensions.
How much power can car cigarette lighters deliver? These are usually 12V, and what 5A or so? So 60W of power?
The fuses are typically 10A and there are products that go right up to that. You can probably safely use 8A in most cars. So about 100 watts.
The three car manuals I just looked at were 10A, 10A and 15A.
15A on my mx5, cigarette lighters are short circuits that incandesce in open air without disintegrating.
Obviously not a short circuit. The element has a carefully chosen value of resistance.
I was being hyperbolic. It's obviously a substantial power draw, like the window defroster.
I saw in German magazine that you can charge your car from the cigarette lighter, so i presume that it gives you a lot of power.
Or more likely a relatively small amount of power which would take many days to have any useful effect.
Quite feasible - typical car chargers have two rates, what we used to call 'trickle' charge up to about 4 amps, and 'fast' charge that will push 8 amps or more. The latter isn't so great for battery long-term health but is useful for 'got to start the engine now' situations whereas trickle is more for 'top the battery up overnight' situations.
Most accessory sockets are rated 10 or 15 amps.
On an older car I remember the cigarette lighter fuse being 30A.