How to modify Starlink Mini to run without the built-in WiFi router
olegkutkov.me
olegkutkov.me
> The user terminal itself has no knowledge of service plans, countries, regional, or velocity restrictions – it simply follows commands received from the Starlink satellite
Surely this would be enforced at DHCP time? Or maybe not, since you could get an IP address then start going too fast… is this blog actually a ”wink wink nudge nudge” guide to bypassing Starlink policy restrictions?
A commentator here mentioned that Starlink also works in Russia, which it shouldn’t? Maybe some devices delivered to Ukraine can be used in Russia too.
Plus they use starlink of drone boats, so some degree of flexibility is needed.
The rest of the world sees it as Russian-occupied Ukrainian land.
In other news, Putin is totally a democratically-elected President, and not at all corrupt.
I doubt that the decision to act upon that is left to the terminal instead of the Starlink network.
Like if you have a Starlink terminal attached to a drone, it could automatically change its location if service is interrupted, like a UAV could fly higher if an obstruction is detected. Or if a geofence is inadvertently crossed and service is disrupted, it could turn off the Starlink terminal and then turn on a backup comms system. Essentially, you could use those disablement codes as a sensor.
But your laptop's Ethernet adapter comes free with your laptop (both in terms of money and waiting to get it since it's already on your desk) and possibly even more importantly you know the laptop manufacturer and users have QAed it for you so it's absolutely going to behave the way you expect which is important when the device you're designing isn't behaving.
> your laptop's Ethernet adapter
The device as-designed likely wouldn't work with your laptop's ethernet adapter - hence why the author of TFA placed an isolation transformer and jack ...on a breakout board.
Many Ethernet-supported SoCs still use various MII style interfaces because it makes more sense to outsource the physical layer to some external chip especially if not everyone is going to use Ethernet.
It's perhaps like the difference between using Thunderbolt vs raw PCIe. You technically shouldn't need Thunderbolt if you're just permanently connecting two things inside a same machine.
Is it smarter to do it proper and make it silicon efficient than just shipping the darn thing ASAP? idk. We'll see.
The chips they're using might already have Ethernet PHYs built in anyway which might also be part of the reason they're using Ethernet.
Did they remove support for the Ethernet jack on the Minis available in Ukraine? It looks like it's still present on the WiFi board, next to the power jack.
The wifi chip may emit signal during boot. The device may get accidentally reset in the field. SpaceX may push an update that messes with the settings.
Cutting down on mass would make sense, though.
I know people do that sort of thing for evaluation kits, but it doesn't seem like a good idea for production.
There are alternatives if you only need short range, or if you can tolerate high latency. And of course there are fire-and-forget cruise missiles that don't need communications at all.
But there aren't all that many other options. Historically, satellite internet companies like Iridium, Globalstar and Teledesic have not fared well.
It only gained packed-switched data with the second generation satellite network, but data rates are still very low (think hundreds of kbps, and I believe even that needs high-gain antennas).
edit: it was Viasat not Iridium, I got them mixed up.
Hell we let Russia freely execute dissidents (Skripal or the Berlin Tiergarten murder come to my mind) and tolerated a land-grab war by little green men in 2014. Either of these actions would have warranted serious consequences, the Crimea/Donbas grab would be a casus belli if you ask me. But again, we were too busy sucking Putin off for cheap gas.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anwar_al-Awlaki#Death
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Abdulrahman_al-Awla...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Nawar_al-Awlaki
So the US will downplay or ignore some amount of aggression from Russia to do so.
If the US wanted to go to war with Russia, we would be playing up some rather minor thing, like sending a missile system into "Europe" or something.
When that Ukrainian SAM fell in Poland and killed a farmer, there was a late night emergency meeting between a lot of very important people from NATO countries to decide WTF to do. If the west wanted to fight Russia, that meeting would have resulted in an Article 5 declaration of some sort.
Russia is behind the sabotage/blowing up of a Czech Republic arms depot. If the west wanted to go to war with Russia, that could have also been an instigating event.
Russia will continue to get passes for "minor" acts of war as long as the west does not agree with sending citizens to die in a war.
That we don't equip Ukraine with more than enough war material to do whatever they are capable of, however, is fucking stupid.
Welcome to geopolitics.
The thing came with a clear limit "this thing works in these cells of this big hex grid". And they drove it off that hex grid. Plan and simple.
Its like if the US-supplied HIMARS came with some built-in limit that it cannot be used to target known Russian nuclear installments, and they'd try to do that.
It's not that those things are unquestionable, but they are limits that would need US consultation as US obviously doesn't want the thing to escalate from being a defensive war to something else.
And Musk did exactly that per numerous reports. Given his erratic behavior since around 2018, it's not hard to believe. The other day he was literally threatening to stop Dragon launches for NASA.
The geoblocks are quite hard. The only situation where Russians have managed to use them for a short while is when they've managed to capture a terminal, and it hasn't been cut off because it's been unclear who was in control of it, and Ukranians benefit more of them as they've built a lot of things and process around them as it such a massive battlefield advantage if used right.
>Given his erratic behavior it's not hard to believe
Congratulations, you've managed to slip in to a sea of misinformation and media spin. Place a check on this in 5 years, these things tend to be silently put under the rug. It's like you're saying it wouldn't be a surprise if all future Falcon 9 rockets just blew up because they've done so at testing and because Starship does so too. Learn some distinction.
This isn't possible unless they are hacked and are at the border.
No one is using Starlink in Moscow.
I know more than you do. Go spread hate and misinformation somewhere else.
This is where the hex grid was previously on. Wayback machine doesn't seem to work as it's a web app https://www.starlink.com/map
The author's youtube channel also contains a video of him doing a speedtest on a starlink mini while driving on a highway.
Unless there's a software limit built in that turns them off, or the drone's doing some crazy high-G-force acrobatics.
Also as I understand, satellites do not work over Russian territory so guess where this can be used.
Aren't starlink have some kind of geolock?
> to have a reliable bypass of pathetic russian firewall
All data shows that Russia have one of the strongest and best firewall in the world, in many aspects even better than in China. And all the Russians I spoke with say that VPN is not blocked and any service for a couple of bucks does its job.
i know that it wasn't permitted.
somewhat assumed that they will block dishes from most of russia
Almost certainly impossible and doubly illegal
Perhaps. Apparently, it isn't applied in RV mode
> All data shows that Russia have one of the strongest and best firewall in the world
If you have a pile of shit in the world right in front of your house, it is pathetic, even if it is the biggest and the stinkiest pile of shit in the world.
> And all the Russians I spoke with say that VPN is not blocked and any service for a couple of bucks does its job.
I am Russian. This is not true. All regular vpn protocols (OpenVPN, Wireguard) are outright blocked. Shadowsocks is blocked on most ISPs, including all major mobile ones. VLESS works, for now, mostly, but sometimes the IP address of the server I run become unavailable.
Wouldn't publicity paint a target on one's back?
And it's not just vmware. They're predatory, they make Google or Oracle seem like good guys in comparison. They take acquire + squeeze customers to a new level.
If you have any contact with any broadcom product, you'll bleed.
Also kudos for them using GRPC. Suggests that there are some competent folks around not rushing things.