Starlink Terminal 12-Volt Conversion

Disclaimer: Use this information at your own risk! It's not my fault if you damage something, even if it's caused by explicitly following what I've shared here. This may violate your terms of service and/or warranty.

To use a Starlink User Terminal on an RV, boat, or other platform where the default power source is not alternating current in the 120+ volts range, any basic inverter will happily feed the included PoE injector and router. However, there are advantages to eliminating the components Starlink provides and switching to something like a Yaosheng injector with a router of your choosing (or even no router at all). This article describes roughly how I did this on our 12-volt-based sailboat.

Note: At the time of this writing there are a handful of user terminals in existence including Gen 1, Gen 2, Gen 3, and High Performance. This write-up is based on the High Performance terminal but have done the same conversion on a Gen 2 and believe it would also work for Gen 1 as well. I have no experience with Gen 3.

Why?

While this modification does take a bit less power than the Starlink-provided PoE injector and router, the energy savings is pretty minor and actually not really on the list of reasons for my decision to implement it.

For me, the primary purpose is to simplify the components required for our boat to have an Internet uplink via Starlink. Inverters are relatively complicated and noisy (RF-wise) devices in comparison. We depend on the Internet to monitor our systems and, when something is going wrong with our power supply, the inverter is often the first thing to go. Also, there are times when it is helpful to shut down the inverter to minimize RF noise while working the HF radio, or to conserve power if we're getting into a tight spot. I prefer to be able to do this without losing Internet connectivity.

The other reason is that I want to use my own router. Sure, I could just plug the Linksys into the Starlink router, but this introduces another NAT layer and leaves a completely unnecessary component involved. I run OpenWRT on the Linksys which enables a large number of capabilities that the Starlink router does not including things like local DNS, Multi-WAN load balancing, and reverse-tunnel VPNs.

Parts

  • 384-watt DC step-up 12 to 48-volt booster
  • Yaosheng 320-watt PoE Injector kit for HP Starlink (includes Cat-8 terminator)
  • Linksys WRT3200ACM Router (can be just about any router/computer with an ethernet port)
  • 15 amp Blue-Sea breaker (existing in boats dist panel)
  • Cat-5 ethernet patch cable
  • Power hookup wire around 14 or 16-gauge
  • Starlink User Terminal
  • User Terminal Cable

Installation Process

Starlink Cable Terminator

The cable coming from the HP user terminal is larger than typical ethernet or what you see with other terminals. However, the Yaosheng product includes a Cat-8 wire terminator that is easily installed without any tools other than something to cut the wire and insulation with. Simply follow the instructions to install the stress reliever, strip back the outer insulation, and then place each of the 8 wires in the appropriate location based on color codes that are both on the plug and shown in the instructions. Squeeze down the two blocks (each has 4 of the wires) and the electrical connections are automatically made with the individual terminal inside the plug.

For whatever reason, the first time I hooked everything up, the Starlink powered on and my ethernet negotiation light on the router would briefly come on, but would quickly go off and there was no connectivity. I could tell the terminal had power because Starlink showed it as healthy in their app (via other Internet access). I re-terminated the cable and everything then worked fine.

PoE Power

The DC step-up booster takes the 12-volt power you have available on two wires and transforms it into 48-volts out of another pair, both clearly marked with In and Out labels. Connect the "Out" wires of the booster to the + (white) and - (black) terminals on the PoE Injector. Connect the "In" wires of the booster to the 12-volt supply with black going to negative and red to the breaker or positive.


Router Power

The Linksys router I use gets its power directly from the same source as the red & black wires of the booster. You can just cut the wire that goes from the wall-wart AC transformer included with the router and connect the white side to positive and the other to negative 12 volts. These routers seem to be pretty tolerant about the voltage they're fed

Plug it all in

Plug the Cat 8 terminator from the Starlink terminal into the PoE injector port, and an ethernet patch cable between the LAN port and WAN port on the router. Plug in the power barrel connector on your router.

The LAN connection on the PoE injector is essentially equivalent to the ethernet connection provided on a cable modem, DSL terminal, etc. Just configure the router as you would for anything else and you should have internet within a few minutes of hooking it all together. You could even just plug your computer directly into the LAN port without any router!

Power Consumption

I never measured the power consumption of the Starlink-provided PoE injector and router before giving them away so can't say how much power this conversion saves. Starlink power terminals vary in what they draw depending on what they're doing (heat, searching, firmware updates, etc.) but my HP generally draws something like 2 amps at 12 volts including the booster and injector. The Linksys router's consumption is basically unnoticable.

Here is a video of a cheap ammeter between the breaker and the booster showing an example of the terminal's startup to stabilization.

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