Adding Starlink to an Adria Compact Motorhome

LIke many people we get frustrated when in remote locations and we can't get a cellnet data connection. This doesn't happen that often usually but we are planning some trips to very remote locations and so wanted to make sure we could keep in touch and utilize the internet at any location. Starlink, whilst expensive, seems to be the best current option. We went for a Starlink Mini and the roaming contract. At the time of writing that gives up to 100GB per month for £50. If you are not using it you can pause it and the cost drops to £5 per month, although you can still use it at a low data rate.

One of the issues with Starlink is the supply of power. It is provided with a mains adaptor and when plugged into normal mains the consumption is not an issue, however, when off grid mains power has to be generated from the invertor, which added efficiency losses (since there are losses in the invertor and then again in the power supply). A much cleaner solution is to supply direct from the 12V system, however, the Starlink does not work very well at 12V, and any voltage loss in the cable can make it even less effective. As an estimate the efficiency using an inverter is likely to be 80-85%. The alternative is to use a dc to dc convertor to up the 12V to something Starlink can work with (in the range of 20-48V). The solution I therefore adopted was to use a Ugreen car charger. This can supply up to 130W via a USB-C cable, and the voltage can be negotiated up to 20V by the Starlink. To go with this I ordered a shorter 2m cable to go from the Starlink to the supply.

Having found a way to supply the power two issues remained. Firstly, where to mount the Starlink that would give suitable access to the sky, and also would not get in the way or be subject to disruption. THe second was how to supply the can supply from the motorhome electrical system.

With respect to the location, some people put the Starlink out of one of the ventilation covers on the roof. Others put them internally on the perspex ventilation "Heki's", however, the disadvantage is that when the Heki is opened it will ruin the alignment of the Starlink. In the Adria Compact there is a large panoramic roof panel at the front of the motorhome. This is relatively flat at the front and is a good place to attach the starlink with suction pads. A suitable mounting kit is the mwin starlink mini car mount

Using this the Starlink can be mounted and is near the front cupboards, from which I thought I could run a short cable. There is a small gap above the cupboard door that would faciitate a cable being run through. The pictures below shows how this it is mounted and the cable being fed from the top of the cupboard

The next task was to find a way to feed power into the cupboard so that I could put a fused and switched socket into which to plug the car adapter. After doing some research and testing I found out that all of the van USB sockets and manufacturers supplied 12V sockets are all supplied from one 10A source. I had also added a 30W USB-C power supply to this circult, hence if I added the Starlink to this circuit, which was the obvious one to use, then it risked overloading it. After investigating the motorhome controller I found that there was an unused 15A AUX circuit (JP19), as can be seen below:

I then had to run a cable up from the controller to the cupboard. This was the most tricky part and required the use of some flexible electrician wire feeding tools. Using these I managed to pull a cable up to the area behind the control panel (I had to remove this first but that was a case of just undoing a few screws). The small gap I had to work with can be seen below:

From there I could feed it across, behind the TV into the back of the cupboard, where I installed a switched socket, as shown below: .

I have now used this solution for some time and it works very well, providing a reliable data connection everywhere we have tried it to date. The connection speed is typically a minimum of 60MB/s to 200MB/s download and 20MB/s upload.