Starlink officially launched their Mobile (also called Roam) service tier way back in May of 2022, but the lack of official accessories made for RV’s continues to baffle me and many of my readers. The most requested accessory for Starlink Roam is a 12V DC power supply. So far, Starlink hasn’t delivered in that area. Thankfully, 3rd party companies have answered the call, and there are several ways to create your own Starlink DC power supply.
With a few supplies, and basic electrical skills, you can build your own DC power supply for Starlink. It can be powered by your existing 12V, 24V, or 48V power system. If you don’t want to deal with inverters, and wish to run Starlink directly from your battery system, this is the guide for you.
In this tutorial, I will show you two popular methods to build a 12V DC power supply for the Standard (rectangular) Starlink dish. I will first explain why you would even want one. Then I will talk about all the supplies needed for this project. Finally, I’ll walk you through the process step by step.
Warning: Use this guide at your own risk. Electricity can be dangerous if proper safety precautions aren't followed. Modifying any of the Starlink hardware will void your warranty.
Table of Contents
Why DC Power?
RV’s, vans, overlanding rigs, and even off-grid cabins use batteries for electricity. Efficiency is extremely important to maximize the amount of energy available. The Starlink router doubles as a power supply for the dish. It converts AC power from the wall plug into usable 48V DC power for the dish.
That’s fine for residential applications, where you are connected to the grid and have AC power readily available. But with an off-grid battery system, you need an inverter to get AC power. So you would be going from DC to AC, and then back to DC in the router. That extra conversion to AC creates an efficiency issue, and wastes precious energy.
Two Methods To Build A DC Power Supply
This guide is on its second version. When I first wrote it, Yaosheng wasn’t making their Starlink cable adapter or POE injector. If you wanted to build a DC power supply for Starlink, you had to be comfortable cutting the cable in order to install an RJ45 connector.
Now, building a 12V power supply for Starlink Roam is a lot easier. Using a special adapter, you can avoid cutting the Starlink cable. No more worrying about wiring pinouts or damaging your hardware. It’s virtually plug and play these days.
So, just pick one method below to see how I built my own DC power supply:
Method 1 – The Easy Way – This method doesn’t require any modifications to the Starlink equipment. No cable cutting, no RJ45 connectors. This method is more expensive, and recommended for people without electrical skills.
Method 2 – The Cheap Way – This is the older method, which involves modifying the Starlink cable with an RJ45 connector. This way is much cheaper, but involves more electrical work.
Method 1 – The Easy Way
If you want a plug and play DC power supply for Starlink, the easy way that follows is for you. With just a few components, you can run the Standard Starlink dish from your RV/van/off-grid battery system.
Supplies Needed
Note: This article may contain affiliate links for the products mentioned
48V DC-DC Converter – #CommissionsEarned
Yaosheng Dishy Cable Adapter – #CommissionsEarned
Yaosheng POE Injector – #CommissionsEarned
- 48V DC to DC converter – This DC/DC power supply takes either 12V or 24V from your battery and converts it to the 48V required to power the Starlink dish. If your battery system is already 48V, you can skip this.
- Yaosheng Dishy Cable Adapter – This adapter accepts the Starlink cable on one end, and has an RJ45 connector on the other end. This is the key component that lets us avoid cutting the Starlink cable.
- Yaosheng Passive POE injector – A POE (power over Ethernet) injector takes the 48V from the DC power supply and sends it to the Starlink dish. It has 2 Ethernet ports, one for the dish, and one for the Wifi router.
- Wifi router – You can’t use the Starlink router with this method, so you’ll need an aftermarket router. Almost any of them will do, but make sure it uses 12V like the one I linked, so it can be hooked up to your battery.
- Screwdriver – You will need a small screwdriver to connect the power supply leads to the POE injector.
- Crimp/splice connectors – For connecting your power supply wiring to your battery system.
- Crimp tool – To crimp the electrical connectors, some pliers would also work.
- Ethernet cable – You will need a Ethernet patch cable to go from your router to the POE injector. Usually the aftermarket router will come with one.
Step 1 – Mount The Components
In order to mount all the various components in my RV, I just screwed everything to a scrap piece of wood that I had laying around. You can be as creative as you wish here. Personally, I just needed something clean and functional.
There are a few considerations to think about when laying out your components. The Yaosheng adapter and POE injector are connected with the included Ethernet cable. You’ll want to align the components so that the connectors are easily accessible. As you can see in the photo above, I oriented the adapter and POE injector so that the POE ports faced each other.
Also, keep in mind that the output leads from the power supply need to be routed into the POE injector. I avoided having to splice in additional wire by installing the POE injector close to the power supply.
Finally, think about how your enclosure will mount in your RV/van/cabin/etc. The Starlink cable comes out of one end of the cable adapter. You also have the router Ethernet cable coming out of the POE injector. Lastly, you will have the power supply input leads going to your battery system. Figure out the best way to lay out the components so that you can easily route all the cables, and access the connectors in the future if needed.
Step 2 – Connect The Components
After you’ve assembled all the components, it’s time to hook everything up. Without any DC power applied to the power supply, make the following connections:
- Power supply 12V output to POE injector input – Connect the white (+) wire from the power supply to the positive (+) terminal of the POE injector. Connect the black (-) wire from the power supply to the negative (-) terminal of the POE injector.
- Cable adapter to POE injector – Use the shielded Ethernet cable included with the Yaosheng cable adapter to connect the adapter to the “POE” port on the POE injector.
- Starlink to cable adapter – Connect the Starlink cable to the Yaosheng cable adapter.
- Router to POE injector – Connect the router Internet/WAN port to the POE injector “Data” port using an Ethernet cable.
Step 3 – Create The Router Power Supply Cable
Before you modify the router power supply cable, it’s a good idea to go through the router setup and configuration. It’s just easier to do this now rather than worrying about it later. The specifics will depend on your router model, but follow the manufacturer instructions for how to perform the initial setup. You should set up a Wifi name and password on your router before continuing, so that when it comes time to test your power supply, you can connect and test it right away.
Most household routers plug into the wall socket with a power adapter. The output of the power adapter is usually 12V DC. If you purchased the TP-Link router I linked above, all you need to do is cut off the AC-DC converter, and wire the 12V DC plug to your RV/van/etc. battery system.
For the TP-Link router power supply, the black lead with the white strips is positive (+) and the plain black lead is negative (-). If you are using a different router, double check the specifications to be sure it can be wired up to a 12V source. Be sure to also check the polarity of the power plug leads.
Step 4 – Plug Everything In
Now it’s time to make the final power connections and install the power supply in your RV/van/cabin/etc. Supply 12V/24V DC to the input leads of the DC to DC power supply. Connect the positive (+) battery lead to the red (+) input wire from the power supply. Connect the negative (-) battery lead to the black (-) input wire from the power supply. It’s best practice to place a fuse on the positive (+) lead going into the power supply.
Supply 12V DC to the router power supply (if using the TP-Link router mentioned in the supplies list). Again, it’s best practice to install a fuse on the positive (+) power leads. Typically, you are going to tap into your RV/van fuse block for 12V power, which satisfies the fuse requirement. But if you are doing something else, be sure to follow best practices.
At this point, the power supply is ready to test. If you decided to build the power supply “the easy way”, go ahead and skip down to the testing section.
Method 2 – The Cheap Way
When I first wrote this article, the Yaosheng adapter didn’t exist. The only way to build a DC power supply was to cut the Starlink cable in order to install an RJ45 connector. The RJ45 connector was necessary to be able to plug into the POE injector.
The cheap method involves more work, but the tradeoff is huge cost savings. The Yaosheng POE injector and cable adapter combo is about 7 times more expensive than the POE injector used for the cheap method. If you’re comfortable cutting the Starlink cable and installing RJ45 connectors, you can save a lot of money by building this version of Starlink DC power supply.
Cheap Method Video Tutorial
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The video is also available on our YouTube channel if you prefer to watch there.
Supplies Needed
48V DC-DC Converter – #CommissionsEarned
POE Injector – #CommissionsEarned
Shielded RJ45 Connectors – #CommissionsEarned
Before you can get started, you need several supplies to create the DC power supply:
- Starlink Ethernet Adapter – In this tutorial I am modifying a Starlink Ethernet Adapter instead of modifying the Starlink cable directly. I prefer this method because I can easily move my dish back to my home and plug it right into the Starlink router. If you prefer, you can skip the Ethernet Adapter and just modify the Starlink cable instead.
- 48V DC to DC converter – This DC/DC power supply takes either 12V or 24V from your battery and converts it to the 48V required to power the Starlink dish. If your battery system is already 48V, you can skip this.
- POE injector – A POE (power over Ethernet) injector takes the 48V from the DC power supply and sends it to the Starlink dish. It has 2 Ethernet ports, one for the dish, and one for the Wifi router.
- Wifi router – You can’t use the Starlink router with this method, so you’ll need an aftermarket router. Almost any of them will do, but make sure it uses 12V like the one I linked, so it can be hooked up to your battery.
- Wire cutters/strippers – You need something to cut the Starlink cable and to strip back the wire on the PoE injector/power supply
- Screwdriver – A small flat head, eyeglasses screwdriver would work fine
- Crimp/splice connectors – For the battery, DC/DC converter, and POE injector wiring
- Crimp tool – To crimp the electrical connectors, some pliers would work
- RJ45 crimp tool – We will be installing our own RJ45 connectors, so you will need a tool that can crimp them on the cable.
- RJ45 shielded connectors – We’ll be replacing the proprietary Starlink connector with a shielded RJ45
- Ethernet cable – You will need a Ethernet patch cable to go from your router to the POE injector. Usually the aftermarket router will come with one. We will be modifying one end of the Ethernet cable.
Step 1 – Modify The Starlink Ethernet Adapter
The first thing we need to do is replace the proprietary Starlink connector on the Ethernet Adapter with a shielded RJ45 connector. This will allow the dish to be powered by our own power supply, instead of the Starlink router. If you have opted to skip the Ethernet Adapter and modify the Starlink cable directly, the steps are the same. I’m modifying the Ethernet Adapter so I don’t have to cut into my Starlink cable, but it works fine either way.
Converting To Starlink POE
There is one caveat, though. The POE (power over Ethernet) pinout used by Starlink is different than the standard POE pinout. To solve this problem, we just need to wire our RJ45 connectors a bit differently from the T-568B standard normally used when terminating RJ45 connectors. Here is the pinout that you need to use for the shielded RJ45 connector on the Starlink Ethernet Adapter (or Starlink cable):
Prepare The Cable
Use wire cutters to cut the Starlink router connector off the Ethernet Adapter (or Starlink cable). Then, strip off about an 2 inches of insulation to expose the conductors and shielding. Most crimp tools have a wire stripper blade just for this job. Peel back the shielding foil and fold it back down the cable, we will deal with that later. Also find the drain wire. It’s the bare conductor. Fold that back out of the way for now. You should now be left with 8 twisted pairs, 16 wires total. 4 of the pairs are larger gauge wire, the other 4 are smaller in size. Trim back the smaller pairs, we won’t be needing them.
Untwist all 4 pairs and do your best to straighten out each of the 8 wires. Once they are straightened out, hold the cable in your left hand, with the wires pointing across your body to the right. Arrange the wires according to the pinout above. When they are in the correct order, do your best to flatten and straighten them out, using your left thumb and index finger to hold them flat, tight together, and in the correct order.
Install The RJ45 Connector
Keep holding the wires with your left thumb and index finger. With all 8 conductors in the correct order, flat, and straightened out, make a flush cut across all the wires with wire cutters, taking off about a half inch. With a clean, straight end, now take your RJ45 connector and insert it onto the wires. Tab side down! After you do this, triple check that the wires are still in the correct order. As you hold the cable in your left hand, the order from top to bottom should be: White/Orange, Orange, Blue, White/Green, Green, White/Blue, White/Brown, Brown.
The foil and drain wire should be folded back along the cable at this point. Slide the RJ45 connector back so that as much of the cable jacket, foil, and drain wire are inserted into the connector as possible. Then, use your crimp tool to crimp down on the RJ45 connector to terminate the cable. Trim off any excess wire that remains. Also trim off any foil and drain wire that extends out past the connector.
Step 2 – Build The Power Supply
Mounting Method
In this tutorial, I’m just building the power supply by screwing the components to a scrap piece of wood. For your own power supply, get creative if you want. I’m just using wood screws to secure the POE injector and DC-DC converter to the wood. Eventually, I’ll mount this in my RV in a utility cabinet.
Assemble The Components
First, take a look at the DC-DC power converter wires. They should be labeled for voltage in and voltage out. The voltage input wires, red (positive) and black (negative), will hook to your battery system. We can set these wires aside for this tutorial. Identify the voltage output wires. White for positive, black for negative.
Route the voltage output wires into the DC input of the POE injector, making sure to match white to positive, and black to negative. You may need to strip about 1/4 inch of insulation off the wire if it doesn’t already come stripped. Use a screwdriver to secure the exposed part of the wire into the terminal, double checking that you have the correct polarity.
At this point, the power supply part of this project is complete. Like I mentioned before, the two other wires on the DC-DC converter connect to your battery system. How that looks depends on your individual application, so you’ll need to figure out the best way to supply DC voltage from your battery to your Starlink DC power supply. In my case, I have a fuse block in my RV with an unused slot. I ran some wire from the fuse block to where my power supply will mounted. Then, I connected the wires with butt splices. I went ahead and removed the fuse beforehand, so that power is not being applied to my project until I’m ready to test.
Remember, practice electrical safety! Don't hook up to your battery until you are ready to test! Please consult an electrician if you are not comfortable and knowledgeable working with your RV/cabin/van/etc. electrical system.
Step 3 – Modify The Router Cables
Before we begin to modify any of the router cables, it’s a good idea to go through the router setup and configuration. It’s just easier to do this now rather than worrying about it later. The specifics will depend on your router model, but follow the manufacturer instructions for how to perform the initial setup. You should set up a Wifi name and password on your router before continuing, so that when it comes time to test your power supply, you can connect and test it right away.
Router Ethernet Cable
Next we need to reconfigure one end of an Ethernet cable. This cable will be what we plug our router into the POE injector with. Remember how I said the Starlink POE pinout is different? Since we had to modify the dish side of the connector, we also need to modify the router side connector to match. We only have to modify the end that plugs into the POE injector, not both ends. Your aftermarket router probably came with an Ethernet cable that you can use. Otherwise, you can find a 6ft, 12ft, etc. Ethernet cable at any electronics or home store.
Repeat the process that we used in Step 1 on just one end of the Ethernet cable. The pinout will be the same. The Ethernet cable won’t be shielded, so it won’t have the foil or the drain line conductor. But you can still use the shielded RJ45 connectors, no worries there. The modified RJ45 connector end of the Ethernet cable plugs into the POE injector. The other end of the Ethernet cable plugs into the Wifi router.
Router Power Supply
Most Wifi routers, including the one example in the supplies list in this article, run off DC. The power cord has an AC to DC converter built into the part that plugs into the wall. If you are using a different router, it might have a power brick that sits in between the wall plug and the router. Since we want the router to be powered only by DC, we can simply cut the wire after the power brick, so that we can utilize the same DC power connector that comes with the router.
For the TP-Link router I’m using, the wire with the white strip is positive, and the one without is negative. Verify the polarity for your router if you are using a different one. Connecting to a DC power source with the wires reversed can result in damage to the router!
Now we just need to connect the 12V battery system to the power wire from router. In my case, I ran a wire from my RV fuse block to the router location. That gives me 12V DC power, and I just connected the wires with butt splices. I’m mounting my router in the same location as my power supply, so routing the Ethernet cable that connects the router to the POE injector isn’t difficult. If you are going to mount the router in a different location, you will need to plan how to route the Ethernet cable back to your new Starlink DC power supply.
Step 4 – Plug Everything In
At this point in the process, all of the following should be completed:
- An RJ45 connector has replaced the Starlink connector on the Ethernet Adapter (or Starlink cable)
- The output from the DC-DC converter has been connected to the input of the POE injector
- The Ethernet cable from the router to the POE injector has a new RJ45 connector on one end that is using the modified pinout shown in the previous section
- The router power supply has been modified to wire into the battery system of your application
Apply Battery Power
If all of the above is done, now we can test it out! Apply battery power to the input of the DC-DC converter, in whatever way you have decided to hook it up. In my case, I just need to reinsert the fuse on my RV fuse block to apply power to my Starlink DC power supply.
Connect The Dish And Ethernet Adapter
If you are using the Ethernet Adapter in this tutorial, plug the Starlink dish cable into the Ethernet Adapter. Then, plug in the modified RJ45 connector on your Starlink Ethernet Adapter (or Starlink cable) to the power POE port on the POE injector.
Plug In The Router
Next, make the connections on the router. There should be an Ethernet cable connecting from the data port on the POE injector to the WAN or Internet port on the router. Also, plug in the router power supply to DC power. Verify that the router turns on. If you didn’t already go through the router setup before, now is a good time to do it. You’ll have to reference the instructions for your particular router.
Test The DC Power Supply
Whether you chose the easy way or the cheap way, your power supply should be built at this point. Everything should be hooked up and ready to test.
Set up your Starlink dish nearby with a clear view of the sky. The first thing to check is your aftermarket router. Make sure it’s powered on and broadcasting a Wifi signal. Grab your phone and connect to the Wifi network of your router.
Check to make sure that the Starlink dish is powered on. There are no LED’s or indicators, but the dish should move itself into a vertical position within a several minutes of power being applied to the Starlink cable. It searches for satellites in the vertical position, and then it will aim itself in its ideal direction. You can verify the dish is on by opening the Starlink app on your phone (your phone needs to be connected to the router Wifi network). Alternatively, you can use an internet browser on a device connected to your Wifi network and browse to http://dishy.starlink.com/
It may take up to 10-15 minutes for the dish to boot up and become available to view on the app or website. The app will let you know if the dish is working or not. If you have an active subscription, the status should change to Online after several minutes of booting up and searching for satellites. Check for internet connectivity by performing a speed test. Speeds with this setup should be similar to what you get with a normal setup.
I was able to connect using my TP-Link router right away. If the Starlink app keeps saying Disconnected, even though your setup is working with internet, you might need to create a static route to the dish.
The Results
I tested my new Starlink 12V DC power supply for about an hour to verify that it stayed connected to the internet. I performed several speed tests, watched a video, and checked email. I kept an eye on my battery monitor (I’m using the EcoFlow River 2 portable power station) throughout the testing to check power usage.
As you can see from the screenshot above, the power supply was drawing around 40 watts while streaming a 1080p YouTube video. The 40 watts includes the power needed for the dish, as well as the Wifi router.
Now take a look at how much power the same Starlink dish uses when plugged into AC power via the Starlink router. I streamed the same 1080p YouTube video for this test as well, so that the comparison was as fair as possible.
I consistently saw about 45-50 watts when streaming the YouTube video on AC power. This wasn’t a scientific test, but I think it’s safe to say I saw a roughly 15% reduction in power when using DC power, compared to using the Starlink router and AC power.
Saving 7 watts might not seem like a big deal. For people connected to the grid, it really isn’t much. But for those of us trying to use Starlink off-grid, 7 watts is pretty significant when you think about hours and hours of use each day. Even if I were to be conservative, and call it a 10% improvement by powering Starlink from DC, I call that a success.
Final Thoughts
This isn’t the easiest project to do, especially if you chose the cheaper method involving cutting the Starlink cable. If you decide to tackle this yourself, I hope you find this guide helpful. As you found out by reading, I was able to improve my energy usage by about 15% by building my own DC power supply to run off 12V.
Just make sure to exercise caution when working with electricity. And also keep in mind that modifying how your dish is powered can result in damage that won’t be covered under your warranty. With all that said, let me know if you have any feedback or questions in the comments below!
Hey Noah,
First off, thanks for taking the time to make the instructions and answer questions.
Secondly I was hoping you could help with an issue I have encountered. I bought an Active POE injector and I see now that you have used a passive injector. Is there anyway to make the active injector work with starlink? Currently I think that the injector is not getting the “handshake” from the dish and wondering if there is a workaround?
Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
A lot of the active POE injectors can’t output enough watts for Starlink, which is why most avoid them. But it should still work assuming the voltage and wattage are acceptable. You will need to modify the RJ45 pinout on the Starlink cable to get it to work right with the POE injector.
I did everything as described in this tutorial but starlink not powering up.
I have the POE PN INJ 1000-WT
I have the 12v to 48v converter EAGWELL 288W DC-DC
I have swapped the wires from the starlink cable to the ethernet connector connected to the POE port.
Orange White 1
Orange 2
Blue 3
Greeen white 4
Green 5
Blue white 6
Brown white 7
Brown 8
I have swapped the wires on the Ethernet cable going from the data port on the Poe to the t568b wired cable going to my router. So this cable is t568b on one end and swapped on the other, with the t568b end on the router and the swapped end into the Poe data port.
The voltage is correct on the pins coming out of the Poe
+ on pins 1,2,4,5 – on pin 3,6,7,8
And they are all 48.29 volts
When I connect to the Poe the starlink does not power up, does not try to align, nothing.
The wan is connected to my pepwave router and says no cable connected.
When I connect with my regular cable again, everything works fine.
I modified my starlink cable with Ethernet connectors weeks ago and connect the pieces together with shielded waterproof connectors so I could run the cable into my rv.
That has worked perfect and still works perfect. When I originally did this I made sure I did the cables swapped because I knew I was going to be doing this dc conversion.
I just don’t know why the starlink wont power up even thought the correct voltage is coming out each pin. I have waited as long as 30 min and no movement on the starlink antenna and does not connect to my router.
Is there something wrong with my poe?
Any Ideas?
Same issue for me 🙁 Hope someone can help
So when you added the waterproof Ethernet connector to your RV, did you wire that up to T586B, or the modified pinout? The connectors going through the RV exterior would be wired up to the standard T586B. Only the ends plugging into the POE injector are swapped from T586B.
Other than that, I’m not sure, it sounds like you’ve done everything correctly. If it were me, I would triple check everything, and then move on to returning and replacing all the components.
I finally got it it working, turned out to be a wonky loose Ethernet connector on the power side of the poe. Cheap Chinese construction. I stretched out the pins that push on the connector from the side and there’s kept it from having a bad connection.
Awesome, glad you got it working and figured out the problem. Good information for others in the future as well. Sometimes these issues can be difficult to troubleshoot, so thank you for the follow up.
Your tutorial is excellent!
That said, I followed it to a ‘T’ and something isn’t right in River City. I chose the same parts, but skipped the Starlink Ethernet product, as my ultimate plan will be to put an Ethernet plug on the outside of the trailer.
I know the Starlink dish is getting power because I intentionally put it in Stow mode before powering it up on the new configuration. It was my best way to know it was working. Sure enough, it ‘moved’ and it aligned to the correct direction based upon previous experience.
I know the Router works because I configured it in advance. It gets power. It just doesn’t see anyone home on the Internet side of things.
The Starlink app doesn’t see the Starlink even though I’m on the new router. Nor does the router see anything. Yes, I rewired the Ethernet from the Router to the POE product. Yes, I wired the end of the Starlink cable that goes into the POE. Yes, they go into the right ports on the POE (or else the Starlink would get it’s precious 48V).
So what’s next? I moved the Starlink back to its OEM router (with my unadulterated cable) and it works great! Seems like the Starlink is functional. Seems the 12V to 48V is functional. Seems the POE device is functional. Seems the Router is functional.
But someone isn’t talking the same language to each other. Ideas?
Try a factory reset on the new router. Also try to create a static route to the Starlink dish IP address:
Network destination: 192.168.100.0
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.100.1
Interface: WAN
Great suggestions, Noah. I had already upgraded the firmware on the TP-Link AX1800, tried a factory reset, tried exactly that static route above, and even tried Bypass mode on the Starlink. None worked.
I reconnected the Starlink back to its own router and factory reset it (to get out of Bypass mode).
Then I had an epiphany. In the house, I have a Google Wifi router. So I took it outside and plugged the Starlink back into the POE device, plugged the Google router in, and it WORKED. Nothing needed. No Bypass mode, nothing. (It’s really slow, but it worked)
Why did one router work as described in your tutorial and another one, brand new, doesn’t? TP-Link is a good product, so it seems odd.
New New discovery. I got the TP-Link router to work if I set the negotiation speed to 10mbs Half Duplex. The auto-setting (up to 1000mbps) didn’t work and none of the others worked either. This speed Sucks! I’m getting 7 down and 5 up! Why in the world wouldn’t the higher rates function in this router?
That is odd, not sure on that one, but glad you got it working with another router!
First of all I want to say thanks Noah for such detailed instructions. My setup didnt work. I was getting no speed at all. I spent days trying to figure out what I was doing wrong.I was close to giving up until I finally found out that the power supply we are using here interferes with the router. I found another site that had the same issue with having the router auto negotiate the speed with starlink. I finally dropped my speed to 100 and I got some better speeds. The other site suggests and better quality power supply to address the issue. Once he got teh other power supplly he was able to setup his router to 1 gig and all was workign fine. I am waiting on my power supply now.
Thanks for the follow up, good info to know for the future in case others are having issues.
I am having same issue. All seems to work and be connected but NO INTERNET No speed nothing. I hook it back up to the Starlink Rounter and all if good.
Thanks for the instructions and for yourj site. I have been reading many of your posts. My starlink is preparing for shipment. I am completly off grid. I will do your 12v conversion in the near future. I ordered a small bluetti 268wh for now.. i have 195w panel I can dedicate to that, plus and my lead acid banks and my generator. I was looking for an excuse to buy LiFePO. anyways thanks for the info now I just have to remember where I put that old jmount.
You’re welcome! I will have a new review on some DC conversion parts up soon. There are now products that adapt the Starlink connector to RJ45 and also flip the pins, so a “no cut” DC conversion is possible. More expensive, but a good option for people not comfortable doing the connectors.
Hi, thanks for great instructions. Would I be better of using a converted Cat7 cable from the router to the POE box or is
Cat6 fine?
For this application it wouldn’t matter, either would work fine.
I’m a bit confused with the sizing of the fuse. I understand the 12V/24V step up converter is capable of 6A @48VDC, but it isn’t clear what dishy might draw. I saw one comment that said max is 7A on the 12V side, which would be <2A @48V. With the POE injectors, I saw a comment in Amazon Q&A stating the max power rating of that is 130W, @48V would be ~2.7A.
And what would the dish need if heating was turned on?
So, sizing for 10A on the 12V side adequate? I’m having a little trouble sorting out the power equation. Thanks.
I’m using a 10A fuse on the RV circuit on the 12V side. I always keep heating off for the DC operation, it’s not necessary. I haven’t personally measured current on my setup yet, so I can only reference the ratings that you’ve already seen. But from everything I’ve read, 10A will work fine.
Hi Noah. I have ordered the supplies and I am currently trying to figure out where to tap into 12v in my rv. I have access to a 12v line that powers 12 USB ports and it has a 7.5 amp fuse in the fuse block. Can I safely splice into this line for powering the system you have described?
Sorry should say 2 usb ports
Yes, 7.5 amps should be plenty if not using the heating mode on the Starlink dish. I also would try to avoid using a lot of USB devices while also using Starlink.
Thanks!
Hi Noah
thanks for your very interesting article. I will try to build your setup for me, but I‘m not very familiar with yourself cable making…
I will use the adapter from yaosheng for connecting SL-cable to RJ45. Can you tell me how the pins for the cable to PoE with this yoasheng adapter must be. T568B or swapped, on bith ends? Thanks for help.
Regards René
Yoasheng also offers an adapter that plugs right into the Starlink cable, no modification required:
https://amzn.to/41oDDaa
If you are just using their POE injector, no need to use the modified pinout, just use the T568B pinout. The router cable can stay unmodified.
I have ordered both Yaosheng units and will put out a review once I have tried them!
Thx Noah. Yes I know, but this PoE is out of stock. Tycon is available. So I have to configure the cables for this setting. Sorry about that
Yes, for the Tycon, the modified pinout in this post will have to be used on the dish cable and one end of the router cable.
Thanks
Anybody that know how this new kit compare to the setup in the article?
How To Power Starlink Satellite Internet on 12 Volt DC – Updated 2023 (outsidenomad.com)
Other than no need for cutting cables.
I have the parts on order and I will do a review as soon as I get them. These ship from China and it’s going to take a few months for me to get them. From reviewing the hardware specs and description, here are the advantages:
– No cable cutting
– Simplified setup
Here are the downsides:
– Way more expensive ($100 just for the POE and cable adapter, still have to buy the power supply too)
– Shipping times are months
Hi, I’m Danilo from Italy.Thanks for the perfect guide.I wish use a PoE 110/220v to 48 v instead a DC DC PoE 12 to 48 v. Do you know how much Ampere current in use Starlink antenna? The standard poe for home use is correct?Many thanks!
the max current is taken during the boot at 7A on the 12V power supply so that is 84W. the PoE should handle 2A in this case (2A x 48V = 96 W).
The Starlink AC-DC power supply is rated at 2 amps. If you are going to plug the dish into a standard PoE, you must modify the cable because Starlink’s PoE pinout and the standard PoE pinout are different.
What if I have the round dish instead? Which comes with an ethernet cable connected directly to the dish.
Can this cable be plugged directly into the POE? or Does the RJ45 wiring need to change?
You need to swap the pairs to use a non-Starlink POE injector. Here is a good discussion on what is required. I haven’t done it myself with the round dish, so I feel more comfortable pointing you to other resources:
https://www.reddit.com/r/StarlinkEngineering/comments/107kxxt/round_dish_poe_pinout/
Thanks for the info and video. I bought all the parts and tools. I’m having trouble getting dishy to power up. I have made sure the POE is measuring 48V at the green connector. I made sure to use 12 AWG cable from my RV battery bank(located about 4 ft away so might be overkill but wanted to match the wire size of the 12VDC to 48VDC buck converter) (6A – 288W version)
I’m trying to troubleshoot. Would the dish at least power up with just the POE if all was connected properly or do I also have to have the router in place in order for the dish to power up?. I’ve redone my crimps 2X on the Ethernet adapter and used the same tools and connectors you did. Any suggestions for how to troubleshoot? I tried waiting 10 mins for dishy to power up but never does. I made sure everything is still working when using the original PS. Any help or constructive comments are appreciated.,
Here is the data sheet for the POE injector. If you have 48V at the green DC input connector, that’s good. Now check for voltage on the actual pins on the RJ45 connector on the POE injector. According to the data sheet, you should get 48V when you put your meter on a V+ pin and a V- pin. The V+ pins are 1,2,4,5. V- is 3,6,7,8. Put on lead on pin 1, and the other lead on pin 8 of the power RJ45 port on the POE injector. Do you get voltage? Check the other pins as well.
https://tsi.tyconsystems.com/doc/SpecSheets/POE-INJ-1000-WT(x)_GigE_HP_POE_Inserter_Spec_Sheet.pdf
Please note that the Tycon datasheet documents TWO DIFFERENT PoE injectors; one, the “WT” is the one you are using and it is wired to provide positive on pairs 12(channel one) and 45(channel 2). This is the “MDI” wiring, the other is designed to power devices with MDIx wiring where pairs 12 and 36 are swapped (channel 1 RX and TX swapped). You are swapping pairs 36 and 45; this does nothing (power wise) to the Tycon WTx model. Both models are available on Amazon and (much cheaper, without shipping) from Tycon direct but at least one person who has posted on the ‘net has fried equipment (including, IRC, the dish) by using the WTx. See the postings elsewhere (the GIST on github).
You might also want to check this out (I haven’t used it and I don’t work for them but it’s one of my current possible approaches):
https://amzn.to/3orXKXn
This is plug’n’play using other bits of their kit to avoid hacking the cable and that’s a much better solution for most people; I know what I’m doing but I’ve miswired RJ45’s a number of times.
I’m using the Tycon WT with a 3A/48V AC buck converter, but there is no shielding in there and that opens my kit to ESD damage; the standard router has a ground connection through the shield/drain wire (so long as it is plugged in). Using the standard router is probably a good idea for most people because it also seems to handle the problem when the StarLink DHCP server drops out as a result of coms failures with the satellite (this causes my router to become permanently stuck).
Thanks! I swapped the 12v to 48V unit and it appears to be working so looks like I had a bad step-up converter. Thanks again for all the help and the video! Much appreciated.
I found while wiring the Ethernet connectors that my arthritis was making the task almost impossible when following the instructions. I found that stripping back more cable (an extra inch or so) and feeding the wires one at a time into the connector was much easier. That’s something I could never have done in the old days with non-pass-through connectors. When I had trouble getting a wire to route correctly, I used the back of my pocket knife blade to compress the already inserted wires to make room.
Good tip, someone else mentioned doing this as well. This is my first time using the pass-through type, and I hadn’t even considered just doing one wire at a time. There are some good ideas floating around in this community, thank you all!
Hello, I was wondering if starlink could be run off of a 52v battery? Will this fry the starlink running the system with the higher voltage?
I think you would be ok at 52V. I haven’t tried it before but I’ve seen other people use higher voltage PoE injectors for their 48V dish.
Lessons learned from my own journey getting this to work:
1. Getting a high-quality crimping tool makes a huge difference.
2. Spending a few minutes on careful straightening and pre-bending the cable strands is very helpful
3. Use high-quality Cat7 cables.
4. Make sure the shielding remains intact and goes all the way up into the plug – and has nice electric connection to the RJ45 (ideally Cat7) connector. The shielding makes a huge difference to the speed you’ll get.
5. Reduce noise and interference from other electric appliances / wires. Same as above, this relates to signal quality. I think this may account for some of the variation people see in the speed or lower speeds as compared to the original 220V router. I saw a dramatic change once I redid everything with maximal shielding and now have no difference between original and 12V setup.
6. To use the starlink app and statistics you may need to set up a ‘static route’ in the 3rd party router. Usually this is in the advanced networking settings on your router:
Network destination: 192.168.100.0
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.100.1
Interface: WAN
7. Adding a small switch between the PoE Injector and the Router can stabilize the connection.
A lot of this I learned from https://tuckstruck.net/starlink/
The man himself has been extremely helpful so all the credit goes to his awesome RV engineering 🙂
I’d also use Cat7 connectors everywhere.
Better quality and easier to connect and maintain shielding. Also more rigid and durable.
Good list of tips, thank you for the info!
I am using this exact setup minus the ethernet adapter and I am running a 24V to 48V dc to dc step up and I cannot get signal from the poe injector. Do you have any ideas on how I might troubleshoot this?
If you make 2 crossover wires you can use the PoE injector without the PSU connected like a coupling. If you get a 1000/1000 connection you know that:
a) your crossover cables are wired correctly and working well
b) your PoE injector is not fried
You can crimp a counterpart crossover RJ45 on the other end of the cable coming from the original Starlink router, then use a coupling to see if you get a good connection. That confirms whether you have crimped the dishy connector correctly.
Measure Voltage coming from your PSU under load.
Check the Amp draw for dishy.
If your cables are too thin or your psu is fried / doesn’t deliver enough juice your dish will power on but won’t get stable connection.
If you plug a PC directly into the PoE data port, assign it an IP, can you ping the Starlink dish? That would tell you if perhaps the PoE port was bad, or if there is an issue with the cable.
Hi Noah, Great tutorial by the way, much appreciated.
I have a question. If we were to use the Starlink setup out of the box with its router/power supply and the adapter connected, the RJ45 outlet on the adapter is meant to be connected to an external router perhaps running DHCP and multiple APs etc… I have been wondering if the 4 pairs of tiny gauge wires you cut off from the adapter cable before crimping it could also be crimped separately and connected to a LAN port of the TPlink router in your video thus returning functionality to the RJ45 outlet on the adapter?
If you are doing the 12V conversion, the your Ethernet port is now the data port on the PoE injector. No need for the Ethernet Adapter Ethernet port, even if you could wire it back up.
Hi, I just received the rv version of starlink, cut the cable going to dishy and found 8 wires, but all solid colors, purple, white, grey,yellow,orange, light brown, green and brown… is there any translation to the standard ethernet connection?
Is it the Flat High Performance in-motion hardware or the Standard hardware?
The flat high performance, thank you for the site and all of your efforts! Very much appreciated!
Bill did you ever find an answer for this? I have the same problem now and I’m not sure how to handle the color coding.
Hello Sir Noah, I like this article. I am in the midst of this project myself with the exact poe injector and dc to dc converter, I have a different router on hand and I’m waiting for the dc converter to come in from the mail. The router came with a Poe injector that plugs the router in one and then another for the wan port. The router in self has a Poe connection in it alone as the Poe injector has the plug outlet to it. Question for you is can I bypass this routers Poe injector that came with it and just directly hook up to the aftermarket injector used to the router?
router information name on Amazon;
TP-Link Omada AC1350 Gigabit Ceiling Mount Wireless Access Point, MU-MIMO, Seamless Roaming & Beamforming, PoE Powered w/PoE Injector Included, Centralized Cloud Acces
I am eager to attempt but I’m worried it will backfire without the provided poe injector the wifi came with.
thank you sir for your time
Hi Noah, great tutorial, thanks! Would this also work with the router connected to the starlink Ethernet adapter via a non modified Ethernet cable? Thanks in advance!
No, the Ethernet port on the Ethernet Adapter is non-functional after replacing the Starlink connector. The wires for the port go back to the Starlink router where the connection is made. So when I eliminated the Starlink router and change the connector, it no longer works.
Thank you Noah, got it! – So probably that’s the purpose of the 4 thinner twisted pair wires that had to be cut. By the way, I made my kit working for the first time based on your instructions. Great experience, thanks again!
You’re welcome, glad it worked out for you!
Just looked at your pin out…. Why did you do it this way. When I make a crossover cable I swap pin 1-3 and pins 2-6 looks like you swapped 3-4 and 5-6, can you explain so I know if this was a mistake or if this is what I need to do? Thanks!
This isn’t a crossover cable like you would typically find in networking, this pinout is just how Starlink has decided to do the polarity for the POE pairs. It is not standard, so we have to flip a couple of the pairs in order to interface with the POE injector that uses standard POE pinouts.
so the dish does all the work and the router that comes with it is just a router and Poe supply? That’s awesome, I’m ordering one for the motorhome! I have made thousands of cables with rj-45’s over the years and have all the things here to do it…. Just need to order the 12 volt to 48 and the Poe inserter… 👌
Correct, the dish is the internet modem, so the important Starlink stuff lives there. The Starlink router just supplies power and router functionality. This should be a walk in the park if you have experience with RJ45 connectors!
Any idea what is inside the adapter box or why Tesla changed the pairing of the Tx-Rx pairs?
Thanks for your excellent writeup.
The adapter has an Ethernet port and the wiring for that, in addition to the connector housing for the Starlink cable. The conductors for both the Starlink dish and the Ethernet port run through the cable on the adapter back to the Starlink router. You can see the wires for the Ethernet when I cut off the 4 pairs of smaller wires. No idea why they decided to deviate from the standard POE pairs.
I believe the reason for the deviation from the standard POE pairs has two benefits: Reduce RF interference both in radiation or receiving of as well as offering just a bit better overall ability to handle current over longer distance. I personally would not do this with a 150ft cable but instead only do this on a stretch of cable long enough for your needs.
Any thoughts on doing this for the high performance dish? It uses more power than the standard, and I can’t tell if this setup would work with it too. Also, I’m assuming that the cable has the same pinout, but I don’t know for sure
The High Performance dish uses different voltage so the components would be different. I believe the cable pinout is the same, but I haven’t done it so I’m not 100% on that. I think I’ve seen a conversion on the Reddit Starlink subreddit, you might try searching there, or the various Starlink Facebook communities. I haven’t looked into it too much because I don’t currently have the Flat High Performance version. I’m planning to purchase it for in-motion use later this year, so I will probably look to do a conversion at that point.
Did you have to route to 192.168.100.1 to get local app function?
Nope, didn’t have to do anything special, just connected to Wifi and I was able to access the Starlink app after Starlink finished booting up. Took about 10 minutes before I was able to finally connect via the app.
I feel like maybe you just got lucky… I used your pin outs, as shown above. While starlink is definitely online and working I cannot see anything via the starlink app or dishy website. I wonder if anyone can assist?
Make sure you are connected to the new router Wifi, and that your aftermarket router has been configured correctly. Default settings should work, but make sure it’s not in access point or bridge mode or something.
I have tried just about every conceivable configuration, but no luck.
Sorry about that, it’s odd that the dish seems to have internet but you can’t connect to it. I doubt it’s the wiring as the dish probably wouldn’t power on or get online at all if it was incorrect. You could try to re-do the RJ45 connectors. Did you modify one end of the router Ethernet cable the same as you did with the Starlink cable? Also, make sure the router side of the Ethernet cable is plugged into the WAN/Internet port and not just one of the LAN Ethernet ports.
It wouldn’t come online at all if it were plugged into one of the lan ports. I did try redoing the rj45 connections, even tried an alternate pinout and none of that allowed a management connection. I have tried using 192.168.50.100 for the management connection and using 192.168.100.1 to login, as someone suggested worked for them on a different peplink model. All I get is the 404 error screen, no matter what I try. I’ll will say that there’s some emi on the line coming from the cheap power supply (I have ordered a better one), but that shoudn’t stop me from connecting to the dish.
Have you tried http://dishy.starlink.com/?
So just to be clear, you can access the internet with the dish on your 12v power supply, you just can’t access the Starlink dish settings/statistics? Which model of router are you using?
Correct, we are using the internet. Our router is Pepwave MAX BR1 Pro 5G
Have you tried disabling the cellular connection and making sure the Starlink WAN is enabled and on the highest priority list in the router settings? I’m just browsing the user manual, and it’s a very complicated router due to the cellular, failover, etc. I don’t have any experience with these, but my guess would be it’s a router config issue and not a power supply issue. If it powers up, aims, and is online providing internet, it’s the router preventing your device from connecting to the dish statistics page.
Yes, starlink is the priority 1, cellular enabled or disabled doesn’t make a difference. I did see a thread where a fellow had installed a switch before the router and was able to see the dish, at that point, for some reason. I don’t have a switch available, so I cannot test that method. Seems to just be a case where it either works right away or you never have access, from all the posted I have searched, so far. I just happen to be one of the unlucky people. I put a ticket in with peplink and they just ignored the question and referred me to the reseller. Not very helpful on their part, as I’m pretty sure it is an issue with the router, whether it’s firmware or some setting that I haven’t tried yet or something else.
I did finally manage to get someone from peplink to respond to my ticket. It happened that there were a few ips in the “Additional IP Address Settings” area. They asked me to delete those and it immediately connected to the dish once that field was empty. Simple and yet not obvious…
Glad they got back to you, and that you have it working now! Thanks for the follow up, I’m sure it will help someone with a similar problem down the road.
Worked 1st time! I just followed the instructions double checking my wiring many times to match the tutorial. Plugged it all together powered up and in less than 8 minutes was good to go…
Good to hear it worked out for you!