Starlink Mini

[ShadowsPapa]

Wish I could recall what the equipment said on the side - I might have pictures. The excavator, for example, the guy showed me that once the thing got to the bottom, any further attempt by him, the operator, to go deeper resulted in the thing blocking him. He could raise it, but not lower it. The dozer was also GPS controlled - it had a map of the road bed in it as well as the grades for erosion control and so on - and they had to operate more slowly than you typically see for the GPS to keep up, but it was a similar thing with the dozer on the final road bed grading - the blade could not be lowered by operator - it was controlled by the machine itself. He could only raise it to turn, back up and so on.
The whole CREEK is mapped out according to the county! Direction of water flow, erosion areas, depth of the bottom at any given point and so on.
Crazy amount of data.
It fascinated the heck out of me to dig into it, ask them questions and so on.

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[chorky]

Its super cool stuff!! If you really want to be blown away, do some google searches on 1m LiDAR. It is amazing. We can use it for all sorts of analysis. My favorite is seeing historic sites and deep seated landslides. even more cool is the raw point cloud data and how you can use it to graphically display trees and a stand. Or different sets of parameters like bear earth data. And pairing that with immagery and using a program called pix4D you can display super realistic 3D movable images. It kinda seems like a gimmick but for the higher ups in leadership that dont have a grasp on things in the field, its a tool that can really paint a picture of a situation for them.

 

[WILDHOBO]

I work in IT on wildland fires. I have a company that I rent custom StarLink setups that mount to the hood of a truck with suction cups, has a built in inverter, and connects directly to the truck battery. All in one sealed CNC milled case. StarLink also just changed the policy to allow connection up to 100 mph. I've had operations guys tell me they are able to keep a connection while driving down the highway at 60 mph. Driving in the woods it's enough of a connection to get notifications and send text. If they need to join a teams call or something they find an opening. I've asked about purchasing one, but they said they are focused on wildland fire support right now.

My last assignment in Wyoming there where StarLinks everywhere. Seems like each crew, medic, engine had one.

I’m assuming flat high performance panels?

 

[NULL POINTER]

I am installing the standard home Starlink today. Will see how it works compared to my crappy 35 year old deteriorating copper DSL. Around here, the mini is offered with a 50G cap for an additional $50/month, must have a home/standard plan, or you can get unlimited data on the mini for $150/month and again must have a home plan., Nice thing about either mini plan is you can pause it anytime. Initial mini cost is high at $599 for the "dish".

 

[irish_love]

I’m assuming flat high performance panels?

Yes, it's a flat panel.

 

[irish_love]

Wish I could recall what the equipment said on the side - I might have pictures. The excavator, for example, the guy showed me that once the thing got to the bottom, any further attempt by him, the operator, to go deeper resulted in the thing blocking him. He could raise it, but not lower it. The dozer was also GPS controlled - it had a map of the road bed in it as well as the grades for erosion control and so on - and they had to operate more slowly than you typically see for the GPS to keep up, but it was a similar thing with the dozer on the final road bed grading - the blade could not be lowered by operator - it was controlled by the machine itself. He could only raise it to turn, back up and so on.
The whole CREEK is mapped out according to the county! Direction of water flow, erosion areas, depth of the bottom at any given point and so on.
Crazy amount of data.
It fascinated the heck out of me to dig into it, ask them questions and so on.

Yeah, they are using a combination of lidar, and probably a Trimble survey to build that plan set. I do something similar as USFS Engineering Technician. Design roads with the help of lidar. It's amazing. I don't have any operators in my area that are using the GPS features in their equipment yet, but I know it's coming.

 

[ShadowsPapa]

Yeah, they are using a combination of lidar, and probably a Trimble survey to build that plan set. I do something similar as USFS Engineering Technician. Design roads with the help of lidar. It's amazing. I don't have any operators in my area that are using the GPS features in their equipment yet, but I know it's coming.

You and Chorky are blowing me away with this. Amazing.

The guys who were operating the equipment told me it was their first time with it. They were the "do it by eye, seat of the pants" types, then they'd check with surveying equipment.
This time it took them a long time as they had to get used to it, and, it's a bit slower to let GPS keep up.
They also used a tripod with an interesting odd shaped device on top, a readout/screen and touchpad. There was a similar device set up on a post driven into the ground running on a 12 volt battery. I'd never seen any of this type of road work where there was a post and such a device at the edge of the work area.
I didn't get pics of those devices, but thought I had pictures of the devices mounted on the rear corner of the excavator and dozer, but can't find them so I must not have gotten any.

 

[WILDHOBO]

Yes, it's a flat panel.

I thought they all were. I meant is it flat high performance, the $2500 one?

 

[chorky]

Its cool stuff. 10-15 years ago only a few gov agencies were allowed access to sub-meter GPS satellites. Now most agencies have that access although there are still some satellites that are DOD and NSA use only of course but they are dedicated for particular uses. The LiDAR I mentioned is sub-meter accuracy. In other words you can make out a stone on a road. Here is an example of a small town near me where we have a project going on. Im sure you can figure out what it is.

On the timber side of things, before I switched jobs we were trying to prepare for a slow transition to GPS based boundaries. All virtual. Its allowed from DC but my region has micro-managing problems and wont allow it. Plus the loggers here are too redneck to even consider using it. But it is the future and if implemented will save a LOT of money on unnecessary flagging of every unit boundary and marking paint. Years ago in college there was even a vendor that talked about using drones, LiDAR, point cloud data, etc, to not only mark trees to cut but to also cruise them (assess value by species and log type - ie, log scaling). Thats a whole rabbit whole of its own lol

 

[irish_love]

I thought they all were. I meant is it flat high performance, the $2500 one?

Oh, no I don't think so. It's sealed in an enclosure and I can't see the actual dish, but I assume it's a Gen 3 mini.

 

[irish_love]

Its cool stuff. 10-15 years ago only a few gov agencies were allowed access to sub-meter GPS satellites. Now most agencies have that access although there are still some satellites that are DOD and NSA use only of course but they are dedicated for particular uses. The LiDAR I mentioned is sub-meter accuracy. In other words you can make out a stone on a road. Here is an example of a small town near me where we have a project going on. Im sure you can figure out what it is.

On the timber side of things, before I switched jobs we were trying to prepare for a slow transition to GPS based boundaries. All virtual. Its allowed from DC but my region has micro-managing problems and wont allow it. Plus the loggers here are too redneck to even consider using it. But it is the future and if implemented will save a LOT of money on unnecessary flagging of every unit boundary and marking paint. Years ago in college there was even a vendor that talked about using drones, LiDAR, point cloud data, etc, to not only mark trees to cut but to also cruise them (assess value by species and log type - ie, log scaling). Thats a whole rabbit whole of its own lol

I was in a class (Lari 201) in Flagstaff earlier this year. We talked about the GPS based boundaries. I think there was one logging outfit running IT down there. I also think that my Forest is looking into it soon.

 

[irish_love]

You and Chorky are blowing me away with this. Amazing.

The guys who were operating the equipment told me it was their first time with it. They were the "do it by eye, seat of the pants" types, then they'd check with surveying equipment.
This time it took them a long time as they had to get used to it, and, it's a bit slower to let GPS keep up.
They also used a tripod with an interesting odd shaped device on top, a readout/screen and touchpad. There was a similar device set up on a post driven into the ground running on a 12 volt battery. I'd never seen any of this type of road work where there was a post and such a device at the edge of the work area.
I didn't get pics of those devices, but thought I had pictures of the devices mounted on the rear corner of the excavator and dozer, but can't find them so I must not have gotten any.

Most likely a Trimble based equipment. I live in low volume dirt forest roads with pretty high tolerance levels and can get away with eyeing it most of the time, but it's mostly just reconstruction or maintenance for me. I do use laser levels to verify though.

The best use of lidar I've seen was for a road project that the Forest wanted in a very step hard to reach area. The design engineer was able to use that lidar and a few road design programs to show the 600+ foot fill slopes that would be seen from town. It would be this giant scar on the landscape, plus an insane amount of money for not a lot in return. They decided against the road base on what the Engineer was able to show on a computer screen.

 

[jav_eee]

So this is how I “mounted” the standard gen 3 dish in my gladiator. Just tried it out in motion and averaged about 20 mbps down. I’ve also attached pics of the obstruction map. Keep in mind this was only a 20 minute drive at an average of 50 mph. I’ll be headed out to the ranch this weekend and will be able to see how it works with a longer on time and at faster speeds. I’ll be wrapping the bottom of the dish with black vinyl so that it doesn’t stand out so much.

 

[WILDHOBO]

So this is how I “mounted” the standard gen 3 dish in my gladiator. Just tried it out in motion and averaged about 20 mbps down. I’ve also attached pics of the obstruction map. Keep in mind this was only a 20 minute drive at an average of 50 mph. I’ll be headed out to the ranch this weekend and will be able to see how it works with a longer on time and at faster speeds. I’ll be wrapping the bottom of the dish with black vinyl so that it doesn’t stand out so much.

It works through the Jeep roof?

 

[jav_eee]

It works through the Jeep roof?

It works through the hardtop with coverking headliner installed. While in motion.

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