Starlink in van testing

I have had my Starlink mini dish mounted via suction cups to the sunroof of my van for a while. I have been just powering it off the DC power point in my center console and off a small battery pack if necessary. Until now I have had to choose if I was bringing the big Jackery 2000 unit or only having power available when the van was running. For most things this is not too big of a deal however there have been a few shorter day trips that I would have liked to bring my electric cooler and hang out somewhere for a day. This meant not only loading the cooler but also the much larger and super heavy battery pack, not such a big ask for a weekend trip to the woods but much more annoying for a day trip. It also meant that if I wanted to use my Starlink at work I was limited to the 2 hrs that my small pack could do or again loading up the large pack. As such with all the OT I have been working I have purchased a middle ground battery, the Jackery 500v2. This unit has a 500W AC inverter and 500wh battery, meaning I can run both my fridge and Starlink off it at the same time. This smaller unit is also much easier to move around and doesn’t take up much space making it easy to leave in the van most of the time. With the AC inverter built into the van it doesn’t take much more than an hour to top the battery back up meaning a short drive between locations can almost fully recharge it.

Starlink mounting looks decent and is out of the way, protected and still very functional.

So far in today’s testing I have been using the Starlink for about 6 and the battery is just above 75%. It is looking very promising for my more short term trips.

Lastly I am going to throw in a photo of some cats lounging around that taunted Loki on our neighborhood walk after work yesterday.

Loki almost didn’t notice these guys on the walk.

So it begins

This site is just getting off the ground. I am not familiar with website coding so I have opted to use a simple website generator from Squarespace. I am hoping to add brief overviews of my adventures to this blog section. Giving people a place to look in on how things have been going. Today I have been trying to enjoy my one day off between nights and days this week but unfortunately for me the chores don’t stop just because I have been at work a lot.

I managed to get a good walk in with Loki this morning before it got warm. The weather started as a pleasant 62 F and overcast and has since transitioned to mid 80’s and smokey. Loki has been moving better since he got a shot at the vet to help with joint pain but he still doesn’t have the 5 mile walks of the past in him anymore. He even took a good stumble today and got his face all covered in dirt. I am not sure how much longer he has, the cancer has made quite a tumor on his left foot and given his age and the area the vet did not even recommend surgery.

After the fun part of the morning the chores hit. First was catching up on mowing the lawn, I have neglected this chore and while it has not really rained and I don’t water my lawn the grass still grows. My front and side lawn were previously kept decent by my neighbor Ciro, but ICE picked him up and so he has not been around. Then it was off to get my hair cut. While the top is getting thinner the sides just keep growing sort of like my lawn. I stopped for fancy lunch at my favorite teriyaki spot (Ichi 12) for my usual teriyaki chicken and gyoza. Picked up some dog food and treats before heading home.

It is mid afternoon now and so I got this blog going. Next is grilling my chicken for the next work week and hopefully a bit of time on the spin bike. While an outside ride would be fun there is a good bit of smoke out there and it is hot, unlike my nice air conditioned house.

I don’t have an set plans to update this blog with any kind of regularity, but I will try and updated it when I have something on my mind.