Teardown of “Dishy McFlatface”, the SpaceX Starlink user terminal
Enlarge / Ken Keiter prepares to destroy SpaceX Starlink’s user terminal, “Dishy McFlatface”.
Engineer Ken keiter It recently acquired a SpaceX Starlink user terminal, the satellite dish that SpaceX dubbed “Dishy McFlatface”. But instead of plugging it in and accessing the internet from SpaceX’s Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites, Keiter decided to take Dishy apart to see what was inside.
The disassembly process destroyed parts of the device. “I would love to try the [Starlink] service and clearly didn’t have the chance to do it, as it went a bit further than I wanted, ”Keiter said towards the end of the 55 minute teardown video you posted on YouTube
last week.
Keiter, who lives in Portland, Oregon, was impressed with the work of the Starlink team. “It’s rare to see some of this complexity in a consumer product,” he said, referring to the device’s printed circuit board (PCB), which he measured at 19.75 ” by 21.5 “.
Let’s take a look at what Keiter found inside Dishy.
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The first layer
With the satellite dish upside down, Keiter removed the rear panel and found the motor Dishy uses to reposition itself and get a direct view of the SpaceX satellites:
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By pulling on the lower part, two rotary motors appear which allow the parabolic antenna to reposition itself.
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Keiter is holding an Ethernet cable that was connected inside the satellite dish.
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The motor assembly after being completely removed from Dishy.
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Keiter turns the engines by hand.
Keiter was intrigued by the Ethernet cable. “A lot of people are asking why they can’t replace the cable on their own, ‘why can’t I have a connector that I plug my own cable into on the back of Dishy?’ Well, there’s a really interesting reason for that and it has to do with delivering power, ”Keiter said.
Power over Ethernet is typically limited to around 30 watts, but the new standards allow for a higher power supply that can meet Dishy’s needs of around 100 watts, Keiter said. Dishy uses a thick, “well-shielded” Ethernet cable that can deliver the data and power required without overheating, he said.
Dishy takes damage
Inside the satellite dish, Keiter found Dishy’s circuit board and phase array antenna assembly, all on a large disk protected by a metal screen. That’s Dishy’s whole brain and look how thin he is. It’s crazy, ”he says. He also noted that “there are very good RF reasons for having a massive shield all over your back.” The metal shield was attached to the PCB with a lot of glue, and Keiter had to damage the shield in order to separate it:
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From inside the satellite dish, a metal shield covers the antenna and the printed circuit board (PCB), Dishy’s “brain”.
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Keiter was impressed by the finesse of the great record.
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Keiter uses a utility knife to cut through the glue holding the metal shielding to the PCB and the antenna array.
Removing the metal shield was difficult and it was damaged in the process.
On the opposite side of the shield, blue dots made of a thermally conductive material are used to conduct heat from the PCB to the metal shield.
Close up of blue dots.
Antenna and PCB assembly
After removing the shield, Keiter examined the circuit board and antenna array:
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Dishy’s PCB after being detached from the metal shield.
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Close-up view of RF components.
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Close-up of the user terminal application processor.
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Close-up of the GPS receiver.
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Close-up of connectors normally exposed through an opening in the metal shield.
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The phased array of antennas, which was slightly damaged during disassembly.
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Close-up of the antenna components.
As Hackaday wrote in a Keiter dismantling article, “It looks like the antenna is some sort of stand-alone computer, with an ARM processor and RAM to run the software that points to the phased array. Speaking of which, it’s no surprise that not only the integrated circuits that drive the dizzying array of antenna elements, but also the most numerous components on the PCB, but appear to be some kind of silicon. custom designed specifically for SpaceX.
Generally speaking, Dishy is obviously not user serviceable. But Keiter said you can imagine some people putting the PCB and the antenna array in a different cabinet. “You can realistically design your own Dishy base pretty easily and I guess that’s what some people may choose to do,” he said.
With a beta of Starlink that started recently, SpaceX is seeking permission from the United States to deploy up to 5 million user terminals and is already cleared to deploy 1 million. SpaceX charges $ 499 for the user terminal and $ 99 per month for the broadband service.
For a full teardown experience, including Keiter’s analysis, you can watch his video here or and Youtube:
Desmontaje from Starlink: ¡DISHY DETROYED!