I bought a new Starlink a few months ago to help me in my small business.
I run a small craft business and use a sum up machine for taking payments at events such as highland games, county shows etc. The signal in some locations is dire without the event taking place and non existent with several thousand people wanting to use social media etc and lots of traders trying to take payment at the same time. Occasionally an event organiser will have a wifi network up and running but these are pretty dire in most cases.
The scenario needing a solution!
At most events I can park my motorhome behind my gazebo with a bit of space for the Starlink to be set out. Sometimes there is no room for the motorhome and I have to leave it in the car park.
I spoke to a trader yesterday who was using Starlink for payment and he bought a big Anker Solix Power bank and left the Starlink on 240V. He gets about 18 hours use out of it and at a 4 day show can scrounge a 240v socket to charge it up. I like this idea as it only takes about 1 hour to charge it up to 80% but if its on overnight then it will be back up to 100%.
The difference between taking card payments for payment or cash can be several hundred pounds per day as generally there isnt a nearby cash machine and if there is then it soon runs out of money. Most folk these days carry little cash and they want to keep it for refreshments if they know they cant get more money anywhere.
I could possibly subsidise my costs by letting a few nearby traders access to the network as well.
Would it be better perhaps for duration of usability to convert it to a 12v Starlink or leave it on 240v if it makes no difference.
Are there better power banks out there apart from Anker? I am familiar with them as I have 4 smaller power banks for charging my phones, ipad and led stand lights when I am out and about at events.
I did read the big long thread but it got a bit long winded and technical for me and thats the reason for this thread.
Any thoughts or advice will be most welcome.
Thank you in advance.
I run a small craft business and use a sum up machine for taking payments at events such as highland games, county shows etc. The signal in some locations is dire without the event taking place and non existent with several thousand people wanting to use social media etc and lots of traders trying to take payment at the same time. Occasionally an event organiser will have a wifi network up and running but these are pretty dire in most cases.
The scenario needing a solution!
At most events I can park my motorhome behind my gazebo with a bit of space for the Starlink to be set out. Sometimes there is no room for the motorhome and I have to leave it in the car park.
I spoke to a trader yesterday who was using Starlink for payment and he bought a big Anker Solix Power bank and left the Starlink on 240V. He gets about 18 hours use out of it and at a 4 day show can scrounge a 240v socket to charge it up. I like this idea as it only takes about 1 hour to charge it up to 80% but if its on overnight then it will be back up to 100%.
The difference between taking card payments for payment or cash can be several hundred pounds per day as generally there isnt a nearby cash machine and if there is then it soon runs out of money. Most folk these days carry little cash and they want to keep it for refreshments if they know they cant get more money anywhere.
I could possibly subsidise my costs by letting a few nearby traders access to the network as well.
Would it be better perhaps for duration of usability to convert it to a 12v Starlink or leave it on 240v if it makes no difference.
Are there better power banks out there apart from Anker? I am familiar with them as I have 4 smaller power banks for charging my phones, ipad and led stand lights when I am out and about at events.
I did read the big long thread but it got a bit long winded and technical for me and thats the reason for this thread.
Any thoughts or advice will be most welcome.
Thank you in advance.