Starlink Mini in a camper van
By Roaming Dish Editors. Updated October 23, 2026. How we work these numbers out
If your van has a 100 Ah lithium house battery, you already have enough to run a Mini for a day and a half without touching the engine. Wire it to 12 V. The inverter is the most common way people lose a sixth of their runtime without noticing.
- Mini on a roof-rack bracket
- Roof gland
- Inline fuse
- 100 Ah lithium house battery, 1,280 Wh: about 38 hours of typical use on 12 V
1,280 Wh × 90% usable × 92% for 12 V DC ÷ 28 W = about 38 hours of browsing and music. The dish's draw is from its spec sheet. The two percentages are our estimates.
How long it runs
| Setup | Hours per full charge |
|---|---|
| 100 Ah lithium on the 12 V feed Mini at 28 W (browsing and music), 12 V DC | 38 h |
| 200 Ah lithium on the 12 V feed Mini at 28 W (browsing and music), 12 V DC | 76 h |
| 100 Ah lithium through a 230 V inverter Mini at 28 W (browsing and music), AC outlet | 31 h |
| 100 Ah lithium, video calls all day Mini at 40 W (video calls), 12 V DC | 26 h |
Usable capacity taken as 90% of the rating. Connection losses are our estimates. Try your own battery.
Wiring
The Mini accepts 12 to 48 V DC at up to 60 W, so a fused feed straight from the house battery is the clean way to power it. If your build already has a 100 W USB-C outlet, Starlink's USB-C to barrel cable does the same job with no new wiring. Mini spec sheet
Starlink sells a DC power cable for the Mini in 15 m and 30 m lengths. Most vans need far less than 15 m, so plan where the spare cable lives before you drill anything. Mini accessories guide
Put the fuse close to the battery end of the run, sized for the cable you use. If you are not sure how to size it, that is a job for whoever wired the rest of your electrics.
Mounting
Starlink's Mini roof rack mount clamps to bars 12 to 48 mm thick and up to 88 mm wide, and it does not fit round bars. Check your crossbars with a tape measure before ordering. Mini accessories guide
A bracket on the rack keeps the dish clear of the roof fan and out of the shade of solar panels. Bring the cable in through a roof gland and run it down a pillar, well away from the sliding door track, where cables get pinched.
The Mini is rated IP67 only with the DC power cable and the Starlink plug fitted. With an ordinary Ethernet cable in the port, it is not. Mini spec sheet
Plan
In the US, Roam 100GB costs $55 a month, 300GB $80 and Unlimited $175, all checked on October 18, 2026. Roam 100GB and 300GB work across the US and Canada. Starlink Roam page
In-motion permission depends on country, plan and hardware. Specialized rules also restrict Costa Rica, Colombia and Spain; general help pages conflict. Confirm the exact authorization or use the dish parked. Starlink specialized in-motion rules
When the battery is the limit
A day of video calls is the hard case: the Mini sits near the top of its 25 to 40 W range for hours. The table shows what that does to a 100 Ah battery. If you work from the van, size the battery for heavy use and treat lighter days as a bonus.
Standby Mode is a plan setting for weeks off the road, not a power setting. To save energy day to day, switch the dish off between uses.