Upgrade Starlink Gen2 to Gen3

Reading time 8 minutes

Updated - October 12, 2025

When upgrading, the most obvious visual difference between the Starlink Gen2 (V2) and Gen3 (V4) variants is the 73 cm² larger antenna surface of the Gen3.

Technically, the Gen3 has a more stable connection and a higher data speed, but this also results in a 25 W higher power consumption.
Nevertheless, the technical data prove to be quite generous in this respect, because 30 ... 32 W average consumption (27 .. 37 W) is a far cry from the stated 75 ... 100 W. However, if you switch on the heating, you can add around 52 W and arrive at 79 ... 82 W, i.e. within the specified power requirement range.
Whether WLAN is activated or running in bypass mode, consumption hardly changes.

Mechanically, the antenna is designed for wind speeds of up to 100 km/h, previously up to 80 km/h. In practice, the Gen2 has withstood speeds of up to 100 km/h without any problems.

DC and AC supply

For motorhome owners and use on boats, the Gen3's original direct voltage supply with a choice of 12 ... 30 V or 57 V direct voltage (DC) is very convenient for the user. However, the router and antenna only work from 48 V, the typical POE supply voltage, which can be realized via a DCDC converter 12 V to 48 V DC.
Why the supply voltage is declared as 12 ... 30 V DC remains unclear.
With the Gen2, you had to enter the Bag of tricks if you wanted to operate the antenna with POE and the 48 V commonly used for this, unless you had 230 V alternating current (AC).

Antenna positioning

While the Gen2, thanks to its motorized positioning, was able to find its own targets in the sky and thus optimally align them, the Gen3, lacking this option, must either make do with the given position or manage the beam shaping via the aperture angle of 110° instead of the previous 100°. This means that the new Gen3 antenna may have to be mounted a little higher than the old Gen2.

Stationary use

If you operate the Gen3 stationary, it is therefore worth testing the ideal direction using the ping successes and times.

In general, especially in areas with trees, the height of the trees should not be underestimated and the antenna should be erected as high as possible.
Whether the treetops ultimately lead to a "covered" antenna and corresponding red markings on the interference graphic will become apparent after about an hour of operation.

Use while driving

Anyone using the travel tariff will definitely achieve better results with the Gen3, despite the lack of optimal alignment, due to the better technical antenna characteristics.

Scope of delivery

The package comes with the antenna, the router and the power supply unit. The antenna cable is a generous 15 m long and has a standard CAT connector on both ends. The power supply unit has a standardized DC plug 5.5 x 2.1 mm on the DC side and the mains cable measures 1.5 m.
If you do not want to use a 230 V power supply unit and have a DC supply with 12 - 30 V (usually 12 or 24 V), you can quickly provide the operating voltage with an appropriately equipped cable.

cabling

The antenna and DC connection are marked on the router, while two RJ45 LAN sockets are hidden under a rubber cover. Remove the cover and the LAN sockets are accessible. It does not matter which of the two connections is connected to your own router.

Deactivate WLAN

The Starlink router's Wi-Fi can be switched off via the app settings by activating bypass mode. To reactivate the Wi-Fi, it must be reset to the factory settings.

Starlink app

The Starlink app provides the following information about the status of the satellite and Internet connection:

statistics

All values are cumulated over a measurement interval of 15 minutes.

Malfunctions

Reception interference such as obscured satellites or satellite searches are listed here and the duration is displayed in seconds. 0.00 seconds is quite realistic in the ideal case, although a few minutes of downtime is also possible. Careful alignment, including the antenna height, pays off here.

Ping success

The ping success indicates the percentage of a sent ping that received a response. Values of 100% are actually practically achievable.

latency

The latency is the time that elapses between a request and the arrival of the response and should be less than 50 ms.

Power consumption

The average power consumption of the antenna and router is displayed here in watts. When the antenna heating is switched on when the snow is melting, this can reach around 100 W, while the usual consumption is around 70 W.

Throughput

Depending on surfing behavior, download and upload speeds are determined in MBit/s. Similarly, the app offers a speed test that also displays the latency.

network

Devices

Devices connected to the Starlink router are listed here.

Access points

The Starlink router is listed under this menu item, as well as the option to set up a mesh network.

Malfunctions

Once Starlink has been launched, the antenna collects data on satellite accessibility over a period of around one hour in order to register and display obstacles.

A graphic showing the dome-shaped spherical segment covered by the antenna provides more detailed information over time.

No colored areas are visible after initial setup. The antenna registers the satellite reception signals and knows the paths they take. As long as it can see the satellites, a blue pixel is set. As soon as the satellite should be there but is obscured by an obstacle, a red pixel is set.

Within an hour or so, the picture is completed and any obstacles have become clearly visible.

Alignment

The position of the Starlink antenna is shown here on a wind rose. If the alignment is correct, the antenna is graphically located within a sketched frame.

If the orientation is incorrect, the direction of rotation is displayed, supplemented by a degree indication, which is misleading, however, since a rotation of physically about 34° corresponds to a "measured" rotation of about 6° ...

Speed test

The data throughput for download and upload in MBit/s and the ping time in ms are displayed.

Under the menu item Extended speed tests can be carried out separately between the end device and router and between the end device and the Internet.

Settings

Melting snow

There are three possible operating modes to choose from:

• Out of
• Automatic
• Preheating

In snow-free seasons, the OFF option can be selected to reliably prevent increased power consumption.

If snow is expected, the automatic system automatically detects snowfall and activates the antenna heating as long as it is snowing to maintain a clear view.

In the event of freezing rain, the preheating mode can be used, which also prevents freezing rain and quickly thaws the fallen snow in the event of snowfall.

Software updates

Starlink downloads and installs updates automatically. Four different times can be preset here at six-hour intervals from 3 a.m. so that users are not inconvenienced by restarts during their working hours.

Inclination (Gen2 only)

The inclination of the Gen2 antenna could be switched between horizontal and inclined. The horizontal position was a compromise between wind resistance and reception quality.

The Gen3 antenna does not offer this adjustment option due to the lack of a motorized drive.

Reset fault map

This option allows you to delete the fault map. If changes have been made to the antenna positioning, the interference map should be reset and deleted in order to obtain an up-to-date overview of where interference is still present. In this way, the optimum position can be determined step by step.

Stow Starlink (Gen2 only)

Stowing away seems a little funny, because the antenna only moves into an approximately vertical position, namely the one suitable for packing in the original packaging on delivery.

Restart Starlink

In the event of seemingly unsolvable connection problems, but also if access to a website is denied due to IP conflicts, a restart will help. Each restart also results in a new IP assignment, among other things.

Reset to factory settings

While people are generally quick to press the "reset button" panacea, they should have tried all other troubleshooting options first.

Resetting seems to do more than simply restore the factory settings, as it seems somewhat strange that frequent resetting can result in permanent hardware damage.

Support

Under this menu item you will find a compilation of many topics in FAQ style, such as

• Billing
• order
• Setup & Installation
• Troubleshooting
• Account
• Service plans
• Specifications & configuration

as well as a link to Starlink support, which is very customer-oriented and efficient once you have reached a real, human employee instead of the unhelpful bot.

Assembly

The antenna is supplied with a hinged, interchangeable base. If you want to mount the antenna permanently, you need a corresponding aluminum mast bracket, which is exchanged for the hinged version.

The standard mounted stand is removed by (forcefully) "bending up" the lower, thinner holding part, which releases two catches from the antenna housing and allows the stand to be pulled out.

The aluminum mast bracket is inserted into the antenna bracket and pushed forward until it clicks into place.

With a diameter of 68 mm, I feel that the mast mount is a little too large. If you can also fix a "thinner" mast of e.g. 42 mm with the two Allen screws, I would prefer an all-round force-fit connection.

A 2.5″ PVC fitting / pipe coupling, fitted with two layers of heat-shrink tubing, results in a perfectly fitting pipe adapter on a 42 mm aluminum pipe.
Note: the PVC screw connection is slightly raised at one point. As the Starlink holder has a recess that accommodates this raised area, this is not a problem and you can easily remove the inserted adapter at any time.

The two threaded holes in the Starlink antenna holder are transferred to the tube adapter manufactured in this way. Drill out to 8 mm on one side at the markings so that the two screws can reach the inserted aluminum tube and prevent it from slipping out.

As the inside diameter of the PVC fitting on the female threaded part corresponds to the required pipe diameter, but is larger on the opposite side, the diameter of the pipe end must be adjusted over the depth of the larger hole using shrink tubing until a force-fit connection is achieved.

The adapter is then pushed over the pipe from below until it reaches over the end of the pipe, which has been enlarged in diameter with shrink tubing, and seals the pipe.

Before final assembly, the two holes in the PVC "adapter" are transferred to the aluminum pipe and 8 mm holes are also drilled there so that the screws can pass through this one wall of the pipe and clamp the pipe on the opposite inside.

Whether you sharpen the screw threads at the front to have a better fixing effect on the tube side is up to you.

After tightening the two screws (TX-V2A screws were used here, which are about 10 mm longer than the galvanized screws supplied), the mast can be erected, secured and put into operation.

Assembly Gen2 - Fallback

The Gen2 has now moved back to its old home base after it was unable to achieve a permanently perfect satellite connection at the rear of the vehicle due to the "obstacles" at the top of the trees.
The Gen2 can also remain in this position while driving, while the mast of the Gen3 must be removed before driving. However, as this only involves loosening an Allen screw and unplugging the network cable from the antenna, it is not a big deal.

This also provides a nice comparison of the sizes.

Practical experience with Gen3

The setup is simple with regard to the cable connections. However, the orientation of the antenna according to the app is slightly confusing: If the antenna is "34° misaligned" according to the app, you have to rotate it by around 130°. However, the direction shown is correct.
Turning by 34° in the specified direction resulted in the message that the antenna was now misaligned by "28°". So then: one (approx.) 34° rotation corresponds to 6° effective rotation ...

If the alignment is correct, you will not only be rewarded with significantly better data rates, but also shorter ping times, such as visual confirmation that the alignment of the antenna is now "in line".

In comparison, a speed test with the Gen2 at the same location: