Acer 1410 1810t 1810tz add 3g hsdpa wwan mod

modded as1410 successfully!

Keep in mind that you have to
1. use correct sim holder
2. use flux in order to solder everything correctly
3. install the sim holder the mini pci interface and shortcut the jumper R174 (nothing else is required)
3b. Update BIOS
4. after installing 3g card (I suppose a sierra wireless) you won't be able to use 3g modem (win7 doesen't load drivers automatically) untill you load the 3g watcher (use the generic 3g watcher provided from sierra. I did't find a specific one for mc8770. I used the following http://www.sierrawireless.com/en/si...ftware/watcher/Build2258/Watcher_Generic.ashx )


I attached pics downloaded from chinese website

 

Most of the stuff was here by Friday. I tested the the 881U first, it came unlocked I installed Sierras generic watcher first plugged in the unit and watcher found it and set it up. Then I flashed it with the newest firmware then I had GPS option. The internet worked well with the sim from my cell. The GPS could not lock sitting in my window but did sitting in the car but took a while.

Next I took module out of the 881U. Opening up the PC was easy then I set the pcie socket in place and it moves a little when in place. I used magnification to slide it around till the pins lined up perfectly on the pads. Then using a magnifier on a stand I soldered the 2 end pieces that hold it still.( I used a regular pen type soldering iron with the cord. I DO NOT RECOMMEND IT! Next time I will have a cordless with a very fine tip!) Next I did the pins, I only did the pins on the side where the card plugs in because that's the side where all the USB functionality and power comes from.

Then I put the HD back in installed the card, put the covers back on screws in and flipped it back over, popped the top on without the keybd plugged in the ac power to give it test. Booted up and the card was not found. Then I remembered something about the power and looked back at bbgirls thread. Took the lid back off found the pins, I tried to get solder alone to run across the gap but it just piled up on the pads. I ended up using piece of wire out of an old audio cable from a cd drive and put a piece of tape on top for safety sake. Put the lid on booted up and BINGO. Then I shut down took the HD back out and the cover back off of the memory and wwan.

Then I proceeded to look up how to take apart the LCD panel. The service guide Acers website is mostly useless it lists one for a 1410 11.6 but the PC in the guide is totally different. Anyway once I got that apart I stuck on the antennas like on bbgirls photo. This is when the real fun started running the wirres was a real B***H I routed them going the same as ones for the WiFi. Once I got them into the bottom I put the top back together (MISTAKE). When I had them routed to the card the lead from the closest antenna was too long and the other too short! *%#@* SOOOO I take the top back apart run the lead from the far antenna through its closest hinge then put the top back together and fish the lead under the MB. now it's too long too. I ended up running the excess all around the sides of the memory and card.

I still haven't gotten the sim slot yet. But I put it all back together and boot it up. It all came up ok, but of coarse it said no sim inserted. Then I tried the GPS first I put it in the window no joy, took it into the car on the dash no and still no GPS lock. SOOO back to Google and after many hours of searching and reading I read where someone cut the shielding out around the antennas. OK the LCD comes BACK apart cut the shielding out from behind the antennas. I tried to get a lock with the LCD panel open at the house window but nothing, my handheld GPS will lock here. SO I put it all back together take it out to the car and try still no lock. So now I'm thinking the antennas are no good for GPS or you need the sim in for it to work. Well after many hours with google and reading in forums that the sim does not need to be in for the gps to work but the raido does need to be on.

SO for most of yesterday I was googleing about WWAN/GPS antennas and didn't learn much, they seem to be 2 totally different animals. I couldn't find ant recommendation from sierra. The ones I see that I might be able to get behind the LCD are 2mm thick square ceramic patch antennas with the U.FL connectors. If anyone can shed some light on my antenna woes I would be grateful.

Next I'm gonna pm bbgirl and join laptopgps.com forum and see what I find out. BTW does anyone know the screw thread pitch for the little stand off that holds the card down? Right now I just got it setting in there, but cover and antenna wires seem to hold it ok till I get the proper screw.

Oh I also have a spare Mini pcie slot 4mm if anyone wants it they can have it or maybe trade one of them little screws for it, cause I doubt they will have one at the HW store.

Oh one more thing Watcher software the GPS monitor sometimes ends with session failure sometimes with session complete but never gets a fix. Will post more more when I know more or get the sim holder and put it on.

OH also the WiFi/wann button it is meant to go both ways. I cut the long side off and it toggles wifi and G3 off and on but I don't think it actually cut power to them it just disables them I think because when I turn them off off I don't get the sound windows makes when you unplug a usb device and if I start watcher with the device supposedly disabled the device will initialize. If launcher is running and I toggle either way it flashes up a thing with wifi or g3 off or on. The pic with lcd screen off and the antennas seems to have another antenna at the bottom HMMMM.

 

As I said in my previous post, I wasn't able to find sierra specific software for mc8770 and used generic software, but I'm still looking for it's firmware. Is there any hidden section in sierra's website I missed?

 

If you know or can find out what aircard or usb product they were used in you could find it und support/downloads on their site. It was the generic watcher listed with my card though.

 

Do you really expect people to read this? Please consider formatting your one 10,000-word paragraph...

 

I was just relating my experience with the upgrade. The information is there for anyone who can make use of it. I dont know how to reformat it. If an admin can he has my blessing.

 

Click Edit and then use your Enter key.
My eyes get lost after a few sentences.
Thanks.

 

OK I posted this question some time ago in its own thread but did not have much luck. I am sure someone else will have this knowledge.

I have a 1810TZ which came with the Huawei EM770W wwan module. There seems to be conflicting info on this card. On ebay and elsewhere people are listing it as having GPS and indeed when I install the software from the Acer site it does list a GPS device on com port 6 however I tried various different GPS software packages and none of them seem to see any GPS device on com 6.
So my two questions are. Does this card have integrated GPS or not? and if it does how can you use it?

Please help.

 

have you checked com 6 is configured the same way the gps program is expecting it?

 

Sigh, I'm also part of that thread After scouring the Net though, I have not managed to find any "generic" drivers + utility (application package) for the card...

Patrick, with the default Acer application (actually Huawei's application with an ACER badge... ), there is no way to turn the "GPS Radio" on. My Dell also has a WWAN card with GPS and the GPS and WWAN "radios" seem to be independantly controlled... :-/

The actual "program" I would like to use with the card is simly Google Earth, which can "detect" GPS data by "listening" to the appropriate port - but this of course depends on being able to turn the GPS radio on in the first place...

 

actually, and I may be completely wrong, I didn't mean a program for activating radio.. I meant the settings about the com port.

I work in a local computer store, selling and repairing computers, and there's quite a few people who have come in with a Serial port GPS not beeing recognised by the computer.. most times, it simply was that the gps settings for connecting were different than the com port settings: the device and the computer com both must have the same baud rate config, stop bits, parity etc..

Maybe you've already checked that and I'm one step behind.

 

Can you give some suggestions on what settings are common? FIFO off I am guessing and maybe 9600baud but those are only guesses.
I questioned once of the guys on ebay who says it has GPS and he replied that one person he sold one two told him it had GPS.
I have sent two queries to Hauwei but they don't seem to be interested in replying. Frustrating.

 

You cannot adjust port settings for the GPS "device"; only for the
3G (HSDPA) device...

 

It's all done and working. I can connect but the signal is poor. Still no GPS lock. My next step is to look into antenna solutions for both GPS and wwan. Also I am having trouble with the GPS part of watcher software. I can't open the settings in GPS Monitor. The error says "Unsupported operation attempted." and when I click OK it says "an invalid argument was encountered." I think these errors have to with the dll files from what I'm finding. But I'm clueless.

 

for the EM770W.. the huawei website doesn't list anything about GPS

http://www.huaweidevice.com/worldwide/productFeatures.do?pinfoId=2271&directoryId=2041&treeId=41

So I'd rather think that the EM770W doesn't have GPS. The EM770U should have gps, though:

http://www.huaweidevice.com/worldwide/productFeatures.do?pinfoId=2453&directoryId=3861&treeId=2878

 

Yes, I see what you mean... . The reason we think (thought) that the 770W has GPS functionality is because the drivers for it "produced" a GPS device... . Of course the "device" is not necessairly an actual physical piece of HW... :-/

In any case, I guess if either one of us 1810TZ-WWAN edition owners really insist on GPS, then we can buy that other card you listed. I don't think the price will be that bad... so thanks for the link

 

Did your WWAN card come with the 531? If so it's already got GPS built in you just have to enable it, details are on my blog mostly from December. Also you'll be hard pressed to find a better lineup of information on the Gobi 1000 UNDP-1 modules Acer (And HP, Dell, Panasonic, Lenovo, Sony, Toshiba and Motion Computing) used for the 531's

http://netbook2chartplotter.blogspot.com

 

Hey everyone!

So is there any detailed instruction how to install the 3g module in 1410?

I still cannot understand something:

1) Is it possible to install pci express mini 3g modem in the socket which is located near the wifi and RAM modules?

2) Do I need to solder the SIM card holder and what is the exact place for this?

3) Some dealers at the ebay supply their 3g modules with the short antennas ( http://cgi.ebay.com/Mini-PCI-Express-Card-module-with-3G-HSDPA-EDGE-GTM378_W0QQitemZ180481830750QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_2?hash=item2a058e2f5e) - will such antenna enough for stable work of 3g?

Thank you.

 

I got the disassembly instructions from a set of bluetooth installation instructions I think. To install the module you first have to install the Mini-pcie socket. But it's not as hard as you might think.

1. If you looked at the wifi module the place to solder the socket is right there the 2 sockets back up to each other. The pads are already pre-soldered. You lay the socket in place, there is an anchor pad on each end. You solder those on first to hold it still then you touch the iron to the pins and it melts and flows onto them. You only have to solder the pins on the side that the module slips into.But I recommend finding a very fine tipped cordless iron.

2. You do need to solder the sim holder on. If you take off the kybd then remove the screws under that, that hold the top cover on. Then you flip it over and take out all the screws on the bottom. Then turn it back over and you can carefully pop the top of the case off and you can see where the sim card holder goes. The hardest part if making sure you get the right sim holder.

You also have to solder a jumper between 2 pads as mentioned earlier in the thred. You do need magnification to do the soldering too.


3. No I don't think the supplied antenna is suitable. I think the better solution would be one of these antennas.

http://www.taoglas.com/antennas/Cellular-GSM/Internal_Flexible_PCB_antennas_-_FXP_Series/

With addition of a longer cable and mounted behind the LCD panel.
Im still working on getting the proper antennas. The ones I installed were for wifi and of the wrong frequency and not working to well. Another Idea I saw Mounting a connector for an external connector in the spot where the kensington sits now.

 

Thank you for the lmorrison17!

I will check how it is going with the sim card holder. How does it connect to the motherboard?

Can you show what the pins to be soldered exactly? Here is the picture - http://i.imgur.com/B5b1p.jpg

And I have one more question - if i need to solder something - does it mean that I cannot use other pci express devices without soldering as well?

 

Here Is the sim socket I used.

http://cgi.ebay.com/SIM-Slot-Socket...Components_InterfaceCards?hash=item4a9ea3ed7d

When you take off the top of the case to solder the jumper you will see where it goes. I this only has 10 pins I soldered them all.
If you take out the battery you can see where the sim is supposed to plug in.

From your pic the sim holder goes on the other side of the MOBO.

Here is a solderless sim solution.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Laptop-WWAN-Mod...uting_CablesConnectors_RL?hash=item35a7ccc535

When you solder the mini pcie socket only the usb lines are functional on the mobo. You only have to solder those pins and pins for power and ground.

Google mini pcie pinout to find out what pins these are.
If you back up a page or 2 I typed up a more detailed description.

 

Thank you very much for expalantion lmorrison17, however it is too difficult for me. I mean I still cannot understand what pins and how they to be soldered - i need the step-by-step explanation with pictures for dummies

I will wait the bluetooth module and use the phone as 3g modem.

 

Hi! does anyone knows where to buy a good combo 3G/GPS antenna for this mod? possibly in Europe or USA/Canada...

This one seems very good (watching tech data) and as Dython said he is using it and it's working well !

Taoglas FXP14 WITH GPS FXP14.07.0100A GPS

the last one on this page
http://www.taoglas.com/antennas/Cellular-GSM/Internal_Flexible_PCB_antennas_-_FXP_Series/


Another one will be fine too....

 

That is the same one I Ordered. I have 2 connected for diversity. Cell reception is better. But either they sent me the non Gps model or the Gps part doesn't work too good. Because I have not been able to get a Gps lock at all. I ended up buying a bluetooth Gps and it works well.

 

Anyone managed to get the GPS working?

 

@lmorrison17
I talked with a representative of taoglas (the maker of the that combo GPS/3G anntenna).

That antenna works well only for A-GPS, for stand-alone GPS the only good antenna is the patch/ceramic one (the one found only on a stand-alone GPS device).

So A-GPS needs 3G to work. Have you tried to get the GPS fix when you are connected to a 3G network ?
As A-GPS needs the assistance of a 3G network, like a cell phone with GPS does

 

Anyone have equivalent directions / walk-through for installing a CDMA EVDO Rev-A radio?

 

Yes I have but not with a full set of bars. Also I can not access the settings for the gps watcher software. I get an unsupported operation error when I click the settings button. So my problem maybe there. Requesting help from Sierra was fruitless.

 

hello can put the WWAN module thus
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/USIM-SIM-Card-Reader-Expansion-Pack-3G-HSPA-WWAN-Module-/200449878675

 

That ebay sale is only for the sim adapter. You still need the module. If your model already has the mini pci-e slot buy the sim adapter and a suitable module and your good to go. If you have to solder in a mini pci-e slot you might as get the sim slot that solders in too. In my opinion it's a cleaner more professional method. O and dont forget the antennas that was the hardest thing for me.

 

how do you know if we have the mini pci-e module or not?

 

The module is the 3G modem. If your machine was 3G enabled You would know it was there.

 

@zoilo

As lmorrison17 said that's only the sim holder. Look carefully if there's enough room to fit that sim pack in the case. I have an 1810tz and that will not fit in the case. It adds too much thickness over the 3G module and the lid won't close.

 

hey guys what about 4g modem is that possible??

 

It depends, it needs to be of half height mini-pcie type module.