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    Australian CF-18 Mk2 Wireless Buttons

    Discussion in 'Panasonic' started by Yowie, Apr 27, 2009.

  1. Yowie

    Yowie Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hi All
    This is my first post i got my Aussie CF-18d yesterday very impressed. Charged the battery it informs me it will last 5.5hrs??? but we will see. I was wondering about the wireless power switch near the main power switch and the three lights with it ( Wireless, signal & message i think)? Are these wireless modem? Is there a spot for a SIM card for if there is i cannot find it? Sorry to bother you all so soon but i cannot find any info in the manuals or online?
    Regards
    Phil
     

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    Yowie, Apr 27, 2009
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  2. Rob

    Rob Toughbook Aficionado

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    Yowie! Welcome newb! :p.

    Yes that button is for the WWAN. It all depends on weather or not you have a GSM WWAN radio or a CDMA one. CDMA (Sprint, Verizon, Alltel) don't have SIM cards, so you would only find a SIM if it was GSM (ATT, Tmobile, vodafone, telephonica).

    What is your full model number?

    Thanks
     
    Rob, Apr 27, 2009
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  3. Yowie

    Yowie Notebook Enthusiast

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    Hi

    This is an Australian Version CF-18DHB22KA, the mobile card will be Telstra i think as the laptops are Ex-Telstra. Windows is not seeing the card to add a driver? So i cannot get any details on it. It shows up in the bios and the front buttons seem to work the envelope ( message ) light & Signal light flashes when the wireless in turned on even if the pc is off.

    Regards

    Phil
     
    Yowie, Apr 27, 2009
    #3
  4. capt.dogfish

    capt.dogfish The Curmudgeon

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    Yowie,
    Welcome to the forum. This subject has been just about beaten to death. In the US the standard MK2 drivers work on this machine. The lights on the left front are for the WWAN modem. Your WWAN modem is useless in the US so none of us over here have messed with it as far as I know. If you can find the driver for the card, sometimes called a "watcher" you can get the machine to see the card, but without a paid service it will not connect to anything.
    CAP
     
    capt.dogfish, Apr 28, 2009
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  5. sunrk

    sunrk Notebook Evangelist

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    I've got the internal wi-fi working just fine with my CF18 when I am at home and in proximity to my Dlink 3G + wifi router - the wifi hardware shows up as an Intel 2200 card in device manager.

    I don't know if the LED's on the front of the system are indicating what it's doing, or some other card. I've got no use for an in-built cellular device - mobile data telephony is so excruciatingly expensive that it's in the realm of people who can afford CrackBerry's (or get them paid for by their work). I'm yet to see a mobile phone with a 10" screen so mobile data telephony is actually properly usable... :cool:

    All but one of the recent CF18 listings on Ebay Australia has been for a mk-2 with 1.1 ghz processor. THere was a 1.25 ghz cf-18 listed recently but it looks to have either sold or been pulled. I've not yet seen any CF-19's showing up here on the Evil Bay.

    Craig.
     
    sunrk, Apr 28, 2009
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  6. Alex

    Alex Super Moderator

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    Your right Cap

    Beaten to death here , its been posted many times what those wireless controls on the front are for ,and you just need to search for cf-18 posts to figure it out , but I still see sellers advertising Toughbooks that are not equipped with wi-fi ,advertising cf-27 and cf-28 models as wireless ready (just need to load the drivers) lol

    Alex
     
    Alex, Apr 28, 2009
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  7. Toughbook

    Toughbook Drop and Give Me 20!

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    Yeah... Another con that is showing up more and more on ebay... The "**** Ready" syndrome.... The uninformed think that all they need is a driver to get it to work.... When in reality they need the part...


    Hmmm... Maybe I should sell mine "Ferrari Ready"... All you need is the car... AND the driver!
     
    Toughbook, Apr 28, 2009
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  8. coredump01

    coredump01 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Talking about the wireless buttons, does anybody have the technical specs (voltages, etc) of the two LED lines and the WWAN button on CN16? I've removed the WWAN PCB and installed a USB BT dongle in its place. Now I'm thinking about using the now useless WWAN button to enable/disable the BT dongle.
     
    coredump01, Apr 29, 2009
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  9. Doobi

    Doobi ToughBook DeityInTraining

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    Teo would know, and I think he has done that mod. Do a search on BT and look back about 6-9 months.
     
    Doobi, Apr 29, 2009
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