CF-45 questions

hello, I am new here and I found this place looking for info on a CF-45. I have this model with 333mhz, 4gig hdd, running ubuntu warty, and I am looking to do some mods to it. I was wondering what kind of mods can make it better. I am fairly good with a soldering iron and have a pretty decent understanding of electronics. If someone could point me in the direction of some mods that I can do to make this better, or just to a diagram that tells me where everything on the mobo is, it would be appreciated.

 

Hello, and welcome to the forums! Great to have you here! First off to help you better it would be great if we had the full model of your Toughbook (CF-45XXXXXXX), that can be found on the bottom on a sticker or in the main BIOS screen by hitting F2 right as you turn the machine on.

Thanks

 

oh sorry, here is the full range of numbers on the bottom

CF-45FJ48JAM
9IKSA02321

thanks for any help you can provide

 

anybody? anything?

 

dman,
Welcome to the forum. Don't worry, we are not being rude, I just don't remember much discussion of your model, about which I know nothing, on the forum. If you have a specific question about a problem, post it up and I'm sure the Panasonic techs who are members here will get you straightened out in short order.
Cap

 

I haven't forgot about ya either, just was working late last night and was pretty busy... I'll try to come up with some answers today

 

Thanks folks

The main thing I need to know right away is about usb ports. The cf-45 comes equipped with one usb port, but I know there can be more. I am planning on modding the crap out of this thing so if you can come up with anything I would appreciate it very much and will post my progress here. The first thing I plan on doing is putting a usb hub where the fdd used to be. To do that I need at least 2 usb ports and I am having trouble finding where another one may be. I have a service manual and I have some Ideas, but I am not sure. Can the usb connections on the port replicator be used as another port?

 

Well I looked at some stuff. The problem I'm having is finding any information on this unit because it is so **** old. I have used this model once (my brothers father has one), and it's a pile of poop... Honestly if you wanna mod I would consider picking up a CF-28 because you can get those for less than $400 (even $300 maybe) and you can easily mod them. the 1GHz model in specific is an excellent machine. You might wanna post a WTB (want to buy) ad in the B/S/T forum, as I'm sure some of our fellow members have CF-28's to sell. Also check ebay. If you are feeling lucky and wanna mod even more consider trying to get your hands on a Mark 4 or later CF-29, with that you might spend in upwards of $1000 however.

Good luck!

 

Yeah I know its old, and slow and low powered but I only paid $40 for it and I can tinker all I want without feeling bad should I fry it. I have found out a couple of things for anyone who has a cf-45 they want to work on. I have a service manual and have been tracking wiring diagrams all afternoon. I have found that the southbridge chip has two usb ports coming out of it, I tracked them and one goes to the main usb and the other goes to the port replicator. using that info I should be able to install a five port usb hub and solder the wiring to those spots and have full functionality. After that I am going to pick up a cheap wireless dongle and use up one of the usb hubs ports to hardwire the dongle into the chassis. I haven't figured out what I plan on doing to it after that, but, I do plan on making the system better. The cf-45 has a set of dip switches that can control the clock speed and I may look at seeing if it is possible to overclock it. Really I am modding this piece of poop mainly for the hell of modding it (compulsive tinkerer).

 

Do you have a mini-pci slot available?
If you do, a fun mod is to build-in 802.11 wi-fi.
I added 802.11 on a cf-72 and a cf-m34 using the mini-pci slot.
Finding a suitable spot for the antenna will challenge your creativity.


Alex

 

The best I can tell is that there is no mini pci slot, thats why I am going with a wireless dongle on the usb hub idea.

 

If you wouldn't mind emailing it to me ([email protected]), that way I can share it with the world on my server.

amen to that!!

 

my only request is that you put the service manual out for free. Something this old there is no reason why people can't have a manual for it as most people will have to do their own work on them.

 

I'm not selling anything... its all for public use (especially/mostly for all the other board members here) the link is in my signature.

 

Oh cool, no prob then I will email it to you when I get home from work tonight.

 

On second thought I found one... as a matter of fact I found alot of manuals... I got it already now.

Thanks