External Antenna Hack

I normally don't double post... I put it in the wireless forum but think everyone here should be able to see it too. When I joined here... Nobody was on the CF-28 kick except me. Nobody had posted for months in the Panny forum. (About CF-28s anyway) I figured you guys might want to do this if you get a mini-pci wifi card. By the way... The 7dB antenna is shown here... The 9dB antenna I use now is about half as short... Or even sorter with the 2db antenna,

One of the problems with the early Toughbooks is their lack of WiFi. One would think that this could be easily remedied by adding a mini-pci WiFi card. That is partially true. The main problem you encounter though is the fact that these things are encased in magnesium! You have to be able to access the signal! The little internal antennas do well if you are close to your access point. But what if you are hundreds of feet away? Or if you are War Driving? You add an external antenna!



I stopped by Radio Shack tonight and bought a D-Link 7dB booster antenna. It allows several configurations but I wanted to attach it straight to the laptop. It works VERY well... Here's a close-up of the antenna connection... You can also use a little 2db antenna or 5db antenna. I think the power of the card has more to do with it more than the length of the antenna. Using a 400mw card... I only see 3 more access points when using my 7db antenna over my 2db antenna.



It was important to me that the SMA connector not stick out too much... So I shimmed the back with washers and allowed only enough to stick out to ensure a good connection! This was the first antenna hack using the side mount type. I now use a very thick rubber "O"ring. This not only spaces it perfectly but also makes it comepletely waterproof. Though I'd bet money that the shimmed version was too.



It was VERY easy to do... For those of you that have CF-28s out there! Just open up the back... Take out the hard drive... Take out the battery... Drill a 1/4" hole in the side of the case and wire it up. The two red circles show where the attachment points are. I used a 19" pigtail because that was all I had at the time. A 12" fits perfectly if using the side shown. If you have GPS you can still add one on the side of the LAN... In that case a 4" pigtail works well.



I figured while I wait for the parts to come in to install my next hack on this (STAY TUNED) I would put this in. I was tired of hooking up my PCMCIA card and attaching the MC connector to my other antenna. Now I don't have to worry. For those of you wondering... The antenna doesn't get in the way when you type. On a few occasions you may need to slightly push the antenna over a little but otherwise... You're golden!

Just drill the hole, insert the SMA pigtail and tighten it down! I use blue threadlocker to make sure it stays tight! The last thing you want is the connection twirling around and breaking the cable. (Ask me how I know!)



Then work it over to the other side and attach it to the WiFi mini-pci card! (I'm saving the other connecion for my next antenna.)



Then just tuck and tape...

I used the Atheros 100mw A/B/G mini-pci card and it works great! (For the first one... I now use either a 400mw or 600mw card.) Net Stumbler pulls in 19 access points while my PCMCIA card alone only pulls in 5! (I'm sitting at my kitchen table now.) I'm sure if I stepped out on my deck the number would jump even higher! (I get 22-24 when on my deck... Some from almost two blocks away!

This is an EASY first hack for a new Toughbook owner!

So... Get to adding WiFi to your CF-28!!! ... Or ANY laptop for that matter!

 

That looks great!
I thought abaut an external antenna, too. I put in a w-lan with two internal antennas. I wanted get rid of one of them and connect one antenna jack with an external connector, like you did. Than I can use the internal antenna but have the possibility to put an external, when the signal is weak.

By the way, I installed the internal antennas under the plasitc covers (where you build in the antenna connector, one on the left, one on the right).

Is your other pci card for (cable)lan? Did you put the w-lan instead of the modem?

 

Toughbook Is Simply A Genius

 

The other card is a LAN card that came with it...

 

toughbook.............
i have 2 mini pci cards under the battery which one do i remove one is a pulse h0011 (not sure what that is)
and the other is the modem......

 

To be sure... Trace the wires from the connectors. Mine was the mini-pci card to the right with the modem closest to the connectors.

 

well where ur modem is thats where my one is, but in the other slot where you have inserted the wifi card, i have a pci card in there which i dont no what it is doing, it has a plug connector and the wires are going too the motherboard i think???
did ur have another pci card init apart from the modem when you got it????? or was it empty???
am thinking maybe its got something to do with the gps??????

 

Got a picture of that? Sounds interesting, but nothing I have recalled seeing.

 

ok will take a picture today and upload later..........

 

1 of the mini pci cards under the battery should be GPS DJACID. tho dont quote me on that lol

Lan, modem and wifi are like Toughbook said are under the HDD caddy.

 

well am hoping its not caus i really need the lan card in there as i can use this at work,
well i dont take it too work all the time but when i dont have much on then i take it in.......

 

DJ... You can check but I think the entire GPS assembly fits under the battery. (Maybe one of the guys that has GPS can chime in to clarify) Look at the pictures I posted. Where I show my coil of wire and black tape is where the GPS (or CDMA for that matter) goes. I don't think they also take up a pci slot. The ones selling on ebay don't show a pci card either.

My LAN has a wire on it that looks like it takes off to the Mobo but actually doubles back to the ethernet connector on the side.

 

i will have to study it abit more,
you are right about the gps it is situated under the battery,
but apart from that the only difference bettween ur picture and my one is where you have the wifi card i have a pci card in there which i dont know what the heck it is????

as i dont have a charger, i opened it uptoday, by opening i mean just the caddy and replaced the hard drive with the one i bought, also my mate from work gave me this toshiba laptop a little while ago said it stopped working and as she was chucking it away, i took it off her, today i opened that up and by chance it had a 128mb sdram so put that into my toughbook,
also just going to pop out now have to go buy some Contact Adhesive to lay some new carpet in my camper, but also will charge the toughbook with the car charger and then test it out too see what it is....
want me to email you the picture of the bottom, that way you can upload it onto the forum from ur site.....
cheers

 

Sure... Email it to me... I'll post it.

 

email sent.............

 

So, toughbook, semi back on the original topic, What do you think of the Ubiquiti Mini-PCI wireless cards? They have a 600mW transmit power (The XR2 cards do anyways, some of their other cards may be more or less but do different frequencies). Would it be a bad idea to attach that to an external antenna?

 

Not if you use the SMA to U.fl pigtail that you can buy on ebay. They are about $15 if I recall correctly. If you do something mickey-mouse with the wrong size antenna or a bunch of splices it may burn out the card.

Get yourself a nice 9dB antenna and use the pigtail... You'll get wifi from the moon!

 

Sounds good then. My current card has the same chipset, but not the transmit power, so I might have to ditch this card (Or throw it in the one I'm selling) to do all that.

 

i check the pci card today wandering what it was and yep its too do with the gps, soon as it came out the gps stop also my lan wasnt showing up as well........

 

what do you think of this????????/
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...Track=true&ssPageName=VIP:watchlink:middle:us

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

also this one?????????
http://cgi.ebay.com/27dBm-500mW-802-...QQcmdZViewItem

 

this guy has lost the plot........
http://cgi.ebay.com/20Gig-Hard-driv...oryZ3666QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem

 

Wow, no kidding. I've still got an original 20GB toughbook drive up on my shelf... I could be rich!

As for those antennas, the second link didn't work, and the first one, I don't trust stuff coming direct from Hong Kong... I really dislike chinese made products anyways, but direct always seems to have even lower quality.

 

How far away is the signal you are trying to get??? You need a 18dB antenna??? There is also a USB LAN included with the top one. (Link doesn't work for me on the bottom one.) What kind of antenna are you making? It would seem that you are losing portability with that one... Just my .02

 

same here, not working, and now cant even find that seller,
i looked into internal cards for the cf-28 and have a list of ones that were compatible but the prices are sky high for a really good wifi card......
also you can get some for like $30 which will be compatible but there isnt enough power on them..........

 

Toughbook, those large antennas are for War-driving (Scanning for open wireless networks).

And I'm still drooling over these puppies (And would like to get one in a few paychecks).

 

I know about war-driving believe me... I've been doing it for years.. Since Net-stumbler came out. That's part of the reason I wanted an external hook-up for my antenna!

That looks like a hi-po wifi card! I wonder how much more of a power draw it would be? I would imagine it would suck the power out of your batteries.

 

Not sure, but I think I'll need the second battery thing you've got if I install it

However, it is based on the Atheros 5006, which is a usually extremely low power consuming chip, so maybe it's not too bad.

Good to know there are more war-drivers out there!

I think in addition to getting a new antenna and card, I need to get a Buffalo router, and throw a 9dB antenna on that. My old 11b router is not letting me access info while I'm out working on my car.

 

I have never heard the term war-driving before getting my mini-card.....
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=230150095509&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=013
And still learning about it lol

Tho I did get a CD which has some programs on it, which is Linux based. just have to learn about the software and Linux now lol. And get a longer u.Fl to RP-SMA cable for the external antenna hack.

 

toughbook...... theres a seller selling the ariel of a cf-28 with everything is it worth me buying and using that as my antenna.....

 

I get a very low signal on mine. (Using the RIM antenna designed for cell use.) I definitely wouldn't do it with a card over 100mw power as you may burn out the card because of the impedance mismatch. (The antenna is too long!) If there is a wifi antenna for sale then you might want to try it out. I've only seen a few of those though. They are rare! And I think I'd still stay with a 100mw card.

If I sell this one or build another... I may go with the 300mw card someone posted here and the 9dB external antenna.

 

cool,
ok last thing he said make me a offer on it!!!
what are these worth???????

 

Can you post a link so I can see it?

 

no link its the toughbook seller i normaly buy my stuff off, i was asking him about a secound hand charger and by chance ask him if he had any areials lying around, he said
"ive got the still got the all the whole set with the module & ariel
not sure what the item for pal it came out of 1ghz CF-28 from the US am open to offer really"

havennt seen a picture yet of it but from the first email he sent he said it looks really good no damages what so ever........

 

Ask him if it is for Wifi or RIM Cellular. If it's a RIM antenna... I wouldn't waste the money. (Ask me how I know!)

 

how do you know??????

i think it is for rim cellular.....


i mange to get that bigupload to work!!!!

 

The RIM antenna is 7 1/2 inches long (85mm?) The Wifi type would be about half of that size. Just ask him how long the antenna is...

 

ok will ask him now!!!!!

if it is the RIM antenna what wifi card can i use with it.......

also he said he has a antenna of a cf-18 as well whats the difference with them will the cf-18 antenna fit on my cf-28, caus now you made me thinking about the antenna and cf-18 did come out with wifi so will that be better......

 

If it is the RIM antenna you will need to stay with the 100mw card max power. You still won't get that great of a signal. Then you will need the antenna, the plastic piece it's housed in (that it screws into) and the little piece that screws into the back of the laptop... Where the RIM antenna meets the wiring that goes to the CDMA. (For the best installation.) Then you will need to very carefully solder a U.fl pigtail to the little piece, checking with an ohm meter that you have the right solder points. (It's fairly obvious though.) Then your antenna lead snaps into the piece that screws into the back and the pigtail is soldered to that and is snapped onto the wifi card.

You could try to use the CF-18 antenna if you are sure it's Wifi. I have a cell phone antenna that was more the proper length that I tried (same threads) and I still didn't pick up any better signal.

Your best bet overall is going with the external antenna mod I posted. It will give you a massive signal even with the 100mw card and will allow you to go up from there if you want to the 300mw card.

My Toughbook with the external antenna mod picks up almost 3 times the amount of signal as my Dell Inspiron! Maybe even closer to 4 times the signal... And that's with the 100mw card!

 

COOL,

am sold, you have any for sale.........:tongue:

 

Nope... That is why I bought the 2nd CF-28 for parts. I made sure it had the RIM antenna. I'm glad I did... I needed the motherboard out of it after I screwed up the keyboard connector. By the way... A fresh install didn't fix my Fn issues. I don't think the hotkey manager controls that function... But I'll check.

 

OK, finally got of my ass and did the mod, here are a few pic's. ( Mainly as my WoW sever is down for 2 days lol )

Justs need a longer U.FL to RS-SMA line now to connect it up,and then along the same lines as the original antenna lines go. As I only got a 12" long tail with the Wifi kit and need at lest a 22" to 24 inch long tail to hock it all up.
As for the other matter of how to have it recede, it will be a lot harder as there is not very much space in there....... To the point that the side of the antenna base touches the top of the case. As soon as I have a antenna I can set the hight of the base, as I'm hoping to be able to set it lower then it is now.

Now to just mod the original rubber cover for it so I can put it back on when I'm not using the antenna. And when I put the long tail antenna in there, just need to put a little bit of sealant on it and all done

On a side note, I do think that you could have the base receded in there but that would mean mounting the base plate on the inside of the top lid case, and that would mean a LOT of filing of the base mounting plate, and also some filing on the top cover too, to make sure that you can fit the antenna on to the RP-SMA base......... Tho I am still looking it that option too

 

dude that looks awesome,
wanna swap??????
:laugh:

 

hehe its amasing what you can do in a few hours with a few files, a drill and a old stop sign lol

Tho my main aim is still to have it receded into the top lid cover so I can put the rubber plug back in again to cover it up, eg for waterprofing and mainly so you cant tell that it has been mod'ed

 

I've been looking high and low for a 24" cable, but found just one... and it isn't a bulkhead connector.

http://www.netgate.com/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=398

That's the best I've come up with. I'm about to try ordering it and seeing if I can't make it work, but shipping on that is OUTRAGEOUS. They want $11 to fedex ground it to my door. It weighs maybe 10 grams? Ouch.

 

Try urwifiguy on ebay. Email him and ask him if he has it/can get it...

 

Not a bad idea there Toughbook, seeing how that who I got my kit off in the first place. The 24" length was a bit of a guess working with a ruler on the outside of the Lap'y, so it could even be short, but that means ripping apart the Lap'y to find out. which I don't feel like doing at the moment lol. A few extra inch don't really matter anyways lol

 

I sent him a mail a few days ago, but never heard back. I've tried a handful of other places, and they've all told me "Yes, but you must order them in quantities of (insert high number here)", or a flat out no.

The closest I've come is I found a place that has them 60cm (24") that has an RP-SMA female bulkhead on one end, and an MC connector on the other. They don't offer them with MMCX's, or I'd be set (and just order the Ubiquiti card).

I sent them an email last night, and perhaps they can do something for us.

 

I was looking really heavy at the 600mw Ubiquiti card. Then at the 400mw and even 300mw. After readin about other issues and comments I decided to stay with the 100mw Atheros based wifi card. They say that not only do the higher wattage cards get much hotter but they also drain the battery much more quickly.

The one thing I did like about the 600mw Ubiquiti is that it is hardened against EMP and ESD as long as it's grounded against the frame.

 

Does that mean it will be the only thing left working in your toughbook after an emp?

 

Toughbook, I'm wondering if you would know off hand, if anybody makes an adapter that will take an MC connector and turn it into a u.FL. The place mentioned above will "make one" in "their factory" in Taiwan, and have it drop shipped, but I like that idea just slightly more than getting one from China. (I feel it will be lead free anyways...)

I'm running out of places to look for a proper cable.