FZ G1 tips, tricks, mods ?

Thanks for responding.

Not trying to remove bios password, my brother in law had changed the bios settings (don’t ask) on his FZ-G1 Toughpad and now it’s black screening when powered on. Only thing I can think of is try restoring factory default.

 

Try an external monitor.

Or unplugging the battery may reset it.

 

Concealed mode. There is nothing to break in BIOS.

 

The obvious solution to reattach my failing rubber trim would be contact cement, I just thought I should ask here before I commit to it. this is where I pinch my toughpad when I pull it out of my laptop bag.

How do Is the rubber trim around the edge of the FZG1 attached? Is contact cement the correct solution? Thanks again, y'all!

 

How do you get it off concealed mode.

 

Has to be A1 front key (hold 1-2 seconds).
Or connect external usb keyboard, power on, immediately F2 a few times (entering BIOS), F9 (setup defaults), Enter (yes), F10 (save and exit), Enter (yes).

 

Barge Cement. The stuff is amazing! Apply to both surfaces let dry for about 10 minutes or until only tacky but not wet and stick the two surfaces together. Make sure youy line them up correctly. Once contact is made its tough to realign.

 

Found these: About a 32 of an inch too wide. Trimmed one end with a fresh utility blade and round the corners. Went on pretty easy minus you need to be in a vacuum to totally avoid any dust particles making their way in.
XShields High Definition (HD+) Screen Protectors for Panasonic ToughPad FZ-G1 (Maximum Clarity) Super Easy Installation [3-Pack], Advanced Touchscreen Accuracy

 

Does the wwan card gps antenna need to be active or passive? I saw in the discussion that one of them died For the cause. Just wondering if you figured it out. Thanks

 

I want to say active, but it has been so long that I can not be sure.

 

Thanks Shawn, and thanks for sharing your experience with the G1. It's a huge help.

 

Your welcome.

 

My G1

I started my Toughbook adventure with a CF-30 I found in a goodwill store for $8. I found these machines amazing and eventually acquired a few more 30’s, then a 31, then a few 19’s.

I work in an office and travel some, so the CF-19 became my go to for a while, but the screen resolution was always an issue…I have docks for it at home and at work that allow the CF-19 to use a much larger display, and XVGA doesn’t scale well. The COVID crisis means that I now need to communicate by zoom quite a bit, so not having a camera or a microphone was an additional impediment.

All of this lead me to the FZ-G1. It’s small, has a good camera and great display, as well as a capacitive touch screen, like the iPad, which makes it much easier to use as a tablet when the need arises.

I scored a used FZ-G1 online, a first gen with GPS. I immediately ordered a recovery disk from Heartland, using Windows 7, which is all that’s available for the Gen 1. It installed easily and everything worked, but as much as I love Windows 7, it just doesn’t work with a tablet...the on-screen keyboard doesn’t come up when you need it, things are too small for touch, etc…so off to Windows 10.

I installed W10 off a standard install DVD and got it up and running, but the microphone didn’t work, nor did the buttons on the front. Without the buttons working it’s hard to get to the brightness controls, which I find I need a few times a day. The automatic brightness controls change the brightness in pretty rough steps, so the screen was constantly snapping from one brightness level to the next when it’s set to automatic, which is annoying. …and without the microphone zoom doesn’t work so well.

I went to the Panasonic site and found the individual W10 drivers for the G1 along with a three or four page step-by-step guide to installing them all. I printed the guide and checked items off as I went, I think I had to install a dozen or so different drivers…and voila! I have a G1 running W10 with all the parts working.

It has a cellular (WWAN) modem in it and it took a few tries to get the right code entered in the BIOS, but once that was achieved it worked fine. Verizon was kind enough to supply a sim card for only $10 a month…plus data. J

The GPS also works well. I got a RAM mount for the car, and the G1 rides just below the windshield and works as a very big GPS, running either Streets and Trips, Garmin Mobile PC or Topo USA depending on the situation.

When I get to work it pops out of the ram mount and into a Point-of-Sale dock I scored on ebay, the FZ-VEBG12. This gives me access to a keyboard, mouse and USB ports as well as putting it at just the right level for zoom meeting video. When I get home it goes into a standard dock (VEBG11) which allows me to run it on a bigger screen again with the keyboard and mouse.

For travel I got an IKey keyboard…again off ebay. The first model I got was an IK-PAN-FZG1- LC model. This is a first generation keyboard from IKey which works great as long as you don’t ever move the laptop…which is sort of a problem with laptops, because moving it around is sort of the point of laptops. The latch that holds the keyboard to the tablet just flat doesn’t work. As soon as you pull the screen forward to adjust the angle it unlatches and disconnects from the G1. I tried to love it, but it just isn’t quite there. As Shawn said the rubber keyboard is surprisingly easy to type on, but that latch thing…

Round 2 was a FZG1- C1-V5…as in fifth generation, I think. The latch works much better and this one comes with a USB port and the keyboard is lighted, which is awesome, because otherwise there’s only one USB port. There’s a big knob on the back that turns the keyboard into a teeter-totter when you open the laptop up enough so the screen is at the right angle, but I think I can live with that.

All in all it’s been a great machine that I’m pretty happy with. I spend way too much money on all this stuff, but it’s hard to resist such great equipment at surplus prices. Hopefully I can finally find happiness with this set up. So far, so good. Hope some of that helps.

 

My G1 Zoom set up

 

The driving setup for the G1.

 

Nice write-up, and great multi-use for these little tablets. I scored an iKey IK-PAN-FZG1-NB-C15Y reasonable off eBay, but it only had one of the thumbscrews. Never could find the one like came with it, but ground down another thumbscrew from hardware store, and I was so pleased with it, I ground down another to match. The factory one is better, but this will do until (and if) I find another factory one. This keyboard with both screws is very stable opening and closing.

As to your comment on spending too much, imagine what you would have spent if they were all new, and if you bought a separate one for each use! And (as you already know) these will outlast anything on the market I believe.

 

The thumbs screw latch looks good.
One thing I noticed is that the LC and your NB model keyboard have a usb-c connector at the bottom of the dock that allows you to plug it in and use it as a separate wired keyboard. The C1-V5 does not. It has some funky looking connector there. Does anybody have a breakdown of the different iKey models? Their web site isn’t much help.

Your point about expense is well taken. I am a walking test platform with a lifelong history of finding ways to break stuff, so these machines suit me well. I think I payed maybe a twentieth of the original price for most of this stuff and it’s all built for hard use. It’s nice not having to worry about getting caught in the rain or dropping it and killing it.

It’s also nice not to have to wonder which machine has which file/app. I can pull up what I need from anywhere, and have a zoom meeting while I’m driving 80 miles an hour down the highway. (Just kidding, I never zoom unless I’m going at least 90)

This site has been a HUGE help.

 

I picked up a few FZ-G1P mk4's on an auction recently and am currently blowing the admin passwords off the BIOS and taking stock of missing screws and the like. I also realize that I've never actually used a modern storage drive before and don't know the connectors. I reached out to Panasonic and they confirmed they use MSATA3 drives, but I'm afraid they may be sourced off old docs.

Looking at this port and counting pins it FEELS like it's M.2 but I have no experience at all with it.

https://imgur.com/a/kSnhzsl

So, figured maybe I could get some info here. Can anyone confirm the specs on the storage interface on these?

Also, hello!

 

It is M.2 2280 sata. I have a THNSNK256GVN8 installed in mine.

 

Well heck, that's great to hear. I didn't think NVMe would work, but that's good news.

 

NVME will not work. It needs to be SATA.

 

Oh i see, i found a listing for THNSNK256GVN8 that incorrectly listed it as NVME.

thanks a ton, really

 

I'm curious, has anyone run into an aftermarket FLIR module for these? I've seen it mentioned but details seem sketch outside of the FZ-M1 line

 

Hey Shawn
Any new hardware mods, or new uses for FZ-G1? This is one of my favorite threads!

 

Nothing new lately. I have been concentrating on my health and have not done much of any Toughbook stuff.
I do need to get the G1 out and start using it for GPS duty. My Q2 just doesn't work well in that dept. (my Q2 software issue)

I do read the forum daily and hope I can get back into them soon.

 

I'm still happy with Sierra EM7355/7305 built-in GPS
Shawn, bless you

 

Hello. I have fz-g1 mk3 with the newest win10 and have problem to use touch(water) mode.
Do You have working driver with software to use this function?

 

Water mode?

I am confused

 

• Touch (Water) — since standard capacitive touch doesn't work well with water (rain, splashing) present, this mode switches to a different type of capacitive recognition that is not affected by water (but you can't use the Panasonic pen in this mode, though an older bulbous tip stylus still works).

 

I'm sure it's just a sensitivity setting. Veeery sensitive in Glove mode, low sensitivity in Touch (Water) mode. Using it while taking a bath usually. Helps with wet hands, small water drops, but not a panacea. Have to use a towel frequently )
Re drivers - nothing special plus Dashboard.

 

Do You have Windows 10 onboard?
I can't finf driver for Windows 10

 

here

https://pc-dl.panasonic.co.jp/itn/drivers/d_menu5_en.html#FZ-G1

 

Thank You. But it doesnt work for me I have MK3/L version with win10 upgraded from win8 and can't change touch mode....

 

Try to use one-click bundle or another one

 

Hi there

I have a few G1 Mk4 units with bios passwords that I need to remove, can I ask how you went about it? We're you able to do it without removing the chips off the board?

I can pull the chips and I have a programer so can do this if need be but if it can be done via windows I would prefer as they all boot to windows fine, the password only shows when you try and get into the UEFI

Cheers

 

You can't. Read rules again.

 

Hello guys
i read through most of this thread while waiting for my Fz-g1 MK1 to arrive.

I have some issues with it though, i installed a clean copy of win10 on it (my error i guess) and all the drivers on that Panasonic page according to the pdf guide.
I still have issues with the backlight control, sometimes it works and after a reboot or 2 it doesnt, and i suspect its a win10 driver update issue.

another issue is with the GPS, it came with a MC7304 LTE card with a dedicated GPS antenna port, and the ability to use the wwan antenna for GPS reception. Sadly ive never gotten the GPS to work at all, the WWAN access works fine though. I tried following a thread on the sierra wireless forum, but my limited experience with AT commands ment that i didnt really get any results.
i tried switching the wwan card between dedicated and shared gps antenna, and got "OK" as a reply from the card but no different result.
i connected a GPS antenna that i had lying around to the card too, with again, no results

I also have a MC7455 card here, does anyone know if that will work in it? i come from modding thinkpads where you always had to deal with annoying wwan/wifi card whitelists.
A trap i fell into was resetting the bios to factory settings which enabled a bios password on it i was just about to get the SOIC8 clips when a friend told me to check the obvious passwords first, and "password" it was lol

I saw there was quite a lot of options for it, mine came with the Lan port, a quick google showed that there seems to be now expresscard slots available for it? that would have been a really neat option..

Anyway, thanks for reading my rambling
Altgott

 

Screenshot from a terminal connected to the nmea port on the MC7304 card
that doesnt look right does it? Isnt nmea supposed to ha e numbers between the periods?
Output doesnt change no matter what baudrate i use

https://imgur.com/GUP9x0V

 

Does anyone know the correct BIOS / EC versions to download for an "A" model that will stop the battery recall lecture screen from popping up?

No need to lecture me on batteries exploding etc... I'm well aware of the risk, I just choose to not have that screen pop up and be able to still use older batteries. I funny understand it's there for a reason.

I believe at some point I upgraded BIOS or something and accidentally installed this.

Thanks.

 

Not sure these will work if battery really does need to be replaced, but scroll down on this page for either "Bios Utility Download" or "Firmware Download". One or the other may be what you are looking for:

https://na.panasonic.com/us/support/important-fz-g1-battery-recall

 

Hey guys, tinkering with my MK3 to use as a boat navigator. I need to use USB port (NMEA connection to other devices) but want to retain the IP protection, so having the side doors open is not really an option. Thinking to manually add a USB via the docking pins. Does anyone have a pinout for it? Thanks in advance

 

Wouldn't it be easier just to get an ikey keyboard?

 

No room in the boats dash for it.

 

I'd be extremely interested in a pinout of the docking connector aswell, even just a partial one would be great

 

Does anyone have a dump bios MK4 with Ethernet?

 

I don't have it. But I've tried to copy-paste "ethernet" bios to non-ethernet fz-g1 and, while it worked, also ~30 seconds delay was added before every boot. Had no problems with cf-19's with that procedure.

 

Soon I will get mk2 with ethernet and without ethernet, I will experiment ...

And another question - screen module assembly from mk1 will work on MK4?

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/fz-vebg11-desktop-dock-internal-pictures.828478/

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/help-identify-fzg1-dock-connector-please.830658/

 

EDIT: Found the solution - upgrade utility - download here: https://pc-dl.panasonic.co.jp/dl/do...score=0.19894340634346&sri=17117986&trn_org=2


Hey guys.

Some success here. Went with the Bluetooth 2 rs422 adapter. Works awesome. All my boats electronics (sounder, VHF) communicating flawlessly with Timezero on toughpad. Best possible navigation combo for boat I reckon and with BT communication, every doors stays shut (apart from the power cord, which has a seal anyway, so not concerned).
The issues however is light water spray (tinny droplets) that starts to form on the screen, causing it to go ballistic, so you need to keep wiping/drying the screen with micro fiber cloth. I wasn't expecting this to ever be an issue as I thought, it is rain proof.

I researched a bit and found in online manual, that I should have an option to enable "wet mode" under touch settings in "Panasonic PC Utility", however I do not have these options there. I only have "Pen and touch settings" and "Support touch operation - Enlarge a portion of the screen". As per manual, there should be "Touch mode", Touch[Glove] mode" and "Touch [Water] mode". My utility seem to be the latest version V5.06L10 and it says in there, that touch screen ver. is V1.01L15 and Touch operation support v1.01L12.

Any help with getting to this water setting highly appreciated.

Cheers
Beau