Going internal wireless: step one

Im posting a new thread concerning this because the old thread I posted to doesn't seem to be popping up.

Step one, I replaced the factory 10/100 and 56k cards with a single 3com card. All works well. However, in Toughbook's wonderful thread concerning the antenna mods I notice the pics show your wireless card in the left card cradle (farthest from the battery). The 3com card I just out in only fits in the left. My question: Is the Engenius Senao 600mW EMP-8602+S 802.11abg mini pci card going to fit in the right cradle (closest to the battery)?

 

Yes, that's where I put mine, and I used the 3Com combo card as well, nice setup. I now know that I have four wireless networks around my house that weren't there a few weeks ago ( well, maybe they were )

 

Thanks! I was concerned. What wireless card and antenna did you use?

 

I used the same card as you described (the one from the "Group Purchase #2" thread), with this Pigtail and this Antenna.

On second thought;

Maybe someone else can give a good reference for a decent antenna, I don't think the one I'm using is as good as I would like it to be. I bought it because when installed it fits ( when folded down ) in the Handle to rear panel footprint of the 28, It's supposed to be 5dBi gain, but I don't think it's radiating as well as it should. I don't have an vswr meter anymore, but according to the info in the driver utility I'm only putting out about 70% signal which leads me to believe that it's just not tuned very well.


On Third thought;

After cruising around with this antenna it seems to be picking up a darn good signal. I can get my network from somewhere around 4500 - 5000 feet, across the river, through the woods to tb4me's house we go.

 

Found this antenna today. Thoughts? I was thinking one up through the lcd and the other in the base. Still new to all this antenna business so Im interested in feedback. One lead is about 24" and the other about 18".

 

I've ordered this one (I'm sure its still on the boat):
http://cgi.ebay.com/Wireless-WiFi-A...ryZ61816QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I've also ordered a set of internal leads...they're similar to those in your pic, only instead of those metal things, they have square metal pieces to mount under the back of the monitor lid.

I'm going to test both installations when I get them. I'm personally not a big fan of that SMA sticking out of the case. So I'm going to see if the internal leads work fine first...

 

Forgot the pic...took a min to figure out how to attach it :confused2:

 

Okay Dokay,

See pics. This is what Im thinking for routing one to the lcd...look logical? I dont understand it all but I guess I want to keep the antenna isolated from other things as much as possible So I was thinkin of running it as shown under that bottom panel. Then up through where the lcd wires run into the lcd bezel.

Thoughts!

 

I hadent really thought about the routing yet...off-hand, I'll probably split the case and do a visual on it.

But your plan looks doable too...

 

Are the ends coated in plastic. The ends of the antenna I picked up today are bare metal. Im wondering whether they should be housed in something? Still not sure what Im gonna do with the ends...I have time...I cant afford a min pci wireless card yet

How is your wireless functioning without antenna at close range to your router...at all?

 

At about 12 ft from the router (with very thin wall between) it seems to work ok. But I havent really put it through some testing.

Actually, I have about a 3-4" wire just laying next to the card in that bay.

These are plastic coated. I saw those metal models, but wasent sure about the method behind those either.

 

Hello,

I have put a apple wireless antenna inside near the plastic corner where the original gps antenna is mounted

I bought it on ebay, he has another one: http://stores.benl.ebay.be/Matas-Hardware

I plugged on the aux from the card en routed a rp sma from the main output to the same plastic corner.

This is working great i tested on 60 meter from my router and i have still contact with Internet.

 

Thats a good idea...a single unit like that, and keep it in the base. Woulent have to split the case, or display.

 

Ya, I had this unit totally opened last week and would rather not go back there again. I will be swapping out the lcd for a 13.3 next week so I will be in the lcd case any way.

 

Once you do it a couple times, it gets to be just a walk in the park :GEEK:

 

Thoughts?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Atheros-802-11-...ryZ45003QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

 

I think he wants way too much for a 5001 chipset card. I got my 5006 for the what he wants in his buy it now.

Search for an eBay seller "linkenergy". He's got great deals, and he's been great through the many purchases I've made from him. He occasionally has Atheros cards, and starts his auctions at less than a dollar.

 

Thanks Modly!

 

Just received my Engenius 600mw miniPCI wifi card inthe mail and put it in my 28 running XP pro. Went to Device manager undated driver for device labled "ethernet device" under "Other devices". The driver installed and set up under "Network Adapters". Installed in no time flat. Wow ! Even through the magnesium case, without pigtails attached yet, Im already receiving a far better signal than my netgear wireless pcmcia card. Note: My house walls are not thin drywall over stick frame, my walls are thick old school adobe walls. Im anxious to hook up the pig tails but want to wait till my antenna building geek friend can check my set up...last thing I want to do is fry my new card. If this antenna config. is a success I will post the pics I took while installing.

Thanks again to you TB vets for being a spring board for us aspiring TB geeks :GEEK:

 

By the way... Toughbook...Thanks for the tip!

If any of you newer folks are preparing for wireless install look here as well.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=212130

 

Kusa... No problemo!

I used to split the cases for running cable to the LCD... Then I figured if Panasonic puts the bottom cover on there for running it without splitting the cases... Why not go that route? So... I started doing it that way. The first thing I noticed is that the GPS gets a better signal. Not a huge imnprovement but noticable. I guess running it away from all the radio intereference offsets the slight increase in cable length.

Oh... And the picture I posted that you are referring to in your first post... I didn't have a dual LAN/Modem card at the time I took the shot. So I just put the card in the other slot.

 

The ends of my pigtails are bare metal. Do these need to be grounded to the TB chasi? I tought I had heard that you dont want them grounded but I dont know for sure. Or does it matter? Also, it sounds like the length is not that detrimental...one of min ei s approx 16" and the other approx. 22".

So two things?
1) Is the lengths mentioned kosher?
2) Do the pig tails need to be grounded?

 

1. I'm sure that if you got enough length on there that it would make a difference. However... I doubt the difference between 5" and 25" is going to make much of a difference. The length of my GPS leads went from approx. 25" to 33-34" and like I said... The signal was better as it was routed away from the innards of the laptop.
2. I've done it both ways and haven't seen a difference here either. It's all grounded somewhere so whether you ground it purposely or not... It WILL be grounded.

 

Thanks TB. I just wanted to be sure so that I dont fry my new wireless card because of my limited knowledge concerning the physics of electronics.

 

Here are a few pics of what I did.

Ran one pigtail under the small panel on the bottom where the rim antenna runs. I ran this pigtail out from under the key board bezel and mounted it with vinyl tape between the LCD hinges. The second shorter pigtail I ran to the plastic panel...same position as TB's mount. The note on #4 pic was made while I was under the impression that the antenna end should not ground...As TB said in the last post, this may not matter. After puttin the machine back together and powering up my signal imediately jumped to 5 bars and holds throughout most of my house (Thick adobe and stucco walls). The medium performance router is located in a central room of the house...When I exit the house (1,400 sq') and walk around the parameter I maintain 3-4 bars and jump back to 5 in front of windows.

This performance is satisfactory for my needs, and I dont have any extra hardware mounted on my TB ...Im not war driving However, before tackling the next mod Im going to go ahead and set up TB's mount. If I need that extra boost I can slap the external antenna on. "Better have it and not need it than to need it and not have it."

 

I have one of the 600mhz CF-28. My new card arrived and I was going to attmept of install it. I think I followed the instructions, took the battery cover off and pulled the hard drive.

According to the sticker on the bottom of the 28 it says I have a Cisco LMC340. But I can't seem to find it.

The card under the hard drive doesn't look like a wireless card. Pic below. Am I not looking in the right place or do I need to take this apart further?

I know this is a pretty basic mod but right now I'm not sure where to go. I looked all through my copy of the CF-28 service manual and can't seem to find it listed.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Scott

 

It's hard to see, but it's on the other side of the motherboard under the yellowish part there. I can see just a bit of the card between the black tape and the casing.

Your new wireless card will more than likely be Mini-PCI, while the cisco is PCMCIA.

 

Stiffnecked, If Im correct,the two cards you see are your 10/100 ethernet and 56k modem mini pci cards. As Modly said your cisco card is under them and accessible via the plastic side panel under your right palm rest...thanks to our TBvets...also known as the "hidden PCMCIA card slot." You will find multiple threads concerning concerning this. To access: There is a little screw to the left of your PCMCIA card slots behind the door. The other screw is to the left of your hard drive...down deep. Use good small screw drivers for this otherwise you are likely to strip the screws. It also helps to use a magnetic screwdriver for the little one deep down next to the hard drive...you dont want to loose that screw down there. The panel will hinge out towards you (front of the TB case)...be carefull your modem lines are short. Once the panel is open you will see your cisco card... the "Hidden PCMCIA".

 

Hey Modly -

Thanks for the tip; I just got an AR5005GS chipset card from him here for $21 shipped:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=170187934096&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=007

BTW, the username is linknergy without the "e", and he now has an eBay store here:

http://stores.ebay.com/Oldegg-Wireless-Depot

So - anyone here have any experience with this card? I'm having trouble finding any output specifications on the web, tho I'm guessing its prolly in the 400mw range.

Thanks,

mnem
Voltage x Amperage = how many watts you just dissipated through your dumb arse! ZZZZZZZZZZT!

 

My mistake on the eBay name, but either way you won't be disappointed with him. Everything he has sent me has gotten here from Texas in two days (Three days at most), and he'll respond to questions pretty fast too.

His cards are only 100mW though. The cheapest you'll find a 400mW card for on eBay is probably $45 before shipping.

 

D'OH!

Who was here who had some of the 600mw cards? Are they A/B/G?

mnem
"Scotty... we need ...more... power..."
"I'm givin' ye all she's got Cap'n, but we're just goin' aroond in circles... ahnd at Warp 10, that's gettin' noowhere mighty fahst."

 

Grav had 2:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=211427

 

I just sold both of them, but haven't ruled out buying another batch in the future to help out more people outside the US!

 

Dang... Well, I need to hold off for now, at least until I get it RUNNING... I've seen the BIOS screen (256MB OnBoard) & FDISKED the HD; once I'm done with this HP laptop MB swap for one of my clients I'll get on it.

mnem
Failure is not an option. It comes bundled in your software.

 

BTW I tried another antenna variation....I put 2 flags under an emissive chicklet near the edges....works ok, nothing impressive...

The best I've done is the 7dbi duck in the RIM location (top left display).

A mini-flag works good in the mini-pci blank-off works good too.

 

Thought I would start this before heading out to church. Took the 28-600mhz
apart with the intents of putting in a new wireless card. This is my first time to do this but with the service manual it wasn't too hard.

Got it apart expecting to see a wireless card in the mini pci slots. This is what I found.



So I went back and looked on the bottom sticker of the 600 and it says it has a Cisco Systems Radio Module AIR-LMC 340.

My guess is that throws a kink into my plans? Interesting none the less.

 

Look below

 

Thanks, I saw it under there, just wasn't sure how to get it out. Back to surgery.....

 

Is this the first time you've take one apart? If so, may I caution you to get that gray strip of sticky tape back on that long piece of shiny metal behind the card bays before reassembling...thats for heat transfer of the CPU up to a metal block in the other half that has 2 air circulation tubes running to it.

:GEEK:

 

That is the big secret of cf 28
It is a hidden pcmcia slot.
Be careful by taking the plastic cover off, unscrew the two screws, and take it off on the cardslot side first.

Greetings,

Derick

 

I use a little number that works great!!

I just snip off the black plastic cover, and tuck it under the flat (GPS side) blank off.

$6 ea w/shipping:
http://cgi.ebay.com/One-WiFi-mini-P...eZWD1VQQtrksidZp1638.m118.l1247QQcmdZViewItem

 

What do you do with the extra 18 inches of cable? Do you trim it to size and splice it? (That's what I do with my "paddle" type and get a great signal. I'm very careful on the splice and seal it well with the proper size of heat shrink tubing.

 

I just coiled it next to the 408 for now until I'm done experimenting.

 

Thanks for the help. It took twice as long as I planned but I cleaned everything as I went. Once I got the keyboard out it looked and smelled like someone had spilled coffee on this at onetime.

All I had was a paddle type antenna and it went in the same place as Glen's, at least for now. It kind of sticks up alongside the case where the battery slides in. Nothing binds or pinches so it'll do for this week.

Got the driver loaded and got a real good signal up to about 30 feet. Thanks again for the help....

 

I have a CF-28 with a Cisco internal card. The mod you did seemed like you just pulled the old card and installed the new one. Do you recommend a seller for the card. I would like to try it.
Thanks

 

The Cisco should be in the internal PCMCIA slot, while the cards we use are using a Mini-PCI slot. You'll have to do a little mod work to get it to do something though.

You can use paddle type antennas in the LCD area which work with slight success (Most the signal seems to go through the LCD rather than the magnesium casing, so put them in the upper corners right behind the LCD), but if you want good wireless signal you'll need an external antenna. CF-28's are great because you can drop them, but you can't get signal in/out worth a damn.

 

Sorry for all the stupid questions but...
what kind of mods do I need to do other than the antenna?
I figure the card does not come with instructions and I would use the cf-28 service manual to see the schematics.

 

Hi guys,
installed a broadcom 802.11 b/g Nic card today, wirless ant routed like what everyone else is doing, I finished it up inside the cover and have found the signal is terrible (go figure, alunimum cover). would it help if I grounded the main wire to the lid itself? I have an external ant coming that I plan to have an SMA connector at the OEM ant port on the cover. any thoughts on increasing my gain

 

If you have the antenna for a RIM or Sierra CDPD (Analog Cell modem) on the left side of your LCD & have no plans to use this location for a wireless broadband or GPS antenna, you can easily mod it for use as a decent WiFi antenna. See my work posted here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=215522&page=2

mnem
WiFi? WhyNotFi?

 

Thanks for your quick reply, I read your link but I must say I'm lost. Mechanic, not electronic tech. I bought the nic card and ant on ebay however the two wire internal ant wouldn't cut the mustard, go figure. I have ordered a wireless external antenna that would go on the back of a PCI wireless card for a desktop. SMA connector. shouldn't be aproblem finding the connector "cheap" but am I going in the right direction? what is this trimming the ant wire? The ones I bought on ebay have two differnet sizes for main and aux and I thought this would work if I simply atached the ant to the end of the main. am I going in the right direction or totally off base? do you recommend getting the original antenna that was supplied with this machine for the GPS?
Your posts show excellant knowledge on these things, your posts are appriciated greatly.