How to adding a bluetooth-stick into the cf-29

So folks, here i'm again to give u some pics.
My cf29 had no blutooth and the original part is to expensive for me.
I bought an bluetooth-stick with 100m range. Don't know if this is a real value, but the other sticks are with 3 and 10m range and much cheaper.




I want to use it internal on cn52 -the original bluetooth.connector- which support an USB-port with software-switch-control.
First the stick must be dismanteled:




Then i need an cable to connect the stick with cn52. I used also an cable from an defective tft-display. It has 21 pins and was shielded. I need only 12 pins, so i maked an cut after the 12th.




I designed a little lowless circuit with an P-Mosfet to switch the +5V from the USB-port with the 3,3V switching voltage (from CN52 powered/inverted by an npn-transistor and an resistor of 4,7K) to the stick. Look also here http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=240665. This circuit was packed in hot glue on the Stick (which lost his USB-connector).




An screened cable is now solded on the pin of the original antenna and ground
on the stick. The other side is 6cm without shield and taped on the original location of the original bluetooth-antenna over the foot of the left hinge-cover.




With the original wireless-switch software from panasonic-page i can switch bluetooth on and off.
It works fine, fast and outdoor in approximatly 30m around the laptop.

****Before doing this modification... PLEASE read the entire thread as other ideas have been submitted for installation!****

a bit of extra info relating to my Bluetooth mod.

I built the transistor switch circuit seperately, on a small offcut of stripboard used copper side up (everything soldered top side).
[This 'small' piece of board with a few components turned out to be almost exactly the same size as the bluetooth module after removing it's shell and connector....]

This kept the size of the bluetooth part down so it could be fitted on top of the PCMCIA metalwork using some double sided foam tape.
I stuck the switch board to the clear plastic insulator on the (ethernet?) PCB just behend there.

The Bluetooth device I used was a Belkin F8T017. This is a Class 1 (100m) Bluetooth V2.1 which supports the higher data rates plus stereo audio and who know what else. Possibly overkill but far less chance of having to fit a new module if I get a new toy with some other bluetooth features.

Rather than use a cut wire antenna, I used a spare notebook WiFi antenna - bluetooth uses the same frequency range as 2.4GHz WiFi so these are ideal.

The particular one I used has a bit of 'fat' heatshrink near the end, with the inner of the coax protruding. It fits reasonably well under the keyboard trim just in front of the left hinge.

On a technical point, in Onirakkiss' original post, he appears to have left the original printed circuit antenna intact on his bluetooth stick. I'm not happy with that approach, instead I cut a small square out of the corner of the antenna area so just a stub of the straight track from the main circuit is left. I scraped the lacquer off the stub and a bit of the copper ground on the back of the board just underneath that area, then fitted the new antenna cable with the inner to the stub and the braid to the ground on the back.

At that frequency (2.4GHz) the radio wavelength is about 12.5cm so a basic quarter wave antenna should be about 3cm or 1 1/4".

Onirakkiss stated his wire antenna was 6cm, I can only guess that worked due to the interaction with the original printed antenna.

(I will take some decent pictures next time I take the machine apart..)

Robert.

(Added per author's request)

 

Hi! Why do you need an inverter on cn(52) while 5volts and 3volts are available on that connector?



ohlip

 

Sorry, i did not mean an real voltage inverter. It's an logic-inverter, u understand?

 

Very cool! You might want to draw up a schematic if you would for others if they want to follow in these footsteps.

I just throw a BT card in the side. The ones we have been using for the 28 fit in the card slot and the door closes fine. For me at least... The only reason I like putting the BT card on the inside slot of the 28 is that you can't close the door with it installed in the side.

Very cool mod!

 

Yup! I understand, its a combination of two transistor a pnp and npn, is that correct?


ohlip


Note: sorry! as i haven't seen that you posted a link of darlington circuit on the other thread.

Now, My Q? to you, I know that you are a knowledgeable person. Why I can't make it to work the em 408gps engine on cn(18) base on its schematic on gps while I even used a drop down regulator from 5vdc to 3.3vdc as it is the voltage requirement of the em408 to make it to work. Sorry! its out of the tittle but I wanna know if you could give some insight with regards to this. Thank you.

 

Not exactly, i use an npn and an p-mosfet. But is the same principle.
I will draw an schematic. but not today ;-)

Is an schematic for the em408 available? I'm not involved in this device, but maybe we can work together.

@toughbook: Thanks! At the moment i try to cut a UMTS/HSDPA-OPTION-3GMAX, till they is in the slot and the door closed....
If it works, i'll post it.

 

You men completely baffle me with your technical expertise! I read your posts with awe and wonder if my Mother dropped me on my head when I was a baby and short circuited my tech skills.

My hat's off to both of you.

 

No,no! Everyone has his own profession. U know also things, where i'm never had hear before.

And here is my schematic:



Have fun!

If there are questions or u find a failure, try it first at this thread and not in the private messages, so all other can profite on this.

 

Pappy... We all have out areas of expertise. I wouldn't know a PNP from a PIG...but like you... If you want something bad enough you find a way to make it work!

I'm sure you could baffle us all with some of the stuff you do!

 

Hallo,

ich habe einen cf29 mk2 leider kann ich die WLAN Switching Software nicht entpacken es steht da "... Maschine nicht Match..." kann mir jemand mal die Software entpckt schicken


Danke

 

Holy smoke! can you pls. translate that into enghlish language. We don't understand what you are talking about.



ohlip

 

ooh,ooh
"
I have a cf29 mk2 unfortunately I can wireless switching software does not unpack because it is "... machine does not match ..." can anyone look at the software send entpckt
"

<google translation>

 

Aha! klbo.. you are not only a modl...r you are a translator too. I didn't realize i can trnslate that by going into google.


ohlip

 

Yes, there is a language tools link that lets you do -marginal- translations.

Altavista has Babelfish, which comes out with:
'I have a cf29 mk2 unfortunately cannot I the WLAN Switching software not unpack it stand there "... Machine match... "cannot send someone to me times the software entpckt'

I guess we can get the gist of it. Hopefuly pyrofx will come back with a better version of the question.

As you may have seen from my posts, I sprinkle the nuggets in amongst the chaff.

 

klboo is cuna.....err aah, bilingual.

 

:laugh:

 

He would get an unpacked version of wswitch for his cf-29/2, cause he can not install the version from the panasonic-site....

 

Not nearly as cool of a way to add bluetooth to a CF-28 or CF-29 is with the Billionton PCMCIA card. It is compact enough to fit in the slot and not stick out far enough to mess with the door closing. I've tried this and it works great with BT mice and my BT Canon IP90 printer. The other cool thing is that the controler software is the same as the factory program that the CF-30 uses and works great. I've tried a few different USB to BT adatpers over the years and have not been too happy with them.
Just my 2 cents for people that don't want to gut their toughbook.

Joe

 

@joecox2: And if u need both pcmcia-slots and bluetooth at the same time?
Just my 2 cents for people they need all slots at their toughbook.

 

both http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833242001 and http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833242003
work great

I use
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833242003 in my toughbook, it has plenty of room for the usb slip to close completely. If I decide to mod it into the toughbook it would be the prefect size also.

 

I think the majority of us here us the Billionton PCMCIA BT card in the internal card slot. This allows you to use both the outboard card slots for whatever you want. The only other card that fits in the internal slot is the Cisco wifi card... And that card doesn't have enough power for me... So I use the Engenious 600mW mini-pci card for that!

 

TB,
In this post, you're referring to the CF-28 right? Not the 29.

 

Uh... DUH... You're right... That's what I get posting too late at night!

Forget my post!

Thanks for pointing that out Pappy!

 

Hi,
I've just fitted internal bluetooth to my CF-29 Mk3 using onirakkiss' info.

The bluetooth works fine, but there is no mention of bluetooth in either the BIOS or the Wireless Switcher utility.

Am I missing something, or should one of the other pins on CN52 be linked/grounded so the BIOS 'knows' the machine has Bluetooth fitted?

Thanks,
Robert.

 

What do your COM ports show? Do you mean it works but you can't turn it off?

 

Hi TB,

it's using USB on CN52, with a similar two transistor power switch & wired exactly as in the schematic by onirakkiss early in this thread.

It works perfectly, but as you surmise I can't turn it off - no option for bluetooth in either the wireless switch or BIOS.

At present, it's no different to having the USB device plugged in to an external port (other than being internal).

How is the BIOS supposed to know bluetooth is installed - Is there an option switch somewhere?

Thanks,
Robert.

 

There will be no difference as you said, as it's not using a separate com-port ,it's using part of the usb controller and can not be distigished in the bios separately as the bios see's it only as a usb device

Alex

 

Hi,
the thing that is confusing me is onirakkiss mentions (first post in this thread) that is can be switched on & off:

The switch software on this machine only gives options for WiFi, no mention of bluetooth. Is it a different switch program? - I could only find one.

Any ideas?
Robert.

 

ARGH!!!!

Problem found - 'Wireless Switch' vs. 'Wireless LAN switch' utility..

The Panasonic download site only has the Wireless LAN switch for the CF-29 Mk3.

Both utilities are available for the Mk4 etc., but of course they won't unpack on the Mk3.

Has anyone got a 'Wireless switch' utility that will run on a Mk3?

Thanks,
Robert.

 

Hi! did you receive my message(mail) to you? I think it will gonna solve your problem.


ohlip

 

Hi Ohlip - yes thanks!

Wireless switch utility for CF-29 Mk4 unpacked using winrar.

It then installs and functions prefectly on my Mk3 - I have separate on/off control of WiFi & Bluetooth.

Thanks again,

Robert.

 

That was easy, right? Now you know how it gonna works.




ohlip

 

Hi,
a bit of extra info relating to my Bluetooth mod.

I built the transistor switch circuit seperately, on a small offcut of stripboard used copper side up (everything soldered top side).
[This 'small' piece of board with a few components turned out to be almost exactly the same size as the bluetooth module after removing it's shell and connector....]

This kept the size of the bluetooth part down so it could be fitted on top of the PCMCIA metalwork using some double sided foam tape.
I stuck the switch board to the clear plastic insulator on the (ethernet?) PCB just behend there.

The Bluetooth device I used was a Belkin F8T017. This is a Class 1 (100m) Bluetooth V2.1 which supports the higher data rates plus stereo audio and who know what else. Possibly overkill but far less chance of having to fit a new module if I get a new toy with some other bluetooth features.

Rather than use a cut wire antenna, I used a spare notebook WiFi antenna - bluetooth uses the same frequency range as 2.4GHz WiFi so these are ideal.

The particular one I used has a bit of 'fat' heatshrink near the end, with the inner of the coax protruding. It fits reasonably well under the keyboard trim just in front of the left hinge.

On a technical point, in Onirakkiss' original post, he appears to have left the original printed circuit antenna intact on his bluetooth stick. I'm not happy with that approach, instead I cut a small square out of the corner of the antenna area so just a stub of the straight track from the main circuit is left. I scraped the lacquer off the stub and a bit of the copper ground on the back of the board just underneath that area, then fitted the new antenna cable with the inner to the stub and the braid to the ground on the back.

At that frequency (2.4GHz) the radio wavelength is about 12.5cm so a basic quarter wave antenna should be about 3cm or 1 1/4".

Onirakkiss stated his wire antenna was 6cm, I can only guess that worked due to the interaction with the original printed antenna.

(I will take some decent pictures next time I take the machine apart..)

Robert.

 

@rjenkins: Thank u very much for ur thinking about my idea and ur add-ons. In the following i will apologize myself and my version:

Yep, i use a Lambda/2. There is enough space and it is more sensitive than an Lambda/4 with such an simple construction, which i used.

U used the correct and better way. But it does'nt matter, because the original antenna in the stick is'nt as effective as it should be.

No, cause the bluetooth-stick is completely shielded in the body of the toughbook.

 

Hi Onirakkis,

Firsly, thank you for publishing this article. Without it I would not have had a clue where to start.

I am an electronics designer & programmer by profession but I don't usually have much spare time and I only have one CF-29 which I use daily & it's too important to my work to take it apart purely to experiment, much as I would like to!

Re. the antenna stuff.
The theoretical feed impedance of a 1/4 wave antenna is just under 50 ohms, so it's a pretty good match to the 50 Ohm coax.

The theoretical endpoint feed impedance of a half wave antenna is infinite; a poor match to 50 ohms. That's why half wave antennas are generally either centre fed or use a matching transformer of some form.

The commecial coax antenna I used is also a half wave, but centre fed; the inner protrudes 3cm plus there is a 3cm brass tube loose over the insulation of the cable (under heatshrink), soldered to the braid only at the point the inner is exposed. Think of a classic 'T' dipole with the cable from the centre fed back through one leg of the T.

The interaction with the on-board antenna is due to it still representing a 50 ohm load to the RF stage, so even with a perfect antenna on the 50 ohm add-on cable you are losing half of both the transmit and receive signal.
(Not counting the wierd resonance effects when you parallel RF loads without proper matching).

That said - theory aside, antennas are wierd things and a lot of the calculations only apply when there is nothing else anywhere near the antenna. Put them close to other wiring and metalwork and what happens is just about pure chance (or you need a supercomputer to work it out)..

(Specifically, the electrical length of an antenna may be far longer than it's physical length doe to capacitive loading. Your 6cm coax may be working as a 3/4 or even 5/4 wave because it's against the metalwork).

If it does what you need, it ain't broke so don't fix it!

Robert.

 

Thanks for ur explanation. Now there is a little bit more light in my brain in the HF-Area

To the MOD: How can I refer the post "Yesterday, 01:35 PM #33
rjenkins" in my first post on this thread, so anyone can look to this entry, before they used my wrong datas?

 

No Problemo!

 

Hey Teo.... What type of drop down regulator do you use for the EM-408... I don't think I ever asked you that. I was about to do a mod similar to Onirakkiss and was going through the posts and saw your comment.

 

But u don't need an regulator for the USB-Stick.
For the EM-408 u can try an SC198A, SC194B, LP2950-33 or some from this site : http://www.cosmosw.com/06.html. It depends on the current, which ur application need, which I not know.
Propably i had not correct understand what u want. In this case:Sorry.

 

No problem... Yeah... I know I need 5V for the USB Bluetooth... I was just wondering what he used for the EM-408... I've never used anything except the straight 5V for that as well and never have had an issue. I was just curious what Teo used...

 

Hey! Rick, its an Ic Regulator type TO 220 a drop down regulator from 5vdc to 3.3Vdc. I only used the regulator during the time when I am at the beginning of hooking up the EM408 engine on the unit coz I have to be more extra cautious that time. But later on I found out that when you connected the enable/disable function of the em408 the 5vdc drop down automatically to 3.3vdc at load. So no need to connect the regulator. I phased them out.


teo

 

Teo

You are not ever going to get rich at the rate you are going

You just missed another chance to make some money

You could of started with 22 gauge wire and encased it in hot glue and had an input and output wire and then called your new invention:
A special 0 ohm resister for use with aftermarket gps engine modules for use on
Toughbooks


Alex

 

I almost created a drop down regulator made of an oil but I realized its for toughbook not for cooking of dover sole fish. LoL

BTW, its true that an oil used on voltage regulation. Specially those power tranformer on ground or aerial.


teo

 

I've got a bunch of IRF730 Mofsets that I have left over from building Nixie clocks. It may be overkill as they are rated for 400V, 100W and 22A... The one you mentioned is rated for 200V and 3.5A... Do you think it would still work?

Also... I have a lot of general purpose NPN & PNP transisitors... Will any of them work or do they need a specific rating.

EDIT - I also have several MPSA42s and a lot of 2N4401s & 2N222s of they will work. I've got more than enough resistors...

Thanks!

 

TB -

The regulator IC Ohlip used was on a suggestion from me; the reason was because of a need for a "low dropout" regulator. Essentially, the issue is that because the input voltage of 5V is so close to the desired output voltage of 3.3V, a special circuit has to be designed to make the regulation stable. The regulator ICs I suggested to Teo were specifically designed for computer power supply to develop the 3.3V needed for memory from a standard 5V input. Trying to design your circuit with discrete transistors, while possible, is really not cost effective as they were only a couple dollars each anyways from DigiKey.

mnem
Lasagna is the answer. What was the question?

 

Yup! mnementh. who suggest this type of regulator as I ask him his opinion about the best way to regulate the voltage supply on the option slot to maintain current at full load.


ohlip

 

You know... Every now and then I am reminded of just exactly how freakin' brilliant you are! Thanks! (You too Teo!)

I was just wondering because when I buy parts that are only a few cent or dollars each... I buy in bulk... If I need it once... I'll need it twice or three times!
I'll look for the parts online or at Radio Shark to make sure I can get it going first... I am doing something a little different than Teo and Onirakkiss

 

Hey guys, concerning the Bluetooth software, did you see this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-PANASONIC-T...wItemQQptZUS_Software?_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116

Is that what you were looking for to install?

 

TB - I believe the IC I suggested Teo use was an LM3940 (they are available in a number of packages from tiny surface-mount up to TO-220 size); you won't find that critter at Radio Shank. You MIGHT find a 7805 there, which you could use as the active component in a monostable multivibrator DC-DC converter; but the efficiency of that circuit would be much less than that SC198A buck converter.

Oh - BTW - Yer welcome.

mnem
"Catalyzer on the port compression coil blew. It's where the trouble started."
"Okay, I need that in captain dummy-talk, Kaylee."
"We're dead in the water."

 

When I tested my CF-29 sled with the power switch working, I was getting near enough 5V to the EM-408 which I was not happy with.
I found a perfect 3.3V regulator in a scrap CD-Rom drive, but bust it desoldering it...

Temporary fix, while I waited for a new one to turn up was some small diodes in series with the supply line to the EM408.
I ended up with two 1N4148 and a BAT42 (Schottky) in series and get about 3.1V at the GPS, for next to no cost.

If you are not bothered about it being slightly high, just two 1N4148 should give roughly 3.6 - 3.8V.

Robert.