New CF-28 owner,Wardriving,Linux,Onboard Cisco,miniPCI

Hi all, new to the group, I've been lurking a few days. The title about says it all. I had a co-worker offer to give me an old Toughbook shell (he said a PII CF-27). This long post details the experiences so far. It's got a lot of pictures, but I cut them down, so this should not be offensive to dialup users.

I dimly knew of Toughbooks, but did not know many details. I'm an avid wardriver, and Linux guy. Over time, wardriving can be hard on USB/PCMCIA/pigtails. I thought that a Toughbook would be ideal to make a permanent "leave it in the trunk" rig for wardriving, and a PII running Linux would be very adequate for that. I've been contemplating a setup that when I start the car, it boots up, logs me in, connects to GPS and starts the wardriving app. It detects my home AP when I pull into my driveway, stop wardriving mode, connects to my home AP and uploads my logs; all unattended. A speaker run to the driving area can let me know the status of everything with sequences of beeps.

When I got it, it was a CF-28. A quick bit of searching revealed this thing is way too cool to stick in a car trunk! The current plan is still for wardriving to be it's main use, but in my temporary van setup, on a console between the two front seats. I work with network security, and am on the staff at http://s-t-d.org We are working on a new release, and this will be a good test bed.

Since there are obviously many versions, I got the service manual, and set out to see what I really had. It's pretty clean, has all port covers, but is missing HD, battery, whatever was in the miniPCI slots,whatever was in the Media Pocket and no AC adapter. It has an antenna in the lid.

I've read many discussions about the lid antenna, and how it's not quite the right thing for wifi. I was a ham radio op for a long time (KA0JQE, but I let it expire) so I am no stranger to antenna tinkering. I've seen Toughbook's very clever addition of an antenna on the side, but I don't think I want 7db of gain at this frequency from a relatively high power card that close to my "round parts". At 2.4 ghz, the resonant frequency (which is fairly close to a microwave oven's freq) is roughly correct to heat up eyeballs and testicles. A SMC 2532 W-B 200mw card I have has instructions to keep it 2-5 cm away from you.
Every 3 db of gain is a doubling of power...

When wardriving, I use http://kismetwireless.net which is a completely passive program. Where Netstumbler is like broadcasting with a megaphone and seeing who answers, Kismet does not transmit at all. Still, when wardriving, the antennae are on top of the car, not in with me.

I got one of my DC laptop cigarette lighter adapters out, and saw that it's choices were 15 volts or 16 volts. I measured the 16 one at 16.4, so even though 15 volts is a little low from the CF-28 specs, it's usually better to slightly underpower delicate things than overpower them. I reasoned that all laptop batteries lose voltage as they run down, so I chose 15 volts and fired it up. I got the BIOS ok, and it even recognized 256 meg of ram I added to show 512 total.

Since I have two empty miniPCI slots, I hope to populate them both with B/G cards, and have Kismet split the channels between them. It takes a few seconds to scan all 11 (I am in USA) channels, and you miss a lot, especially if you're driving fast on a highway. Multiple cards give you a lot more results. I stuck in an Intel 2195 that I have. I do not yet have a HD caddy (supposed to get one tomorrow that is missing four screws), but it looks like the caddy will be quite close to the installed card. Is there room to plug in the tiny plugs
to the card and still have a HD caddy above it?

Under the battery is some space, I contemplated drilling two holes there, and putting jacks for external antennae. I have no immediate plans to get a battery at all, this thing will always be tethered to power. Still, I don't want to block the battery space completely, in case I come across a bargain someday. It looks like I could perhaps snake two pigtails over to the PCMCIA compartment with no major disassembly:



My ethernet plate on the side is empty (definitely violating any waterproofing there, it's a hole) and from reading I think the original LAN was a (now missing) miniPCI card. I have a PCMCIA ethernet card I can use if needed at home. I thought perhaps I could get/trade for a plain cover, and put two antenna jacks there:



Using charts I've found online (Panasonic's configurator requires IE, and I don't keep that handy) my original model configuration looks like this:

P - PIII 800Mhz
3 - 13.3" XGA Non Touch Screen w/ Std Keyboard
J - 30GB HDD - 256MB RAM
P - Floppy Disk Drive - Ethernet - 802.11b Wireless LAN
8 - Wireless LAN Antenna -802.11b Wireless LAN (Cisco)
Q - Dual (XP-2K)
M - North America

It also has BKB appended to my model nunber, and the chart I was using had no entries for BKB. One thing definitely incorrect about my configuration from the model number chart, is the keyboard. The chart shows a standard keyboard, but mine is rubber and I have four levels of backlight on it. Perhaps BKB means Backlit Keyboard. I also have a tag on the bottom that says it has an Aztech internal modem (which I see no sign of, other than empty miniPCI slots).

Whoa, apparently I am lucky, and this is one with the 'inside' PCMCIA slot filled with a Cisco card originally. Does this mean the whip is more or less proper for 802.11b/g? I know many Toughbooks use the whip for various cellphone services, but there was no mention of that in my model numbers. I will be using magmounts for actual wardriving, but that would be handy to use in my house for my AP.

More reading tells me, that whenever you install something in the internal PCMCIA slot, BIOS shows an additional entry for "Cardbus B" that can be enabled and disabled? My BIOS shows one, and enabled:



Still studying, and, and I've seen it said that some CF-28's have an antenna jack on back. Mine seems to have one, but I don't know what would plug into it securely. Perhaps a docking station?



All of a sudden, this freebie is looking a lot more useful to me! I am not too excited about getting anything in the Media Pocket right now. If I can get a HD caddy, I can get an OS on there (probably Debian Unstable). I considered the MP door for jacks as well, but possible addition of a CD someday means I probably should not block that.

The next step is to look inside the right ethernet jack. First, I took off the screw that is inside the PCMCIA lid:



Then the second screw is in a deep hole, on the bottom beside the HD compartment:



Next I rocked the cover out, right edge first. Go gently here, there may be a cable connecting it on the inside:



The back of my plate shows two broken pieces of plastic, possibly stuff for the ethernet? The printed circuit board to the right shows two connections broken off. One is a small wire, possibly the center conductor of coax.



Here is the hidden PCMCIA slot, and it has a card in it:



Bingo! We've got Cisco Inside! Here is the card beside one of my SMC cards. The jacks are different, so no trying the SMC antenna on the Cisco 350:



So, there's my first week of CF-28 ownership, and I haven't even booted the thing up yet. My boot choices are Floppy/CD/HD, or I would have lit it up on a USB key. Some questions I have:

The antenna extends just under 6.5 inches above the molded corner piece that it protrudes from. Are there different lengths? Since the model numbers showed no telephone carriers, I hoped it might be for wifi. I did not see any coax dangling near the Cisco card.

If that is the remains of a small patch antenna inside that cover, I can solder a pigtail to it to connect to the Cisco card. It will be nothing like a magmount, but hopefully adequate for my home AP.

Is there room to plug in a pigtail below the HD caddy into the miniPCI cards? A CF-28 could possibly be the best wardriving laptop at any price, if you can get five cards into it.

So, comments/suggestions? This is what I have figured out so far, and I know I have a lot to learn.

thx,
Scott S.

 

You'll have plenty of room to install the pigtails on the cards with the drive in place. Most of us run them out to the side (Either side is ok, I prefer the modem jack panel).

It looks like you scored yourself quite a find in any direction though. I hope the hard drive caddy is the right one though (They have one that fits the 600MHz only, and one that fits the 800/1000 MHz only).

My mind is kinda rushed this morning and I've gotta run out the door for work, but you've found the right place to ask questions about the Toughbook. Almost anything that has or can be done to one has been done here (internal GPS is still on the worktable though).

 

Scott... First of all... Welcome to the forum. You obviously will bring a lot of knowledge to the group!

Hmm... Quite a post.... Where to begin... I'm sure I'll end up jumping around... But by the end of the day... I'm sure you will have everything you need to know.

It's not strange at all to see the model number not jive with what you actually have. People change things around all the time. No surprise there.

Yes... The bump out on the side is for an antenna for the Cisco wifi card. You can either keep that card in there od pop in a bluetooth card and use the mini pci slots for the wifi. As for where to put the external jack... I like to use the other side as it is a little beefier. You, however, have a slightly different setup as you have the bump-out on the side. The SMA connector will give you much better service than the MMCX connection of the wifi card... as you probably already know.

I wouldn't worry about blocking the battery space. There is still alot of room down there for pretty much anything you want to do.

As for wires under the hard drive... You should try to route them beside the cards. Putting them on top may keep the hard drive case latches from engaging completely. You should also have a plastic covering over the cards so that the metal hard drive case doesn't short out anything. The last thing you want is to have the case touching your antenna connections!

The antenna "Jack" on the back is not really a jack... More like a "connection" of sorts. (Nothing plugs into it.) When slid into certain types of mounts (IE, Kodiak Mount) there is a spring loaded connector on the dock that reaches out to make the connection on the jack on the back so that you can use the antenna connection on the mount. I'm sure it could be wired for use with a wifi antenna though I'm not sure of the signal loss you might have.

I am looking forward to your Wardriving contributions!

 

You know, I've read this several times but I always seem to get lucky. Just last night I got a stock 600 with a HD so I double-checked.. sure enough, the HD caddy went right into my 1000 and the bottom panel latched just fine. Are only SOME of the 600 caddies not compatible with the 800/1000? What's the problem with them?

 

They are supposed to be a little smaller I heard... But just off my a 1mm or 2mm.....

 

I just now received the caddy (I'm at work, so no camera, and Toughbook is at home). Thanks for the tip on the differing models, that would have been a big annoyance for something to be just a little bit off. The connector working is the vital thing, I cannot try to boot it without it. The flexi-cable on top is marked DFUP1120ZA, below that is logo (perhaps Panasonic) then 21, a double headed arrow <--> then 4. The bottom of the caddy is stamped DFMD2133. Slapping those number into Google don't reveal much.

What is a good connector to put on the laptop? I have two magmounts, they are N. I hate external pigtails, they're lossy and fragile. There is not room for an N on it, what about SMA? I could get a 90-degree adapter for SMA->N, and that would keep the antenna leads out of the way in my application. Perhaps RP-SMA, I think that's not uncommon on external antennae, and could possibly attach some antennae directly to it. I like BNC connectors, they are sturdy and the quarter-turn connect is handy, but that would be limiting me completely to an adapter.
TIA
Scott S.

 

The space available limits you to an SMA connector... I doubt you could get a much bigger connector in there.

 

It may not be quite clear from my pic, but I don't believe my right-hand panel has a bump. I took a picture with it slid out slightly. When it's installed, it's perfectly flush. Were some of the "bump ones" a factory GPS? I did find one screw missing, given the Loctite most of the rest of them have, and the mis-match on modem/keyboard model numbers, I would venture that I am not the first one inside this one.

Using the space under the battery does look easier. For my particular application, it may be more convenient to have the wires on the right side, however. Some measuring will tell.

I can understand covering the miniPCI cards. Looking through some docs I have found, is there a door below the battery? I do not have this, and don't know how important it is.

I have a 40 gig HD in hand, so tonight I will try to install something on it, and hopefully have a CF-28 that can boot. While as a newbie, it's still exciting for a few times to cycle the keyboard lights up/down while looking at the BIO, that's not very fufilling...

 

I think you've got a "bump" on the empty jack side. that's where they put the factory wifi antenna. the GPS "bump" is on the other side, and it's more like a tumor

 

Great pictures!
Gravi, the caddy for the 600 is shorter. So it will work in all the 28's. The other caddy is taller, it will fit into the 600 & you can kinda get the latches to latch (on the caddy) but the cover won't go down all the way & latch.
Picoshark, there are a few stock cf28 antenna mods that are still available from Pana. You can find them at the Toughbookxchange, but they don't give much info on them. One sold on ebay the other day for a buck fifty. Had dual antennas that went in the lid.

 

NO!!!! You need the copper sheet! It is part of the shock protection! I've got some pics to take and post tomorrow... I'll show you how they go together... I have a couple of hard drives to swap. The white gel gets wrapped around the drive and ribbon cable. Then that fits into the clear plastic holder. (Make sure the side with the dip goes on the side where the pull tab is that comes off the hard drive.) Then you have the gel in the plastic half case then that fits into the bottom part of the caddy. Obviously you need to make sure the tab gets fitted into the sleeve that it rides up and down in. Then you tuck the copper sheet under the ribbon cable until it just clears the steel case. Then you put the top on and screws in. Then you insert it into the laptop and push the connector onto the mobo and then hold it down while you slide the locks into place.

It's kind of tough to visualize if you have never done it before I suppose. I'll post pics tomorrow.

 

huh? you talkin' to me? i was remarking about the "myth" of complete HD caddy assemblies from 600s not fitting 800/1000s. i think you're talking about the copper sheet INSIDE the caddy, which shouldn't affect the outside dimensions.

 

I would think the copper sheet would be for heat displacement because of it's heat transferring characteristics, either way wouldn't remove it as the 28 uses passive cooling.
Note: gravitar your disk is going out tomorrow and thanks

 

No... I was talking to Picoshark who question the use of the copper sheet. I should have quoted him I guess. He deleted the message.

 

I figured out which way the drive went, as far as which side is top, Toughbook, you were apparently replying to my post, which I deleted a few minutes later. I got it all disassembled, and wasn't sure how it all went. I put the drive in the white gel holder, inside the clear plastic lining, and it all seemed to fit well, latches on both the caddy and the lid work.

I am missing screws for the drive caddy, there is a hobby shop nearby. One of my co-workers builds RC jets, and says that they are a good source of many tiny screw sized. Apparently the RC car industry uses many small fasteners like that. I brought caddy with me, I'll try to check it out.

But otherwise? IT'S ALIVE. Got it booted to Debian with no problems. Since I have no CD, it was easy to put the HD in another laptop, do the install, swap drive. It hicupped on the different video card, but got that fixed in minutes. X (the GUI) was being flaky, and crashed a few times. I ran memtest86 for an hour, and found some bad mem. I took the 256 out, and X behaved, and memtest showed no bad ones (running for an hour, anyway).

Plz post pix of the copper sheet, it appears to be too long to fit in there.

 

I'll try to get them up later today. Like I said... It slides under the ribbon cable. It is folded over on itself, yes? With the foam laying back down on itself?

 

Getting back to your original post, here is a thought for you. You talked about putting something in your trunk to house WiFi cards. Just some food for thought.. CF27s are pretty cheap these days and there is an internal option connector that can be used for a PCMCIA or mini-PCI slot. That would give you either three PCMCIA or two PCMCIA and one mini PCI, plus whatever you can do with the USB port. I don't want to turn this into an ad but I have quite a few PII-300 CF27s with a 10" screen that I've been trying to find a good use for.. let me know if you think a rig like that would be worth considering.

 

HELP ME! My cisco 350 don't work on my cf28 800, if I try to fit the aironet pcmcia in the idden slot, system go to stop, if unplug it system start with any problem, if I fit the cisco in the others slots the radio work well. I use XP Pro sp2, I try an 2k version, same problem. Note that the idden slot work OK with others pcmcia cards, such gprs mobile or 1394 firewire pcmcia cards. I have try to reinstall xp many times, any success. Internal factory gps work fine.
Thanks in advance.

 

Have you enabled CardbusB in the BIOS?

 

gravitar - What are the chances that this hardware http://wiki.eeeuser.com/eee_pc_701 ($399.) could be
transferred into a gutted CF-27?

Might make for the best of both worlds.

What might a gutted CF-27 sell for?

Thanks! doc

 

Sounds like a VERY ambitious project. Several orders of magnitude more difficult than anything we've talked about so far.

A gutted 27? I'll send you one for the cost of shipping.

 

What would be cool is to turn the old CF-27 chassis into a protective case that a smaller laptop would fit into, so you would have a magnesium little briefcase. I guess you would have to knock out some walls and barriers in the bottom but it is certainly a feasable project if you are so inclined.

 

Depending on the excess space perhaps a CF-27 as a magnesium carrying case for an Eee
perhaps the CF-27 could also serve as an expansion chassis hosting some extras (e.g. a
multiple card reader, USB multiplier, etc.).

doc

 

Here are the Eee Dimensions: 22.5 x 16.4 x 2.15~3.5 cm (8.86 x 6.46 x 0.846~1.4 in)

doc

 

Some encouraging LCD info re. the Eee here:
http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=489&p=2

doc

 

Can the CF-27 LCD somehow be fed as an external monitor?

The Eee provides an output to an external monitor.

doc

 

I have written:
"HELP ME! My cisco 350 don't work on my cf28 800, if I try to fit the aironet pcmcia in the idden slot, system go to stop, if unplug it system start with any problem, if I fit the cisco in the others slots the radio work well. I use XP Pro sp2, I try an 2k version, same problem. Note that the idden slot work OK with others pcmcia cards, such gprs mobile or 1394 firewire pcmcia cards. I have try to reinstall xp many times, any success. Internal factory gps work fine.
Thanks in advance."

Thanks toughbook, I have enable both the cardbus. I have try other pcmcia devices in the idden slot, all works great, I have try two cisco 350, that works properly in my Dell610, they don't work in this slot of cf28, and works right in the twos normal slot. Grrrrrrrrr......
Why??????????

 

I don't have an answer... Anyone else know why his Cisco card would work in the exterior slots but not in the interior slot?

VREL... You say you have tried other cards in the inner slot and they work? Which ones?

 

It seems strange that it would not work with the card in? Is it powering off, or locking up? I found a Cisco card in my internal slot, but with no antenna connected to it, I haven't tried to use it to associate with an access point.

I became curious if mine will continue running with it inserted. Here is the output of a command (no Windows here, this is all Linux) to demonstrate that it is recognizing three PCMCIA wifi cards at the same time. The cards are an SMC 200mw card (my favorite wardriving model, high receive sensitivity), an old Lucent Silver card, and the Cisco card.

root@Toughbook:~# pccardctl ident
Socket 0:
product info: "SMC", "SMC2532W-B EliteConnect Wireless Adapter", "", ""
manfid: 0xd601, 0x0005
function: 6 (network)
Socket 1:
product info: "Lucent Technologies", "WaveLAN/IEEE", "Version 01.01", ""
manfid: 0x0156, 0x0002
function: 6 (network)
Socket 2:
product info: "Cisco Systems", "350 Series Wireless LAN Adapter", "", ""
manfid: 0x015f, 0x000a
function: 6 (network)

It seems that Socket 0 is the lower PCMCIA slot, Socket 1 is the upper, and Socket 2 is the internal one. That doesn't help your problem much, though. If you had _not_ have said that other cards work in the internal slot, it would be easy to guess that something was loose in the connector/mobo.