Some help for the Toughbook lovers.

Just wanted to say Hi and that I am new to the forum . Not at all new to the Toughbooks though. I am a notebook technician by day and college student by night. While I cannot provide any type of official support or disclose where I work, I look forward to helping to get some more of the questions here answered. Killer forum by the way! I am not here to sell anything - I just like helping folks when I can.

You may see a few other new people joining - hopefully anyways. I have a few friends that I am encouraging to join who have quite a bit of background repairing Toughbook models.

Any questions on the CF-18's? post em up and I'll see what I can do, that is my forte. I can help with other models as well and would be happy to help as much as possible.

 

Well, if you have the pinout for the connector (cn4) next to where the GPS connects on the CF-28? I want to attach a GPS receiver to it, and my first attempt didn't work.

I'm sure there isn't a ground in it, so I'm using case ground, and I know where 3.3v is, but transmit and receive would be great to know.

 

I too am having a little trouble figuring out the touchscreen on a CF-28. Don't know if it is installed correctly (driver-wise). You can see my thread in this forum "cf-28 toughbook help required" and let me know if you or your friends are able to help.

much appreciated...

Paul

 

You did find the page in the technical manual that covers this connector, i assume? the descriptions given for the various signal likes of the bus are pretty cryptic unfortunately

On my "wish list" would be a schmatic for the circuit board the radio modem/GPS option modules are mounted to. This unfortunately isn't included in the technical manual.

 

Do you know which page it's on? I'd like to take a look at it.

 

WELCOME to the Forum!

I am sure to be on the list of CF-28 owners in need to informed assistance.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge - it is what makes these Forums really work.

 

Modly, I'll get the pinouts for you next week and try to translate anything that is cryptic.

I'll see what I can dig up on the schmatics Gravitar.

Doobi, I noticed that you solved your touchscreen problems in that thread. nice.

If you guys want, put a list together of the information you would like and post it here or PM me. I will look it all up when I return to work next week. Try to include your model number(s) like CF-28XXXXXXX.

TBtech

 

TBTech... Thanks for joining in on the fun! (And sometimes frustration!)

We appreciate you sharing your knowledge with us!

 

Yep! I sure did, but not without the help of those on these forums. The credit really goes to them! Thanks guys! Next project will be wifi. I have an old laptop with one in it that I may try to install internally on my CF-28. There are numerous posts here about how to do it that seem to walk you through from beginning to end. Should be fun trying! (I still have some hair left to pull out, so why not?!! hahahaha)

Doobi

 

I'm happy that I might get some third party help in the pinout on this connector.. it's really hard to hold the multi-meter probes while drunk...

 

hellooooooooooooooooooo
and welcome to the toughest forum around.............:GEEK:

 

I printed it out so I don't know what page of the .PDF file it is, but look for the schematic page that has page number "32" on it. Some of the pin descriptions are pretty interesting.. seems that USB is available back there?!

 

Do you have a link to that PDF file gravitar? I would like to see if it is the same one we have.

 

Actually, if you could, send me a copy of that puppy. I don't seem to have that manual anywhere.

 

Modly... I just sent you a copy...

 

huh? isn't it on modly.net? sure there aren't two modlys!

 

TBTech... These are the connectors we need help decyphering....





You can copy and paste them into a photo editor to blow them up if needed. They were on page 32 of the manual.

We need to find the pin assignments for
1. enable/disable (Though it could probably be left on or we could mod a switch.)
2. Gnd
3. Tx
4. Rx
5. VCC

This is the priority for me and Modly. Any help you could give in this endevour would be greatly appreciated.

 

on the copy found on modly.net, it is page 92 of the PDF file. page is marked page 30 of the schematic section

 

modly.net???

 

http://modly.net/cf-28/

This is the same modly that posts here, no?

 

I forgot that was all in there... And yes, that's the same modly...

Using those, I'm slowly getting somewhere (maybe). I gotta run up to the store though and get more caffeine, or I'm gonna fall asleep on my spare motherboard.

 

OK, Toughbook, got them copied/pasted/blown up/ and printed. I will get with the guys at work to help decipher them

 

this is cool, we've got our own insider now

 

Pins 11 and 12 on the CN-40 (13 pin connector) look like they might be the serial ticket we need.

I am curious at what pin 13 does though, because it's not labeled.

i'm still not finding a ground on the CN-40, but I might be missing something obvious (or not so obvious).

The CN-18 uses pins 27 and 37 that I've narrowed down for sure (Both inputs, 37 labeled as GPS in).

The only thing I don't like about using the CN-18 port is the lack of cables to use on it. I can make 13 pin ribbons out of some 40 pin ones I've got laying around with the proper wire spacing, but finding a 50 pin ribbon will be hard.

 

Hmmmm... I was just waiting for the right pin setup and I was going to solder them on the back of the connector. I guess that's why I was waiting until it was a "for sure" setup... I don't want to solder and then be wrong... I'll have to look for some ribbon cable downstairs... Oh... I have an old CDMA setup that I took out of an old CF-28 that has the CF-40 & CF-28 ribbon cables. We only need a short section, yes? Just enough to clear the connector and then enough to solder to? I can see doing it that way... How would you do it without having a stock ribbon cable??? I mean... On the end... it is flattened out and bare for the connector to make contact... How do you do that? (Do you know what I mean?)

 

I haven't looked (yet) but I would be surprised if it was difficult to buy a roll of the bulk ribbon cable

 

Yeah... Radio Shack has it... I was just thinking about how you would get the perfectly tinned and squared ends that snap into the connectors. Most of the ribbon cables that I have even used for PC work have a connector that snaps into the ribbon cable, piercing the wires to make contact...

 

I found a piece of ribbon in my parts CF-28 that connects the port board (Doc connector, serial, parallel, VGA, etc) that had the pins perfectly spaced. (I have a pair of dial calipers that measure to the nearest .0005, perks of being a precision machinist ), And using a razor blade I was able to trim it into a 13 pin slice. I made two of them, and have enough to make one more incase I screw one up (Already did, whoops). I figured having a connector was the right way to go, so it would be easily removed, and incase the motherboard ever blows on the next owner it's not a hassle to swap it in.

Edit; I started pondering, and are you talking about the soft ribbon cables (IDE, SCSI, Floppy etc)? I'm calling the type of cable that the original GPS attached to a ribbon cable (More firm cable).

 

I'll have to check my parts 27s for similar cabling. I've got a big stack of 27s that have been harvested for keyboards and I haven't figured out what to do with the rest yet

 

Ummmm....... maybe a BFH??

 

I am one of TBTechs coworkers, I work on cf-28's, 29's, and 72's, if you have any questions ill see what i can do.

 

Fair warning you two, there are a few of us here that are going to BOMBARD you with obscure questions!

 

Hello all, I am also a co-worker of TBTech and TBTechj, I work on the cf-29 model. glad to be of any help i can.

 

Dang... pretty soon we'll have the whole Toughbook Tech Dept here.. Awesome!!!!

 

Thank you!! I'm glad to see that you take so much pride and interest in your work!

 

I don't know if anyone has put this question from another thread to you yet, but ...

Do you know what it would take to load the built-in 1/4 wave RIM antenna (designed for 1.2GHz) as a
1/2 wave antenna on 2.4GHz to present a good load for an aftermarket mini-pci wireless nic?

Thanks! doc

 

Hello,
Hope You could help me I have some (5 or 6 CF72 (P3 and P4), and CF48 P4). They are for resell so i dont repair it but have small question , Most of them have problems with charging battery (they start to charge, then the red light comes on....). I think it's the common problem. Could You help me?

one more time sorry for my bad english ;]

 

that usually means a bad battery.

i would get a spare, known good battery, and let it charge in the machines.

 

It's not the battery, I've tried putting good one.

 

then the mainboard could be bad, and needs to be repaired.

 

So what do you guys know about the "smart chip" rumored to be implanted in the 28 batteries that prevent you from rebuilding them?

 

Just to be clear firek7 -- you say that you used a good battery, did it charge to where the light was green and not red??? Or do you mean that you have a battery that tested good on a working machine that wouldn't charge in the unit you were testing???

 

The CF-72 P4's need the higher capacity battery, the one with the green pull tab rated at 3.6ah. If you use the blue tab battery 3.0ah on the P4 you will get a blinking red light. May be the same issue on the CF-48 P4's so check which batteries you have to make sure you are using the right ones.

 

I had a good battery from my 100% working cf72 (already sold, i've got cf28 ). It didnt work in computers with this problem, the red light came in. I think it's the motherboard case

One more question about batterys, already posted by gravitar....

Can we rebuild batterys in our CF-28 with new cells? Will it work? How does battery calibration work in this model?

 

That is a question I can't answer. Only because our experience is limited to factory supported parts. I'm not saying "don't do it" just that I don't have much experience with non-factory parts on the Toughbooks.

I will certainly ask questions when I am back at work, just know that most of what we see is within factory specs. I have absolutely 0 experience in rebuilding batteries. If the battery is bad, we simply replace it. I am very sorry that I currently can't answer your question.

It is very possible that the battery you have is in good shape but just isn't compatible with that model.