What wifi card can be added to a CF54?

Question: What wifi card can be added to a CF54? Or, lacking that, does anyone have the model info or, better yet, a good pic of the actual wifi card from a CF54? I'd like to see both the label for tech details as well as the card and it's actual connector.

Details:
When I got my CF-54E8901KM Performance model I never bothered to check whether it had wireless or not (I know, facepalm). was way more interested in the screen, storage, mem, etc. I just figured it did, but alas - my specific model doesn't. Thankfully it has onboard LAN and I've got a crappy USB wifi dongle that I'm using in the interim...

Unfortunately, the wifi card itself isn't listed as an "option" for a CF54, rather you pick a model that has or doesn't have it and then option mem/drive/etc. from there. So, I can't seem to find anyone who sells just the card as an accessory - @#$%!

The specs for the CF54 lists the wifi as an "Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 8260 802.11a/b/g/n/ac". When I had my unit open for the SSD upgrade, there are 2 slots where I think the wifi card would go. I ~think~ one is for the LTE/GPS card and the other is for the WiFi:




But I'm confused because both those connectors are keyed for 2 "prongs" (meaning the connection itself has a single separator in it). When I dig around the internet looking for an dual band AC 8260, most of them that look the right size have a triple prong connector like this:


When it looks like what I need is something more like this, note this is a pic from a dual band 7260 (not an 8260):



I had to use this 7260 pic because I literally can't find a two prong 8260, which is part of why I'm baffled...

Last point - my CF54 model is also lacking bluetooth,I'm wondering if the actual Intel wifi card is actually a combination wifi/bluetooth card?

As always appreciation in advance!

 

Usually Panasonic uses the black and white wires for the WIFI antennas.
I would doubt that they changed the color scheme.

Yes the newer cards combine WIFI and Bluetooth.

Measure the inside of the connectors.
22mm means it is a NGFF (M.2) slot for the Intel 8260 size card
30mm means it is Mini PCIE slot for the Intel 7260 size card
Don't worry about the second slot on the 8260 card. That is just for use in 2 different types of connectors.
-------------------------------------------------------
The card on the right is the NGFF //Intel 8260 size card-- 22mm
The card on the left is the Intel 7260 size card.--30mm



Upon further examination of your photos, you need the Intel 8260 card.
Notice the hold down screw.
The 7260 has places for a screw on each size.
The 8260 has a place for one screw in the center.

 

Shawn - great info, many thanks again. I think with that I can take a stab at it.

I'll report back with progress, stay tuned.

 

Is there a CF-54 FAQ or somewhere to put this.

Definitely STICKIE GRADE!

Good show guys....very well done.

 

I started a FAQ.
Blair will need to copy a few posts to it.

I figure the WIFI and the second drive posts for starters.

 

Awesome on the CF-54 FAQ and glad I was able to contribute!!!

As a followup on adding a wireless card to mine...

Here's the card I got - it's a Dual Band Wireless AC 8260AC m.2 NGFF Wifi Card w/Bluetooth 4.2 (from Amazon for $24 here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01ERMBDCK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1)




Here's the socket with the screw-down screw still in place


And here's the same shot after taking the screw out



Slide the card in place, and screw it back down. Easy.


Now the tricky part. I really didn't know which of the cables (black or white) attached to which of the ports (labelled 1 and 2 on the card)
After looking at some other disassembled 54s that still showed the card in place, it looked like the black cable went on the port closest
to the back of the system and the white on the inside (that's black on port2 and white on port1)

What was confusing for a minute is that both the port and the connectors on the cables looked to be male (head scratch) and weren't
easily going together. I felt like I was applying too much force and thought something must be wrong. I watched a couple of youtube
vidoes of similar installs and someone said the connectors are like the cups on the end of a 9-volt battery (the rectangular ones) and
that they took a lot of force to pop together.

Oh, and those connectors are tiny - I mean tiny! - tough to get on with fingers or tools





I went back and did just that and, well, it worked. You really have to push them on - I mean, more force than I was comfortable with, but
it worked.


I resumed Windows and it instantly saw it, loaded drivers, and I could connect to both 2.4g and 5g networks. Note I didn't have to
install any special driver software, but I had already installed all the Panasonic stuff which included a bunch of Intel bits so
it must have already been there.


Last note - I saw someone in a thread make mention that on a lot of other toughbooks you may/may-not see anything in the bios about
a wireless card. In this case, it definitely added things - there's now a "Wireless Configuration" in the advanced section with options
that was not there before.





Thanks to Shawn for getting me over my hesitation about the card's three prong connector working with the board's two slots, I've never seen
that before and it didn't look right but, as the man said, it was!

Hope this helps somebody. If you've got a CF-54 without a wireless card, it's super easy to add.

 

Great info and folllow up.

The antenna connectors are called MHF4. They are used on the NGFF cards.
The old style connector is called U.FL. The U.FL connectors are about twice the size of the MHF4 connectors.

If I recall correctly, the white cable is the Main antenna and the black is the Aux antenna on most Toughbooks. So it would seem that the White cable going to pin 1 is correct.

 

Hi. I just noticed that the wires are connected white wire to the black arrow in the card and the black wire is connected to the white arrow in the card. It works, but you are using the secondary antenna as the primary???

 

nice catch on the color indicators on the card