my cf28 wifi kit and combo ether card is here!

My brand new CF28 wifi kit and combo ether card have arrived this morning. I noticed that the wifi card has two antenna ports and I have seen a lot of CF28's with antennas in the LCD housing so I'm guessing that it's possible to have a dual antenna setup with the wifi card using an antenna in the LCD and a small antenna plugged into the patch cable at the side of the base (in the modem socket panel I removed the other day when pulling out the modem card)...

Something else I came across on Ebay was a 29" wifi antenna patch cable apparently designed to connect a wi-fi card to an antenna in the LCD housing.

How does the antenna in the LCD housing actually mount, and what's involved in retro-fitting one? While I'm on that subject, I saw new 13" CF28 touchscreen panel on Ebay the other day - probably not really worth the trouble as I could get a CF28 with backlit rubberised keyboard and touchscreen for a decent price, though being a 'case hacker' from way back (always creating strange electronic devices in custom housings!), I like taking things apart and putting them back together with 'enhancements'.

As for software, the wifi kit has an Intel Proset/Wireless 2002/2004 software CD supplied with it. Is there anything better out there that will support the wifi card?

Craig.

 

Craig,
Its much easier to mount a paddle type antenna in the left hand plastic cover on the palm rest. You have to bend it so most of it is on the top of the palm rest but under the plastic. I haven't seen many successful installs on the display any where. It really works quite well on the palm rest. If you have a factory antenna already on the top left corner of the display it can be tuned to work fairly well.
CAP

 

My system doesn't have an antenna in display housing. I'll have a stubby antenna mounted on a socket which I'll fit to the right hand side port cover where the ether and modem sockets are. Just curious since the Intel wi-fi card has sockets for a main and an aux antenna so I was thinking about the possibility of a LCD housing mounted antenna, though it's not something I want to pursue right now.

I also noticed that 3com's website says that the 3cn3ac1556b combo ether/modem card hasn't been supported since 2003 and the drivers don't support Win Xp. So it'll be interesting to see if that works under Xp natively on this system. Doesn't look like 3com has made any more mini pci cards with ethernet since that one.

Time for another coffee then toughbook surgery!

Craig.

 

I have several of the LCD mounted antennas that I have pulled off CF-28s over the years... As well as the passthroughs that you will need to hook it all up... (If you want to be able to use the passthrough in a Gamber-Johnson type dock... For an external mag-mount antenna.) PM me for details if you like....

 

On the subject of wifi cards, spied a Broadcom BCM94318 on the Evil Bay and was wondering who's used one of them and what they're like compared the Intel card? BTW worked out the model number of the Intel card - it's a WM3B2200BG which supports 802.11 b and g. There is also a 2915 card which includes 802.11a though I dunno if anyone uses that now.

The Broadcom card has quite a good spec sheet and I think I spotted something the other day from someone mentioning they like the Broadcom cards since they support WPA and WPA2... My 802 networking experience is pretty minimal though encryption is a handy thing as wireless networks are inherently unsafe compared to wired ones.

Craig.

 

The Broadcom and the Intel (As far as the stock cards in Toughbooks) are about the same. I think they are spec'd with the same power... Around 100mW I believe. Maybe a little less.

 

With the Intel 2200 pro card you have, you will need to connect antennas to both connectors or the card won't work right (poor reception, dropped connections).

I configured mine with paddle antennas under both the left and right plastic covers. On the left side (battery side), it's easy. On the right side, (lan/modem side), I attached the antenna horizontally, with the radiating element between the lan/modem connector bodies and the top of the cover.

The radiating element of the paddle is actually the J-shaped squiggle on one side of the paddle, so this should be as far to the corner of the cover as possible. The large square serves as a ground plane/counterpoise for the antenna, and can be shielded by the metal case without affecting the performance.

The latest drivers are here:
http://support.intel.com/support/wireless/wlan/pro2200bg/

nine

 

9nine9,
When I refer to the left side of the computer I mean when it is right side up. I had the impression Craig was putting a RP-SMA for an external antenna in the left side plastic cover. If you are careful, you can get a paddle antenna in there too. It really works quite well.
CAP

 

yep, but the Intel 2200 card won't work right with only a single antenna, you must attach two. I was recommending installing a paddle in both the left and right plastic covers. You the left side is easy, the right side requires you to be a bit careful.

nine

 

I've never hear of a card having to have two antennas that MUST be attached. That is why the connections are always labeled MAIN & Aux... Come to think of it... I have been working on one in my shop that has a Broadcom card that only has one antenna and it works fine.

 

That was my initial thinking too, so I initially set up the Intel 2200 in my CF-28 with a single antenna under the left side cover.

It kind of worked; Signal strength and data rate reported as OK, but the connection would periodically drop out, especially under heavy data transfers. Transferring anything over about 100MB was pretty much impossible without a protocol that could restart the transfer.

I first assumed that the problem was my antenna being shielded by the magnesium case, or some sort of RFI issue inside the case. However,
I saw the same signal issues with the laptop on the workbench (less than 15 ft LOS from my router), and the paddle antenna extended outside the case. I tried several different things, and nothing helped until I attached both antennas at the same time. Once I did that, all my issues went away, and I get wireless performance on a par with my iBook. Disconnecting either of the antennas causes the same performance issues to come back.

There may be some way to configure the card to work with a single antenna, but it doesn't appear to be exposed in any obvious way via either the XP or Linux driver.

nine

 

I have been told that the Intel 2200 cards were the first Centrino-validated WiFi cards made; part of their design was based on using both antennas in a co-phase arrangement, thereby decreasing required power drain due to a more efficient antenna layout. Unfortunately, when you lose one element your antenna is no longer even close to being matched, and this accounts for the loss of signal stability.

mnem
Pizza flies the foreplay toast on Lebanese inner tubes.

 

I've seen people on Ebay selling pairs of flat miniature antennas which I believe are the type that's been talked about here for connecting to the Intel 2200 and 2915 wi-fi cards. Maybe the Broadcom ones as well.

Will try to track some down. In the meantime I have a standard single antenna that I'll try out.

Craig.