43 replies to this topic

[ta2cba]

Hi All,

I was thinking for sometime since I got this little beauty to squeeze a hub into my EEE in order to obtain easy to reach, 4 USB ports internally . For the time being I used two of them for plugging in USB gadgets and spared the other two for future mods like usb zigbee transceiver and an internal USB GPS Receiver.I have 8GB USB Flash and Belkin Bluetooth slotted in as seen in pix.I would like to thank, Tnkgrl,Tristand and Johnx for their useful info on connection points and ideas as well as to this great forum.

ba

Edited by ta2cba, 12 December 2007 - 10:48 AM.

[houdini]

I like what you have done very much, any chance of some closeup pics of the connections, and which hub do you recommend?

[ta2cba]

Quote

I like what you have done very much, any chance of some closeup pics of the connections, and which hub do you recommend?

Thanks.I used the synapsis flexible hub. Here is the link. http://synapsis.manu...899/USB-Hub.htm

I found it at Maplin for 16 Euros.The good thing about this hub is it has a very small foot print pcb and all USB ports are soldered via cables not directly on to pcb itself which saved me from desoldering the USB's from PCB.Also used the USB ports as they had their own wiring as seen in pix. You can get the connection points from this thread: http://forum.eeeuser...pic.php?id=2334

ba

Edited by ta2cba, 09 December 2007 - 10:48 PM.

[houdini]

Thanks, think i will do this to mine, when it arrives!

[alanala]

what wattage solder iron do you use?

[ta2cba]

Quote

what wattage solder iron do you use?

I am using an Antex 12 W soldering iron with a very fine 0.6 mm tip.The model is Antex M12 -12 W.

ba

[Johnx]

ta2cba, outstanding!

Could you post the measurements of the hub PCB for me?

Edited by Johnx, 10 December 2007 - 07:32 PM.

[ta2cba]

Quote

ta2cba, outstanding!

Could you post the measurements of the hub PCB for me?

Thanks Johnx.It will be really hard to crack the case open for an exact measurement but I can say that lengthwise it is half the ram module and width wise the same as ram module width.I measured and compared it with the ram module before I installed in just to see if I can put it under the Ram module but it was a bit thick to fit there as there was a cap and xtal which I needed to desolder so I gave up that idea.I hope this will be helpful.

ba

[Johnx]

Got one on order right now :)

Funny, have all the parts I need for my next mod except a new Eee PC :D

[ta2cba]

@Johnx,This hub is amazingly ideal for EEE mods.I was so lazy to desolder all USB ports from the hub pcb I almost gave up the idea of fitting in a hub and was going to your brilliant idea of sticking two ports in and solder them to mobo usb points,then I saw this in maplin last sat and fell in love@first sight!:)

ba

Edited by ta2cba, 10 December 2007 - 08:09 PM.

[ta2cba]

Quote

Got one on order right now :)

Funny, have all the parts I need for my next mod except a new Eee PC :D

How about using the same EEE and push the USB conns to hub's two ports and use the 3rd one extended to the LCD bezel thru the hinges and plant a bluetooth in there!I am planning the bezel bluetooth mod this weekend.

ba

Edited by ta2cba, 10 December 2007 - 08:53 PM.

[Johnx]

Indeed, I want the hub and bluetooth in the screen space using the camera USB connection to run the HUB then connecting USB 1 to camera, USB to bluetooth and running 3 & 4 down to the spare bay for 2 * 16GB flash voyagers.

Managed to get hold of a white Eee PC about 15 min ago, at least this way I can see what a white keyboard looks like on the black Eee PC :)

[SpoonerPS3]

Hi guys...I'm getting an EEE in a week or 2...I've seen all this mods and I'm really liking them...but I have a question...Why do you connect the 4 cables that go to the usb hub on diferent points of the motherboard, instead of just to one of the already available usb ports? thanks

[ta2cba]

Quote

Hi guys...I'm getting an EEE in a week or 2...I've seen all this mods and I'm really liking them...but I have a question...Why do you connect the 4 cables that go to the usb hub on diferent points of the motherboard, instead of just to one of the already available usb ports? thanks

There are two usb ports other than 3 external ones in the mini pcie conns, one in the wifi conn and the other one is in the ram bay.By using those the external ones are spared.If you don't mind losing one external port you can use it equally well and I think soldering to one of those will be more easy.it's a matter of choice i think.

ba

[ta2cba]

@johnx,white keyboard on a black EEE!Wow!I would really like to see that.Could you post a pic ?:)

ba

[Jama]

Hey great mod :D .. if i ever get an EEE which im seriously considering .. well hoping i will do this mod. Here a link for the smae hub for $6.81 or about £3.40 for us english folk .. that includes free worldwide shipping, great site for memory and other cool stuff at great prices. Link http://www.dealextre...ils.dx/sku.1148

Enjoy .. Jama

[ckegg]

I just realized that your hub is at the same place as mine, great work!

Here is my hub mod + 2 x 16GB sticks: http://eeemod.net/fo...&extra=page%3D1 , sorry in foreign language.

But I put my sticks at MDC area because I want to save the Mini-PCIe area for SSD expansion.

Edited by ckegg, 11 December 2007 - 07:05 AM.

[Kermee]

Quote

I just realized that your hub is at the same place as mine, great work!

Here is my hub mod + 2 x 16GB sticks: http://eeemod.net/fo...&extra=page%3D1 , sorry in foreign language.

But I put my sticks at MDC area because I want to save the Mini-PCIe area for SSD expansion.

Very nice and very clean! Very impressive!

Cheers,
Kermee

[developerzero]

For anyone who wants to take this one step further, check out these two chips from TI:
TUSB2036 - 2/3 port USB hub (http://focus.ti.com/...t/tusb2036.html)
TUSB2046B - 4 port USB hub (http://focus.ti.com/.../tusb2046b.html)

Either of these would be great for building you own hub from scratch (and you can get free samples of either chip, mine are coming in a week). Personally, I'm going to take this hack one step further and make my own mini PCIe card with the hub chip hooked up to the USB pins, and headers for hooking up devices. I'll post again when I get it done.

Edited by developerzero, 11 December 2007 - 08:58 AM.

[ta2cba]

Quote

I just realized that your hub is at the same place as mine, great work!

Here is my hub mod + 2 x 16GB sticks: http://eeemod.net/fo...&extra=page%3D1 , sorry in foreign language.

But I put my sticks at MDC area because I want to save the Mini-PCIe area for SSD expansion.

Wow,what a clean approach to the same problem!I feel that mine needs a lot of house cleaning when I look at yours! :) and thanks for the great idea of where to put my bluetooth,I was thinking to use one of the spare ports on hub and ditch it into the LCD bezel area but it is more easy to stick that near the modem port I suppose and I will end up with an empty USB port to slot in another 8Gig flash :) I was thinking to slot in two 16 gig flash but I thought I might buy another EEE with the investment on them so decided to wait till the price tag drops.

ba

Edited by ta2cba, 11 December 2007 - 10:19 AM.