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I have tidied and improved my existing mod. I now have internal bluetooth and an internal standard USB socket for internal memory expansion. I have tested the USB socket with a USB flash drive and it works perfectly.
The bluetooth is connected to the miniPCIe expansion connector and is modded to work off 3V.
The socket is connected to the miniPCIe WLAN connector and has a 5V supply.
USB Connections under the mini PCIe WLAN card. Used for USB socket.
USB connections under the mini PCIe expansion connector. Used for bluetooth.
5V connection point on regulator leg near WLAN mini PCIe connector. Used for USB socket.
3V and ground connections under mini PCIe expansion connector. 3V used for bluetooth. Ground used for bluetooth and USB socket.
The completed mod!
Any questions?
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Outstanding! What gnd connection are you using for the 5v usb port?
If I want to cut the hub from my mod, could I use the 5v point and split it for 2 USB devices, one using the usb+/- from spare slot and the other from wireless? Would be nice to have 2 USB devices without the hub and still have them both on 5v.
Did you reuse wire from a USB cable or did you use something specific?
Thanks!
Last edited by Johnx (2007-11-18 5:11:50 pm)
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In the third photo you can see 2 wires going to the same ground point - one is used for each USB port.
The 5V could be split to power 2 USB devices, I just used the 3V because I had already modded the bluetooth adapter.
Last edited by tristand (2007-11-18 5:15:05 pm)
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tristand wrote:
I used a surface mount USB connector and kynar insulated wirewrapping wire. The wire needs to be pretty thin!
I have Kynar 30awg, it's very thin.
Is there any chance that splitting the single +5v between a ms bluetooth module and corsair flash voyager could cause any damage?
Last edited by Johnx (2007-11-18 5:25:40 pm)
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That's the stuff I used. it's unlikely to do any harm using the 5V point to power two devices as long as they don't take too much power. The devices you are talking about shouldn't take that much power.
No guarantees of course!
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Super mod tristand.
The benefit of using 2 differnet sets of USB+- data point means you didn't need to cram a USB hub in there too.
I like the USB connector, now you can easily replace the USB thumb drive should it eventually die, or drop in and out USB items as you want.
Good one.
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is your normal wifi card still working or do you have to use now a usb wifi?
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@tristand,great mod&pix!I am thinking a similar mod like yours.Just wondering if it is possible just to remove bottom cover by unscrewing 6 screws to reach the bottom side of the pcb without touching the rest or you still have to remove the keyboard and top cover also?
ba
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tristand wrote:
Unfortunately you have to take he whole thing apart to get to the bottom of the PCB
Well I was hoping that there is a simple way but it seems that I have to take the whole thing apart then.I was thinking another option just to keep things simple and in that mini pcie bay.I am thinking to use a USB A socket with a 3.3V to 5V converter which I have in my hand.Just wondering if the 3.3V on pin24 of mini pcie can deliver 100 mA at least?any ideas?
ba
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So for those of us who have the pcie connector if we could get a blank mini-pcie pcb with contacts to the 3v+ grnd usb+ usb- that where easy to solder, we could buy a 16gb usb stick open it up bypass the the 5volt to 3 volt regulator solder the remaining usb pins to there respetive usb+ usb- pcie board pins. and bang we have an asus eee with 16gb of internal memory?
UPDATE: just talked to a more technical savy man then myself who told me if you use usb stick that use voltage regulators ,not resisters etc. that the voltage regulator would simply pass the 3 volts so a mini-pcie to usb adapter and the right usb stick we are ready for sum easy installs replacements.I wonder if we could get a manufacturer to make us up a 100 or so for cheap 4 pins one female usb port and a very small pcb shouldnt cost to much
Last edited by maddocks (2007-11-21 1:11:41 pm)
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for those who dotn know which usb pins are..
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Unless they are using a shunt regulator on the USB stick (unlikely) putting 3V into a regulator with a 3V output will not work. The regulator will have an internal dropout voltage (normally >0.7V) so the output would be lower than the flash drive requires.
Re. getting a PCB made - I'm a freelance electronic engineer and could design such a PCB and have it manufactured - if enough people want it. I was considering designing such a device before I found out the connector was missing on many eeePCs. The only problem is that if you use the 3V supply on pin 52 of the miniPCIe connector the eeePC fails to boot (which is why I used a different 3V point). I haven't tried the other 3V supply pins on the miniPCIe connector.
Does anyone know how many eeePC are shipping with the connector?
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how much do you think would it cost to produce a card like this and how many people would have to order it that it could be produced? like how many are the manufacturing minimum? sorry for my english
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doesnt it fail to boot only if the device isnt a mass storage device with an os instaled? I believe i read when the open line on that voltage pin disappeats the bios disables the internal ssd and looks for a mass storage device on the pcie socket (including the usb pins) is this correct?
If i have to open up my usb stick and solder two pins id do it if I had the pcb hell if i gotta open the case on the stick all i need is an almost blank pcie pcb with just the 4 required pins going to easy to solder pads. What kinda cost would that be?
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@maddocks, it failed to boot when I inserted a Novatel mini PCIe EVDO card as well - see here: http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=2355
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tristand wrote:
I was considering designing such a device before I found out the connector was missing on many eeePCs. The only problem is that if you use the 3V supply on pin 52 of the miniPCIe connector the eeePC fails to boot
Hehe.. I designed a card with that free slot in mind before the Eee launch :) Good thing I never had it made. I still have the StepUp samples from Linear on the way.
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DO you think it is possible to soft-raid 4x4GBusbflash through a x4USBhub and use the 5volts. IT might be really cheap instead of paying £140~ for a 16GB SSD. There are couple 16GB sticks at standard size at expansys if you want to raid 4x16GB.
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Found this online about using RAID with flash drives.
"The first attempt I made was under Windows XP Professional, as I had experience in creating software RAID arrays using standard PATA or SATA drives, and I assumed it would work on flash drives. No such luck, as the options I wanted to access in the Windows' Logical Disk Management tab were all greyed out for these drives. I struggled with it for a while, and then attempted to locate a third party solution, all to no avail.
The next step was to try to make it happen in a Linux environment. Using CentOS Linux 4.0, I found two fairly simple methods that both showed promise. One method was the Logical Volume Manager (LVM), a GUI drive configuration utility included with CentOS. The second method was mdadm v2.2, which I downloaded and installed from the link provided."
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Has anybody else noticed that the eeePCs external USB ports still have a 5V supply when the eee is turned off (shut down) and the mains adapter is connected? Seems a bit strange to me.
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This thread may be of interest if you are concerned about battery life when adding internal devices:
http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=3043
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do i solder USB_D+ from board to device's USB_D- or +?
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