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Author Topic: Retrofit the c3000 with internal wifi  (Read 5161 times)

maybeinterested

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Retrofit the c3000 with internal wifi
« on: October 29, 2004, 05:38:53 am »
The new c3000 seems to have an internal Hitachi microdrive with the same type of standard CF interface as those that have been popular to dissect from eg the Muvo2 MP3 player. Could anyone speculate on the possibilities to take out the drive of the Zaurus and instead fit an embedded CF WiFi card in the internal slot?

Given that the NIC has the proper physical dimensions to fit inside and that the wireless range will be affected, are there any other obvious hurdles?

I am not skilled in the ways a PDA is usually built and would be very interested to know if the internal CF can be expected to work differently from the ordinary slot for plug-in cards...
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mk500

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Retrofit the c3000 with internal wifi
« Reply #1 on: October 29, 2004, 06:01:31 am »
Quote
The new c3000 seems to have an internal Hitachi microdrive with the same type of standard CF interface as those that have been popular to dissect from eg the Muvo2 MP3 player. Could anyone speculate on the possibilities to take out the drive of the Zaurus and instead fit an embedded CF WiFi card in the internal slot?

Given that the NIC has the proper physical dimensions to fit inside and that the wireless range will be affected, are there any other obvious hurdles?

I am not skilled in the ways a PDA is usually built and would be very interested to know if the internal CF can be expected to work differently from the ordinary slot for plug-in cards...
This is an awesome idea. The only problem is that all wifi cards "stick out", so are slightly larger than the microdrive.
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Mahoro

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Retrofit the c3000 with internal wifi
« Reply #2 on: October 29, 2004, 06:32:03 am »
Good imaginatoin......
But......
I doubt it works...really doubt.

Let say:
Can I put my CF wifi card to my digital camera and make it syn w/ my computer, so whenever I shot a photo, it sends to the computer.
Well, I know Nikon and Canon D-SLR have this function, but not in the CF card thing, they cutom-designed.

My friend once put a wifi card into a card reader. The next thing he going to do was sent it back for waranty.
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dz

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Retrofit the c3000 with internal wifi
« Reply #3 on: October 29, 2004, 06:34:41 am »
Not just that, but it would be constantly on I'd imagine.  That would suck for your battery
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tumnus

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Retrofit the c3000 with internal wifi
« Reply #4 on: October 29, 2004, 07:24:55 am »
It depends how the internal microdrive is interfaced. The XScale CPU/chipsets can drive two PCMCIA/CF slots. In all other Zauruses the 2nd slot is unused, but maybe they used this for the internal slot.

If this is the case, then the internal connector would be like another CF slot and you could put whatever you wanted in it, as long as it could physically fit in the space available.

But if you can cut a WiFi card down to fit in the same space as a microdrive, why not just put it in the external CF slot??? Also if it is possible to do this, then why haven't any companies done it, like Socket did with their Bluetooth CF card?
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Mahoro

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Retrofit the c3000 with internal wifi
« Reply #5 on: October 29, 2004, 07:46:46 am »
2CF and 1 SD slot in a PDA....interesting
But that give me a weird image of Zaurus....
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Zaurus 5500- 3.5.2 64mb memory
XP- Qtopia 1.7

Kingston CF 512 RAM on FAT
DigitFilm SD 256 RAM on ext2
Panasonic SD 256 RAM <- can't manage to put ext2 in it :(

Targus universal keyboard <- Not working in 3.5.2
Symbol CF wifi <- worked, but have a bump on the back of the card :(
Intel CF wifi <- not working well :(

2 broken stylus...(bought another one in Japan but I broke that within 2 week after. = o o = )
(managed to glue it w/ krazy glue :)

Battery box <-DIY (Stuffs were bought in RadioShack)

bluedevils

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Retrofit the c3000 with internal wifi
« Reply #6 on: October 29, 2004, 08:01:44 am »
The other consideration is that you can't just take out the HDD without a plan for where /home is going to reside.
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lardman

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Retrofit the c3000 with internal wifi
« Reply #7 on: October 29, 2004, 08:36:32 am »
Quote
The XScale CPU/chipsets can drive two PCMCIA/CF slots. In all other Zauruses the 2nd slot is unused, but maybe they used this for the internal slot.

This would be an interesting hack for a C7xx machine then - anyone know how it could be done? I assume this is how the sl 6000 and iPAQs run their CF jackets (I think the 6000 has this?)?


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dhns

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Retrofit the c3000 with internal wifi
« Reply #8 on: October 29, 2004, 09:24:57 am »
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The other consideration is that you can't just take out the HDD without a plan for where /home is going to reside.
That is the key issue - you could NFS- or SMB-mount a server through WiFi :-)
It is sometimes called a Thin Client or X-Server or similar
« Last Edit: October 29, 2004, 09:26:49 am by dhns »
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bluedevils

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Retrofit the c3000 with internal wifi
« Reply #9 on: October 29, 2004, 10:46:13 am »
More than likely it would have to go onto SD as putting it on another CF card would kind of defeat the purpose.  Performance would take a hit.
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iamasmith

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Retrofit the c3000 with internal wifi
« Reply #10 on: October 29, 2004, 12:46:06 pm »
I think it's far more interesting to consider replacing the Microdrive with a solid state CF card for extra performance and I'm assuming better battery life especially when we start to see cheap 8Gb cards (or bigger).
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amrein

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Retrofit the c3000 with internal wifi
« Reply #11 on: October 29, 2004, 01:34:02 pm »
Doesn't compact flash exist with mass storage feature and wifi / bluetooth at the same time?

If the port is completely wired, this is just a question of drivers and this will be possible. Perhaps "maybeinterested" has found the hidden Christmas plan of Sharp: release a SL-C3000 with an internal CF + WiFi + Bluetooth in Europe and US.

Well, I begin to save money for my Christmas gift, just in case...
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amrein

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Retrofit the c3000 with internal wifi
« Reply #12 on: October 29, 2004, 01:38:25 pm »
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This is an awesome idea. The only problem is that all wifi cards "stick out", so are slightly larger than the microdrive.
If this can be done, it's better to have the aerial not on the motherboard but connected to the chassis for example. I don't know if you already saw those pcmcia cards with external cable for extra aerial.
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amrein

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Retrofit the c3000 with internal wifi
« Reply #13 on: October 29, 2004, 01:41:51 pm »
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I think it's far more interesting to consider replacing the Microdrive with a solid state CF card for extra performance and I'm assuming better battery life especially when we start to see cheap 8Gb cards (or bigger).
Or add a 60 Go hard drive and put all your MP3 on it

Well, I would really like to know if battery life could be saved with a CF instead of the HD.
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iamasmith

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Retrofit the c3000 with internal wifi
« Reply #14 on: October 29, 2004, 02:39:07 pm »
I'm pretty sure that we would save battery life and (I know we are still speculating on it being a MD) solid state has gotta be better R/W performance than a Microdrive.

I know, I made the mistake of doing my first NAND backup to a 1Gb IBM Microdrive on my SL-C860 and it took about 1.5hrs (ouch), doing the same thing with my 512Mb SD card takes about 10 mins (and about 5 mins to restore).

Surely this has GOT to be better....
« Last Edit: October 29, 2004, 02:39:44 pm by iamasmith »
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