[Rune] got tired of seeing the side of his USB card hanging out of his laptop. He cut it down and re-assembled it to keep all of it inside of his laptop. Nice clean work. I’ve taken PC cards apart before, and it’s a challenge to keep them looking this good after that.
this specific card didn’t supply 5v from the factory
it shipped with a cable that powers the card from the laptops usb1 port
which currently is unchanged. but I will upgrade
the card with a miniature boost converter
to produce 5v for the ports
/Kyndal
Posted at 12:53 am on Mar 15th, 2007 by Rune Kyndal
From TFA:
“Next version / Or upgrade will include a 3.3 to 5v boost converter.. “
If you plan on making this a permanent fixture in the computer, you could draw +5v from the board somewhere — other usb (1.1?) ports are a good place, or a PS2 port depending on the age of the machine.
Another option is to make the card occupy both slots (if two exist) to find room for a boost converter or to hide it in some other spare space and run extra wire to connect it internally.
Posted at 1:59 am on Mar 15th, 2007 by toaste
he left out the most important part… how the hell he got the PCMCIA card apart without it looking like total ass afterward… :-)
Posted at 8:33 am on Mar 15th, 2007 by akmixdown
BRILLIANT!
Thankyou, this EXACT mod with the EXACT same card has been on my to-do list for some months now… you legend!
Posted at 8:39 am on Mar 15th, 2007 by Liam
Beautiful! This really is a classic example of a clever hack that does its job well, looks good on the outside and functional-but-ugly on the inside. Bravo!
Posted at 9:39 am on Mar 15th, 2007 by Henry Hallam
#4 akmixdown : You do it carefully :o)
Posted at 11:20 am on Mar 15th, 2007 by Rune Kyndal
I have been waiting to see a hack like this for a while now. I wonder if it would be easier if you used smaller usb connectors like http://www.ramelectronics.net/assets/images/mini-usb2-5pin.jpg you might even be able to cram a 4 port card in a flush mount package.
Posted at 6:05 pm on Mar 15th, 2007 by Corvus382
easier? it is absolutely possible.
but you would have to use non standard cables then
/Kyndal
Posted at 8:53 pm on Mar 15th, 2007 by Rune Kyndal
just be careful with longer wires–i’m almost certain with the new wiring, it’s out of usb spec because you need controlled impedance for high speed stuff. trust me, I did some sloppy modding of a usb cable before, and you can’t get away with too much
Posted at 11:43 pm on Mar 15th, 2007 by viktor
Nicely done! How do you know which parts of the circuit are unnecessary? I’m considering trying this on mine, a cheap Dynex card, and don’t know if the layout would be the same. Also, how’d you get the card apart without breaking anything? Just a mini screwdriver, or something else?
Posted at 1:30 pm on Mar 18th, 2007 by LoneSwordsmanTheory
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Interesting… But did I understand correctly? That you neet to plug in USB power to it to make it work correctly?!
Posted at 12:35 am on Mar 15th, 2007 by Chris