Handtops, UMPC - HSDPA on OQO see info

04/13/07 + 1trillion

READ about the MINI PCI EXPRESS card being used in the OQO 02
If that is the interface for the WWAN card in the OQO 02 then you can change it out with another card from the same manufacturer for there various HSDPA cards which appear to be the same form factor and voltage! While I am sure one would void the warranty, some might consider this a viable option to get what they want from their OQO 02. This is what I am considering doing plus changing the Hard Drive to the new 64GB solid state drive from Seagate (FASTER than the old 32GB solid state drives)

I titled a topic wrong earlier so I am correcting with this new one.

jump to the following link for the topic titled:

What is this all about?See link included

link

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07/26/07 + lurch

Today my MC8780 arrived, what a nice tiny yet powerful device... I have new hope to get it to work in my oqo! I will hook it up to a small expresscard2usb adapter and connect this one to the oqos usb connector internally. At least on my desk it should work, my biggest doubts are wether all the parts will fit into the chassis...
From an electronical point of view it should work since expresscard and pci-e minicard are the same interface, only the size differs. And the pci-e minicard interface has more "reserved" pins that are not used as of today. And the best thing is: the hsdpa cards use the usb bus, so all the expresscard2usb adapter has to do is to convert the usbs 5V voltage to the 3,3V and 1,5V that are needed on the pci-e minicard. So it should work... I will keep you updated :-)

07/26/07 + educationk12

lurch said: "You should try the USB drivers, I found out that most pci-e minicards actually communicate via the usb bus. Only devices with a demand of very high data rate (like flash disks i.e.) make use of the express bus. So the drivers might work..."

I did try them, but they didn't work. I haven't tried what tnkgrl suggested yet.

edited: Jul 26 2007 + educationk12

lurch said: "Today my MC8780 arrived, what a nice tiny yet powerful device... I have new hope to get it to work in my oqo! I will hook it up to a small expresscard2usb adapter and connect this one to the oqos usb connector internally. At least on my desk it should work, my biggest doubts are wether all the parts will fit into the chassis...
From an electronical point of view it should work since expresscard and pci-e minicard are the same interface, only the size differs. And the pci-e minicard interface has more "reserved" pins that are not used as of today. And the best thing is: the hsdpa cards use the usb bus, so all the expresscard2usb adapter has to do is to convert the usbs 5V voltage to the 3,3V and 1,5V that are needed on the pci-e minicard. So it should work... I will keep you updated :-)"

hmmm, i hate to sound cynical, but I think you are going to run into driver issues. At least that seems to be my problem. I mean I have all the right hardware...just lacking the drivers to work in the OQO.

07/27/07 + tnkgrl

*educationk12*, try to figure out what VID/PID the Dell card appears as in the Device Manager, then add this VID/PID to the .INF file of your existing drivers... Maybe Dell's firmware uses a proprietary VID/PID which is why your existing drivers don't see the card!

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07/27/07 + victorgv

Sometimes when you try to install drivers from different manufacturer you wait for dialog "this software only for Dell"
do not click on it. Go to temp directory and copy real install from there. Sometimes you have to be real fast and start copy before that dialog comes up.

07/27/07 + lurch

It is such a pity that the so called "open" standard PCI hides its current specifications from the open public. You have to pay 100$ for each specification paper plus 40$ shipping for international orders. How can someone call this an "open standard"?... Now I am still not sure about the exact pinout of an expresscard or pci-e minicard since 240$ is just about too much for me... The pinouts I found freely available might be outdated...

07/27/07 + Cooltops

I have tried the same as *education12* except with a Novatel E725 from Dell. The specs are exactly the same as my U620 except for GPS and Rev A and fits perfectly. But, the same deal no driver support.

The file inside the temp directory is simply an .msi file. I have used some msi tools to try to manipulate the properties and/or order of install with no luck. It seems you could try and extract all of the files from the .msi file and force install the drivers, but that is really over my head. So I'm sending it back to Dell and trying to order a Sprint U720 and take out the card from it.

Really stinks.

edited: Jul 28 2007 + educationk12

I'm not sure if it is a MSI or EXE file. I could email it to anyone who thinks they can get a driver out of it. I'll have to go look. I haven't had the time to give it another try.

Apparently, the Aircard 875 pc card (pcmcia) has voice and hsdpa.

07/28/07 + tnkgrl

*educationk12*, the AirCard 875 is essentially the same device as the MC8775V, but PCMCIA based, instead of USB based.

Recent Blog: Bluetooth hack for the Asus 701 (Eee)

edited: Jul 28 2007 + educationk12

tnkgrl said: "*educationk12*, the AirCard 875 is essentially the same device as the MC8775V, but PCMCIA based, instead of USB based."

Thanks tnkgrl, I'm going to buy a 875 card for one of my Thinkpads. I'm waiting on IBM/Lenovo to come out with a Santa Rosa version of the T61/R61 @ 15.0" 4:3 display before I attempt the embedded chip with it. They have only have widescreen T61 with santa rosa, and I don't want the soon to be discontinued T60p with the 667Mhz bus, so I think I'll go with the 875 pc card. I'm very pleased to see AT&T selling that card as their primary HSDPA card.

07/28/07 + educationk12

educationk12 said: "I'm not sure if it is a MSI or EXE file. I could email it to anyone who thinks they can get a driver out of it. I'll have to go look. I haven't had the time to give it another try.

Apparently, the Aircard 875 pc card (pcmcia) has voice and hsdpa."

Well, the Dell hsdpa disc file just says application/setup. I did detailed view and properties and it doesn't show the extension...not sure how to make it show it either. I can't email it because it's 25MB. I signed up with MediaMax, but for whatever reason can't upload it. Someone sent me an email asking me to email it to them. Anyone know who I can make this available without mailing it?

edited: Jul 28 2007 + educationk12

Cooltops said: "I have tried the same as *education12* except with a Novatel E725 from Dell. The specs are exactly the same as my U620 except for GPS and Rev A and fits perfectly. But, the same deal no driver support.

The file inside the temp directory is simply an .msi file. I have used some msi tools to try to manipulate the properties and/or order of install with no luck. It seems you could try and extract all of the files from the .msi file and force install the drivers, but that is really over my head. So I'm sending it back to Dell and trying to order a Sprint U720 and take out the card from it.

Really stinks."

Cooltops, I'll probably end up going back to Sprint myself and try to return the HSDPA card to Dell. I mean I am already paying $39.99 a month for something I have yet to use.

Apparently, Dell has two EVDO Rev A w/ GPS embedded modules for Sprint. Which one are you getting? One seems like it is Novatel E725 link and the other one seems to be Sierra Wireless 5720 link . Although I'm not sure about the latter, as both say 5720 in the description, clearly the E725 is the novetel, but not sure if the latter one is sierra wireless or what. Both are the same $179 price. The other option is to get a USB novatel u720 which supposedly has the embedded chip inside it, and maybe then you'd have a driver whereas I suspect if we got our Novatel chips from Dell that we'd run into the same driver issues. Seems the U720s run between $100 to $170 on ebay. link

So probably what I will do at this point is:

1. See if I can't get a driver for the Dell HSDPA embedded chip and if that fails then get rid of the card either by returning it or selling it on ebay.
2. Buy a Sierra Wireless 875 pc card for my Thinkpad
3. Possibly buy a EVDO Rev A w/ GPS to see if Sprint wants to play nice with a newer embedded card which seems to be supported by the U720 which they sell...keep in mind the Sprint software is most likely optimized for those items Sprint sells at their stores, for example I didn't have any issues with the Sprint EVDO Rev A Pantech pc card that came for free with my 2 year contract.
4. check to see if the oem sprint card still works in the oqo.
5. I'm not going to call Premier because if I can't get voice with HSDPA then I want GPS in the oqo (so long as the Rev A GPS card doesn't have connectivity issues like the Rev 0 card)..., but I'm not sure if S&T 2008 w/ GPS Traffic will work with any GPS device or whether it has to be Microsoft based GPS. I wish oqo would just come out with an HSDPA device already.
6. Eventually, buy a Thinkpad T61/R61 santa rosa 15" 4:3 laptop with WWAN and upgrade it with voice...but its not out yet.

edited: Jul 28 2007 + educationk12

Looking at the Lenovo T61 and T61p maintenance manual, there are three different part numbers for the MC8775. One for Cingular, one for Vodofone and one that says SIM unlock. Clearly these chips can be locked to a carrier, but I wonder if the firmware and/or drivers lock them to certain devices. Certainly seems to be the case in my experience. The best solution obviously is SIM unlocked although you'd think locked to AT&T would mean you'd increase your chances of it working with AT&T, no?

Seems like all of this is necessary for it to work on a thinkpad...this is for the widescreen 15.4 model, haven't checked to see if the other screen sizes are the same or not. link

42T0901 or if not available then 42T0933 MPCI card
42T0909 WWAN Adapter
42X3919 SIM slot
39T0495 Daughter Card (MDC1.5)
42T0885 WUSB Adapter
93P4516 WWAN Antenna Assembly

Then there is a UWB antenna assembly 93P4520 which I think stands for ultra-wide band...not completely sure what it does, but I think it keeps the signals from getting mixed up. link

07/28/07 + tnkgrl

*educationk12*, the UWB antenna is for the WUSB adapter (wireless USB).

Recent Blog: Bluetooth hack for the Asus 701 (Eee)

edited: Jul 28 2007 + educationk12

tnkgrl said: "*educationk12*, the UWB antenna is for the WUSB adapter (wireless USB)."

Thanks!

I learned that the later versions of the 860 card does voice and data...only 1.8mbps down yet the same up as the 875. It fits flush inside a pc card holder, so I'm going to go with that because I hate pc cards sticking out of the pc card slot. I'll wait for the HSUPA voice module/pc card, plus I'm on the iphone plan so it'll help put some restraint on me. ;o) I'll report on how the 860 does when it arrives.

There's a 7.2 down/384up card on mobile planet that is a USB and Expresscard in ONE...strange, I guess that'd be nice but you'd have to carry around the USB adapter...plus it sticks out and no HSUPA and of course no voice.