Thinkpads Forum

Even a single port would suffice as long as it's flushed (give or take) inside the PCMCIA slot. Similar to the 3COM X-Jack but for USB 2.0 ports. I'm going to use it for an X24. Does a device exist?

I don't see how it could possibly not protrude and take up a single slot. The width of the USB slot looks to be about the same as the PCMCIA opening.

If someone can prove my thoughts wrong, I'll buy one...

Well no, I won't, but it sounded like the right thing to say.

You are in luck! And IBM makes it, no less. Have to have a dongle though. IBM ThinkPad USB 2.0 CardBus Adapter

EDIT: BTW, the dongle can be unplugged while leaving the card in the slot. Of course you can't use the card supplied USB ports without the dongle attached.

...Is that what the OP was referring to? Maybe I was confused, but I thought a USB PCMCIA card that had absolutely nothing sticking out was desired.

Whether that will serve the OP's needs or not, I cannot say. But at least one doesn't have to keep removing and reinserting the PC Card all the time and worry about wearing out the slot.

EDIT: The dongle can be unplugged just as a USB cable would be, so in a way it's almost the same thing. However, you have to be careful not to lose the dongle or the card is useless.

A dongle is most definitely not something that doesn't stick out; believe me from several years of using something like that with a Xircom PCMCIA card and a Ethernet port dongle for it on an old Comapq 1900...Wearing out slots or not with a PC card, now that I haven't seen even on my venerable 701c which has taken way more than 300 inserts and extractions of PCMCIA cards since I got it more than a decade ago.

christopher_wolf wrote:A dongle is most definitely not something that doesn't stick out

I believe the picture in the link I posted makes that clear.

Regarding the PC Card slot, maybe the pins won't wear out, but I have heard of the PC Card slot door getting damaged and of the blue ejection button occasionally breaking. FWIW, some cards seem to eject easier than others.

If it sticks out, then it isn't something that doesn't stick out. So it isn't the "right" hardware.

Yeah, the cards have variable insertion forces, but one would really have to mess something up to break the door given that it is on lower hinges that simply have a DoM of 90 degrees. All the time I have dealt with PCMCIA cards, which has been a long time, I have seen far more dongles being broken (next to the securement nub on phone jacks, those are the next most obvious things to break). Break the dongle and it becomes useless quickly.

christopher_wolf wrote:All the time I have dealt with PCMCIA cards, which has been a long time

Since you were 10?

No, I was around 8 when I started using my 701c alot; I had already been through takedowns and rebuilds of old IBM PC/AT systems and PS/2s.

The only way I could see for a non-obtrusive USB PC card would be a card type that has a shortened length that fits into the PCMCIA cage shell length, much like some Xircom ethernet cards do, and take up two slots vertically. Other than that, I don't think there is a card out there with a non-obtrusive USB port within a PC card. Like the Xircom at the right hand top corner here. That could fit two USB2 ports side by side as a Type III PCMCIA card.

My poor old Compaq 1900 Presario had a dongled network card, I lived in mortal fear of the dongle connection snapping off, which it did when somebody else was using it and that was the second card too.

I agree that a dongle is fragile. It is good for you to bring up that point. However.....

christopher_wolf wrote:No, I was around 8

Overachiever!!
Please tell me you can't read that wikipedia page you posted!

No, I can't; I don't generally post anything from Wikipedia (I usually like to have something far more reliable, like vendor whitesheets and research articles or hardware reviews) but I found that picture of the Xircom Type III card I had, after the one with the dongle broke, and it looked good enough as I couldn't find any other pictures of it quickly.

Although I do speak and write/read several languages....

Thanks but I was thinking of something like the 3Com X-Jack WiFi cards. But I don't think the standard PCMCIA opening can house a card with standard USB port near the very edge (that doesn't stick out), right? So I guess this is the best alternative. The only downside is the blatant overpricing of this card.

Biggs wrote:Thanks but I was thinking of something like the 3Com X-Jack WiFi cards. But I don't think the standard PCMCIA opening can house a card with standard USB port near the very edge (that doesn't stick out), right? So I guess this is the best alternative. The only downside is the blatant overpricing of this card.

I would really recommend not getting any card with a dongle and to get it only if you really need it. The rate that the dongles can break, or get lost, is pretty high in practice; at which point, might as will go with a card that has a block of USB ports extending out, you can always remove and carry the card along. What do you plan on using the extra ports for?

I have an x24 which has no USB 2.0 ports. I'll be using it to transfer files from my mobile phones.

Owie, no USB ports


If you aren't going to be connecting up too many devices at once, you might as well go with a 2 port USB PCMCIA card as that has the minimum of "blockiness" yet still affords simultaneous connectivity to multiple devices.