Flush mount pcmcia to usb mod

[JAC17]

Hello everyone,

I really enjoy the wonderful and friendly environment offered by Thinkpads.com and wanted to share a T30 upgrade.

This is based on the Hackaday "shortened usb" article. I ordered a 4 port pcmcia to usb card and set out to make a flush mount card that looked as stock as possible. Here are the results: http://img.photoamp.com/i/tz4HwksDO.jpg . The picture does not reflect that I placed the top cover back on the pcmcia card.

Everything appears to be functional even though the mod does not meet usb 5v specs. The circuitry that I removed was the external 5v power jack and some signal conditioning circuitry for the data lines. I thought removing the conditioning circuits would cause problems but I haven't experienced any errors. I have tested several usb 802.11b wireless adapters, es-388 usb bluetooth dongle, and a 512MB Sandisk Cruzer. All worked fine. I am afraid to try an external drive without an independent supply. I don't think 3.6v would satisfy the drive.

Thanks for sharing your time.
Jac

[Andersonjoe711]

That's pretty impressive! It goes to show you just what you can do with enough persistance.