External Wifi Antenna Mod & Thanks For Awesome Site/Forum!

[egoods]

First and foremost I have to say a huge thank you to anyone who has ever posted any tips/tricks/guides/contributed to these forums/this community in any way... I've been lurking for the past week and have learned a ton.

I'm gunna start with the backstory but if you're just interested in my planned external wifi antenna mod/my offer to you fine folks skip the next two paragraphs. Oh, and I'm going to end with two stupid questions I haven't been able to nail down an exact answer to... so you can skip that too, if you're so inclined.

So, quick backstory. Some of you will probably get a kick out of this. On Wednesday night last week I was wrapping up a presentation I was going to give at a customer's facility the next morning when the Magsafe/I-O board on my "trusty" Macbook Pro (non-unibody, mid-2007 15") decided it'd had enough. Normally, not a big deal they're about $15 on ebay to replace... but it was 10:30pm and I HAD to have a laptop of some kind to show the presentation on (99% of my customers don't even allow thumb-drives on property for fear of a virus/maleware on there networks). So, I pondered/paniced for a moment and thought "what's a laptop that's EVERWHERE, that I can easily find used at this hour on Craigslist?!?". 30 minutes later I was back in my hotel room with a $80 T61 (7661) Thinkpad. Thankfully the second person I sent a text to was awake, and agreed to meet me that late... The presentation went off without a hitch and I almost immediatly grew a great deal of appreciation for what these laptops do. They're unbelievably durable, and totally focused on function over form (polar-opposite of Macbook, basically), I may have been a Mac fanboy (and I still am to some degree) back in 2007... but as you enter the "workforce" you tend to grow an appreciation for things that are reliable and always work.

I've since purchased a T9500 proc, 8gb of RAM, the dual-band B/G/N Intel card (the model number escapes me), a Samsung Evo 250gig SSD canabalized from my Macbook Pro (thanks to the middleton bios I get SATA-II) and a trackpad/palm-rest from a T-400 I play to try and coax onto this rig (I miss my big trackpad...). My boss (also happens to be my father, who has owned various Thinkpads since... forever it seems) has ordered me a Lenovo X240 but I can't exactly scratch that "fiddle with it" itch I've now got... something about voiding warranties or some such. I plan to use this T61 as my on-road laptop since it does seem a good bit more durable then the X240 (guess they've tried to bring "style" into it!?!). So, I'm going to modify/upgrade it with that in mind, which brings me to the external antenna mod.

So, onto the wifi mod! An issue I've had at many customer facilities (and even hotels) I stay in they have woefully inadequate wifi coverage, and previously I was carrying an external card with an RP-SMA connector and giant antenna. It occured to me a few nights ago that it wouldn't be terribly difficult to get rid of the USB dongle and use U.Fl (the push-on connectors on almost all Mini PCIE wireless cards) to RP-SMA pigtails (most external wifi antennas use RP-SMA connectors), and mount them recessed in the lid. I also work in manufactoring and happen to have a good friend down the road that is an expert at maching soft plastics/soft materials, so the plan is this weekend I'm going to take the lid down to his shop and we're going to see if we can mount the RP-SMA connectors flush, or as close to it as we can so they're not sticking out/easily borken. The double-benefit is you'll still have a pretty functional internal "antenna" thanks to the pigtails running up the side/back of the screen, but when you want to eek a bit more range it's as simple as screwing in the antennas. I already had an assortment of different length/style antennas in my laptop bag so for me it's an easy transition (everything from stubby 2dbi antennas all the way up to a foot and a half long 9dbi monster... and some cantennas, yagis...).

My offer to you folks is, upon successful completion if anybody is interested I'll gladly take on a few more lids and do the same (I'm installing three connectors, but two wouldn't be an issue if you only want two... or even one...), just send me your lid with a label for return shipping and I'll get it done! If you have any other bits or bobs you'd like machined i'll see what i can do... not sure how much (if any) of a need there is but I thought i would offer. None the less I will share the results as soon as it's done! As far as plastic machinging beyond this, I'll gladly help as long as it's not some monsterous project, programming the machines and dialing everything in can be quite tedious, drilling holes is easy, precision maching beyond that gets a good bit more involved. But, lemme know if there's some idea you've been mulling around and I'll do what I can to help!

Finally, my two questions I feel are dumb but I've yet to get an exact answer on. So I have the T61 with the 14.1" widescreen. If I wanted to change to the 15.4" is it just a matter of swapping the assembly around or are the cases/mounting points different? Basically, can i get a 15.4" assembly and swap em or is it a bigger job than that?

Secondly, the Expresscard slot's "ejector" button seems to be stuck out... it "ejects" the card with no issue but I'm concerned about it getting damaged constantly sticking out like that. But I can't for the life of me figure out what exactly would need to be replaced/repaired, is it a part of the cage? Seperate mechanism? If I replace it can I expect my expresscard to "lock-in" and not cosntantly slide out?

Thanks again! I'm looking forward to being involved in future discussion/mods! Oh, and if anyone has one of those (rumored?) T61 Motherboards that work with Sandybridge processors (I believe they were being discussd on a Chinese language forum a while ago?) I'll gladly give an arm or a leg for it! Or, whatever market value is

[kenzking]

Neat project post some pictures when you are completed!

The 15" and 14" t61 are completely different. The screen housing, and base are not interchangeable. I believe the motherboards are different as well. The 15" widescreen t6x's are a lot larger overall, quite a bit different. I find them a bit bulky to be a portable machine... IMO

The pcmcia cage and button are part of a removable assembly that attaches to the motherboard. If yours is broken you can probably find a replacement pretty easily. Different models were made though so check the FRU part numbers from service manual.

[BillMorrow]

i'll say thanks for the kind words as a representative of all those posters..

re your apple fixation..
for myself, i have always viewed apple products (after the apple 2) as a black box.. i too like the ability to frankenpad my thinkpads..
i like my iPhone and my iPads as they always work, software wise.. OK iOS just works (black box again but i'm at the age where i just want it to work) and my multiple thinkpads all seem to just keep plugging along and i must add here that when you can get a used thinkpad X300 or T61 or T4xx for under $250~ how can anyone go wrong..?!

re your machining small plastic parts for a recessed antenna mount on the lid, have you considered 3-D printing of those parts..? IF you have access to a 3-D printer of course..

re. 15 inch vs. 14 inch..
most all external parts are specific to the screen size BUT having taken apart a few 14 inch and 15 inch T61 thinkpads what i found was the same electronics with clever extensions to accomodate the smaller planar board in the larger case.. just FYI as your mileage may vary..

and finally, welcome to the forum..!

[egoods]

Neat project post some pictures when you are completed!

The 15" and 14" t61 are completely different. The screen housing, and base are not interchangeable. I believe the motherboards are different as well. The 15" widescreen t6x's are a lot larger overall, quite a bit different. I find them a bit bulky to be a portable machine... IMO

The pcmcia cage and button are part of a removable assembly that attaches to the motherboard. If yours is broken you can probably find a replacement pretty easily. Different models were made though so check the FRU part numbers from service manual.

I've ordered a cage, thanks for that tip. And as far as the screen I was kind of thinking that... also the added plastic around the screen would be nice added protection. I never realized just how beefy these machines really are. Also... incredibly easy to work on! Such a nice change of pace.

Just to illustrate, this is how many screws I had to remove to remove the the Mini PCIE Wifi Card and hard drive.



Compare that to 8 screws in the T61 (and they're all decently sized 'hard to lose' screws... and there's consistency.) I've already decided I'm going to part out my Macbook Pro... I'm done. Especially now that I have OS X Mavericks up and running. I honestly have no motivation to go back.

Oh, and as an even cooler added bonus it turns out the RAM was cross-compatible (so I didn't waste/lose money from my recent upgrade there) AND the 2nd HDD caddy installed in my Mac just so happens to fit perfectly in the Ultrabay slot.

I realize the external antennas mod isn't something most people even care about, but it's always been such a PITA for me in the past I figured I'd take a shot at a decent solution. I'm going to be interested to see how think/durable the plastic and rubber really is (The machine we're using gives live resistance feedback, I have a feeling I'll be surprised).

Thanks for answering those questions for me!

[egoods]

i'll say thanks for the kind words as a representative of all those posters..

re your apple fixation..
for myself, i have always viewed apple products (after the apple 2) as a black box.. i too like the ability to frankenpad my thinkpads..
i like my iPhone and my iPads as they always work, software wise.. OK iOS just works (black box again but i'm at the age where i just want it to work) and my multiple thinkpads all seem to just keep plugging along and i must add here that when you can get a used thinkpad X300 or T61 or T4xx for under $250~ how can anyone go wrong..?!

That's what drove me to OS X to begin with... Windows XP was/is/will always be kind of a pain (getting the drivers right, getting everything updated and optimized, etc...) Windows Vista... well, I saw what they were trying to do but still, Apple did it better. Now, when I started working in manufacturing (NOT an OS X friendly crowd) I built a computer for my office that could handle the CAD requirements (and the occasional late-night gaming/iRacing session with the guys in engineering...) and I installed Windows 7. I was dumbfounded, it found the correct and up to date drivers, installed them, and pretty much out of the box it worked exactly as expected. I've since upgraded to Windows 8 and after "fixing" the few mistakes they made with it (Start8 and ModernMix fix all the issues very easily, and I heard Microsoft is finally backing down, so that's nice) I was even more impressed. Instead of my computer slowing down it got faster... something both Apple and Microsoft had promised many times in the past but it was never appreciable.

So, basically it sounds like we're on the same page I switched from Android to iPhone because I wanted a phone that did the basics and "just worked" and was reliable, and now I'm switching back to Windows and the trusty Thinkpads because again... as much as I enjoy tinkering I ultimately want something I can trust to work when I need it to. And worst case something breaks... I'm bound to be able to either find a "for parts" T61 on Craigslist for less than $50, or a working one for slightly more... or hell the local laptop repair place has a "graveyard" stacked with various Thinkpads. It's a pretty much endless supply of spare parts.

re your machining small plastic parts for a recessed antenna mount on the lid, have you considered 3-D printing of those parts..? IF you have access to a 3-D printer of course..

Funny you should mention that, I'm at my desk and there's a Makerbot Replicator 2X that just showed up for me today, just waiting on the plastic filament. As far as 3D printing anything like that, my Makerbot would just barely be able to do those dimensions and at that entry/consumer level of printing the durability of whatever I print on this is questionable at best. I do have access to "production" printers (they can print in materials ranging from basic ABS plastic all the way up to Titanium) but two things to consider, first, the material is very expensive (If I were to print that back lid it'd probably be about $40-50 in material for basic plastic) , and I'd have to either scan the lid in to the CAD software (that sorta works, but it's not real dependable/accurate) or do it by hand which, even for a basic shape like that, would be several hours of work...

Not to say if there's something a group of you looking for in particular, or better yet someone who's more proficient in CAD then myself has a design they want printed. See, I work in sales... I know my way around CAD but not like my engineers... and I wouldn't dare ask them to work harder then they already do! Sounds like you had something in mind? I can always sneak a few printed parts through during various test-runs. We sell the printers as a supplement to our customers, and I take the "shake down" period as my opportunity to print anything I've cooked up since the last test gotta make sure it works for the customer right?

[BillMorrow]

I can always sneak a few printed parts through during various test-runs. We sell the printers as a supplement to our customers, and I take the "shake down" period as my opportunity to print anything I've cooked up since the last test gotta make sure it works for the customer right?

thanks for the offer.. very kind of you.. I mentioned the 3-D printing only because I received an email offering refurb 3-D printers for $1500~ and I THINK, without going back to look, it was a makerbot printer.. (giving that offer a lot of thought the end result was even at $1500 for a $2400 printer I can't justify the cost for the few interesting things I would like to print.. it would be more in the line of scratching that "OH! I got to have one of THOSE" intellectual itch much like when I lived in palo alto in about 1980something and the first laserjet was shipping out of h/p and I snagged one using some inside help only to learn you had to also order a toner cartridge and that NO the canon print engine copier version would NOT work)..
though 3-D printing is an itch I will one day scratch when I can afford to buy one..

for what you're doing/contemplating hand making a prototype sort of part is probably the way to go for now..

back to OS's and such, win7 has been quite good but it is as good at crashing as it is at running and doing a lot for the user.. all this modern stuff is soo much nicer than the old CP/M, DOS days..

win8 OTH seems to be very intrusive and demanding and it looks a lot like M$ is trying to make win8 into an iOS clone in that they want you, the user, to go the M$'s nice online store to buy all sorts of crap..
i'm not sure what you mean when you say that M$ is backing off something to do with wiin8 but I sure hope so if it means they'll not be so nosey..
I must admit the only win8 I have been experiencing is on a couple of thinkpad tablet 2's I wound up with..

the thinkpad android tablet I have works well reporting all the glitches the old trouble prone 2001 Mercedes S600 has and resetting the "check engine' light which is a constant companion.. the light I mean..

OH! you'll find the screws for the thinkpads are all pretty standard and each screw placement has a molded in screw size designation..

as far as apple goes now that jobs is gone is anybodys guess.. can they keep it up..? time will tell..

[RealBlackStuff]

To test your antenna-slots, I suggest you buy a used lid or two from eBay (check for "Lenovo T61 14.1" lid cover").
Get the ones with P/N or FRU 42W2502 or 42W2503.
In 14.1" widescreen both T61 and R61 can use the same lid.
Those P/N and FRU are really the frame-numbers rather than the lid-numbers, but not all eBayers know what they are doing (putting it mildly)...

Alternatively, I have seen several T61 non-widescreen 14.1" lids with three antenna wires.
The 3rd one is meant for MIMO, but 3-wire cards have better reception.
Before drilling, you might consider adding a 3rd antenna in the lid.

I don't travel all that much, but I always have either an X61s with Intel 6200N or an X200s with Intel 6300-N with me.
Both Intel cards are half-size wifi MiniPCIe cards with half-size brackets.
This laptop/card combo always works perfectly for me in any airport, hotel, McDonalds, Starbucks, etc.
What is/was the wifi card in that now demolished Macbook?