Who can install wireless on my A31?

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ken3983 · #1 Post by **ken3983** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 5:21 pm

I've seen the procedure and it looks nerve wrecking. I got a Linksys PC card, but I'd rather go internal for convienence. Is there anyone that does this that I can send it to? I'm more confident at building desktops rather than laptops. You'd think after 15 years of fooling with building desktops I'd try my luck at a laptop. NO way!

Ken

ajkula66 · #2 Post by **ajkula66** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 6:02 pm

That's a pretty tedious task...I honestly doubt that anyone would do it for a reasonable amount of money, but it doesn't hurt to ask...

You can find a whole LCD assembly with lid and everything else cheap nowadays, and that's a lot easier to swap...

sjthinkpader · #3 Post by **sjthinkpader** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 7:55 pm

A3xs are pretty easy to work on. Here is a procedure for adding antennae:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... highlight=
(the two long posts)

ajkula66 · #4 Post by **ajkula66** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 8:03 pm

All depends on how much you value your time, really...

sjthinkpader · #5 Post by **sjthinkpader** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 9:13 pm

Here is a view of my A31 open showing 3 antenna wires. I added the 3rd antenna for the new 802.11n card.

You can see the wires routed behind the fan assembly, under the LCD cable, down the middle between the two Ultrabay cages, then between the right Ultrabay cage and battery box. Pix is about 150K in size.

Wire routing

Here is the new 802.11n card with three antenna wires. Pix is about 170K.

802.11n Card

The thrird antenna is located at the top edge of the LCD housing just to the right of the Ultraport and above the LCD panel. Didn't take a pix of that.

sjthinkpader · #6 Post by **sjthinkpader** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 9:17 pm

ajkula66 wrote:All depends on how much you value your time, really...

I know George, I just love this stuff.

ken3983 · #7 Post by **ken3983** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 6:06 pm

I forgot to ask....what exactly is the MAIN and AUX connectors for the internal card for? I know they are the antenna leads, but can't you do with just one lead?

Ken

ajkula66 · #8 Post by **ajkula66** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 6:44 pm

No you can't.

sjthinkpader · #9 Post by **sjthinkpader** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 9:50 pm

Ken, The two antennae purpose is for technology called antennae diversity.

http://dictionary.zdnet.com/definition/ ... rsity.html

If your wireless router only has one antenna, the benefit of any NIC using antennae diversity will be very little. If your router has two antennae, likely you will benefit from antennae diversity for better reception. Pre-N and 11n routers use multiple antennae for better reception as well as channel bonding. That's how they get the high throughput. The Ralink card I showed use 2T3R (2 transmit 3 receive) and the Atheros card in my T60 use 3T3R.

Like George said, you want to use two antennae as most modern routers use antennae diversity. I installed the 3rd antenna in my A31 and T60 for 11n.

#10 Post by **rkawakami** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 10:12 pm

My understanding of multiple antennas for wireless applications, specifically for the older 802.11b systems, is that the receiver selects the antenna with the strongest signal. Using one antenna lead on a MiniPCI wireless card simply means that only one of the antennas in the lid will be used and that you could have "dead spots" in your coverage.

My old Netgear 802.11b AP has two antennas. I've put one of them vertical and the other horizontal (polarization) so that my laptops have a good chance of closely matching either one (integrated wireless would be mainly vertical; PCMCIA wireless cards, horizontal). Newer 802.11n systems can have three antennas, which is the MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) system.

sjthinkpader · #11 Post by **sjthinkpader** » Mon Mar 17, 2008 10:35 pm

In that vain, the two antennae in T4x and T6x are positioned one vertically and one horizontally.

The radiation pattern off an antenna is like a donut. So the best coupling is when both receive and transmit are vertical. When you have two floors in your house, one vertical and one horizontal is frequently best.

ken3983 · #12 Post by **ken3983** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 3:06 pm

Wow...thanks for the info on that. I'm gonna spend my time trying to install the factory antenna(s) in the lid. I noticed in the internal card area, I have 2 little boards held by 2 screws each. I think one says MODEM and the other says ETHERNET. Would I take these out to make room for the internal wifi card and just position the connectors off to the side to get them out of the way?

Ken

ajkula66 · #13 Post by **ajkula66** » Tue Mar 18, 2008 3:27 pm

No, because your wireless card goes into mini-PCI slot that is empty on your machine, so you don't have to remove anything. Just be careful when guiding wires, that's all.

proaudioguy · #14 Post by **proaudioguy** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 1:47 am

rkawakami wrote:My understanding of multiple antennas for wireless applications, specifically for the older 802.11b systems, is that the receiver selects the antenna with the strongest signal. Using one antenna lead on a MiniPCI wireless card simply means that only one of the antennas in the lid will be used and that you could have "dead spots" in your coverage.

My old Netgear 802.11b AP has two antennas. I've put one of them vertical and the other horizontal (polarization) so that my laptops have a good chance of closely matching either one (integrated wireless would be mainly vertical; PCMCIA wireless cards, horizontal). Newer 802.11n systems can have three antennas, which is the MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) system.

This is correct. Whether or not your router has 1 or 2 antennas does not make a difference to your reception. They only transmit on one antenna anyway. Being able to receive on one of two antennas, helps to problems from avoid multi-path interference. The transmitted RF signal gets bounced around all over the place, which can help or hurt our reception quality. If more than one of the same signal lands on an antenna (2 different paths), the signal could be canceled out completely, or have a maximum increase of 6dB (not likely) depending on the phase relationship.

Having 2 antennas on your router is a good thing though. I think some of these routers with a single antenna actually have another antenna mounted horizontally inside, and it may even be a small one on the board, who knows.

Who can install wireless on my A31?

Who can install wireless on my A31?

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