T60P 15" WWAN antenna part numbers

[Thinkpad_enthusiast]

I am trying to fit wireless WAN to my 15" T60Ps. The problem I am facing is getting the right antennas ie both keyboard bezel mounted and LCD lid mounted antenna. Reading the HMM show two antenna kits were available for the 15" T60P. The kit part numbers are 91P6989 and 91P7029.

As I understand things
* 91P6989 was for the USA EV-DO system running at 800/1900 MHz
and probably the USA HSPDA system running at 850/1900 MHz
Both antennas were connected to MAIN and AUX connections

* 91P7029 was for what was called "Vodafone models" running at 2100 MHz
Only the LCD lid antenna is connected.


Within each of these antenna kits the individual pieces themselvers have part numbers. As best as I can determine from searches on the internet, the following individual part numbers are :-

91P6989 (possible alternate number is 39T9648)
--------------

* 41W5125 MAIN antenna on the LCD lid. The "little ear" or red antenna as appears on Chinese websites.
* 39T9647 AUX antenna under the keyboard bezel. Possibly also listed as 42W2670
* 41W4945 mystery bag.


91P7029 (Vodafone kit)
-------------

* ?????? MAIN antenna on the LCD lid. The "little ear" or red antenna as appears on Chinese websites.
* ?????? AUX antenna under the keyboard bezel.
* ?????? mystery bag.

I believe the AUX antenna is identical in both kits but there might be some very subtle changes that escape casual inspection.

Its not uncommon for Lenovo/IBM parts to have 2 or 3 part numbers for exactly the same thing. I want to set up 3 t60Ps up with the right antenna systems for 850-900 MHz and 2100 MHz bands. Some suppliers want $150 -> $200++ per kit. On TaoBao the same thing (if available) is more like $10-20 per kit.

Can anyone help me out with individual part numbers for the Vodafone kit?

[J888www]

I'm not quite so sure which antenna you require........................

On my Atheros Wireless N card, there's a Grey cable from from the left side of the screen by the heatsink and a Black cable from the right side.
Noted there's also a connector between the Grey and Black connectors......but no cable attached.
I have been searching for this elusive center 3rd Antenna with the White cable for many Years without success.
Wireless LAN 3rd Antenna (White) FRU 42R9910

Maybe this Maintenance Manual will be of help.

http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/docs/migr-62733

Edit: In my search for that 3rd Antenna, I also purchased the Red cabled WAN antenna from a "Chinese seller"
, it was useless as I could not find any compatible place to fit the item..............I eventually binned it.

[RealBlackStuff]

The 3rd antenna is useful only if you have a MIMO wifi card.
All T61 screens have this third antenna, but T60 screens are not 'geared' for one.
But with a bit of imagination and DIY you can put one in yourself (to the right of the Thinklight).

[Norway Pad]

I worked with this some years ago, and I don't remember the details now. But looking back at my post, there was some confusion. http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... na#p628209 First I bought and installed the single WWAN antenna that goes in a little "bulge" on the side of the lid. Then I bought a kit in order to also get the antenna to go underneath the keyboard bezel, but the kit consisted of two antennas that were apparently meant to go inside the lid. From what I wrote back then, it seems like I bought the Vodafone kit. The number matches your kit.

I ended up modifying one of the kits' antennas and put it under the keyboard bezel. I doubt the modified antenna works like it's supposed to, but I ended up not needing 3G on this machine, so I have never used it and can't tell how the reception is. But the lid antenna in the external "bulge" might be the wrong one for my frequencies, as the Vodafone lid antenna was different, so I suspect WWAN probably wouldn't worked very well.

[FryPpy]

First of all - lets see pictures to understand what we are talking about.
1 - old thread with good picture of WWAN kit. Blue antenna is really placed under keyboard bezel (snap to it) and fixed with 1 screw to Mg frame when keyboard bezel is fitted to frame.

I have some experience with WWAN things. In my homeworld we use 900 + 1800 for 2G, 2100 for 3G and 2600 for 4G (LTE). There are some non standard bands for other providers 800 TDD LTE band and old 800 EvDo band but this bands are minority and not widely usable.

All my 60/61 Thinkpads (T + X + frankenpad) have WWAN things. I don't know for which provider they're designed. I know that X61 was shipped with Sierra MC5725 card - so it was designed for Verison EvDo network. But it well working in my 2G + 3G networks with Huawei EM770W.

My main Frankenpad have full 91P6989 kit and it is well working in my 2G + 3G with Ericsson F3507g.

Other 14" T61 with T60lid have main (red-wired) WWAN antenna from unknown kit and AUX antenna made from universal flex-pcb blue-wired antenna from ebay. It have been placed under keyboard bezel. It have well worked with Ericsson F3607gw. But now i have transitioned it to LTE testbed, And it is alive! MC7304 module give me 50 Mbps down / 20 up. And i think it can be tuned for some more

Thinkpadders from my local forum have thoughts that any WWAN antenna kit will work well in out homeworld. And i think it is true.

But there is one bad thing. With any of this thinkpads and any of this modules (EM770W, F3507g, F3607gw) i haven't got any GPS functionality. AUX antenna is used for quality improvement (diversity) in 3G (4G - mimo) networks. And used as main antenna for GPS. I know that EM770W is the worst module for GPS (no one have got it worked with passive antennas). But i haven't got GPS working on 91P6989 kit's AUX antenna and erricson too I think this is not good place for GPS antenna??? Only once i have GPS working with MC8790V when flex PCB antenna was placed near the thinkpad (keyboard was disassembled).

Other good thing - GTM 385 module in my old samsung NC215 netbook. It have well worked with strange combo: MAIN WWAN (red-wired) and MAIN WLAN (WIFi) (gray-wired) for WWAN AUX - from T61. And it have good GPS.

MC7304 имеет отдельный (3-я) разъем для активного GPS антенны и теперь я ищу его, что может быть помещен внутрь ThinkPad.

I know little about 3nd WLAN (WiFi) antenna and i don't see it and don't know what it looks like.

Then I bought a kit in order to also get the antenna to go underneath the keyboard bezel, but the kit consisted of two antennas that were apparently meant to go inside the lid.

May be your kit have WWAN main (red wired) antenna + 2nd WLAN (WiFi) (white-wired) antennas. Yes all this antennas are go to the lid and if i think right they're exclusive for each other.

[Norway Pad]

May be your kit have WWAN main (red wired) antenna + 2nd WLAN (WiFi) (white-wired) antennas. Yes all this antennas are go to the lid and if i think right they're exclusive for each other.

Yes, my lid antenna (External bulge) is the one to the left on the picture in the thread you link to. Red cable. So I was after the middle one (Blue cable) but the 91P7029 kit I bought had one antenna with gray cable, and one with a white cable.. I think. And they both seemed to go in the lid. I doubt they are WiFi antennas, as the kit I bought was the Vodafone WWAN kit. But there are apparently different WWAN kits and antennas, probably matched to which frequencies they are meant to receive. So I should probably have swapped my red-cable antenna for the two antennas in the Vodafone kit, instead of just butchering one of them and installing that under the keyboard bezel. But I didn't bother to open the lid one more time.

While we're on the subject, FryPpy: I have a WWAN PCI card in my machine, but never used it. But I do have a SIM card from an external 3G / 4G receiver module I have, so I could theoretically try it. What software do you use to manage your WWAN connection? I don't see my card anywhere else that in the device manager. Access Connections?

[Thinkpad_enthusiast]

Hi J888www,
thanks for your reply. The Hardware Maintenance Manual (HMM) link that you gave is for the January 2007 version. I have the September 2008 version which is a larger file.

I am after the Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN) antenna with the red wire and not the Wireless LAN antenna but I can see where you are coming from; item 2 (the bulge) on the exploded view could be either WWAN or WLAN according to the HMM. I did not notice that before. I will keep an eye out for the antenna you are after while I am searching for mine.

As I understand it, the red antenna (the bulge) for the 14.1" T60(P) is not the same as the 15" model. And from what I was reading the implication was that it is not just the cable length that is different but the bulge itself. Most of the Chinese bulge antennas I have seen are for the 14.1" model. I can only guess that might be why there was mechanical incompatibilities and the reason you ended up binning it.

================

Hi Bjorn (Norway Pad),
thanks for your reply. I did read your posting from 2011 before joining forum.thinkpads.com and with all the things I had managed to find on the internet. I think it was one of the forums in Germany where a person ordered both kits and found the keyboard bezel antenna was identical in both sets. So if things were oversized for you then I thought it a fair bet the box you got was right but the contents were not. But you are in a better position than most to know if it truely was the 91P7029 kit. From what I can gather, the keyboard bezel antenna (non Vodafone) is identical in the 15" and 14.1" laptop.

I find this whole antenna kit issue to be highly confused. Even comparing the later version of HMM with the one forum member J888www here refers to, makes no sense with the 3rd LAN antenna -- suddenly models with the 3rd LAN antenna in 2007 no longer have it in 2008; Lenovo did a recall to strip it out??. Hmm not likely. One website suggests that the antenna kit part number for the 14.1" has been changed from 91P7028 to 42W2671. I thought if that was true then maybe I could find a new number for the 15" kits and use that for another search. I found no alternate kit number.

I did contact Lenovo but it just seems they knew less than me.

===============

Zdravstvutye FryPpy,

thanks for your reply. Yes that photo shows the parts. I have two T60Ps that I got from the USA with those antennas. I have bought the SIM slot cards from Ebay. The machines came with antennas for the EV-DO networks ie kit 91P6989 and have the MC5720 WWAN cards. The cards will be replaced by other WWAN cards to suit 3g on 850/900/2100 MHz bands and 2G on 800/900/1800/1900. I want the antennas to be suited to those bands, but failing that, 800/900/2100 MHz will probably do nicely. So that is Band 5, Band 8 and Band 1. That is two more bands for 3G than you use in Moscow and the additional bands (5 and are necessary for where I will be using 3G. As I understand it, Band 1 is suited to city areas but not country areas. Its good to know that you get good reception on 3G over Band 1 with the EV-DO antenna. If you are getting good results from a marginal reception area then maybe I dont need to try and improve on my bulge antenna at all.

A flexible PCB antenna is an interesting possibility. Thanks for suggesting it. I will also try to do some searching in Russian. My Russian skills are very primitive but then there are online translators. Its encouraging that there is non-one on the Russian Thinkpad forums has raised poor reception with the 91P6989 kit on 2100MHz Band 1 but I have recollection of having read somewhere that the reception was poor in marginal areas. I think it might have been the
famous Thinkpadder aliased as Zender in Czechia that raised that. I believe he was recommending that the Vodafone kit was the way to go.

Another point that you raised was about getting good results with some WWAN cards. Its very possible to have an impedance matching network on the WWAN card' "front end" to compensate for an off frequency antenna and improve the VSWR but I just dont want to rely on that. For the Sierra cards the Extended AT command set documents are available and they include the password protected 'hidden commands'. Thats important to me. Communications equipment makers seem very reluctant to make useful engineering information available unless its under a Non Disclosure Agreement. Its especially a consideration for me since I use Linux almost exclusively. What that means, is that I am not counting on full flexibility in which WWAN cards I can choose. I dont want it to be limited in card choice by off-frequency antennas from the outset.

GPS is nice but not an issue for me. Having an active GPS antenna might mean even more pressure on finding a software solution to the Pin 20 taping problem unless there is an uncommitted GPIO pin you can make use of for GPS antenna power management.

===========

It would be great if someone could tell me the individual antenna part numbers so I could do another run on searching. My best guess at the moment is that the AUX antenna under the keyboard bezel is the same for both the 91P6989 and 91P7029 kits and tuned around the 800MHz mark while the MAIN antenna in the 91P6989 kit is centered around the 1900MHz mark but in the 91P7029 kit its centered around the 2040MHz mark.

[Norway Pad]

So if things were oversized for you then I thought it a fair bet the box you got was right but the contents were not. But you are in a better position than most to know if it truely was the 91P7029 kit. From what I can gather, the keyboard bezel antenna (non Vodafone) is identical in the 15" and 14.1" laptop.

Yes, the possibility is that my box simply contained the wrong parts. That's anyway what I imagined at the time. I think I never quite figured out how the antenna I butchered could even fit in the T60 lid. Buying this kit directly from IBM Norway it was quite expensive, so it's one of those dumb purchases. And now it just adds confusion for those of you trying to make some sense out of the whole antenna issue. What software do you use to manage your WWAN connections, btw? I would still love to just try this once with the SIM card I have.

[Thinkpad_enthusiast]

Hi Bjorn,
The Vodafone kit is quite expensive here in Australia also ($A141++) and there is currently no stock. I would not call it a dumb purchase...sounds more like Lenovo did something dumb to you. But how would you know that at the time without some reliable reference. WWAN inside the machine will be very nice to have when I am travelling in Asia. Having my own secure internet communications can be vital. Things like online banking and other financial transactions are not the sort of thing I want to do in an internet cafe. I am not impressed with Lenovo on a number of points with the lack of proper stress analysis of the middle frame around VGA port being a very obvious and serious oversight. That is something I have to fix on ALL the machines I have. There are a few other engineering shortcomings but generally I really do like the T60P. Its a pity that you could not verify what you actually were supplied. I hope that at the end of this thread that it will be clear for everyone exactly whats in the Vodafone kit.

I can't tell you what I use for WWAN management because the MC5720 is not useable in Australia and my T60Ps are all recent acquisitions. In any case, I use Linux and when I have used USB dongles several years ago, it involved using usbserial.ko module dynamically loaded and then something like kppp to establish connections. It worked but I want to do better with a more recent distribution. The first step for me is to get the hardware organised before I can tackle the software issues.

Mmm but maybe I can suggest something. If you have the recovery CD set and did restore the machine to factory issue state then maybe you will have the WWAN management you are looking for under Windows XP Pro. I do know that a factory restoration gives you software control over the WLAN and, from memory, the BlueTooth also. A control panel can be triggered by Fn-F5 for the wireless devices. I would expect the WWAN card to be similarly controllable if the BIOS truely recognises the WWAN card. I dont know if Zender did fully resolve whitelist removal and eliminate the need for tape hacks. The Recovery CD set can be downloaded by torrent.

[FryPpy]

I dont know if Zender did fully resolve whitelist removal and eliminate the need for tape hacks.

Currently i am on T61 (T60 Franknpad). Yes i have flashed Middleton's BIOS. And... it have not fully resolve whitelist. So there is no 1804 with these WWAN cards. But BIOS is thinking that there is no WWAN cards installed at all (if i was BIOS i'll think like this is turbomem, CrystalHD, flashreader or some non communicational miniPCIe card installed). So BIOS trigger pin 20 (which is useless for non-communicational equipment). Moreover BIOS answers that no WWAN card installed. And if (manually) call ACPI functions for requesting and changing WWAN enable state they do nothing (return 0 - turned off). I think right way is to modify BIOS inserting right VID|PID combinations in whitelist other than jumping out whitelist check code. This "hack" is unique for each thinkpadder but more adequate (IMHO). So Yes - i have taped pin 20 on all this WWAN cards (may be except MC7304 - it have option to ignore W_DISABLE

I think i must make more indepth study of antennas signal reception (comparing signal strength) as i have both 91P6989 kit and Vodafone (but in X61) antenna kits. I have T60p with WWAN things from USA but it is password locked (and lives on sleves as a museum item . I can use it for side by side comparision if it have Vodafone's WWAN.

I have a WWAN PCI card in my machine, but never used it. But I do have a SIM card from an external 3G / 4G receiver module I have, so I could theoretically try it. What software do you use to manage your WWAN connection? I don't see my card anywhere else that in the device manager. Access Connections?

This is not good. All WWAN cards that i have (except Ericssons) present in device manager even when blocked by pin 20. Only Ericsson's (3507 / 3607) are absent in device manager if they are blocked by pin 20 when powered up (they must be taped). Moreover if there is no SIM card, Ericssons goes to powersave mode (GPS is not working too). This feature makes them good for T6x (My favourite for T6x). Power is controlled not by wireless switch (it is unusable when pin 20 is taped out) but by removing SIM. It can be turned on and off by Fn+F5 either but only when Access connection (and drivers from lenovo) is installed. And the only Access Connections can be used to make connection with erricsons (i can't find any working dashboard (connection program) for them at internet).
So first of all - check device manager. Switch it view -> devices by connection. Navigate to: ACPI computer -> ACPI .... -> PCI ... -> USB controller(s). Expand all USB2 controllers and find all devices connected to it. If WWAN is present it is here. If not - "open the bonnet" - palmrest and keyboard, read all from WWAN module in left miniPCIe slot and write here.

For non Erricsson cards i have use:
Sierra watcher - for sierra cards
Mobile parthner - for huawey (EM770W is my favourite for X6x, because of voice calling function).
Globetrotter - for GTM
and one day i have got sierra's gobi 2000 but not for lenovo. So googling for VID&PID i have find that it is from Fujithsu - and Web2Go have worked with it.
(May be Gobi family (it works in both systems CDMA/EvDo + GSM/UMTS) is the best for intercontinental travelling, but i have small experience with it.)
So VID and PID can help to find right software.
And Yes i still on XP so i must to use dashboards (connection programms) insted connection aplets from OS.

Thinkpad_enthusiast One day i have given F3507g to friend of mine he have spent some time in hospital) and he can start it in Gentoo linux I think ThinkWiki have hints and scripts for this WWAN card.

PS
May be this theme become main thing for T6x / X6x WWAN FAQ?

[Thinkpad_enthusiast]

Thanks for your reply FryPpy

Ahh OK so the Pin 20 whitelist problem has never been resolved. I was afraid of that but its what all my searches on the internet suggest. I think I understand your reasons for preferring to alter the accepted VID:PID set, but for me it depends on what the check code is doing -- if its just a simple verification that the card's VID:PID is in a whitelist and nothing more then I would bypass the check and force going down the correct branch. If the problem was a single simple whitelist test then Zender's work would have seen the end of that pin 20 problem. From what I understand there are more than one tests and probably some acquisition and storage of card details with one of the whitelist checks. That would tend to fit with what you wrote about how the BIOS sees the card without all the whitelist checks removed. But we wont know until we find the other code involved. One solution used by someone to get around a whitelist problem on another brand machine was to put in the card he wanted and then reprogram the cards VID:PID to a whitelisted card. Because it was for Linux (open source) he then altered the driver module code to correctly remap the doctored VID:PID. So the BIOS was happy with the lie and Linux was happy because it corrected the lie. Thats fine for Linux but not good for all the people here that use Windows and closed source drivers.

I think i must make more indepth study of antennas signal reception (comparing signal strength) as i have both 91P6989 kit and Vodafone (but in X61) antenna kits. I have T60p with WWAN things from USA but it is password locked (and lives on sleves as a museum item . I can use it for side by side comparision if it have Vodafone's WWAN.

I was hoping to get the individual antenna part numbers from someone rather than get people to run tests for me. It would be nice to have some practical results but I think you will be limited to testing the 2100MHz Band 1 only. I think the best test of all would be a VSWR test of the antenna itself from a sweep generator. When I was designing tri-plate and microstrip passive filters thats what I was using for testing but thats a very long time ago. No access to that now and test equipment for the UHF frequencies and higher are not cheap toys.

I will take it that you know of the tools that are available to remove the SuperVisor Password lock. I know of at least two and possibly a third.

Thinkpad_enthusiast One day i have given F3507g to friend of mine he have spent some time in hospital) and he can start it in Gentoo linux I think ThinkWiki have hints and scripts for this WWAN card.

Very funny placement of the emoticons. Its a good thing there is no semicolon or colon after hospital. Your friend would not like that. he has suffered enough. I think the handling of 3G cards now in Ubuntu and Gentoo etc is so much better than it used to be and works out of the box. I will be experiencing it soon. Thanks, I will look at thinkwiki if I get into problems.

[RMSMajestic]

Get the antennas from here:
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z ... ej4dn349f6

The seller is a very experienced seller on 51nb. I bought antennas from her and it worked perfectly fine on China Unicom (WCDMA)
Service frequencies are 1940–1955mhz and 2130–2145mhz

Also, T60p's 3G antennas is much worse than T61's and T400's. You can have GPS running on T61 and X61 (reversing the MAIN and AUX) or T400, but I've never managed to get GPS working on X60s/T60p with the origianl antennas

I'll check the other set of antennas tonight and tell you the FRU

[Norway Pad]

FryPPy: Sorry, my quote there contains a typo.. It was meant to say:

I don't see my card anywhere else than in the device manager.

My card is a Gobi 2000 card, and is correctly listed in the device manager as Qualcomm Gobi 2000 HS-USB Modem 9205. It is from a Thinkpad T410, and I used the "ThinkPad Wireless WAN (UNDP) Driver" from said machine when I installed this card. All went fine, so it doesn't seem like I need to do something about pin 20 so far. The only thing that confuses me is that the card is newer than the computer, and wasn't even invented when the T60's whitelist was made. But maybe the Lenovo hardware ID is the same regardless of age. I don't know.

The reason I ask without simply installing something and do a test, is that I really don't want to install Access Connections if I don't have to. I used Access Connections on my T4x machines, but I stopped using it with the newer ones, and don't want to go back unless I need to.

Edit: Forgot that the T60 in question is actually a Frankenpad, so we're talking about a T61 motherboard from 2010. But the behavior was the same when I installed the Gobi card with the original T60 motherboard.

Get the antennas from here:
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z ... ej4dn349f6

Does this seller have an eBay store, or website where tings are listed in english? I would like to buy this kit from him and finally get my elusive keyboard bezel antenna.

[FryPpy]

Also, T60p's 3G antennas is much worse than T61's and T400's. You can have GPS running on T61 and X61 (reversing the MAIN and AUX) or T400, but I've never managed to get GPS working on X60s/T60p with the origianl antennas

I think you are right. This AUX antenna placed in bad place to receive GPS signals.
I cant reverse MAIN and AUX on X61 (because AUX antenna have very small tail . But reversing antennas in X61 tablet doesn't make a miracle on EM770W

And one more question. Black pice of plastic 41W4945 from taobao's photo - what is it? Where i should place it???

All went fine, so it doesn't seem like I need to do something about pin 20 so far.

All modules (except Ericssons) without pin 20 taping working as usual (they present in device manager and dashboard (connection program) can transfer information with them) but WWAN led under the screen is off. And dashboard (connection program) writes - "Radio is turned off - please turn it on with RF switch" or sth else about RF kill.

The only thing that confuses me is that the card is newer than the computer, and wasn't even invented when the T60's whitelist was made.

It's OK;) My LTE module MC7304 is ~2 years old. Moreover T61 with Lenovo's (not patched) BIOS don't stop boot with 1804 error. But assert pin 20 - just in case

But maybe the Lenovo hardware ID is the same regardless of age. I don't know.

No unfortunately Every USB device have (must have) VID and PID pair - where VID is a vendor id (and it is not Lenovo's ID). And PID is a product ID - it is different for different products (otherwise device drivers will mess with different devices). Sometimes Lenovo branded devices have different PID part from OEM modules.

The reason I ask without simply installing something and do a test, is that I really don't want to install Access Connections if I don't have to. I used Access Connections on my T4x machines, but I stopped using it with the newer ones, and don't want to go back unless I need to.

If you have spare HDD and good weekend for doing nothing - you can give it a try;)
I understand you - AC is a HEAVY piece of software which can do some lags when working with wireless things. But i have to do this with Ericssons (i have not found any connection programs for them yet). But (as for me) it is very informative when working with WLAN. You can see not only signal strength (like in windows applet) but protocols and channel numbers. And it have some beauty;)
First of all read Readme which is going with Lenovo driver package (name is same as installer but extension is txt). Read which version of PM (PM driver?), Hotkey Features and AC must be installed to work with this driver and upgrade if it need newer ones.
Other way - try to google for Sierra Watcher for gobi 2000. But i can't use it with Fujitsu gobi 2000 .

BTW - what OS you using on this Frankenpad?

[Norway Pad]

Thank you for an extensive answer and some very useful input. I have done some more reading on the Pin 20 issue, and it seems like cards can be seen, but still be deactivated by the pin. So you are probably right, that pin 20 indeed needs to be taped. I will do a quick Win7 install on another hard drive, insert the SIM card, and see what Access Connections can do. Then tape the pin if it doesn't work. This will be fun.

I run Win 7 64 Bit on the Frankenpad

[Thinkpad_enthusiast]

Hi RMSMajestic,

Thanks for your reply.

Get the antennas from here:
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a1z ... ej4dn349f6

Thank you for the link. I had seen that TaoBao listing before but was not sure if it was just an EV-DO kit with some mysterious extras -- I have not found a good reliable explanation about what 41W4945 is for. The most plausible explanation found in my searches was that it stored the unused blue lead connector when there is no AUX connector on the WWAN card but its all speculation. The third antenna on that TaoBao page intrigued me and from what I had found on the internet before joining here, I thought that maybe the supplier was selling a combined kit ie both the EV-DO and Vodafone kits together in one. I will try to make contact with that seller and order a few sets. At 59 RMB/CNY its quite reasonable even just to try things out. Any suggestions about how I should contact the seller? An email address would make that so much easier. Or do you think I should be going through one of the Chinese buying agents?

The seller is a very experienced seller on 51nb. I bought antennas from her and it worked perfectly fine on China Unicom (WCDMA)
Service frequencies are 1940–1955mhz and 2130–2145mhz

Great, so thats two independent votes in favour of it working fine on Band 1. It would be nice to know if I can get decent performance on Band 5 and Band 8. I have been guessing that the keyboard bezel antenna is tuned for around 800MHz but I am starting to read things that suggests that this guess is wrong.

Code: Select all

I'll check the other set of antennas tonight and tell you the FRU

I would appreciate getting those part numbers. The keyboard bezel antenna in the TaoBao photos looks identical to my EV-DO antenna. I have since found websites that refer to 39T9647 and also 39T9647-02. So, here we go again...more confusion.

It does not surprise me that the GPS does not work well or at all. I was involved in a project developing a handheld device that included GPS. The RF design team tried to use a passive antenna but found it to be very poor in acquiring the satellites. So they were forced to go with an active antenna and got much better results. Going active was not a decision made lightly because the handheld device had to work over military temperature range and there were minimum runtime specs. -- very demanding at -40C.

[RMSMajestic]

Hi RMSMajestic,

Thank you for the link. I had seen that TaoBao listing before but was not sure if it was just an EV-DO kit with some mysterious extras -- I have not found a good reliable explanation about what 41W4945 is for. The most plausible explanation found in my searches was that it stored the unused blue lead connector when there is no AUX connector on the WWAN card but its all speculation. The third antenna on that TaoBao page intrigued me and from what I had found on the internet before joining here, I thought that maybe the supplier was selling a combined kit ie both the EV-DO and Vodafone kits together in one. I will try to make contact with that seller and order a few sets. At 59 RMB/CNY its quite reasonable even just to try things out. Any suggestions about how I should contact the seller? An email address would make that so much easier. Or do you think I should be going through one of the Chinese buying agents?

It does not surprise me that the GPS does not work well or at all. I was involved in a project developing a handheld device that included GPS. The RF design team tried to use a passive antenna but found it to be very poor in acquiring the satellites. So they were forced to go with an active antenna and got much better results. Going active was not a decision made lightly because the handheld device had to work over military temperature range and there were minimum runtime specs. -- very demanding at -40C.

Just checked the FRU, it's 91P7026 :/ Different to both of the FRUs you stated.... The seller is selling T60p WWAN antenna set TOGETHER with the MIMO antenna. I could not find the FRU on the main antenna, the AUX antenna has FRU 39T9647 and the mysterious black plate has FRU 41W4945. I think it's the EVDO kit but I don't think getting a Vodafone kit will make a fundamental difference. If you can get one active antenna good for T60p, that'd be great. I really hope there's good alternative for the original antennas in T60p

[RMSMajestic]

I think you are right. This AUX antenna placed in bad place to receive GPS signals.
I cant reverse MAIN and AUX on X61 (because AUX antenna have very small tail . But reversing antennas in X61 tablet doesn't make a miracle on EM770W

And one more question. Black pice of plastic 41W4945 from taobao's photo - what is it? Where i should place it???

What I did was totally removing the AUX antenna on X61 and add another antenna under the left palmrest for MAIN.
Now planning to add a external antenna at the modem port like in this thread
http://www.itocp.com/htmls/59/n-159-6.html
Since you are using windows XP it might be better for you to get a H5321g, much better than F3507g

Regarding the mysterious black plastic piece----- I have no idea, neither the seller, and I cannot fina any place for it inside T60p either :/

[RealBlackStuff]

Another 41W4945 picture:
http://img07.taobaocdn.com/imgextra/i7/ ... 363605.jpg
Cards like Sierra MC8775 use only one cable, the red one.
41W4945 might be a small bag for the unused blue wire, which probably fits under the WWAN card.

[FryPpy]

41W4945 might be a small bag for the unused blue wire, which probably fits under the WWAN card.

One thought:
My 41W4945 is not a bag (i can't open it . It is like a sheet of plastic with metal foil strip on one side (you can see it on pictures) and adhesive strip right under metal strip on opposite side.
The similar thing i have seen in W500 is 42W2672. It is sheet of metal foil insulated by sheet of adhesive tape glued to underside of gobi 1000. EMI shield?

Since you are using windows XP it might be better for you to get a H5321g, much better than F3507g

I know that F3507 and F3607 they are ancient like a dinosaurus But they work for me. I am searching for upgrade so i am migrating to MC7304 now.
I have F5521gw on a shelf but it is not Lenovo branded. I think that AC will not work with it and i can't find connection program for it. But i can give it a try tomorrow;)

Bad things. I have disassembled T60 with locked mainboard. It have MC5720 (so it is for EvDo) and AUX antenna is 39T9647 the same as i got from 39T9648 kit. I have found what remains from 39T9648 kit (plastic bag with tag 39T9648, mystery thing 41W4945 and MAIN antenna - 41W5125!). So i think i was so lazy and dont change main antenna in Frankenpad and it is still EvDo And i am still lazy now to disassemble the lid

Good things - i can do some photos.
VERY BIG PICS - my be they're should be placed in "Pictures of your ThinkPad..." forum?
All of them Frankenpad, Old T60p with IBM sticker on bottom and MC5720, T61 14" with flexPCB AUX WWAN antenna and MC7304 and X61 tablet in sleeve. They're all WWAN working.
Frankenpad and rest of 39T9648 kit. AUX antenna from this kit.
T60p The same AUX antenna
T61 14" With flexPCB AUX antenna and packet with the such antennas kit.

PS
You can see Ultimate-N 6300 in Frankenpad. 3nd small antenna have been placed at top edge of lid. 15" Lid is plastic, but 14" is MG and such a trick is useless there.

[RealBlackStuff]

Can you please give the exact dimension of that 41W4945 in mm?
I'll cut a piece of carton of that size and then try and experiment where that might fit in a 15" T60 chassis.

[Thinkpad_enthusiast]

Hi RMSMajestic,
thanks for the reply

Just checked the FRU, it's 91P7026 :/ Different to both of the FRUs you stated.... The seller is selling T60p WWAN antenna set TOGETHER with the MIMO antenna. I could not find the FRU on the main antenna, the AUX antenna has FRU 39T9647 and the mysterious black plate has FRU 41W4945. I think it's the EVDO kit but I don't think getting a Vodafone kit will make a fundamental difference. If you can get one active antenna good for T60p, that'd be great. I really hope there's good alternative for the original antennas in T60p

According to Troels in his post (http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=63837) in July 2008 when he ordered the 91P7029 Vodafone kit he was supplied with 91P7026 kit instead. I have read elsewhere that the antenna kit part numbers have been changed (certainly for the 14.1" kits) but who knows if its true. There is too much misinformation out 'there'. From Troels post the red LCD antenna (in the 91P7026 kit) has a part number of 91P7027 and I think that can be confirmed from the following photo taken from an offering in China for a "IBM T60 15-inch original 3G antenna ◎ ThinkPad crazy DIY quasi Option"

http://img04.taobaocdn.com/imgextra/i4/ ... 495652.jpg

The part number is clearly visible as P/N 91P7027.

According to Troels second posting on Fri Jul 04, 2008 4:35 am, the EV-DO antenna in his USA laptop has part number 41W5125. I have exactly the same type number T60P as he had and it has the MC5720 card and is setup for EV-DO. I think its quite likely that Troels did get the Vodafone kit he wanted and I also think that you also got the Vodafone red antenna and not the EV-DO one. The Vodafone variant is supposed to be setup for band 1 (according to ThinkWiki). The fact that you are getting good reception on Band 1 with that kit from Corsairbbt adds support to the notion that you have the correct antenna. I will be getting that 91P7027 antenna and from there I think I will be on my own for finding ways to get decent reception on bands 5 and 8. GPS is something I can easily live without.

The "IBM T60 15-inch original 3G antenna ◎ ThinkPad crazy DIY quasi Option" kit is offered on:-

http://www.zi7.cn/mall/item.html?method ... ypeValue=1

There is also a decent photo of the mystery pad/patch 41W4945 next to the red antenna so by measuring the actual size of the "little ear" antenna and doing scaling from the photo then the dimensions of the pad/patch can be determined with reasonable accuracy.

I think I have found the direct contact details for corsairbbt but will have to check it. The photos above have the contact details of the other seller.

I researched this problem as much as was possible before joining this forum so I would not be wasting people's time but I think with the extra information I got here that I am on the right track.

[FryPpy]

Can you please give the exact dimension of that 41W4945 in mm?

33 x 65mm
The most reasonable place - under WWAN module. But why they make hole near one side???

This is some offtopic but:

Since you are using windows XP it might be better for you to get a H5321g, much better than F3507g

I have found your topic about F5521gw - yes this is very hard module. One day battle have ended and i gave up:( Mine haven't 1 minute lag when Thinkpad is starting up. But mine is like engenering sample It's ID is VID_0bdb&PID_190d. While 190e & 190f is still for old 3xxx series and "normal" 5521 begins from 1911. As expected Lenovo drivers don't want to use this modem. I have find in net only Win7 drivers from Ericsson that know about PID_190d but they don't work in XP. The only way out - get original driver package from TechShip along with connection program... but not now;)
BTW i have modded Lenovo drivers (inf files) (1911->190d) all went as expected but network interface haven't appeared at all. Then i try flashing it with new firmware from Lenovo site - but it say that it is incompatible with my module. AC don't want to work with this patched drivers and this module.

[RMSMajestic]

Hi RMSMajestic,
thanks for the reply
According to Troels in his post (http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=63837) in July 2008 when he ordered the 91P7029 Vodafone kit he was supplied with 91P7026 kit instead. I have read elsewhere that the antenna kit part numbers have been changed (certainly for the 14.1" kits) but who knows if its true. There is too much misinformation out 'there'. From Troels post the red LCD antenna (in the 91P7026 kit) has a part number of 91P7027 and I think that can be confirmed from the following photo taken from an offering in China for a "IBM T60 15-inch original 3G antenna ◎ ThinkPad crazy DIY quasi Option"

http://img04.taobaocdn.com/imgextra/i4/ ... 495652.jpg

The part number is clearly visible as P/N 91P7027.

According to Troels second posting on Fri Jul 04, 2008 4:35 am, the EV-DO antenna in his USA laptop has part number 41W5125. I have exactly the same type number T60P as he had and it has the MC5720 card and is setup for EV-DO. I think its quite likely that Troels did get the Vodafone kit he wanted and I also think that you also got the Vodafone red antenna and not the EV-DO one. The Vodafone variant is supposed to be setup for band 1 (according to ThinkWiki). The fact that you are getting good reception on Band 1 with that kit from Corsairbbt adds support to the notion that you have the correct antenna. I will be getting that 91P7027 antenna and from there I think I will be on my own for finding ways to get decent reception on bands 5 and 8. GPS is something I can easily live without.

The "IBM T60 15-inch original 3G antenna ◎ ThinkPad crazy DIY quasi Option" kit is offered on:-

http://www.zi7.cn/mall/item.html?method ... ypeValue=1

There is also a decent photo of the mystery pad/patch 41W4945 next to the red antenna so by measuring the actual size of the "little ear" antenna and doing scaling from the photo then the dimensions of the pad/patch can be determined with reasonable accuracy.

I think I have found the direct contact details for corsairbbt but will have to check it. The photos above have the contact details of the other seller.

I researched this problem as much as was possible before joining this forum so I would not be wasting people's time but I think with the extra information I got here that I am on the right track.

If you wanna get antennas from Corsairbbt(媛媛本本), you'd better hurry up cos she listed the antennas for all T60s (standard & wide/14 and 15") together (don't ask me why, it's common on taobao). It's also quite common on taobao to see sold out listings as available. (again, it's also common on taobao).

Consider the performance per $, I'd recommend you looking up for some customised antennas on taobao (varies in size and shape from a pen cap to a giantic disk )

[Thinkpad_enthusiast]

If you wanna get antennas from Corsairbbt(媛媛本本), you'd better hurry up cos she listed the antennas for all T60s (standard & wide/14 and 15") together (don't ask me why, it's common on taobao). It's also quite common on taobao to see sold out listings as available. (again, it's also common on taobao).

I got onto it on Monday @ 14:00 Guangzhou time with an email written in English. I found the Alipay account ID for Corsairbbt. If Alipay is like PayPal then the account ID will be their email address. If I dont get a reply soon then I may have to try with DD. I also sent an email to the vendor offering just the red antenna and the patch.

I am totally relying on online translators. In the translations of Corsairbbt's advertisement, I did not see any widescreen offering although there is a reference to widescreen T60s in the installation notes. I understood from the translation that when placing an order, I needed to specify which kit I was after ie 14.1" or 15" kit. Maybe its cheaper for them to advertise that way.

I appreciate your warnings about dealing with vendors on Taobao. I have dealt with a few Chinese vendors on Ebay with mixed results. Some are quite good and I would not hesitate to deal with them again. I tried dealing with someone on Aliexpress that had the T60 middle frame and frankly the vendor was impossible to deal with and in a few ways just rude. I stopped trying to do business with them. Maybe dealing with an interposing entity that specialises in bridging the western world with Taobao might be the way to go but then again they might only add an extra layer of confusion and source for error.

Consider the performance per $, I'd recommend you looking up for some customised antennas on taobao (varies in size and shape from a pen cap to a giantic disk )

That suggestion has been made before and it is a good suggestion. I started looking into it already. The limitation is that it has to fit inside the T60P which is not generous with unused space. So, gigantic disk ...hhmmm... maybe not. In many ways trying to get the WWAN fully working in the T60P is tortuous. Just getting the right part numbers with any degree of confidence has been quite a problem but I think it is resolved now. Thanks again for adding weight to it being 91P7027 for the Vodafone red antenna. If I get the right antenna kit then I suspect it wont work well on Band 5 and 8. The suggestion of finding a flexible PCB antenna tuned to those bands makes good sense but that would be need to be connected to the AUX connector. And to get an AUX connector on a card that supports my bands immediately involves the whitelist problem. I understand that only part of the whitelist problem has been removed before by 'Zender'. The ability to use the T60P's RF kill switch with total confidence when I am on a plane is important to me so I think it will be necessary to find ALL of the places in the BIOS which references the WWAN card and remove ALL the whitelisting code. I expect that to be a lot of work. The only alternative that I have is to change the VID:PID of the WWAN card I use to a whitelisted one that does what I want and respects the RF kill switch. Then in Linux, change the driver for the actual card to know how to translate its fake VID:PID. Its a fall back option. Some people might say that I should forget what I am trying to do and just use a pocket wifi hotspot. But I have not given up yet on the T60P being fully self contained for 3G internet.

Thanks again to all who replied and also 'Troels' who posted in 2008 -- it all helped resolve the 15" T60(P) Vodafone antenna kit part numbers.

[Peak2Peak]

OK - I'm a little late to the party here as only just came across this posting
Sometime last year I stripped out a T60 15.0" with a factory fitted full WWAN kit and came across P/N: 41W4945 which was attached to the right hand hinge (see pix links) - I assume this could be some type of "mini WWAN" antenna to increase signal pick-up diversity(?)
P/N-41W4945(Pix1)
P/N-41W4945(Pix2)
P/N-41W4945(Pix3)

The MAIN (Red cable) antenna P/N was 91P7027 & the AUX (Blue cable) antenna P/N was 39T9647 - I believe that this T60 was at one time connected to the Vodafone network as it had Vodafone sim card in the sim card slot/module and a Vodafone sticker on the base cover.

[PowerPC]

EM770 WWAN (Voice!)

I will need some instructions on that.

[Peak2Peak]

The Huawei EM770 WWAN card is capable of PCM voice over USB with the correct firmware, utility software, the voice feature enabled on the EM770 and pin20 covered (for T60) ---> See post#1 EM770 + Mobile_Partner_11.302.09.01.539 = Voice Enabled
This enables voice calls through the T60's internal mic & speakers or via bluetooth headset (if your T60 is bluetooth enabled). The card also supports simultaneous Data & Voice providing your Sim & mobile network support it

[FryPpy]

EM770 WWAN (Voice!)

I will need some instructions on that.

+1 to Peak2Peak's message. I have EM770W in X61 and X61t. EM770 is the best for 3G and voice calling miniPCIe module for common notebooks. But it is so slow in now days. Max dl speed is 7.2 Mb/s

I have experimented a little with MC7304 and have no luck with voice calling. But there are some messages on the net that this modules with 04.xx.xx.xx firmware are voice capable. And they are light fast with LTE.

[PowerPC]

Thank you for the information on the EM770.
One step closer to perfection.