I Went Wireless

Message

jronald · #1 Post by **jronald** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 3:25 pm

OK
After a bit of thought
A T22 test bed (not successful at all)
And 3 hours later, My T23 is on-board wireless

I picked up a BroadCom card from Geeks, a 6304 for $14.00
And a $9.00 "wireless antenna set" from sleezebay.
I dissassembled the the T22 looking for room, tight is an understatement.

The T23 was worse!
By trimming both Antenna panels just a bit, I was able to tuck one between the right hand latch in the lid and Cam mount that as far as I know no one has ever used, and the other in the bottom right hand corner where the extra microphone cable goes.
I lost 1/2 to 1 bar, in my off the cuff checking.
Almost acceptable Ill keep fiddling and see if I cant increase that a bit.

Bottomline is a success, and no more card hanging out.
Simplest fix may be a better internal card

While I had the machine gutted, I went ahead and caned aired it out and redid the Artic Silver on the CPU. Figured I was there, why not.

Ron

#2 Post by **Harryc** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 4:13 pm

Nice piece of work for a Sunday afternoon Ron. Good luck with the wireless setup.

jronald · #3 Post by **jronald** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 6:41 pm

Its odd, on the Lynksys, where I got excellent, I now get very good
BUT
Where I got good before, I now get very good.
Maybe the dual antennas are kicking in?

Ron

#4 Post by **RealBlackStuff** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 8:05 pm

The antenna in the lid is pretty well useless, because there is metal in the lid itself. This stops any signal from coming in.
Wifi T23s have 2 see-through plastic 'windows' on each side, just under the top screws.

Kaervak · #5 Post by **Kaervak** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 11:42 pm

RealBlackStuff wrote:The antenna in the lid is pretty well useless, because there is metal in the lid itself. This stops any signal from coming in.
Wifi T23s have 2 see-through plastic 'windows' on each side, just under the top screws.

For anyone wondering what those cut outs look like:

http://homepages.roadrunner.com/kaervak/img_1996.jpg

ZAGNUT · #6 Post by **ZAGNUT** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 3:35 am

Kaervak wrote:
RealBlackStuff wrote:The antenna in the lid is pretty well useless, because there is metal in the lid itself. This stops any signal from coming in.
Wifi T23s have 2 see-through plastic 'windows' on each side, just under the top screws.
For anyone wondering what those cut outs look like:

http://homepages.roadrunner.com/kaervak/img_1996.jpg

i thought that's what these "grips" were for, same thing on the T30 except no screw.

and would i be correct in assuming that this would be good way to identify wifi ready T23s?

dave

#7 Post by **RealBlackStuff** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 5:45 am

Yes, only the T23 wifi version has those 'stripes'.

jronald · #8 Post by **jronald** » Tue Apr 22, 2008 8:08 pm

Well what do you know
Mine has it, but the area right there is so tight, I would need to se it installed to believe it....
Anyone got a picture?

Ron

jronald · #9 Post by **jronald** » Sat Apr 26, 2008 8:46 am

Has some one got a picture of the OEM wireless antennas?

Thanks
Ron

#10 Post by **RealBlackStuff** » Sat Apr 26, 2008 9:32 am

I'm just about to take T23 with wifi apart to fix the LCD.

Whole lid inside: http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/5579/t ... lidwg4.jpg

Top left detail: http://img396.imageshack.us/img396/2408 ... eftsw4.jpg

Top right detail: http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/3779 ... ht2lq6.jpg

Top right with LCD still in: http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/4817 ... ht1gv3.jpg

Hope this helps.

jronald · #11 Post by **jronald** » Sat Apr 26, 2008 10:01 am

This is what I crammed in

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 0212826392

Ron

Moderator edit: Shortened URL to prevent horizontal scrolling

Raceboy · #12 Post by **Raceboy** » Sun Apr 27, 2008 12:54 am

I installed wifi antennas that way: one into the top of the lid and other under the palmrest (battery side). Reception is very good and I definitely wouldn't use PCMCIA card ever again

spartacus · #13 Post by **spartacus** » Sun Apr 27, 2008 1:53 pm

another option is to install a
3Com Wireless 11a/b/g PC Card with XJACK Antenna
model # 3CRPAG175B

purchased one for my trusty T-23 and the range
and reception is outstanding.

Provantage.com is a great source for these cards
and installation is all of 5 minutes.

jronald · #14 Post by **jronald** » Sun Apr 27, 2008 2:48 pm

Im thinking mine are atleast 4 to 10 times thicker than the OEM ones. All kidding aside they have to be approaching 1/4 of an inch by 1/4 of an inch by 2 inches long.

Thanks for the pictures

Ron

Thinkpad-Jay · #15 Post by **Thinkpad-Jay** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 10:44 am

Very tempting. I've learned to live with the protruding card but this looks like the way to go!

MACKdaddy1220 · #16 Post by **MACKdaddy1220** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 5:17 pm

Hi,
I took a different route and installed a external antenna jack to the back of my T23. You can see it in the following picture next to the vga out. It is very tight inside the T23, but it only took about 1 hr from start to finish. I can now install any antenna I choose for different requirements. It gets great reception now.

Thanks for the great site.

Bruce

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/6619 ... 480ji6.jpg

http://img501.imageshack.us/img501/4599 ... 480ez5.jpg

jronald · #17 Post by **jronald** » Tue Apr 29, 2008 5:50 pm

Thats a ton of work, to gain 1 bar.
HOWEVER
Now that I have seen it done.
I have a couple of T22 that might have something like this in their future!

I have a base with a flaky MoBo installed in it, Ill give it a good look to start with.

Im also looking at a sliding contact arraingements in the bottom PCMIA card slot. I salvaged a Verizon Cell card to work off of.

Ron

Ron

Peter_Peril · #18 Post by **Peter_Peril** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 7:41 am

MACKdaddy1220 wrote:Hi,
I took a different route and installed a external antenna jack to the back of my T23.

Hey MACKdaddy! That must have been one helluva makeover session...but it looks tight! Good job

#19 Post by **RealBlackStuff** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 11:52 am

That antenna jack looks neat indeed, but you no longer can put your lappie in a docking station.
No room for mounting it on the side, so you would need to make a corresponding hole in the dock (do-able).

MACKdaddy1220 · #20 Post by **MACKdaddy1220** » Wed Apr 30, 2008 3:42 pm

Hi,
Yes, I guess it would be a problem using a docking station, but I don't use one so not really a problem for me. I just use this T23 for all the things I don't want to take my good laptop for. Such as in the car and outside. The trade off is worth it for me as I can test some pretty killer antennas while in the car or outdoors.
Where I located it was about the only place I could fit the connecter. I would have liked to mount on the side, but their just is no room to do so.

Bruce

furiousmonkey · #21 Post by **furiousmonkey** » Fri May 16, 2008 1:14 pm

I have thought about doing custom things to my T23, but that is by far the coolest and cleanest thing, I have ever seen.

I took a different route and installed a external antenna jack to the back of my T23.....

I can't say anything else. Awesome.

Peter_Peril · #22 Post by **Peter_Peril** » Sat May 17, 2008 3:27 pm

Well I finally received my Intel 2200BG card from ebay yesterday and got to work later that evening setting it up. I had hoped that upgrading the BIOS to 2.10 would get around the 1802 issue-- but no joy there.

Fortunately... I had the Linux Hack on hand just in case. Went almost too easy. I applied the hack and shut down to install the card. I had a surprisingly hard time connecting the attenna leads to the card.

I felt like King Kong trying to grope Fay wray. Finally got them on; installed the card (trust me it's better to install the leads first). Booted up and viola...1802 ERROR

I installed the hack 5 more times and was going to quit when I decided to pull the batteries. I reinstalled the card again; and the batteries. Booted up and ...SUCCESS!

One of the reasons why I was so determined to make this work was all the posts of T30's just like mine that the Linux Live hack worked on. I couldn't accept that my system would be that much of a rogue. Additionally I can't recall ever reading about someone having to clear their CMOS in order to get their Wireless card to work. I Hope this helps anyone who is considering this strategy.

JBUK · #23 Post by **JBUK** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 4:00 am

I have just installed an Atheros 5006 internal mini pci wifi card in a T23. I have several wireless enabled T2Xs.
Usually I fit the trimmed antenna at the top of the lid between the cam connector and the RH catch or on the lhs near the top of the LCD.

This time I found that my new antenna was almost exactly the same size as the plastic cam mount on the end of the LCD cable so I removed the plastic mount from the cable and folded the ribbon cable over and fitted the antenna into the cut out in the top cover.
I have removed the rubber blanking piece and I now get superior signal strength than with other antenna locations.

The copper antenna actually shows through the aperture on the top of the lid but I can live with this if I get better signal and range.

Has anyone else done this ??

#24 Post by **RealBlackStuff** » Thu Jun 26, 2008 5:08 am

That sounds like a novel idea. Next time you find a blister packing, cut out a matching strip to close the cam opening.
Another option nobody seems to have tried yet, is using the slot for the RFID module, between Hard Disk and front of the laptop.
There seems to be a rather large dark red plastic window left of the left loudspeaker.
I don't have a spare set of loose antenna cables, otherwise I'd try it.
Anyone?

Edit: added a picture of that 'window' left of the speakers:
http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/5639/s010rfidaq0.jpg

JBUK · #25 Post by **JBUK** » Fri Jun 27, 2008 3:33 am

My T23 does not have this window on the front. However the speaker grilles seemed ideal for an antenna location so I have fitted the aux antenna there.
Its copper can be seen glinting through the holes in the plastic. Unfortunately the signal it gets is very weak and not usable in the next room to my access point.
The idea of having two antennas seems only useful if they are both usable. So I don't think I will bother to fit two when I convert another.
IBM got it right first time around. Inside the lid and near the top gets the strongest signal.

I Went Wireless

I Went Wireless

This is what i did for a wifi antenna

Re: This is what i did for a wifi antenna

Holy Cow, that is the coolest thing Ive seen in a long time

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