In my ever continuing quest to burn myself with a soldering iron, I decided it was time for me to take some extra time this Thanksgiving weekend and to add internal 3G support to my eee pc 901.
The darn thing is designed for it, and the great guys over at JKKmobile have instructions:
[http://jkkmobile.blogspot.com/2008/09/how-to-internal-3g-hsdpa-on-asus-eee-pc.html]
I had tracked down a few weeks ago both the mini-pci-e connector (I had to get a bunch of these, so if you want any message me, I'll give you a good price) I used the Molox one. I also tracked down the SIM card holder.
My experience was fairly good. Jokes about burning myself aside I can solder, but this was not the toughest project in the world. Not for a faint of hart, but doable. Total time: 2 hours.
I just moved, and I have not been able to find my good soldering iron, so I got a cheap one at Radio Shack. I got their 64-2051, it costs about $9.00, has a sharp point, a little stand is 15watts. I usually use 10 watts for something like this, but 15 seemed good enough in retrospect.
I also got Radio Shacks thin solder .022 in dia
and I had some desoldering braid. Radio shack sells this also.
The empty square on the top of the mother board just to the right of center is where the sim chip slot goes.
It has two solderable tabs on the right and left. I lined it up by eye, tacked it down and then soldered on the pins by heating the pins and apply a little solder. I had two pins short to each other, so I used the desoldering braid to fix this.
I removed the board entirely and turned it over.
I took out both SSD's and removed the black tape.
I put on the molox socket. This was easy to line up as there are registration holes that the socket clips into.
Once I saw it fit, I took the socket off, and I tinned the bottom of all of those little wires (I put some solder on the soldering iron and I rubbed it in the direction of the wires to just make the little gold contacts silver.
I then put it back in, and I soldered the two support bits on the right and left, then I heated up each pin one at a time with the clean tip of the soldering iron. This melted the "tinning" into the pre-soldered points on the board. No shorts this time.
I checked everything with a magnifying glass.
Then I pulled out my Aircard 875U I've been using via the USB port for a while.
I took it apart
In it I knew was a Mini-Pci-E 3g card.
I took out the card and I applied some double sided foam tape I got at Staples.
I know some people solder nuts onto the mother board. This was easier.
I inserted it into the mother board socket I had added
You have to short out three pairs of pins to make this socket live. One pair gives it power (I may put a flip switch on the side of the computer to be able to turn it off in a hard manner when it's not in use) the other two activate the USB port going to this socket. Referrer to JKKmobiles photos for what to do here.
Next I had to make clearance in the case so I could put the sim in and take it out.
I removed some more with a nibbler to make it possible to take it out. I know it's not pretty, but it's under the battery so no-one can see.
I then added an antenna I got from e-bay. One of those too good deals. It was a wifi antenna set, 6 for $4.00 delivered from hongkong. I seem to have gotten what I paid for. They are not good enough.
I am going to try and take an antenna from a dead cell phone I have. It should have the correct connector.
The good: it works.
The bad: I bumped the screen with my drill when drilling the case and scratched it bad (anyone have a space 8.9" lcd they want to get rid of).
The bad 2: I also broke the cable that connects my trackpad to the mother board. It died by fatigue from being pulled out too many times. Number:
Sumitomo-G AQM 2896 80C vw-1 -F-
If anyone has either of these, please drop me a line.
I have also started a blog of what I am doing on this little eee.
http://eeemac.blogspot.com/
-GReg
Antenna Update
Since the cheap antennas I got from E-bay did not work, I turned to the 900 case I got. I got this top lid (no LCD) to scavenge the camera, it also had the original WiFi antennas. I tested this by plugging it in with the antenna still attached to the 900 case. I got a great signal.
In the 901 case, I moved the right most antenna lower. I figured the wifi had two antennas, it could risk getting a worse location for one of them, and I replaced it with the antenna from the 900. Luckily, the 900 antenna had a very long cable. I threaded it around the left side with the others, and it reached the 3g card just fine. Signal is great, everything works fine.
