Replace Wifi on Pogoplug Pro

Plugging in devices such as LAN adapters, Wi-Fi cards, printers, etc. to Arch Linux ARM.

Re: Replace Wifi on Pogoplug Pro

Postby tramusen » Fri Jul 15, 2011 4:53 pm

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('WarheadsSE', 'I')t's not a broadcom, and highly proprietary. I wouldn't bother trying.

Sorry, wasn't clear. My interest was in adding the Broadcom part, not the part from the video. I'm not sure I would have much use for it, but due to the lack of non-wifi modules that are half-height, I'm running out of ideas for what might go better in there!
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Re: Replace Wifi on Pogoplug Pro

Postby WarheadsSE » Fri Jul 15, 2011 7:42 pm

If you plan on putting anything else in the pro, you'll not have room for it in the case, and in the case of anything that generates any substantial amount of heat, it would be best to use a different case anyways for the sake of having cooling available.
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Re: Replace Wifi on Pogoplug Pro

Postby qashar » Tue Jul 19, 2011 6:36 pm

My two cents.

Surfing around for other reason I found those:
mPCIe to 1 slot SD
http://www.hwtools.net/cardreader/MR04.html
mPCIe to 2 slot microSD
http://www.hwtools.net/cardreader/MR15.html

If compatible, they can be used with a SD/microSD memory card as internal hard drive and maybe you can boot from them.
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Re: Replace Wifi on Pogoplug Pro

Postby WarheadsSE » Tue Jul 19, 2011 8:15 pm

Seen these before:
MR-04: full height, won't fit.
MR-15: half height, will fit, might not be bootable.
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Re: Replace Wifi on Pogoplug Pro

Postby tramusen » Wed Jul 20, 2011 5:18 pm

That's pretty interesting. I had been spending a short work break this morning wondering if I could cram a CF-SATA adapter inside, however (assuming it booted) this would be a fairly clean way to put the storage inside. That it claims to be a "standard" USB mass storage device has me hopeful about booting - Windows doesn't officially (last I knew) support USB drive booting, and their disclaimer seems to be reiterating that, not stating that the hardware itself is incapable of booting.

Still, it doesn't gain the benefit of being on the internal SATA port, so not sure if it is worth the $14 to me to possibly be able to move my MicroSD card from an adapter to the inside.
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Re: Replace Wifi on Pogoplug Pro

Postby WarheadsSE » Wed Jul 20, 2011 11:21 pm

It is however attached to the PCIe bus, and bypasses the system USB bus entirely. I can't say in any way if it will work, nor test it myself without one.
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Re: Replace Wifi on Pogoplug Pro

Postby ZzyzxOh » Tue Jan 31, 2012 3:07 am

I would like to revive the thread aboiut replacing the AzureWave AW-NE762H with a small capacity PCI Express "Half-Mini Card" solid state storage device.

First, the phuysical problem is that the existing Wi-Fi card is oriented towards the near-edge of the board, leaving only space the size of the compact Wi-Fi card for a storage device. I've never seen a storage option meeting that form factor. So, any ideas on turning that slot around? Cutting a hoole in the existing case would push out the bottom of the case, and that doesn't have much clearance to add, so you're probably removing the case. I don't like that option, but maybe that's all there is. Ideally there's be some kind of flexible ribbon adapter to turn this around and give some placement options.

Second, the Wi-Fi is driven by the common RT-3090 drivers, and there has to be some common driver for the solid-state storage, right? I'm just not certain what that is. I noticed my normal supplier (newegg) is out of stock on every model of half-mini-storage, which usually means some major change is coming. (They list about 100 models of this storage and all are out of stock.) The stuff was being dumped by lots of sources on eBay in December 2011 and the prices were really low, making the conversion cost effective (in my opinion). So, drivers are an issue, but is that easily solved?

Some have talked about heat, but I have yet to see a solid-state unit in this form-factor use enough juice to produce heat. Maybe others have seen more of that, so I'd like to hear that. I would add that this is a pretty empty side of the board and if a ribbon adapter can move it away from the exposed AC-DC supply, I can't imagine heat would be any issue at all.

So, I see the above references to the dual-micor-SD adapter, which looks great, but the reply suggests it wouldn't work since that is a USB device and the socket in the Pogo isn't USB. I think I have that correct.

And, a word of caution: I see a lot of "Pro" units for sale without Wi-Fi right now, so make sure you are buying the one you think you are buying.
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Re: Replace Wifi on Pogoplug Pro

Postby WarheadsSE » Tue Jan 31, 2012 2:16 pm

1) that ports not going anywhere without a *ribbon or complete replacement
2) the mircoSD adapter is USB over mPCIe, it itself is not usb AFAIK. Either way, there are USB data lines in the mPCIe spec so it won't matter
3) It's your cost if you hook up the mSATA and it doesn't work (because 99% chance, it's not going to. I have access to the specs). You will need an mPCIe card that presents the SATA drives over the PCIe bus.
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Re: Replace Wifi on Pogoplug Pro

Postby ZzyzxOh » Wed Feb 01, 2012 1:11 am

Thanks for the reply.

I did abandon the idea of a ribbon, and realized I also was mistaken about which way the card faced. Since it faces the power supply, there isn't any option for something larger. We have the half-mini-PCIe and that's it.

I strongly suspect you are correct about the microSD adapter not working, but I ordered two (2) BPlus MR-15 boards for testing. I do see the disclosure that they are DMA, but not bootable DMA (at least under Windows), so I'm expecting the test outcome will be negative, but it will remove any doubts either way. I've seen the non-bootable DMA issue in the various adapter cards before (like SATA-to-CF), so I would hope a bootable version could emerge in the future (as they did with the other adapters). It would be nice if those worked here.

What I find interesting is the examples in the specification sheet and the website where they show the MR-15 card being placed in the half-mini-card WWAN (WiFi) slot and the WPAN (Bluetooth) slots of a laptop. So, knowing that these tiny embedded devices, like Pogo, aren't quite the same animal, I keep that very faint glimmer of hope alive until I actually test. After that, I'll test them in a real Intel motherboard just to confirm they work if they don't work here.

I don't find 2.4GHz Wi-Fi useful due to band congestion, so the Pro won't hold much of a premium for me if I can't work out some interesting conversion.
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Re: Replace Wifi on Pogoplug Pro

Postby WarheadsSE » Wed Feb 01, 2012 2:08 am

There is no support for DMA over the PCIe in the 2.6.31 kernel.

We're working on changing that.
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