Eee PC Internal Upgrades

USB hub

To install devices internally, more USB-connections are needed. I hooked into one of the regular USB-ports and routed the D+/D- signals from the southbridge/controller to a 4 port USB-hub. To make the port I hooked into work again, one of the 4 ports is connected back to the USB-port (Hub-to-USB-port and USB-port-to-HUB).

I installed 2 hubs this way to get enough ports and load balancing the bandwidth. Having two storage devices on the same upstream connection is not a good idea speed-wise.

The reason I choose to hook into the USB-port and leave the spare Mini-PCIe USB connection alone is that I want to:

• Be able to use Mini-PCIe cards based on USB later
• Disable the USB-ports in BIOS and disable all the new devices
• Not have the devices disabled if I used the webcam or wifi connections

More information about USB hubs over at Wikipedia.

Power switch

• Integrated: Webcam, Wifi PCIe adapter, SD card reader, Sound card, Atheros eithernet, Atheros Mini-PCIe adapter
• USB hub: Bluetooth, SD card reader, GPS adapter, FM transmitter

Modem

The modem port on the Eee is stuffed with a piece of black foam and not used. The modem is not installed on any Eee machine but the internal connection points are still there. The modem card connected via a MDC v1.5 connection, and 12 pin header for the card and the 2 pin header to connect to the RJ-11 jack is still in place on all current 4G motherboards.

Asus is still providing the Windows driver for the Conexant 56K modem on their download site, look for Modem_XP.zip

The modem card can be found on various Dell, Acer, and Sony laptops. On Ebay the Conexant card can be found under these model numbers:

• Conexant 56K Modem RD02-D110
• M5804 (Dell part number)

Wifi

The wifi-card on the Eee is only 802.11b/g, not the latest draft-N. The card is can be easily changed by removing two screws and unmounting the card from the Mini-PCI Express socket.

After searching around I found a Intel 4965agn 802.11a/b/g/n Mini-PCIe card for a decent price.

Since 802.11n is MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) it requires 3 antennas for optimal performance and range. I had a dead Nintendo Wii which happens to use the same antenna connectors for it's Broadcom wireless-card. The connector type on the Intel card is Hirose U.FL-R-SMT and on the antenna U.FL-LP-066.

Other Possible Internal Upgrades

• USB relay power switch
• New keyboard (non-taiwanese) [1]
• FM transmitter
• CPU/GPU/Chipset voltage mod
• Silicon Motion NAND flash replacement
• Modemport - Wifi antenna, additional ethernet port
• Modemport as a switch - remove to turn off, plug in to power

References

• Internal USB gadgets on miniPCIe connector
• tnkgrl USB research
• RFID Windows log-on
• Asus EEE News, Mods, and Hacks
• 802.11n Wifi Modification
• Modding Eee 701 with internal bluetooth / Engadget
• Keyboard light mod
• Eee PC USB Hub + Bluetooth + 4 GB flash - Chinese
• Eee PC USB Hub + Bluetooth - Chinese
• Modify generic 12v car adapter to supply 9.5v
• Eee + Hub + 2x 16 GB Corsair Voyager