[HW Mod] Manual 3G/4G conversion

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kcrudup

Senior Member
Mar 27, 2007
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San Francisco Bay Area
The actual modem of the "Sierra 595U CDMA Data Card" is actually a Sierra Wireless 5620(? don't quote me on that, I'm away from my desk right now) Mini-PCI card.
I checked again; it's the Sierra Wireless MC5725 mini-PCI card as shown here.

... but as it's becoming clear it either has a different or undefined reset/init/power sequence from the LTE mini-PCI that'll eventually be used, it doesn't appear to be useful for pre-release SW testing.
 
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kcrudup

Senior Member
Mar 27, 2007
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San Francisco Bay Area
... there's a chip on-board which is there apparently to control the SIM card, but I dunno how it interfaces to the device
OK, Google Is Your Friend:
56148d1249724286-hacking-a-mini-pci-e-hsdpa-into-aopen-i45gmt-hd-board-sim_to_mini_pci_express.jpg

"UIM" == "SIM" here.

See also: http://www.interfacebus.com/Mini_PCI_Express_Bus.html
 

hardcorecn

Member
Feb 25, 2010
23
5
DSC00977.JPG

For all Wifi XOOM owners....Here is my disassembled UK Wifi XOOM
There is no slot on the board, no 3G module(of couse~)
We should consider adding a slot first :D
 
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dash8brj

Member
May 10, 2007
11
2
Sydney
For all Wifi XOOM owners....Here is my disassembled UK Wifi XOOM
There is no slot on the board, no 3G module(of couse~)
We should consider adding a slot first :D

Before we even begin to solder in a mini pci socket, I'd be testing with a multimeter and seeing if the relevant pins on the sim card slot come out on the correct pins on the mini pci-e slot using kcrudup's gif as a guide.

This we we can determine if we can install a card that doesnt have a piggy back sim slot; utilising the one built into the xoom, or need to get one that does have a piggy back sim slot, and having to remove the 2 Torx 5 screws and sliding down the back cover to expose the card any time we wish to exchange the sim.

I dont have a t5 torx, or I'd be desoldering the battery (as a saftey precaution) and testing this myself.

Another option too, is to hardwire the card in - after all, most of these cards are a usb adapter (the one in my dell lappy is), in a minipcie formfactor. So you would just need 9 wires (possibly 8 if the grounds are common), much easier than soldering in a 50 odd pin connector.

Edit: seems kcrudup's image left a pin off - pin 16 is UIM_VPP, which probably also has to be connected for the whole shebang to work.

For this project your definatly gonna want a nice low temp iron with a micro tip - that 60watter wont do! ;)
 
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Turkawa

Senior Member
May 30, 2011
301
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istanbul
wow.. since i have a wifi one..
i am really interested with this.
But i am not a techy so all i can understand from last 3 pages is,
a card that can piggyback a simcard goes in to the slot already there and bumm.
Wifi goes LTE! Or at least a possibility of it.

I am probably wrong though..
 

lZooZl

Member
Jan 4, 2008
41
0
Tripoli
I guess that by this method (no matter how it works) we will be making huge use of our XooM
i am only able to use it at home :(
 

gitit20

Senior Member
Jan 26, 2009
323
50
Manhattan
DSC00977.JPG

For all Wifi XOOM owners....Here is my disassembled UK Wifi XOOM
There is no slot on the board, no 3G module(of couse~)
We should consider adding a slot first :D

To many control and interface parts are not installed on to the main board so even if you solder a plug or socket for the data card it won't have power and no hard interface for it to function...

you can see on top where all the blank pads are the is for the Verizon models where the evdo radio would be and its control and so on.

only way I see this working is to connect an external card via the USB sorry to be a buz kill but its the plain truth I have been working on phones and computers most of my life and am a cellular tower tech.

I can't go in to details but in the next 3 to 5 years cellular tech will be much better then now we are talking 200 plus megs a sec down (with out any speed caps placed by the providers) ;)
 

ddcc

Member
Mar 13, 2011
17
0
To many control and interface parts are not installed on to the main board so even if you solder a plug or socket for the data card it won't have power and no hard interface for it to function...

you can see on top where all the blank pads are the is for the Verizon models where the evdo radio would be and its control and so on.

only way I see this working is to connect an external card via the USB sorry to be a buz kill but its the plain truth I have been working on phones and computers most of my life and am a cellular tower tech.

I can't go in to details but in the next 3 to 5 years cellular tech will be much better then now we are talking 200 plus megs a sec down (with out any speed caps placed by the providers) ;)

I found some higher resolution photos of the 3G Xoom's motherboard at http://nifaq.pbworks.com/f/1298849499/xoom motherboard.jpeg, http://nifaq.pbworks.com/f/1298850413/xoom mbrear.jpeg, which have enough detail to show the markings on the chips.

It looks like the WiFi Xoom is missing the baseband radio on the top left, as well as the regulator for possibly the radio/PCIE slot on the middle left, plus the PCIE interface as previously mentioned. The regulator is a switching step-down made by TI, part TPS54331. That part looks decently solderable, but some of the discretes nearby look to be 0402's or smaller, which is very difficult to solder by hand with specialized equipment. Same thing for the baseband on top, which is a Qualcomm MDM6600 with a Hynix H8BCS0QG0MMR-46M memory chip, plus some small unidentified IC's, including an Avago A2FI042. Unfortunately, I doubt those parts are even available in small quantities, plus they look to be LGA or BGA package, which would need a reflow station at minimum to properly solder. Plus you're still missing the metal shielding cans that are supposed to cover both areas for FCC certification.

I'd guess that the SIM card slot is electrically connected to the PCIE slot, because I doubt Motorola would have two separate board designs for the 3G Xoom and WiFi Xoom, due to cost since this looks to be a 4+ layer board.

Maybe if you can salvage a cheap 3G Xoom motherboard, you could cobble together a working 3G Xoom, but it's very unlikely that you would be able to obtain the necessary components to directly mod the WiFi Xoom into a 3G Xoom using the original parts.
 
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ayilm1

Senior Member
Jan 10, 2010
179
4
Brisbane
Ok so I installed an Ericsson F3307 today, which supposedly has native support for Android (tablet card) but had no luck on detecting the card (obviously). I was about to try compile 2.3 drivers but remembered we still have no kernel source (crap). So what now? :3
 

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kcrudup

Senior Member
Mar 27, 2007
1,517
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San Francisco Bay Area
Ok so I installed an Ericsson F3307 today, which supposedly has native support for Android (tablet card) but had no luck on detecting the card (obviously). I was about to try compile 2.3 drivers but remembered we still have no kernel source (crap). So what now? :3

We have kernel source- check my .sig, you can use my GitHub.

But you should know the issue isn't the kernel- the device will enumerate on the USB bus and the kernel mostly couldn't care less- the issue is the RIL and the associated framework code, which we don't have source to.

However, see if you can try it out with the HLK75D build; there's full support for a Mini-PCI card that US 4G Xooms are using to provide LTE support (and it doesn't use the built-in QCT 6600 at all any longer, evidently), and if your Ericsson card supports even a subset of those AT commands, you should at least see it in the Logcat.
 

tonyb15re

Senior Member
Feb 10, 2006
339
3
Blasingsmoke
Guys this was discussed months ago and discounted as either too difficult or not possible.. Wouldnt it also be cheaper just to sell your WIFI zoom and buy a 3/4G one?
 

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    This thread is dedicated to manually upgrading the Xoom's hardware to support 3G/4G without waiting for Motorola. Thread will be updated as progress is made.

    As you probably are all aware, Motorola will be rolling out 4G upgrades to the Xoom in time. For those who are unwilling to wait, there may be a solution. This is strictly at the theoretical stage for the time being so I'm not expecting it to be smooth sailing. Here is the posited idea.

    For those who have pulled apart or have seen the internals of the Xoom, you will have noticed a dummy PCI Express card slot in the top left corner. This is the proposed slot for the 4G upgrade card when big M gets around to it. If you are an international user who purchased one (like me) before the GSM models rolled out, and can't wait slash don't want to be locked down to a specific carrier using only the 700 or 1900 bands, this is the mod for you.

    Sierra Wireless manufactures 3G/4G/GPS combo cards based on the PCI Interface. Their cards are fully supported under the Linux kernel and what's better is that most of these cards run on an MSM7XXX chipset. The cards can be purchased here,

    http://www.sierrawireless.com/en/productsandservices/AirPrime/Wireless_Modules/High-speed.aspx

    For international users, the models of interest here are ones that support both LTE and HSPA+. The offered frequency bands are much more flexible with these cards as most of them are quad or penta band. (Pent. for LTE).

    The sim slot is already wired to the PCI bus so connecting the two interfaces should not be a problem, but again, highly theoretical. Though I am yet to purchase one of these cards and test it for myself, I have taken the liberty to compile the make file from the site and have placed it into /lib/modules and it seems to be recognised without problems. I am confident there shouldn't be any problems though as the MSM 7200 is an officially supported chipset under android.

    There may of course be other applications for this slot. For example, it may be possible to expand the already generous storage we have using PCI express SSD cards. Or it can be used to add newer WiFi protocols as they become available with new pci based network cards. Maybe even NFC if a peripheral exists. Again this thread will be updated as progress is made so please be patient.
    2
    Ill build that module in the next Tiamat release.
    1
    have you been able to find them anywhere online? I have only seen them on one site so far and they aren't in stock.

    http://www.pwsstore.com/mc7750.aspx

    No I haven't. But ebay would probably have them pretty soon.

    Do they wifi xooms have the pci slot too?

    Sent from Motorola Atrix on TELUS.

    I'm not sure. The main issue on the wifi xoom will be the sim card slot. I'm not sure if there is a slot on top of the sd card like the 3G models. If there is, it would be entirely possible.
    1
    Which module, BRD? "CONFIG_USB_ACM" is turned on by default in the AOSP Stingray kernel.

    You're right, I'm trippin. I was thinking of the 3G USB dongles.
    1
    DSC00977.JPG

    For all Wifi XOOM owners....Here is my disassembled UK Wifi XOOM
    There is no slot on the board, no 3G module(of couse~)
    We should consider adding a slot first :D