[holmes4]

Now THAT's a cool find!

[frostedflakes]

Well we'll see if it works. I can't think of any reason why it wouldn't, but who knows. It will probably be a few weeks before I'm able to solder the mPCI-E slot on and get everything tested out. Once I have a chance to test it, though, I'll be sure to post how it all went.

[nd4spdbh]

id think it would be easier to solder up a usb wifi dongol to the wwan pcie usb bus then use the internal antennas.

[frostedflakes]

Went ahead and got the mPCI-E connector soldered on. Just waiting for the Broadcom decoder and new WiFi card. I'm going out of town here in a few days, so if I don't get a chance to install them before then, it will be a week or two before I'm able to update this thread.

edit: Also, would anyone happen to know where I can get those standoffs and screws used to mount mPCI-E cards? I tried searching for the standoffs on mouser and some other sites, but didn't have much luck. I was just planning to solder some 4-40 machine screw nuts to the motherboard, then use short 4-40 screws to secure the card, but the 4-40 screws seem to be slightly too big to fit through the mounting holes in these mPCI-E cards. In the meantime I could probably just tape the other side of the card down or something, but it'd be nice to have a more secure mounting solution.

edit 2: Some 2-56 machine screws and nuts did the trick. You can get 2-56 nuts and assorted lengths (down to 1/4") of 2-56 screws at RadioShack. This is what I ended up doing. The 1/4" length screws work, but 1/8" would probably be long enough. Soldering job isn't the cleanest (didn't help that I cut some corners, for example soldering the connector with the motherboard in the case... ), but I checked all the joints under a magnifier and they're all solid w/no bridged connections, so it should get the job done.

[Abaddon]

Hi, I'm currently in the process of doing something very similar to this.

Yesterday, I removed the Broadcom wireless card that came with my Mini 9 and installed a Broamcom Crystal HD video decoder. In order to still have wireless capability I also soldered on a Mini PCI express header in the WWAN spot in order to install a USB interface Mini PCI express network card.

The only one I could find (and therefore went with) is this one: GN-WI05GS-RH (1.0) - GIGABYTE - Product - Communication - Products

This card looks very similar to the one you happened to find. They appear to both utilize the USB interface of the Mini PCI express interface and they both use the Ralink RT2571WF chip and drivers.

When I installed my card in the WWAN bay last night, the drivers were actually found by Windows by Windows Update and they did install correctly! The only caveat is I cannot get the radio to turn on! The Dell BT/wireless utility doesn't work nor anything else I've tried so far (linux, various other drivers from MS, Gigabyte, and Ralink).

After reading this thread and looking at the specs for the card you found I think I have an idea of what is causing this. Your wireless card appears to have pin 20 designated as a radio on/off signal. When the voltage is pulled high the radio gets enabled, when left low it is disabled. I think this is the problem I am witnessing and I might try wiring that pin high on my setup to see if that fixes my issue. I am also curious how the WWAN cards' radios are controlled, whether it is in a similar fasion (possibly with the same pin). If so, I might try to install Dell's software for the WWAN cards and see if I can enable my WLAN radio that way.

Anyway, I hope this goes smoothly for you but I anticipate you will hit this issue too. I'll definetly reply here if I can get my wireless radio to turn on.

Specs for your card which I referred to: http://resources.mini-box.com/online...PCIE-specs.pdf

[frostedflakes]

Fascinating, that's something I never would have anticipated, and troubleshooting it might have taken a long time. Thank you so much for taking the time to register here and reply. I think the new WLAN card should arrive today, so I'll try getting it installed and will post how it went later tonight.

Definitely try the Dell software and see if that does the trick.

edit: I installed the WWAN software on my Mini 9. I set radio to always on (this option is available under Settings > Radio Power), but it didn't appear to pull pin 20 high, it still stays low. So maybe the 5530 card uses a different pin for radio enable/disable, or maybe these settings don't work w/out the card installed. Unfortunately I haven't had any luck finding a data sheet for it.

[nd4spdbh]

wow thats some damn good soldering there. I still dont understand why you went this crazy route when you coulda just grabed a usb wifi dongol, soldered up 4 wires to the usb connection and be done with it.

[frostedflakes]

Soldering it wasn't too difficult with the right tools, although it ended up being a bit more difficult than I anticipated. I don't have a lot of experience with SMD soldering, though, and if you wanted to do things right, you'd uninstall the motherboard from the case to do the soldering. Would probably be a breeze for someone who has a decent amount of practice with SMD soldering and takes the time to do things properly. And I kind of wanted the slot because then, in theory, it would be pretty easy to switch out cards in the future (if I ever wanted to upgrade to an 802.11n WiFi card, for example), I wouldn't have to desolder anything to do this.

[Abaddon]

Fascinating, that's something I never would have anticipated, and troubleshooting it might have taken a long time.

True story, I didn't anticipate it either and ultimately it was this thread which lead me to that spec and my theory. I'm glad to provide this info and hopefully it was helpful for you.

[frostedflakes]

Well glad I was able to help, even if it was unintentional.

Also, the QCom WLAN card showed up, I popped it in, and everything seems to be working fine. Would you happen to have a voltmeter handy? If so, maybe try measuring the voltage on pin 20 to see if it's high or low. I was assuming before that low means the radio is disabled, and high is enabled, but I think it's the other way around. If you're getting high on pin 20, try running the Dell WWAN software and set the radio to always on, maybe that will set the pin low.