Ethernet Connector For Improved Networking Abilities?

[izzie]

wondering why there's no wired ethernet capabilities for the pandora.

is a rj45 connector too big to fit in the design ? if not, is there any chance to have 100MBps ethernet included in the public version of the device?

I know there's wifi included, but I'm not a big fan of wifi. I find it poorly reliable, lacking in performances while sucking on batteries, not mentioning the security related concerns.

which leads to a side question, is there a switch to physically turn off wifi when it's not needed ?

back to wifi, I know it can prove practical while on the go, but when at home I'd rather have a cable and full-blown networking.

anyways the pandora is promising to be a great device, I'm looking forward to get one.

 

[plopperz]

You can probably find a USB ethernet adapter with linux drivers somewhere online. The connector would be too big to include in the design, it sounds like it'll be pretty cramped inside already.

 

[ashadocat]

yeah, I suddenly want a modem...

 

[Sphinxter]

wi-fi *is* ethernet.

 

[Holokauston]

Since Pandora is supposed to be portal a eth connection would sort of counter act that, the USB gives you much more options, either get a USB/eth adapter, use a USB hub, use a 3G/GPRS modem via USB.

I for one will use my mobile for GPRS internet connection and if I feel the need I'll get a 3G modem but since most downloading will be done via my WiFi at home, at friends places or by "accident" from some random network I didn't know I happened to connect to

But a
http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage...oduct_Id=104991
would otherwise be an option as stated before if you can get software


EDIT:
found this, might be helpful in finding a working one
http://www.linux-usb.org/usbnet/

 

[izzie]

wi-fi *is* ethernet.

fixed my post to remove the confusion. now it says wired ethernet.

what about a button to turn off wifi to save on battery life as most laptops now have ?

 

[atomicthumbs]

1. Get an SDIO ethernet card.

2. Get a USB Ethernet dongle.

3. Get the CAD files, add in an ethernet (through I2C?), and modify the case to include your RJ45 jack.

wi-fi *is* ethernet.

I think he's talking about the physical layer

 

[trooper]

wi-fi *is* ethernet.

fixed my post to remove the confusion. now it says wired ethernet.

what about a button to turn off wifi to save on battery life as most laptops now have ?


I`m pretty sure that this will be mapped to a keyboard combination, Just like most laptop now have.

That is unless there is a dedicated switch, Which hasn`t already been mentioned.

Trooper

 

[izzie]

a key combination is good, as long as there is a way to know if the wifi is turned on or off, any kind of visual feedback will do. but having to try to guess if it's on or off is a flaw.

the usb to ethernet is a workaround, but it tends to get unpractical under some circumstances with only one usb port available.

maybe an optional cradle could feature a rj45 connector along with additional USB (to play 2-4 or more players games on a TV set).

 

[trooper]

a key combination is good, as long as there is a way to know if the wifi is turned on or off, any kind of visual feedback will do. but having to try to guess if it's on or off is a flaw.

the usb to ethernet is a workaround, but it tends to get unpractical under some circumstances with only one usb port available.

maybe an optional cradle could feature a rj45 connector along with additional USB (to play 2-4 or more players games on a TV set).

Re: Wifi, If you look at the picture of the pandora in the link below, Look at the righter most LED of the ones on the left, Can you see what it says on the label below it ?.

Big Pandora

Re: Usb to ethernet and the lack of usb ports, As mentioned elsewhere on these forums, Just use a usb hub.

Trooper

 

[DrOctavius]

3. Get the CAD files, add in an ethernet (through I2C?), and modify the case to include your RJ45 jack.

Ethernet through I2C .... LOL

 

[izzie]

Re: Wifi, If you look at the picture of the pandora in the link below, Look at the righter most LED of the ones on the left, Can you see what it says on the label below it ?.

Big Pandora

Re: Usb to ethernet and the lack of usb ports, As mentioned elsewhere on these forums, Just use a usb hub.

Trooper



Re: mockup pic. my bad I didn't notice this when looking at mockup renderings. and I'd rather ask on the official forum than to trust a mockup rendering. I guess I didn't pay much attention cause I have seen things changing from a rendering to another and found no way to determine which rendering was relevant and which ones were already obsolete.

Re: usb hub. it's the usual workaround for the common design flaw of not providing enough connectors, but
IMHO it kinda defeat the point of having a mobile/portable/handheld device when you have to take a bag of accessories and adapters around.

I guess what I want to say is that when you already have a usb host connector adding a second one should not be such a hassle, while on the other hand the difference between having only one connector and two is going from a severe limitation to a mere annoyance.

as weird as it sounds I'd rather pay a little more for the pandora (let's say the price of a usb hub) and have a second usb port included.

 

[___]

As Holokauston (God that is a tasteless nickname ^^) already mentioned: There is a possibility to gain LAN acces over USB directly. It does require a running computer to connect it to I guess but it's a way to do it. I don't see why you would want to shove an ethernet cable into your pandora though. Makes sense for a stationary computer or a laptop from time to time but it would just be a nuisance to have on a tiny device like that...

EDIT: Also, there are two USB connectors on the device. One has host capabilities and the other is a micro-usb connector which acts as slave. How many devices do you want to plug in at the same time? You state first that you wouldn't want to carry around a lot of accessories but you do want to plug in one of those unflexible ethernet cables and a whole lot of usb devices... that just doesn't make any sense to me. Have you ever seen a device like this with a built in usb-hub? Imagine trying to use a handheld the size of the nintendo DS with a shitload of cables and usb-dongles sticking in ports on all sides of it... would feel weird, be impractical and you would look like an idiot carrying that around ^^. It's got WiFi, USB-host and slave and an ext port. What more could you ask for? I think you will appreciate having WiFi on the pandora later when you are sitting on the crapper while idling in the gp32x IRC channel, trust me, it's going to be fun. Or surfing pornotube... the possibilities are endless.

 

[trooper]

Re: Wifi, If you look at the picture of the pandora in the link below, Look at the righter most LED of the ones on the left, Can you see what it says on the label below it ?.

Big Pandora

Re: Usb to ethernet and the lack of usb ports, As mentioned elsewhere on these forums, Just use a usb hub.

Trooper


as weird as it sounds I'd rather pay a little more for the pandora (let's say the price of a usb hub) and have a second usb port included.


The pandora is tiny, Which i already think you know. MWestern was having trouble fitting existing items on and around the pcb, So although it may only be one extra usb port, The design is already cramped as it is.

Trooper

 

[Chip]

Re: usb hub. it's the usual workaround for the common design flaw of not providing enough connectors, but IMHO it kinda defeat the point of having a mobile/portable/handheld device when you have to take a bag of accessories and adapters around.

If you have enough USB dongles and adapters that you need a hub, you're already carting around a bag of acessories. At that point, what's one more?

 

[Holokauston]

Re: usb hub. it's the usual workaround for the common design flaw of not providing enough connectors, but IMHO it kinda defeat the point of having a mobile/portable/handheld device when you have to take a bag of accessories and adapters around.

If you have enough USB dongles and adapters that you need a hub, you're already carting around a bag of acessories. At that point, what's one more?


touché

 

[Arialia]

Re: usb hub. it's the usual workaround for the common design flaw of not providing enough connectors, but IMHO it kinda defeat the point of having a mobile/portable/handheld device when you have to take a bag of accessories and adapters around.

If you have enough USB dongles and adapters that you need a hub, you're already carting around a bag of acessories. At that point, what's one more?


touché


[joke] coulé [/joke]

it's exist some mini hub like this :

and where you have no wifi you doesn't have ethernet too ( and need a hub too also )
in my house i have wifi everywhere and in my garden too , very fun for DS and Wii and my laptop

the need of more usb ? to connect at once bluetooth and camera , for that i can use my little hub usb i use with my laptop

 

[izzie]

If you have enough USB dongles and adapters that you need a hub, you're already carting around a bag of acessories. At that point, what's one more?

what I was discussing here was a rj45 connector, or the lack of such a connector. and I was answered the solution could be a ush hub (plus its power source) and a usb to ethernet adapter. which would be only 1 adapter.
To me the hub is already enough to defeat the size advantage of the pandora.

The usb hub solution is a non-solution, it's a dirty workaround for a common design flaw. Though for the pandora it's more a constraint due to lack of available space after packing many things than a flaw.
Still I do believe a rj45 connector is a nice addition if not a must, it is faster than wifi, more widely available . Having to resort to the use of a usb to ethernet leads to the use of a powered usb hub which in turn leads to a bag of accessories which defeats the portable aspect of the pandora.

Back in the times where laptop had a battery life of 4hours minimum, I had a bag of accessories to go with my laptop, but it was a pain to have it with me all the time and I ended up not taking it all the stuff around with me and therefore not using it,. The laptop was half-crippled and in the end I stopped moving a half crippled device with me, it wasn't worth the effort and I ditched the laptop and bag of accessories altogether.
now I choose my device wisely to prevent that kind of situation from happening again.

 

[CoMiKe]

If the slave USB port on Pandora acts the same way as the GP2X one, you will be able to establish an Ethernet connection between a computer and the Pandora through the USB cable.

I believe if you have an Ethernet cable near to the Pandora, you will probably have a computer around also.

So why not connecting through USB instead of adding a RJ45 port?

EDIT: And even better, as the USB slave port feeds the Pandora, you won't lose battery while conneted to your computer.

 

[netbsd]

Ethernet cables can be pretty long. When you have followed it from the conference room down to the basement where it ends up in a switch with 23 other cables, you can try parallel search from there for another USB port.

So it's probably nice to have such a tiny adapter available, they are pretty cheap and this and similar ones probably have the same chip, a Realtek RTL8150L. This is supported in NetBSD by the url driver, and probably in Linux as well, although not in the list that was mentioned.