Hardware Hack - Pandora with internal USB Hub

[mcobit]

Hello everyone.


I got one of those small squid usbhubs today and took it apart.


It is so small, that the board fits into the Pandora right above the headphone jack.


I had to clip a bit of plastic of the case above it though.


I soldered some ribbon cable from the usbport to it and clipped the connections to the usbport.


The I put another ribboncable back to the USB port and tried to get then aligned so the case does still fit.


Screwed everything back together and it works really well.


I can now stick usb 1 devices directly into the USB port and don't have to use an external hub.


Don't attempt this if you never soldered small stuff.


Attached are some pictures.

 

[levi]

Awesome!


Do I take it that solder bridge across the pins towards the bottom right of that chip is original?


Also, which sort of squid hub was it? One of these, or one of these?


I'd love to give this a go myself, but I don't quite see where that part you're using comes from - it only seems to have contacts for one set of USB pins out. Did you trim it from a slightly larger board? It'd be good to know what I'm setting myself up for before I undertake anything like this.


It'd also be good to see exactly how it fits in the space above the headphone socket. I'm not that familiar with the underside of the bottom of my case still - I tend to leave that part the other way up and use the battery tray as a screw holder when I take my Pandora to bits.

 

[mcobit]

The bridge is original.


I did not trimm the board. There are 4 outgoing connections and one incoming. I cut the cables already on the pictures, but on the left side of it you see the 4x4 outgoing solderconnections and on the right are the incoming ones.


This is the cable I used:

http://m.conrad.de/ce/de/product/975457/Conrad-31-Port-USB-20-Hub-Kabel-30-cm-inkl-Mini-USB


Be sure to mark the outgoing ones as the markings that are originally there are a bit misleading.


Edit: The board fits exactly above the headphonejack right besides the stylusholder.


Be careful when reassembling the unit, that the cables are not damaged by parts they go over. You don't want 5v on places they don't belong on the mainboard


Edit2: If you have further questions feel free to ask.

 

[mcobit]

If I find some space where it would fit, I will try to connect a board from a miniusb wifi dongle to this internal hub, too.


But that will have to wait a bit.

 

[levi]

Ah, I see now. The outgoing matrix is on the left in the photo you posted, and the incoming on the right, correct? That's quite an impressive bit of miniaturisation.


Edit: As you said. I must've misread you, sorry

 

[mcobit]

Correct.

 

[Binky]

Very nice

 

[Linux-SWAT]

Crazy !

 

[Askarus]

Nice.

I wanted to do something similar with a Micro-SD slot.

Unfortunately I'm to anxious because of my 4 shoulder buttons.

If I break the housing I have to do everything again (I crashed 7 housings until I got them working).

The hub is really great idea.

 

[Franko]

Amazing!  Great hack indeed.  I'm assuming that you needed that long of a cable to get to the optimal placement of the board - no space to put it closer to the usb port?

On an almost related matter - I recently purchased that mini-to-full size USB OTG adapter (from that Canadian website) that I saw you post on another thread.  Can't find the post now to reference it, but I bought it in hopes that I could use an USB 1 mouse with it.  To avoid doing what you just did (great job BTW).  The two models that I've tried haven't worked - they're both optical mice and the red laser doesn't power on.  Enabling USB host mode has no effect.  Not in the mini usb or the full sized port (although I didn't expect it to work in the full sized 2.0 one).  What am I missing?  Any suggestions?

 

[mcobit]

Thats true.


There isn't any room right beside the USB port as right behind it, the batterycompartment starts and goes almost down to the pcb.


I could have mounted it on one of the white circles by scrapping off the supporting plastic of the other aide of the case, but I think, as this plastic is there to support the dpad and actionbuttons, that might have unwanted results.


No clue what post you are reffering to either, but I have no real suggestions for the otg cable as I never really used one.


Sometimes it helps to reboot the Pandora with usbproblems, as you can crash the usbport when doing some on the fly reconnects.

 

[Franko]

Yeah, I can't find the thread either, I wasted almost an hour searching for it.  Anyway it's a Nokia n800 usb 360 otg adapter.  Rebooting the Pandora didn't help...maybe it's a linux driver issue (for the mouse)?  I was just hopeful that it'd be plug-and-play.  Oh well.  Time to buy a bluetooth travel mouse I guess and go down that road.  I just wanted to use my cool little laptop one.  Was thinking that I could use the mouse easier than a sylus in some games/applications when my tv-out cable gets here (Kirkanos made me one).

Great hack though.  Maybe when I'm more experienced with the innards of the Pandora I'll give your hack a try.  

 

[milkshake]

What affect does this have on battery life?

 

[fritata]

Does this mean you now have USB 1.0 and 1.1 support?

 

[Neelix]

Thats true.


There isn't any room right beside the USB port as right behind it, the batterycompartment starts and goes almost down to the pcb.


I could have mounted it on one of the white circles by scrapping off the supporting plastic of the other aide of the case, but I think, as this plastic is there to support the dpad and actionbuttons, that might have unwanted results.

What about directly above the OTG & EXT ports? would it not have fit in that space?

- Neelix

 

[Askarus]

Does this mean you now have USB 1.0 and 1.1 support?

Yes.

 

[mcobit]

What about directly above the OTG & EXT ports? would it not have fit in that space?


- Neelix

Unfortunately not. The space there is not wide enough.

 

[Linux-SWAT]

Did you considered soldering usb 2 connector to mini usb ?

Thought about it with a non-usb unit.

According to MWeston, some fuses must be removed if the mini connector is not completely removed.

 

[mcobit]

The miniusb just has 100mA. I don't think I would want that for a wifistick or anything other than mouse or keyboard.


Of course, if the actual vcc and gnd lines of the usb2.0 port work, you can just connect the datalines from the miniusbport.


You would give up the possibility to charge via usb though and cannot use the Pandora for sdmasstorage anymore.

 

[mcobit]

Little update:


Now I added a little switch to turn off the power for the usbhub when not in use.


It was powered even when usbhost was not toggeled.


Also I integrated the miniwlanstick I had into the Pandora.


Needed to remove the stylusholder to make room though.


My touchscreen is broken, so I don't use it anyway.


Works really well


On the attached pictures you can see the module and the switch.


Think I'll need a new case soon