:: its carnival today in San Cristobal so Im going to make some crazy masks, then go to a CS meeting, then poker, then…. who knows….??

Internal MicroSD reader

Using the information found on other sites that access the unused PCIe pads I decided to try to add an internal memory card which would hopefully boot and allow me to change OS’s without messing up my hard drive.

See

http://www.eeeguides.com/2007/12/internal-eee-mod-2-more-usb-ports.html

http://www.interfacebus.com/Mini_PCI_Express_Bus.html#e

The card reader I used was $2.28 with free postage. Buy 2 in case you mess up  like I did :p

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.6108

First attempt with the 3.3v from the PCIe bus. It didn’t work and after dismantling the card reader and soldering to pad I found that one didn’t see the MicroSD card even with 5v going into it.

My second car took 5v from the webcam and I was more careful to retain the integrity of the yellow card reader. I attached it to the board with a sticky 3M pad.

There is plenty of room to insert the card with the battery removed.

Adding a piece of tape to the card allows me to pull it out easily if needed.

With the card fully inserted it doesn’t touch the battery.

The card shows permanently in Ubuntu, XP and OSX. However it doesn’t show in the boot menu. I use it to store files and important documents since it wont be ruined if I drop the NC10 or get it wet.

Semi successful.

FM transmitter

Using the same information from http://beta.ivancover.com/wiki/index.php/Eee_PC_Internal_Upgrades#FM_transmitter

I bought the same transmitter from ebay for about $4 and wired it to the headphone socket. This causes XP to detect the headphones as always being in use so a different driver is needed.

The red switch means I can turn it off when unneeded to save some power.

I mounted it on a plastic card cut to shape so I could get to the PCIe board again if needed.

Original Position.

Moved to a better place to allow access to the on\off switch and removed the LCD display, since it was too large for the case.

Barely visible mod but the buttons can be pressed with my swiss army tweezers.

This is good mod, the antenna doesn’t transmit too far but its good for in car use. No more crappy tape addapters needed.