Of all the commonly available laptop upgrade options, you don’t expect this specific option. [controlmypad] decided to participate in his RS485 device programming workflow and put it in a spare laptop, which he bought cheaply. Usually, he will occupy some desk space and arrange a clumsy combination, including a usb-rs485 dongle, a Poe power injector, a PSU for the injector and several cables connecting them – this is an additional weight in the toolkit, which will mess up the workspace when arranging, and the RS485 adapter will slowly wear out the USB port in work-related actions. However, there is no reason why all this can’t be installed in a laptop.
The big help is that in many modern low-cost laptops, the motherboard is quite small, and the plastic placeholder of DVD drive can be omitted without further consideration. Cut off the plastic molded parts of the two adapters and turn them into reusable circuit boards and small Poe modules respectively. After laborious but careful cutting of the laptop shell with an amateur knife, the POE injector was inserted, basically adding an additional RJ45 port to the laptop. Where did the hacker come from. IO wrote it down. It doesn’t seem to be completely completed, but most of the important details can be learned. What is missing is to connect it to the internal USB port (it should help to provide the schematic diagram of the motherboard online) and create 12v-24v from the power rail of the laptop. At this point, however, the module takes a big step forward in availability, even though it still needs an external PSU.
The laptop internal upgrade project is rare, but it is worth cherishing – it is a combination of “bold”, “curious” and “meticulous”, which leads people to successfully invade something they did not intend to invade and make it better meet their needs. In addition to setting all the standard EEE PC upgrade options for the new generation of laptop modules, there are countless non-traditional laptop modification vectors – you can make a complete C-type charging port conversion from scratch, replace the network camera head with an FSF approved open firmware WiFi dongle, and build in a “12 axis” sensor for automatic positioning and data recording, Or invent remote self destruction devices for laptops. In fact, when customizing laptops on the manufacturer’s website, these things are usually not found in the list of available options.