Thoughts on adding Wifi...

[GnatGoSplat]

I currently have a Mogul. I don't really text/type on my phone that much. I love the look and size of the Touch. I've installed the Touch keyboard/keypad on my Mogul and it works good enough for me that I don't need the real keyboard. I know GPS will be available for the Touch at some point. So after getting GPS, the Touch would be perfect for my needs and wants... if only it had Wifi.

So I've thought about how one could add Wifi to a Touch. One thought I had is to buy a MiniSD wifi card, using some kind of adhesive or double-sided tape to stick it to that empty RUIM spot on the circuit board, then use fine wires soldered to the MiniSD card to the appropriate solder pads on the MicroSD slot. However, the drawback is MicroSD storage cards wouldn't work (I don't think), and I'd need my MicroSD flash cards to work too.

It's possible to use two devices on an SD bus by multiplexing either the CMD or CLOCK lines. A multiplexing circuit should be fairly straight-forward. Using SMD components, a tiny PCB could be built that fits in the phone. However, using multiplexing requires the hardware and possibly the drivers to support using one of the host controller's outputs as a SD SELECT. I'm not sure there are SD SELECT outputs implemented in the MSM7500 or if they are, I don't know if the drivers would support it.

Anyone have technical info or datasheets on the MSM7500? I am curious how the Mogul is set up, does its Wifi chip tie into the SD bus with a multiplexer? I think some other devices do have their internal Wifi chips connected via SD bus, for example, I think the 6700 phones see the internal Wifi as a SDIO Wifi card (though physically, it's just a chip). Any other ideas or thoughts on adding Wifi?

[storino03]

Just either admit that the Sprint Touch has no wifi builtin, or get a MicroSD Wifi card, but accept that you can't use a memory card with the wifi card. It's as simple as that

--James

[psweitzer]

I'll admit the one thing I miss on my Vogue is the wifi...

I actually didn't know the GSM and the CDMA versions of the HTC Touch were that different so when I switched from a local GSM provider to a CDMA one I thought I was getting a Touch with Wifi....

But who cares... I have unlimited Data and I searched around and saw that a microSD wifi card has been announced...

Good luck if you go forward with the h/w hack.... Better your phone...

[erwin15]

Hi, also you probably want to stay with the CDMA HTC Touch Vogue Edition... I'm with Bell Mobility and that's what I have... Don't know if you know this but the CDMA has a 400mHz chip and No WIFI but the GSM version only has a 200mHz chip but has WIFI built in....... as for the GPS I have TomTom Navigator 6 installed on my memory card and I just picked up a BlueTooth GPS Reciever for like $45ish from Ebay...
'

[djk1]

Originally Posted by storino03

Just either admit that the Sprint Touch has no wifi builtin, or get a MicroSD Wifi card, but accept that you can't use a memory card with the wifi card. It's as simple as that

--James

what wifi card? I have looked and no one seems to have a micro sd wifi card

[psweitzer]

Here is the link ---> http://www.spectec.com.tw/sdw823.htm

Good news is it seems to be real...
Bad news is that it seems to have been vapor ware for > a year so far...

I'll likely be buying one if it ever materializes...
If not then its a damn good thing i have unlimited data...

erwin15, yes that is a very good benefit to sticking with the CDMA Touch... Another fact that I was blissfully unaware of when I picked up my Bell Mobility Touch... heh heh... guess i had my lucky shoe with me because I would def trade wifi for double horsepower!!!

[dan-htc-touch]

Here was my thought:

I was going to buy an sd wifi card with storage, rip it apart, rip out the storage chip, rerout the wiring from the microsd slot to the wifi card, and then rerout the wiring to the on card storage back to the microsd. then the card would have drivers for both wifi and storage.

The thing that stoped me was that someone said they heard from an htc rep that there was in fact no sdio drivers on or for the vogue, making any kind of hack mod useless. I am not sure how accurate the source was, and this is all heirsay, but I was unwilling to risk the health of my phone on something that was not guarunteed to work. If anyone heard anything different than this, let me know.

Why the hell would the make a phone with so many features only to leave it driverless and crippled so it can only partially do what we want it to. The chipset supports usbotg i.e. usb host support, yet where is that??? Where are the video drivers??? Why would it not ship with revA and GPSOne??? anyway, there are plenty of missing features, most of which would require extra hardware bulking up the phone, but still it would be nice. that is enough from me for tonight

[GnatGoSplat]

Originally Posted by storino03

Just either admit that the Sprint Touch has no wifi builtin, or get a MicroSD Wifi card, but accept that you can't use a memory card with the wifi card. It's as simple as that

LOL, honestly, I don't understand that kind of logic. If everyone just accepted things the way they are, the world would be a very boring place...

Nobody would hotrod cars because they would just accept it only has as much power as the manufacturer intended.
That kid that unlocked the iPhone in the beginning wouldn't have bothered because he would have accepted they are unlockable.
Nobody would have ever tried to learn cooking ROMs because they would have just accepted what came on the phone.

Maybe I'm just too geeky to understand those who just accept stuff for what it is. I'm the type that takes stuff apart just to see what's inside and what makes it tick, how to make it better. I don't "get" non-technical folks that just accepts things the way they are. To each his own I guess.

what wifi card? I have looked and no one seems to have a micro sd wifi card

Spectek announced one maybe 2-years ago and never produced it. To this day, it's never been sold and probably never will be.

[acarnut]

Originally Posted by GnatGoSplat

I currently have a Mogul. I don't really text/type on my phone that much. I love the look and size of the Touch. I've installed the Touch keyboard/keypad on my Mogul and it works good enough for me that I don't need the real keyboard. I know GPS will be available for the Touch at some point. So after getting GPS, the Touch would be perfect for my needs and wants... if only it had Wifi.

...

Beyond the technical discussion, what would you use wi-fi for? do you not have a good data plan?

As I have the Bell Touch with the unlimited data plan, wi-fi would be extra baggage. I sync with my exchange server, use Orb, Slingbox, etc and if I was motivated I'm sure I could set up the VPN into the Windows Server 2003 that the Exchange server runs on. Certainly easier than reverse-engineering the phone.

Although the geek in me would still consider picking up a wi-fi card, especially if I could figure out how to expense it to the company, on the premise that I would use it for the 3 or 4 weeks per year I might be in the states. But I'd rather have a 32 gig memory card in there, and just bring it all with me.

[GnatGoSplat]

Originally Posted by acarnut

Beyond the technical discussion, what would you use wi-fi for? do you not have a good data plan?

No, I'm using Alltel and not paying for data. I usually just change the PRL on Sprint phones to work on Alltel since they are plentiful.

Other than that, I'm lazy and often copy files to the phone via Wifi over my network rather than walking across the house and plugging it into USB. Sometimes when I'm bored or happen to be watching live TV, during commercials I'll also stream downloaded Youtube videos from my file server just because it's cool and I'm nerdy like that. Many fast food restaurants also have free Wifi now.

But yeah, the biggest reason is I have no data plan and it just doesn't seem cost-effective when there's Wifi everywhere I spend any time.