[neuromancer]

So I ordered one of the little 4 into 1 USB hubs others here are using inside their slates, but I got to wondering what kind of USB board was in the laptop base I bought my daughter a while back.It has a male USB plug to plug into the laptop, three USB powered fans, and a 4-port hub in the back. There is an on-off switch for the fans, and a 5v DC in plug that can power the fans and port separately. The cool thing is though, that I only paid like US $8 for it and got all this neat stuff. The card is small enough that with the ports and plugs removed and replaced with wires, it should easily fit inside the case somewhere. On top of that, the fan system still works fine with an external power supply, or the power from the USB cable wired directly to it. Or, you know, I can tear it all appart for parts. Now, where'd I put that solder station?

 

[itanium]

Do you have any pics of the board traces ? Like a focused one from the pic in the middleDoes it heat up when plugged to a computer?

 

[neuromancer]

Your wish is my command Itanium. I de-soldered all the connectors and ports, and I moved the ceramic cap to the other side. Then I folded the led down flat. Pretty trim little board now. I soldered up all the connections and tested with my PC copying music to a flash drive and playing it from there with no detectable heat. See the close-up below if it is good enough. If not, I can mail you a higher res one. Note that there is a black epoxy blob over the chip that all the data lines go to and from. There are a few tiny surface-mount caps and resistors that make the thing so thin.Finally able to upload the new pics...

 

[neuromancer]

This sucks. I can't get on the board on my pc now, and I can't upload pics from the slate. At any rate, I soldered up the connectionns, and it worked perfectly. No discernable heat on the board. Ill just try and mail vthe pic of the traces.

 

[itanium]

I see you posted the pics like 15 minutes ago! I had just uploaded images to picasa hehehttp://lh3.ggpht.com/_jQqDYtapwzE/TB0xgffQGPI/AAAAAAAAEdQ/YxwyZzhXhI0/IMG00069-20100618-1858.jpghttp://lh3.ggpht.com/_jQqDYtapwzE/TB0xf5Oy9jI/AAAAAAAAEdM/0BY1x2tKnQ4/IMG00072-20100618-2018.jpgyou have a really slim profile board there! cant even see the cap. you may trim it down a bit by hacksawing (or dremel) some parts of board's side.like this:

You may even go further! As you may have some skills with soldering iron, you could cut this board to a third of what it is now (just the IC + room for caps and all data lines) and solder directly 34awg wires to data lines. that would make it go waay smaller.i'll start my vacations by tuesday... then i'll open mine and trim it slimmer too!

 

[neuromancer]

[quote name='itanium;8963]You may even go further! As you may have some skills with soldering iron' date=' you could cut this board to a third of what it is now (just the IC + room for caps and all data lines) and solder directly 34awg wires to data lines. that would make it go waay smaller.i'll start my vacations by tuesday... then i'll open mine and trim it slimmer too![/QUOTE'] That is an awesome idea Itanium! I never even thought of hacking (literally) the board even beyond it's original form factor. I can see now how that can be done with the data lines coming from the IC, and using common VCC and grounds. Man, this thing is going to get small. I'll take the dremmel to it later tonight (have company coming for a party right now) and see what I can come up with. Thanks!

 

[neuromancer]

Crap! I screwed up and shorted out the USB board. Oh well, I have the little one on it's way along with the camera.