What to do with the mini-PCIE slot?

[Ray!]

I haven't posted in some time, but I'm still getting good service out of the S1080 and still think it's one of the best and most versatile tablets yet made. There are lots of new Windows tablets out, but all seem to be moving to less flexibility/versatility in their designs, which is a shame.

Since getting the S1080, I've been wanting to use the mini-PCIE slot for something useful and have tried several GPS modules without much success, the failure being that there is no antenna available that would make the GPS work. I've tried a mini-PCIE card that takes SD cards, but the one I received constantly failed to read because it was not made properly (I believe that the circuit board was too thin to properly connect with the terminals) and I wasn't going to commit to another one.

So the other week I decided to try a different approach and get something that could prove more versatile and it was one of these:



From here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=221150342014&ssPageName=ADME:L:OU:AU:3160

It arrived the other day and it was with a bit of a hope and prayer that I installed it in the S1080 (after first breaking off the end pieces made for the EEE-PC). This mini-PCIE card has a standard USB attachment (it says USB 2.0, but the terminal colour is blue, which usually represents USB 3.0), which means you can use just about any USB device that's small enough to fit inside the S1080.

I was thinking about using a USB thumb drive (you can get some really small ones nowadays), but decided to give it a test with a USB wireless transmitter that I use for my wireless mouse (one of these actually: http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=271182942186&ssPageName=ADME:L:OU:AU:3160). Turning on the S1080, the mouse was immediately recognised and has worked perfectly. Rather than install a USB thumb drive, I've decided to keep the wireless transmitter in the card, as that now frees a USB port on the S1080, as the other port is used by a USB keyboard case.

So if you're looking to put that mini-PCIE slot to some useful purpose, I think one of these cards is well worth considering.

[davidbec]

Hi Ray, you were missed.

You took your 3G data card out?

[Ray!]

I've been keeping tabs on the site, but haven't really had much to say.

Yes, I took out the 3G card, as the reception quality wasn't the best, it didn't seem to want to grab the signal very well in many places. I now use my cheap ZTE T95 phone and tether it to the S1080 with a USB cable and get excellent connectivity even when out in the boonies. What's also good is that if I want to send text messages etc while connected, I can use the tablet keyboard instead of the phone keyboard. The phone software installed in the tablet also keeps exact tabs on my data usage.

I use the tablet just about every day and it's simply great. I've removed Windows 8 completely and just use Windows 7. I just don't think Windows 8 offers anything exceptional over Windows 7 and the fact that the 1024x600 screen size doesn't play well with Windows 8 is another reason not to use it. From a lot of reports I've read, the Windows 8 screen resolution doesn't seem to play well with some apps/programs either. Windows 8 apparently enlarges some text to 150% to make things readable etc.

I still maintain that the S1080 is an excellent tablet that is vastly underrated.

[Ray!]

I just thought I'd give an update. I tested out the card using a Sandisk Cruiser Blade USB thumb drive and it worked fine. However, you would not be able to put the back on again because of the way the drive curves up, making it too thick. This the type I tested:



You'd need to use one of these drives, which appear to be about the same size as the 2.4GHz wireless sender.

[davidbec]

Cool, do you get the option to use it as a smart cache/ready boost?

[Ray!]

Prior to putting in the SSD (which overrides Ready Boost), I was using a Class 6 SD card for Ready Boost. But I think you can use a USB drive with the card for Ready Boost as well. It can also work as a good backup storage option, especially since USB drives are much cheaper than SD cards for similar capacity.

You could also possibly run a second OS on the USB drive, say with a virtual machine such as this: http://www.microsoft.com/en-au/download/details.aspx?id=3702. I've installed it, but haven't done anything with it at the moment. I was thinking about trying Android, using Bluestacks.