S1080 Upgrades et al

[Ray!]

I'm a new member, if that's not obvious by my first post, but I've been an S1080 user for just under a year and very happy with it indeed. I've previously posted a few times on the tabletpcreview forum, replying to an interesting post from July 2011 that described various modifications that the OP had done to his S1080; however, it's become an increasing challenge to post new stuff there so, after finding this forum, I thought I'd continue my S1080 discoveries over here. First I'd like to recap a few things that I've done to my S1080 and what is still ongoing.

Firstly, I've replaced the 320GB hard drive with a Samsung 830 128GB SSD, moreso because I wanted a complete backup hard drive in case the original fell over for whatever reason. I chose an SSD because the price was right and the Samsung 830 range had received some pretty high accolades on Anandtech and other tech review sites. The Samsung came with an option to use Norton Ghost (as a trial version to create a disk image of the HDD on to the SSD), which I foolishly installed thinking that, given it came with the SSD, it would be the optimum choice. It was not and I'd not recommend anyone to use this option.

After a system recovery, I opted to use Paragon Hard Disk Manger, which I already owned (and one that's well worth considering for many reasons) and was able to painlessly create a perfect image of the HDD on to the SSD, I used a SATA docking station connected to the USB3 port to do the imaging. After swapping over the two drives, the SSD booted up perfectly and everything worked as if nothing had changed. In a way, I mean that quite literally. While the SSD is supposed to be a lot faster, I haven't really experienced significant speed increases that are worth jumping up and down about. Maybe that's in part because I was using ReadyBoost with the HDD and that did provide improved performance over the slower HDD. Nonetheless, I'm quite happy with the SSD and, if there's one thing that has improved, it's battery life. While I haven't done a quantitative measurement, the battery life is noticeably better.

I'll continue in my second post, just in case there's a limit to how much can be posted in a single thread.

[Ray!]

Part 2. The second thing that I did was aquire a Huawei EM770W mini-PCI Express card, because I wanted to have mobile broadband and in-built GPS as an option. The Huawei EM770 and EM770W are the only cards that the S1080 BIOS will support, as I had several emails between Gigabyte support and myself when I was trying out other cards. I must say that I'm a little bit dissapointed that the BIOS is so limited in options, as it does encumber what is possible with the S1080. I can understand the reasoning in part, to reduce complexity and customer errors, but it also severely restricts the potential versatility of the S1080 .

Installation of the EM770W caused no heartache and was immediately recognised on startup and the appropriate virtual COM ports installed automatically. That said, while the EM770W works, there are a few hurdles to overcome and which I'm still working on. More on that later. Firstly, the mobile broadband setup was a doddle, all one had to do was install the Gigabyte Mobile Partner software, install the SIM card and then connect (I'm using the Australia Telstra network). The EM770W is quad-band capable, so it is compatible with all systems used in Australia, though I don't think it's our new 4G capable, being limited to 3.5G, but I can't test that where we live, because we don't get the higher speed network. I'm on a pre-pay system as I don't use the mobile broadband sufficiently enough to warrant continuous connection. So all I've currently done is test that things work. BTW, the latest Mobile Partner software is available here: http://www.huaweidevice.com/resource/mini/201111101685/mpartner/index.html.

The signal reception strength is excellent, with full signal received all the time, so the SMS component of the SIM card is faultless; however, the broadband aspect is pretty patchy and slow. That's not the cards fault, but our location. I will test the capabilities later down the track, but at this stage it's not a priority.

My next post will be about the GPS.

[Ray!]

Part 3. Now the GPS component of the EM770W turned out to be a completely different kettle of fish to sort out than the mobile component. Firstly, the GPS was clearly recognised and a virtual COM port was assigned to the GPS, but I could not get any recognition of the GPS via any of my GPS software etc. At the most basic level, I used PuTTY to try and interrogate the module, but the silence was deafening. It took ages of searching the Internet before I found what I was looking for on a German website and through guesswork found a link to an application that was essential to get the GPS to work.

I'd found mention of this application a couple of times earlier, but no one posted a link to where it could be found. It certainly wasn't locatable on the Huawei website, though it's a Huawei product, go figure. Anyway, once the application was downloaded and installed, all you had to do was start it and then every other program that could read a GPS signal would recognise it (one program at a time mind you, which is the norm unless you use Franson GPS Gate, but that's another issue). The link to the application is here: http://www.plutokorea.com/exopc/. Look for GPS Applet 1.0.15.zip. Respect the sites request not to hot link directly to zip files, but only to the main directory.

Once the GPS App was installed, and I opened up PuTTY or any of my navigation programs, the GPS was recognised and no errors resulted. Unfortunately, life is not so simple and this didn't mean I was getting a GPS signal of value. I was getting an NMEA signal coming through, but no actual GPS data. The antenna that I had connected to the auxilliary port on the EM770W, clearly wasn't one tuned to the GPS frequencies. So off on another search I went. This time I came across a GPS dedicated antenna to replace that in an iPad 3 and, as it looked the goods, I ordered one. When it finally arrived, it appeared excellent, unfortunately, the connector was about half the size on the EM770W. Apple at it's best.

So it was on for another search and I'm currently waiting for another antenna that is supposed to be GPS compatible, we'll see. I'll report back once I receive the antenna and hopefully I'll have a fully functioning system.

In the next part, I'll post a few extras that I've found for the S1080 and what other things I'm going to try out.

[Ray!]

Part 4. Nearly there. Now there are a couple of other things that I've been seeking for some time and which I've finally discovered. I use my S1080, amongst other things, as a large screen navigation system when I go off-road (using Memory Map). One of the most annoying things that I've had to endure is using an inverter to power the 240V power supply to keep the S1080 working, so cables everywhere. For over six months at least, I've been trying to find a 12V adapter that will power the S1080 directly, and whilst I've come across a few on eBay that look the goods, nothing has been positive enough to make me commit. So it was with great surprise that a few weeks ago I found just what I was looking for and it works a treat. This is what I bought and I can guarantee that it works: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300753284728&clk_rvr_id=383182787281.

The other thing that has been annoying from time to time is the screen resolution of the S1080. I actually like the resolution, as for those without the greatest eyesight, the 1024x600 suits me ideally. However, I have a few programs where dialogue boxes don't fit the screen and some parts are cut off the bottom when displayed, so you can't see the entire dialogue box and scrolling isn't an option. Once again, and it may have been on this forum, I saw a comment that it was possible to change the resolution, but with nothing to explain how. So, after some searching, I found a link describing how to do just that, but for another product, and decided to give it a go. The modification works fine and allows you the choice of a range of alternative resolutions through the normal Screen Resolution control. The link on how to do this is here: http://mobileoffice.about.com/od/netbooks/a/How-To-Change-Your-Netbooks-Screen-Resolution.htm.

I might also point out that Windows 8 requires a screen resolution of 1024x768 or higher, so this modification may/will allow you to install and use Window 8 without any major issues, perhaps.

The final thing that I want to work out is whether the S1080 can actually use more than 2GB of RAM. The article in the other forum that I referred to, the OP apparently did just that with success, but has never returned to answer questions as to which memory he used. Maybe he too became frustrated like I did.

[Ray!]

Just an addendum. Some people may miscontrue my desire to get the GPS working and may think I haven't considered other options. Indeed I have. The main GPS unit that I use with the S1080 is a Nokia LD-3W Bluetooth GPS. I have a number of other GPS units that connect via USB: Garmin GPS18, u-Blox, Garmin eTrex Legend HCX, SANAV GM-48, but the Nokia bests all of them apart from the Garmin eTrex when it comes to finding and holding on to a signal. The disadvantage of the eTrex is mainly its size, USB connection location and failing rubber surround, otherwise it would be the one I'd use.

The Nokia is battery powered, but I use a USB power cord (one of these BTW: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190400573136&ssPageName=ADME:X:RTQ:AU:1123) from the S1080 to keep it charged all the time when in the vehicle and it's nice and small, so that I can locate it right at the lowest point at the windscreen base for maximum signal reception and minimal cable clutter. The only reason that I want to enable the GPS on the EM770W is because it's there and I hate wasting a viable resource if possible.

[davidbec]

Fantastic article!!

I was also looking for a GPS module I could use in my S1080, but I never bought any because after reading about them I was not sure they would work.

I had posted a video of my S1080 running Windows 8 so you will not have any issues there at all and the resolution options are 1152x864 or 1024x768 in Windows 8 so the dialogue boxes should fit.

Good job. Keep it up!

[Ray!]

Thanks. The EM770W GPS component definitely appears to work, but without a suitable antenna, it's not of much use. Hopefully I'll receive the antenna soon and will report success or otherwise.

[davidbec]

The N570 is limited to 2GB of RAM by Intel so I am not sure how or if the other person actually was able to upgrade his.

http://ark.intel.com/compare/58917,55637

[Ray!]

That's what's so confusing. The poster on the other forum said he had 4GB of RAM working (within the x32 limits), but he has never come back to answer any questions. He gave a pretty comprehensive report on the S1080, so one would assume that he wasn't telling tales about this aspect.

[Ray!]

I received the antenna today and installed it, but it looks like another bust. Even after leaving it on for over 15 min, it didn't even look like it was getting a signal. I think I've pretty much hit a dead end with this one.

[davidbec]

Sorry to hear.

Hopefully they release a tablet next year with the Intel Valleyview that has GPS builtin.

[Ray!]

I found some information on xda-developers on a closely related subject and they provided a source for an active GPS antenna that fits a mini-pcie card, which may or may not be a solution, but I'm not going to pursue this anymore as it's not that essential.

[Dark Mantis]

I received the antenna today and installed it, but it looks like another bust. Even after leaving it on for over 15 min, it didn't even look like it was getting a signal. I think I've pretty much hit a dead end with this one.

Hi

I am sure that you have already thought of this but when testing did you make sure that you were outside of a building to be able to pick up a signal as I know my GPS devices won't work indoors ?

[Ray!]

I received the antenna today and installed it, but it looks like another bust. Even after leaving it on for over 15 min, it didn't even look like it was getting a signal. I think I've pretty much hit a dead end with this one.

Hi

I am sure that you have already thought of this but when testing did you make sure that you were outside of a building to be able to pick up a signal as I know my GPS devices won't work indors ?

Yep! Tested it all over. Usually a cold start can take some time, but in this case it was so long that it clearly wasn't happening.

[davidbec]

This is one of the things that I could not understand in my review of the tablet. Why did they build a PCI express slot into the tablet that over half the perons buying it cannot use or are not aware of. Then add injury it is restricted in what it can do so even if you are aware of it there are only certain things it can be used for and those are very very few.