PowerBook 3400c CardBus

[MacUp72]

I'm trying to get CardBus working in my 3400c, some old sources say that the Texas chip maybe to some degree compatible with CardBus cards but who knows exactly.

CardBus Upgrades, 3400 Hotrodding, TiBook Paint Protection, Sleep of Death, and More | Low End Mac

MCE CardBus Upgrade Service

The Powerbook 3400c is Cardbus Compliant!

USB Cards for PowerBooks with CardBus | Low End Mac

Hooper Hot Rodding

When I look into the two pcmcia shafts in the 3400 you can see the mounts and other bits that keep the card straight when inserted.







here you can see the different slots of a CardBus and pcmcia card, the upper card, a Siemens 54MBits CardBus card, has a thicker right under ridge.
..actually had, I here already scratched away 1mm to look it like the older pcmcia card.




after that I was able to stick it into the shaft and it appeared on the desktop as an unknown card. I had installed AirPort for 9.2.2 on the 3400c under 9.1.
But neither AirPort nor Orinoco software detected it, and the Orinoco software is quite compatible with many cards..so I guess its a power thing.

 

[MacUp72]

from here:

OS X on a PowerBook 1400c 400 Mhz G3

They sure do make 16MB PC100 DIMMs, I've got one.

68kmla.org

True, the PMU isn't completely supported on the 3400/2400/Kanga (so, no sleep, no backlight control, etc), and the 3400 and Kanga won't properly support CardBus without a new card cage being installed, but they do work well otherwise.

My 2400c runs 10.2.6, with a 240MHz G3 upgrade and 112MB of RAM. It has a 20GB hard drive, and the CardBus mod - CardBus cards work great under 10.2 up thru 10.2.6, but you can only use one card at a time. I use a Linksys 802.11g card (with AirPort software v.3.1.1) and have no problems with it. Even the video looks good, for being thousands of colours.

I wonder what card cage could be used here, or maybe another mod?

 

[Byrd]

Cardbus is already enabled on the 3400/3500 with some cards physically not fitting, I think the only useful card was a MacAlly USB card that fitted OK and wifi Orinoco Gold or Silver cards could work with third party drivers.

The Powerbook 3400c is Cardbus Compliant!

The 2400, similar era, did need a minor hardware mod to enable Cardbus, either resistor removal or "yellow wire" removal.

 

[MacUp72]

yes, of course Orinoco chip based pcmcia cards can be used, I did that in the 1400c and 190cs, but its only 11Mbit/s WEP.
I also used a standard pcmcia-to-USB card off Amazon in an early G3 PDQ two years ago.

There must be a way to get 54 Mbit/s Wifi cards going..in the photos above I already did that physical card mod, no prob.
From my understanding there is an additional function for that golden strip on CardBus cards, maybe another ground for 32Bit support..and more power consumption? There is a reason why there was a PCMCIA-Standard 2.01 with 33Mhz bus at 3,3V introduced, also hot-plug, pcmcia uses 5v or 3,3V.
wiki: The voltage required for a card is encoded via a recess on the right side of the front side. This prevents 3.3 volt cards from being operated in slots that only deliver 5 volts. 5-volt cards could also be inserted into slots that are suitable for 3.3 volt cards, but the card driver will not switch on the voltage. Some cards can be operated on 5 volt and 3.3 volt slots – i.e. with both voltages.

 

[cheesestraws]

There must be a way to get 54 Mbit/s Wifi cards going..

I hope you like writing drivers.

 

[MacUp72]

I hope you like writing drivers.