Hardware Mods

From A110 Wiki

1 Reactivation of the built-in IDE port
2 USB-based mods
3 Car adapter
4 Other modifications

Reactivation of the built-in IDE port

w.i.p.

We need high resolution pictures of the Airis Kira mainboard to resolve which parts are missing. I'm not sure that it's possible to solder a zif-socket without special equipment.

I think it is possible to solder the missing ZIF socket. There are some guys who put a RAM upgrade into the original X-Box. They solder not only 1 pin, they solder 3-4 pins at the same time. I think the pins from the RAM are more tiny than the pins of the ZIF socket.

I've ordered a "1,8" ZIF to IDE adapter" at eBay. I want to take the ZIF socket from the adapter and put it in the A110. Are there any other missing parts on the mainboard to get the IDE interface work???

USB-based mods

USB-Connector

w.i.p.

Status: First parts arrived, waiting for more. If somebody has pictures of the A120 internals (mainboard) please post them!

The A110 has an internal USB connector that is unused. In the A120 it is the connector for the built-in webcam. The pin setting is

(upper)
5: GND
4: GND
3: 5V+
2: Data-
1: Data+
(lower)

where (upper) and (lower) correspond to the connector as it can be seen in the picture beside.

Attaching an USB-Stick to these pins works perfectly.

Instead of getting an appropriate connector, I just removed the upper plastic part of the onboard connector and soldered 4 thin cables directly to the pins. The other end I connected to an USB port that I put into the area usually reserved for the hard disk and attached an USB stick into that. Works without any problem.

Installing an USB mini hub, on the other hand, caused problems (USB disconnect during heavy data transfer). I'm not sure if this is due to my cheap mini HUB or a generic problem. However, having a 8 MB stick internally installed improves the usability of the A110 significantly.

Car adapter

w.i.p.

Because of the ratings of the power-supply (12V) it seems to be possible to connect the A110 directly to a cars cigarette lighter (12V-socket). (Further test-results following soon)

WARNING! Never connect the A110 directly to the 12 Volt net of a car! There you have voltages up to 14 Volt and spikes on it, when the engine is running! It can/will destroy your computer! So the better way is to use the original power supply combined with a cheap 12 V DC to 230 V AC converter. A converter with sine output is not necessary in this case. The next advantage of such thing: you can supply/charge a lot of other gadgets simultaneously, like cell/mobile phone. Another option is to use a dedicated 12V notebook power supply for car usage. Those are not that expensive and can be adjusted to a variety of voltages from 12V to 24V and several different DC plugs.