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Rev D PowerBook AirPort connector?
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Dec 1999
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Did a little research, but just wanted to confirm on here. The Rev D Aluminum PowerBook has a mini-PCI connector for the AirPort card, right?
So, theoretically, I should be able to get a mini-PCI 802.11b/g Cisco Aironet card and replace the Apple one? I'm able to get one for $70, so I wanted to jump on it. Cisco's the best, bar none.
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"…I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than
you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods,
you will understand why I dismiss yours." - Stephen F. Roberts
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Forum Regular
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: N 48*24'10.0" - W 114*19'51.5"
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I can't really answer your question, and I'm most likely being redundant, but be sure the card is compatible with a Mac before you buy it..
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Have:
30GB 5G iPod
Want:
15" 2.16GHz MBP - 20" Cinema Display
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Moderator  Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: San Jose, CA
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No. The Airport slot is not a standard slot. You have to use Apple's Airport Extreme card. You can't use anything else.
Steve
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Admin Emeritus  Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
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Well, actually, it likely IS a standard slot. I don't think anyone's ever tested a non-Apple card in the AirPort Extreme slot, though! (A few non-Apple cards did work in the old AirPort slots, you know!)
tooki
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Westside Island
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The airport card is now not accessible in the RevD - you would have to take the whole computer apart to get to it.
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Senior User
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Atlanta, GA
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What I've read is something to the effect of that the slot is physically standard, but Apple changed something minor electrically (something about which pin is what I presume) so that other cards wouldn't work. I really have no idea if that's true or not, but I think that's the way it was with the old AirPort cards, too.
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Moderator Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: San Jose, CA
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Originally Posted by tooki
Well, actually, it likely IS a standard slot. I don't think anyone's ever tested a non-Apple card in the AirPort Extreme slot, though! (A few non-Apple cards did work in the old AirPort slots, you know!)
tooki
Trust me, the AE and original Airport are not standard slots. Remember, I worked on this stuff! I'm not sure how people a) would have gotten a card in the old slots because of the keying (unique to Apple) or b) got it to work since the pinout was slightly different from a standard PC card slot. Are there any posts of people getting standard PC cards to work in the Airport slots? I'd be curious to read them.
Steve
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Moderator Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: San Jose, CA
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Originally Posted by Stratus Fear
What I've read is something to the effect of that the slot is physically standard, but Apple changed something minor electrically (something about which pin is what I presume) so that other cards wouldn't work. I really have no idea if that's true or not, but I think that's the way it was with the old AirPort cards, too.
'Tis true.
Steve
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Senior User
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Atlanta, GA
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Originally Posted by ibook_steve
Trust me, the AE and original Airport are not standard slots. Remember, I worked on this stuff! I'm not sure how people a) would have gotten a card in the old slots because of the keying (unique to Apple) or b) got it to work since the pinout was slightly different from a standard PC card slot. Are there any posts of people getting standard PC cards to work in the Airport slots? I'd be curious to read them.
Steve
I think there was actually one Sony Vaio wireless card or something like that which was actually identical to the AirPort card and would work in that slot. Even had the external antenna connector. Maybe Sony and Apple got those cards from the same manufacturer.
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Admin Emeritus Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
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Originally Posted by ibook_steve
Trust me, the AE and original Airport are not standard slots. Remember, I worked on this stuff! I'm not sure how people a) would have gotten a card in the old slots because of the keying (unique to Apple) or b) got it to work since the pinout was slightly different from a standard PC card slot. Are there any posts of people getting standard PC cards to work in the Airport slots? I'd be curious to read them.
Somewhere on the forums is my post about this -- I know it works because I did it. A Lucent WaveLAN Silver card will work in an AirPort slot, and is usable with either the Apple AirPort driver or the Lucent driver. Of course, the WaveLAN card has a bulge, so you can't do fancy things like close the Mac's case. The other thing is that the drivers for the AirPort slot don't support hot-plugging. But it proves the point that the slot itself is, for all intents and purposes, identical to a PC card slot -- note that AirPort cards are keyed to not fit in PC Card slots, but AirPort slots are not keyed against PC Cards. The pinout is identical.
Cards other than a few Lucent WaveLAN models won't work -- that's because the AirPort card is a Lucent card with an antenna connector in place of the antenna bulge. (I tried another brand of wireless card, and a PC Card hard disk, neither of which worked.)
Though I can't test it, I'm convinced that if one were to plug an AirPort card into a PC Card slot, it would work just fine and would be recognized as a Lucent card.
The AirPort Extreme card is a mini-PCI card -- and that's a standard. Many other vendors use identical cards, and I'm sure that many of them are compatible with each other.
tooki
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Senior User
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Atlanta, GA
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Originally Posted by tooki
Somewhere on the forums is my post about this -- I know it works because I did it. A Lucent WaveLAN Silver card will work in an AirPort slot, and is usable with either the Apple AirPort driver or the Lucent driver. Of course, the WaveLAN card has a bulge, so you can't do fancy things like close the Mac's case. The other thing is that the drivers for the AirPort slot don't support hot-plugging. But it proves the point that the slot itself is, for all intents and purposes, identical to a PC card slot -- note that AirPort cards are keyed to not fit in PC Card slots, but AirPort slots are not keyed against PC Cards. The pinout is identical.
Cards other than a few Lucent WaveLAN models won't work -- that's because the AirPort card is a Lucent card with an antenna connector in place of the antenna bulge. (I tried another brand of wireless card, and a PC Card hard disk, neither of which worked.)
Though I can't test it, I'm convinced that if one were to plug an AirPort card into a PC Card slot, it would work just fine and would be recognized as a Lucent card.
The AirPort Extreme card is a mini-PCI card -- and that's a standard. Many other vendors use identical cards, and I'm sure that many of them are compatible with each other.
tooki
Hmm...interesting. For that matter, I'm not surprised that the WaveLAN works in the Airport slot -- both cards are based on the same wireless chipset, some Orinoco/Prism2 based thing, if my memory serves.
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: 888500128
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The Orinoco silver and gold cards worked fine in the old Airport slots.
You can even upgrade the silver cards to gold using Apple's own Airport Utilities to update the firmware (this was covered on Ars Technica's forums a few years ago).
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Admin Emeritus Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: Zurich, Switzerland
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Originally Posted by Stratus Fear
Hmm...interesting. For that matter, I'm not surprised that the WaveLAN works in the Airport slot -- both cards are based on the same wireless chipset, some Orinoco/Prism2 based thing, if my memory serves.
WaveLAN is the series that was later renamed Orinoco. It's not just "based on the same chipset," they are essentially the same cards, save for the antenna. The original graphite AirPort base station, by the way, has an unmodified, Lucent-branded WaveLAN Silver card inside. Lucent manufactured all of Apple's original line of 802.11b gear, including all the cards and all the graphite base stations.
tooki
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Dec 1999
Status:
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So... it's not mini-PCI? I can just use a PCMCIA card, but I didn't want to have to swap out my GPS card. 
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"…I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than
you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods,
you will understand why I dismiss yours." - Stephen F. Roberts
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Senior User
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Orange County, California
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Originally Posted by olePigeon
So... it's not mini-PCI? I can just use a PCMCIA card, but I didn't want to have to swap out my GPS card.
I still don't know why you'd want to replace the APX card with a Cisco card. The antenna is exactly the same, and I don't think that there are any features of the chipset that would make a difference considering that the antenna isn't being improved. The Broadcom chipset is standard on many wireless cards.
Either way, with the new Rev D. PowerBooks, only the 12" has the APX card accessible. The 1.5/1.67 generation 15" books have a completely internal card, and the 17" has always had an internal card.
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The Bighead
- MacBook Pro 15" Matte non-unibody 2.6 GHz, 4GB RAM, 120/SSD & 1TB/5400
- PM G4 Dual 1.25 GHz, 2 GB RAM, 1x1TB Boot - 1x2TB TM Backup - 2x3TB Archive/Backup
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Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Oct 2004
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Originally Posted by olePigeon
So... it's not mini-PCI? I can just use a PCMCIA card, but I didn't want to have to swap out my GPS card.
Care to comment on what GPS card your using and what software? Thanks
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15" 2.33 MBP 2GB Ram, 120GB HD - Main Rig
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