top-quark.blog
Wireless Adventure!
Sun, 08/22/2004, 03:06(Executive summary at the end), finally put up pics
So, I'm a cheapass. Everyone knows this; I'm pretty sure I'd be one even if I had a gazillion dollars.
Got this 802.11g wireless card off Pricewatch.. IIRC, it was the cheapest one around. Surfing the net with it is great, but not too terribly fulfilling. Particularly, I'm fond of wardriving and signals fun, so NetStumbler is a favorite tool of mine. Problem is, the drivers included with the card are uber-generic, and NetStumbler pretty much pukes chunks (says no cards detected).
"I think it's the drivers", I say aloud. I'm a fucking nerd. Anyhow, a lot of cards are just OEMed.. I have no idea who the hell makes this card, since it's so fucking generic. It's called "802.11g Wireless LAN CardBus PC Card". Given enough crackrocks, I could come up with a more palatable name.. maybe something like the "Verbose2000g XTREME EDITION" or something. The packaging, for chrissake:
Yeah; not even a goddamn brand name. So, I try an FCC ID search first. The FCC ID is "MQ4WG2K4", which tells us it's made by a Taiwanese company called "AboCom". Net search doesn't come up with anything relevant, so it looks like I'm trodding on new soil here. Aside from pics of ghetto-fab tech setups from my homeland, the FCC listing is otherwise useless, so let's dig hardware. I love hardware.
Well, time to look at the chipset... breaking and entering time, that is (more the former than the latter). A little while later, delicately prodding with specific tools (pointy end of a compass), and it's open. Here are its guts, along with the chosen tools:
Sooo.. looking at the board, our main chip is a TI, which for the dim-witted, is Texas Instruments.
Specific Chip markings read:
TI TNETW1130GVF 3BZ3408 CD
That "NET" bit tells me it's probably the culprit, but I write down the other chip numbers. It's not like I can look em up on the fly, because I'm lazy, and the card I'm dissecting is the one I use to connect to the net.
Well, shits & giggles, here's the other big chips, along with the dirt I dug up:
ATMEL320 (NE OF MAIN CHIP) 24C08N S127 C (EEPROM; not recommended for new designs!) RADIA (S OF MAIN CHIP, #2 IN SIZE) RC2422B HK0344 A111 (RF stuff? Made in Hong Kong?) RADIA (SOUTHMOST CHIP) RC2326 SG0349 3BF3R2K (RF stuff? Made in Singapore?)
On the way out of the hardware, I see this little gem:
I'd noticed in the OEM drivers an option to switch antennas. This looks like tracks for a surface-mount antenna connector socket, so I'll probably revisit this. Probably MCX is my guess... gotta figure out what kind of plug goes there. I've drilled a hole for it anyway.
Massage the whole thing back together, and hallelujah, the damn thing works. Good, because I'm not putting this much effort into messing with something I've killed.
Well, the small shit checks out to be just small shit, so it's got to be the TI. Google for TNETW1130GVF and get some Seattle hippy coffee-addict wireless page that talks about an example piece of hardware, find out that dropping the "GVF" gives more data (TNETW1130), then finally we find out that the chip is in the "ACX111" family. Now we're getting somewhere, except that the only stuff I can find on that is for Linux nerds. I don't care about linux drivers, but I read along the way that the following have similar chipsets:
US Robotics 5410
Dlink G650+
Fuck, I like USR. Let's read up on them. Netstumbler.org forums shows that it sorta works in NS, you just need the 4.0 drivers. Go to USR's support page, and like an idiot I download 5.0 drivers. I don't know that then, so I keep installing like the dumbass I am. Uninstall old drivers, sucker Win2k into accepting the USR ones, and....
Net works. Cool. Actually seems a good bit speedier and less crappy.
...but NetStumbler doesn't work. Assorted voodoo fails. Go back and reread the post, figure out I'm using the wrong drivers. Shit. Download 4.0 drivers, uninstall old ones, install 4.0, lather, rinse, repeat. Netstumbler works. Yay.
So you, uncaring habitual reader, or battle-wary Googler, now know how to get a cheapass card to work in NetStumbler. I think I put in 3 hours to save something like $10 on a name-brand card. But, I've no money and lots of time.
I know I ramble, and most of you don't care, so here's the executive summary, you lazy bastard:
|
1) Don't take apart your card like I did. If you want to mess with the antenna, good. Lemme know how it goes; I'll probably never get around to it otherwise.
2) Just install the USR 5410 v.4 drivers. 3) Use NetStumbler for evil and such |
Have fun, kids. If this article's been helpful to you, lemme know. That means a comment or something, so I don't look like a total computer nerd, blogging away his life. If you have a job open, I'd like that. Also, please remember me for the holidays, inheritances, oversized checks (publisher's clearinghouse-style), and marriage requests (not from guys).
Til next decade..
Alive!!
Thu, 08/05/2004, 02:19You see that subtitle of mine, under "top-quark :: blog"..? That's not a joke.. Instead of reading this blog, I suggest you take up a number of other equally-rewarding hobbies, such as:
-Watching paint dry
-Watching grass grow
But, to reward my occasional reader, I'll sometimes put up morsels of goodness. In truth, I've had the photos for this installment prepared for some time, but.. writing's no fun.
Today, we have... Magpul Industries' brand new, fancy-schmancy anti-tilt followers for M16 magazines! Make no mistake, these aren't your green followers that are so last-century.. These are a brand new design, and quite the feat of modern engineering.
After the Sanchez/Cooper magazine issues which prompted the redesign of the traditional black followers, the US military adopted a new green-colored follower, with anti-tilt features. Unfortunately, someone overdosed on crack, and only did a half-assed job. The result is typically military; it fixes the problem, but just barely. If tilted too much, you can quite easily jam a green follower. It may be a 30 second fix, but if you're loading your magazines in a battle environment, your situation is probably time-sensitive. Solutions exist already; H&K, in overhauling the ailing British SA80, has come up with some new high reliability mags, with some sort of chromed metal anti-tilt follower. This is about ideal, but because of the Clinton "assault weapons" ban, citizen shooters can't buy these new normal-capacity magazines. Also, they're very expensive, at around $40 for law-enforcement.
Magpul, being an innovative company, has created something of an interim, or upgrade option in the polymer anti-tilt followers. Also, as a new company connected to users pretty directly by the internet, they've been exposed to the concept of the "beta test". So, lucky us, Magpul made available for a short time a limited number of "beta" Magpul followers. These are colored red, and made in a different process than the production followers. They're also made to be dimensionally close to the magazine size; plainly-stated, that means they're kinda tight. Sand and grit could potentially be a problem, but these are test pieces, and not made for combat.
Here it is; the top of this wondrous lump of plastic. The really nice thing about these is that they're molded with Teflon; this makes them very slick, and improves the smoothness of feeding. I say they're worth it just for the slickness.
Compared to the now-standard green follower, the Magpul followers have a lot more "beef" to them. This makes them far more resistant to tilt. Sharp/experienced eyes will also note that these are molded in such a way as to account for the magazine ribs. Normal followers require a degree of finesse (or brute-force) in getting them in/out of the magazine body. With Magpul followers, you simply insert them straight-in. It's easy, but mine lost some plastic on insertion. I don't count it against the followers, as magazine tolerances do vary, and it doesn't impair function.
The followers in their natural environment...
Update!
(kinda contrived, since I'm writing this whole article now..)Magpul has now started to sell production versions of the follower. How do they vary from beta? The production followers are by comparison slightly undersized for reliability, and are manufactured apparently in a more consistent manner (no shenanigans). They're also colored Coyote Brown, as popularized by Cavalry Arms.. I guess that makes them more suitable for tactical use, but that could be debated.. at any rate, it lets a user distinguish the production from the (rare) beta versions.
Coyote brown-a-riffic.
I'm guessing some people don't understand why these exist.. Just try doing this with a green or black follower. They'd bind up, or go totally nuts. With these, you could push the follower all the way to the bottom, and it still won't jam or bind. It's great. Same goes for the red ones.
Some empirical observations:
1) The red followers weren't made as consistently; I had a couple with odd bumps that interfered with proper operation. Actually, the mags wouldn't work at all. Magpul switched these out for me, though; great customer service. The production followers are very, very consistent.
2) The red followers, though theoretically more prone to sand/grit than the coyote followers, have functioned perfectly. I don't baby my equipment, either, and often drop my mags in the jagged rock/dirt we have in the mountains. The coyote ones should be even better, but I haven't used them much.
3) The followers have another nice feature; they can resurrect crappy mags. Back when I was stupid(er), I bought a couple USA mags; they never worked right, because they'd always tilt. With these, they function great... which is bad, because I look like a dumb n00b. *shrug*
Overall, these are highly recommended! If you look at reliability factors in a modern weapon, the weakest point in any system is the magazine system. With an $800+ rifle, you'd be insane not to spend a little extra to positively ensure perfect function.
Disclaimer: I don't work for these people. If I did, I wouldn't whine as much as I do about being poor.