Wifi Chipsets - Help

[loganWHD]

Hello all,

I am new to the community here and very interested in the fit-pc.

I am wondering, would fit-pc be willing to adjust the Wifi card?
I have been in direct contact with a support rep but he told me I had to post here to get an answer... not sure why? but here it is....

In order of importance
RTL8187
RT73
RT2570
Atheros

Any one of those cards would offer more flexibility that the one presently installed.

Please let me know ASAP as we have a project that this can fit.

Thanks

[yogev_ezra]

You can replace the card by yourself (although it will void the warranty).

One of the reasons for the card currently present in Fit-PC2 is low power consumption. RTL8187 consumes twice as much power as RT3090.

[loganWHD]

Well we wouldn't have to use the 1000mW card of course. Since it is not battery powered, I don't see the problem.

Where as the RT3090
802.11b : 18dBm ± 1.5dBm
802.11g : 15dBm ± 1.5dBm
802.11n HT20 : 14dBm ± 1.5dBm
802.11n HT40 : 14dBm ± 1.5dBm
Power consumption
Continue TX Max 1500mW
Continue RX Max 1000mW

I can't imagine that the RTL8187 is double that?
From the RT site
RTL8187:
# 3.3V and 1.8V power supplies required
# 5V tolerant I/Os

[loganWHD]

Actually here are the specs
Output Power
* 802.11b: up to 18dBm
* 802.11g: up to 14dBm

Receive Sensitivity
802.11b, 8% PER: -84dBm ~ -92dBm
802.11g, 10% PER: -70dBm ~ -86dBm

Where as the RT3090
802.11b : 18dBm ± 1.5dBm
802.11g : 15dBm ± 1.5dBm

Looks the same no?
1dBm off on the g?

[yogev_ezra]

The problem is not as much power supply as a margin for passive cooling. Fit-PC2 does not have a fan so each milliwatt it produces has to be dissipated by the aluminum case, and here 0.5W does mean a lot.

According to Compulab testing, RT3090 consumed around 0.7W while RTL8187 consumed around 1.5W. So that is 0.8W difference. This info is now removed from the website since Compulab discontinued RTL8187.

What advantage you have in RTL8187 over RT3090?

[loganWHD]

Yah that is a lot with no fan

I would use this device as a remote monitoring and security device.

Running aps like Wireshark and airodump which requires me to be able to use injection. This is the biggest thing right now. I can run an external Alfa card off of the many USB ports, but if it were all contained that would be the best.

[yogev_ezra]

If you need just 1 Fit-PC2, you can buy the offered configuration, throw away the WiFi card and replace it with the WiFi card of your choice. It will void your warranty, but if you really need the RTL8187, you probably will not care.

If you want to order Fit-PC2 in volume, then you can register directly with Compulab as embedded customer and you could modify the WiFi card then.

[loganWHD]

what constitutes volume?

The idea is to demo it with a linux OS at a con and then potentially resell
so at first only 2-3-4 maybe then hopefully more

[yogev_ezra]

2-3-4 units is definitely not volume.
For this question you should go back to Compulab support rep you talked to.