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Macbook Internal USB Ports?


Dantok
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Hey guys.

May need your help, cause i`m not too experienced with electronics in finding voltages and such.

As from what i see, someone has already done the macbook air integration. And wow, i definately would love a USB port inside my mac that i add more stuff inside. just a like an eeepc :thumbsup_anim:

 

So here's the thing. I doubt anyone has found extra USB ports on the macbook 13.3. If there is. please let me know! The macbook as a Internal Wifi Card, that uses the MiniPCIe Bus. From what i used to mod on my eeepc, the eeepc also has the same kind of ports on the macbook. Wonder would it be possible to use the same pins under the wifi card, just like eeepc and attach and USB hub and maybe even a 3G card :)

 

Some input would be good guys! If someone could confirm this and help out in finding voltages on the board. i would definately do it!

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  • 3 months later...

Also, I am aware of one other USB port which might be available on the MacBook logic board... The one which drives the iSight camera.

 

I'm thinking about using that one, but I'm kind of afraid it won't provide enough power for more than one SSD, especially a card reader.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...
The iSight port is very hard to access, since it's a part of the display cable.

 

I suggest using the Bluetooth port, since you can splice the cable to gain access.

 

Spice which cable? Any one tried the IR reciever usb cable?

 

Anyone have any more info on this please.

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  • 3 months later...

Hi, did anyone get any further with this? i have a 13" macbook and i want to modfy the track/mouse/touch pad to have left and right click.

 

Now ive seen a video on how to do it with a mbp, but much of the touchpad electronics on the macbook is hidden by the top case plastic.

 

So, plan b would be to get a regular usb mouse, hack it down to the bare essentials and mount it internally. The only problem is i either have lose an external usb port or find an internal one.

 

My other theory is to find something internal that uses usb (like bluetooth or the camera) and attach a usb hub to it, so i could use both simultaneously.

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i want to modfy the track/mouse/touch pad to have left and right click.

 

Why the hell would you want to do that? No, seriously... That makes no sense. Uhmm, I suppose you actually did know, that a right-click is possible by having two fingers on the pad or by holding ctrl? :)

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  • 10 months later...

Thought I'd add my experience here, as this thread comes up a lot when googling for stuff on internal USB in Macbooks. I should start by saying that I don't really know much about electronics, but do have a soldering iron and a wanton disregard for warranties.

 

I managed to waste a lot of last weekend trying to graft stuff onto the Bluetooth connector, which appears to be USB by reputation and pinout.

 

Started off by attempting a combo card reader / usb hub, which was probably a little ambitious. On booting the macbook, the hub appeared to be getting power, but plugging anything into it (USB or SD card) caused the machine to crash.

 

So, guessing that the hub was drawing far too much power, I scaled back and replaced the hub with a single socket, into which I plugged a GPS dongle. Same deal as the hub - appeared to be getting power, but no comms.

 

The conclusion to draw? I haven't tried reconnecting the Bluetooth radio yet to check if the port still works as designed (hope I haven't fried anything), but my guess is that, although the port appears to be USB, there's something a bit weird / proprietary going on with it. Of course, I might have just got my wiring wrong. Three times.

 

If anyone's got this to work, I'd be very interested in hearing how.

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  • 6 months later...

Hi!

I'm really getting tired of the 3G dongle sitting on the side of my mid-2007 Macbook and I want to do something about it.

I'm thinking this: I buy a usb hub (http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.13526), take the optical drive away, solder the wires from the black usb plug to one of the USB ports on the MB.

I understand that there would be difficulties to power more than one thing from one port, but what about the unused power from the optical drive? Wouldn't I be able to take 5v and ground from the PATA cable and solder it to the wires from the red usb plug to get the necessary power?

Since I don't know much about different standards, protocols and connectors, I didn't find any relevant information regarding the PATA connector in early macbooks.

Is there a 5V pin on that thing? All I found was "+5v" and "2.0A" written on the case of the combo drive (CW-8221).

If there is, which pin is it?

Would 2A fry anything I connect?

Is this a stupid idea for some other reason?

 

Thanks in advance //pekkahontas

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