Mini PCIe to USB adapter:
For some reason this isn't listed on the company's main site... but it's IMHO an awesome product that I'm surprised nobody else makes. What it does is tap into the USB connection present in a PCIe slot and turns the slot into an internal USB port for stashing "micro" USB devices (mouse dongles and tiny flash drives mainly). I bought one a few months ago to stash my logitech Unifying adapter in one of my Dell Latitude E5530's extra slots.
The only "issues" I had was that (1) one must use a set of side cutters to trim the PCB at the row of VIAs; one cannot snap them by hand (the board will break further down) which limited me to the 1/2 slot, which became (2) a situation where the Unifying dongle was too long (I had to remove the plastic back shell and file the dongle PCB down to the antenna trace). However, in most cases this isn't an issue as the "shell" the card fits in on this design was an unusually tight fit to begin with.
I just bought two more for my other two laptops with extra slots; these are PERFECT for later Dell D series latitudes (and similar designs such as my XPS M1210), which have extra full size slots for WWAN cards that virtually nobody had to begin with or still uses. A lot of other laptops have extra slots I bet, and with mouse dongles (especially the logitech unifying ones) being "set and forget", I am surprised laptops don't have internal USB ports in the first place (as there is no reason why such dongles "need" to be external).
Price wise, IMHO it's pretty cheap... For less than $10 and with reasonable shipping rates, I'd rank it as a "must have" for those with laptops with an open slot and a mouse dongle (or other small USB device).
Comments or questions?
For some reason this isn't listed on the company's main site... but it's IMHO an awesome product that I'm surprised nobody else makes. What it does is tap into the USB connection present in a PCIe slot and turns the slot into an internal USB port for stashing "micro" USB devices (mouse dongles and tiny flash drives mainly). I bought one a few months ago to stash my logitech Unifying adapter in one of my Dell Latitude E5530's extra slots.
The only "issues" I had was that (1) one must use a set of side cutters to trim the PCB at the row of VIAs; one cannot snap them by hand (the board will break further down) which limited me to the 1/2 slot, which became (2) a situation where the Unifying dongle was too long (I had to remove the plastic back shell and file the dongle PCB down to the antenna trace). However, in most cases this isn't an issue as the "shell" the card fits in on this design was an unusually tight fit to begin with.
I just bought two more for my other two laptops with extra slots; these are PERFECT for later Dell D series latitudes (and similar designs such as my XPS M1210), which have extra full size slots for WWAN cards that virtually nobody had to begin with or still uses. A lot of other laptops have extra slots I bet, and with mouse dongles (especially the logitech unifying ones) being "set and forget", I am surprised laptops don't have internal USB ports in the first place (as there is no reason why such dongles "need" to be external).
Price wise, IMHO it's pretty cheap... For less than $10 and with reasonable shipping rates, I'd rank it as a "must have" for those with laptops with an open slot and a mouse dongle (or other small USB device).
Comments or questions?
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