Attaching a WiFi dongle to the iMote2

ZD1211- and ZD1211B-based WiFi dongles, such as the IOGEAR GWU523, are fully supported by the MSP. Other dongles are supported if you build the proper kernel modules for them. You can attach a WiFi dongle either to the LSB, or wire it into the iMote.

Drivers

To use a WiFi dongle, the proper drivers must be loaded. You can specify drivers to load at boot time in /etc/modules. ohci-hcd is required (it's the USB host port driver) regardless of which dongle you use. Information about the ZD1211(B) drivers is here.

LSB method

If you attach the WiFi dongle to the LSB port, you must run lsb-server with USB_ENABLE set to 1 in lsb.ini to enable power on USB port.

iMote2/MSB method

Caution: You can easily damage the iMote2 with this method. It is not recommended unless you have considerable soldering experience.

In some cases, you can wire a USB dongle directly into the iMote2 and MSB. The biggest constraint is that you must be able to power the USB dongle, and the MSP by default doesn't produce the 5 volts required by the USB spec. However, many dongles simply regulate the 5 volts down to 3 or 3.3 volts. In this case, you can likely bypass the regulator and attach it directly to one of the 3 volt lines on the MSB, or, depending on the dongle, one of the 2.8V lines on the iMote2 (this has not been tested, however). Once you've solved the power problem, attach the D+ line from the USB dongle between R20 and R21 on the iMote2. Attach the D- line from the USB dongle between R19 and R22 on the iMote2.