DT360, two variants - differences & observations.

Specifications and discussions on hardware for the DT360
Post Reply
yuppiejr
Newbie
Newbie
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Feb 04, 2010 11:25 pm

DT360, two variants - differences & observations.

Post by yuppiejr »

Hi,

New poster/forum member that's been lurking to learn about the DT360 but just started working with the hardware.  I know most of you probably deal with the DT366 units but as the DT360's hit the secondary market and prices drop I'm assuming these will eventually become more common.

My interest in the product was based on the need for a rugged, inexpensive and self sufficent hardware solution to operate in our warehouse (paired with a USB barcode scanner) that could also run some streaming applications via Citrix or a browser with reasonably long battery life.  The DT360 seems to fit the bill particularly compared with brand new devices in the same category that sell for close to $2000 a copy.
  • The first DT360 I looked in standard black at has mainboard rev 1.03.10 (http://s123.photobucket.com/albums/o305/yuppiejr/Antec%20180b/DT36010310/) with VIA 6655 series mPCI wireless, CompactFlash slot and a functional PCMCIA slot. 

    The second (red - ebay in quantity 1 to 600 at a time) is board revisions 1.03.12 with a pci-express based VIA 6656 series wireless card, working CompactFlash slot but no PCMCIA slot.  Same general board layout but the .12 is obviously a later revision since there are empty solder points all over where components were removed from the .10 design.  It looks like they simply dropped the mPCI slot and put the PCI-express slot where the PCMCIA card used to go. 
Given a choice I think I prefer the earlier .10 board revision unit (not the red ones from ebay), I don't see a downside to the mPCI vs mPCIe wireless card but can see an upside to having the PCMCIA slot in addition to the CF slot.  I tested 2 and 4 gig CF cards plus an 8 gig Seagate CF microdrive in both and saw no difference in function or performance. 

In both units the DOM "hard disk" looks like a 5v Apacer 44 pin PATA/IDE unit with a short 90 degree female connector similar to the DT366.  Biggest difference here seems to be the 5v versus 3.3 (per the Apacer part numbers from the 512 and 1 gig drives in these two units).  Apacer part number on the internal flash DOM from the 1.0.3.12 (red) DT360 is AP-FM0512AL0C5G-NJ.

I'm wondering if this ADM III DOM drive replacement is simply drop-in, perhaps with a connector mod to get the height in line with the short connectors (http://www.e-itx.com/ap-fm002ge10d5r-njj.html) as seems common practice in the DT366 mods called out here.  I have the uncommon luxury of having a use for this drive if I can't make it work in some HP T57xx series thin clients so I'm going to order one up to test in the DT360 with the backup plan of throwing it in one of the HP Thin Clients I'm setting up for redeployment with XPe.

The wireless range situation seems like it can be dealt with either by replacing the wireless adapter (I've swapped in a Broadcom BCM4309 802.11 a/b/g mPCI for the original VIA 6655 in a test unit) or adding a secondary antenna.  I noticed a big improvement in wireless performance with the Broadcom (Dell 1450 card) adapter plus gained 802.11a but am still waiting to see if there's a negative in battery life.  Having an unused secondary wireless antenna connection point on the card just begs for an additional antenna to improve range and performance.

Anyone know why the BIOS seems to indicate there is 1 gig of memory installed in these units yet only 256 is available to the operating system with a 26 meg RAMdrive?

Hope this info is useful to someone, I'll tag on any more possibly useful info as I mess with these some more.
Last edited by quotaholic on Sun Feb 14, 2010 2:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Taltos
Newbie
Newbie
Posts: 20
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 3:07 pm

Re: DT360, two variants - differences & observations.

Post by Taltos »

If these 360's are using 5v on the ide connecter i should be able to connect a laptop HD just by modding a laptop ide cable to the shorter contact points no?
rectic
Jr. Member
Jr. Member
Posts: 71
Joined: Fri May 22, 2009 9:06 am

Re: DT360, two variants - differences & observations.

Post by rectic »

I think there are actually more than 2 versions of this, but most of the ones released on eBay are all CE (which had the VIA chipset). The ones released with XPe had another chipset.
yuppiejr
Newbie
Newbie
Posts: 10
Joined: Thu Feb 04, 2010 11:25 pm

Re: DT360, two variants - differences & observations.

Post by yuppiejr »

Taltos wrote: If these 360's are using 5v on the ide connecter i should be able to connect a laptop HD just by modding a laptop ide cable to the shorter contact points no?
I haven't verified amperage yet to confirm if a hard drive will run - I've only been testing the 5v DOM units that don't have the same amperage draw that a laptop hard drive will introduce.  If I can come up with a 44 pin F/F connector I'll test it out.

Still waiting for the Super Talent 16 gig DOM's I ordered to test with the DT360's and and certain HP thin client models I'm retasking to digital signage applications.
Taltos
Newbie
Newbie
Posts: 20
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 3:07 pm

Re: DT360, two variants - differences & observations.

Post by Taltos »

I think i have a cable waiting around for me to try. have to break out the dremel. I'll post once i try it out.
Taltos
Newbie
Newbie
Posts: 20
Joined: Thu Apr 02, 2009 3:07 pm

Re: DT360, two variants - differences & observations.

Post by Taltos »

well Wrecked my cable..lol hands are not to steady with the dremel I gues.. this test will half to wait.
Post Reply