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This little module was liberated from a Canon wifi enabled printer that decided not to work anymore. It appears to bear the label "Product Number: K30306" at the upper left, which naturally was the first target for a thorough googling.. as were all the other numbers that looked remotely like part IDs. Sadly this did not yield the expected results.

Probing the connector on the printer's motherboard did not reveal any obvious power rails; apparently this printer doesn't turn on the wifi unless it's happy, i.e., not generating a terminal error code. If I were to speculate, I'd guess that the two twisted pairs might be USB and the 5th wire a special line for powering the RF sections.

Hopefully someone has run across this module or something like it before and can shed some light on how to make use of it. Fwiw, the printer was a Canon pixma mx860.

undocumented wifi module

Passerby
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JustJeff
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  • If you figure out that it really is USB, and which cables are data and power, you can try connecting it to a computer and inspecting the device descriptor. I know there is more research to be done until that can happen. – Pablo Maurin Apr 03 '13 at 04:18

3 Answers3

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Your assumptions are close :D. It doesn't turn on the wifi unless you go through the menu to enable wifi and add the ap settings and all.

Based on the FCC ID AZDK30306 (AZD is the Grantee Code, K30306 is the model), searching on The FCC ID page, it's 3.3v (not 5v tolerant), no internal regulator. Peak 0.6A. Based on USB. Full 802.11b/g support.

Pins from the left to right (facing the connector, on the top side):

  1. Gnd
  2. D+
  3. D-
  4. VCC
  5. Gnd

There are some internal pictures, of the thing with the rf shield off, but they are low res, so can't read the labeling on the three main ICs for more info, but the sheet says it's a arm based . Unless the USB vid/pid pair is a common one, finding drivers will be, well, ice cube in hell. I doubt there is standard Windows drivers available for it, being a wifi module only meant for two specific types of printers.

Looks like there was probably a mistake in them providing the datasheet, but even then, based on the pictures of the module online, it was obvious that the two outside pins were ground, the VCC was the second pin from the right was vcc (big trace on top and bottom [under the sticker]). Leaving the last two unknown, but considering how often manufacturers have moved to modular design with usb as the connection of choice, I would have guessed usb anyway. That's being used for everything from internal webcams, touchpads, keyboards, character lcds, etc. USB is just really convenient.

Passerby
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  • I did not think to poke at the FCC site, guess I thought they would only have info about RF power and spectrum usage. Thanks for finding that! – JustJeff Apr 03 '13 at 10:45
  • With regard to the driver front, there was hope that they might have leveraged some common chip set and that there might therefore be some existing driver that would suit. But as you point out, being a custom piece by Canon for Canon, they could have done anything. If I can get it powered, we'll see.. – JustJeff Apr 03 '13 at 10:51
  • @JustJeff most big companies tend to ask for permanent (illegal imho based on the rules) confidentiality on schematic, bom, pcb layout and datasheets. Even then, the pictures and information is still helpful sometimes. In this case, they missed the datasheet. Smaller companies might not know as much, so I've found full schematics for no-name routers and such. It's always worth a look. – Passerby Apr 03 '13 at 20:10
  • @JustJeff as I said for the drivers, I couldn't see what the chips under the rf shield are, so they very well could be a common chip. The USB VID/PID pair will be the most helpful in this case, short of removing the rf shield. – Passerby Apr 03 '13 at 20:11
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close-up w/o rf shield

Although maybe a bit late, here's the chipset from the board. Hope it helps :)

fabricobbler
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I plugged this module into my Ubuntu Linux machine, and it worked perfectly. I was able to connect to my wifi network right away. My Mac recognised it, but doesn't have any drivers for it. (Of course I put a 3.3V regulator on Vdd since the 5V from USB is too high)

timelessbeing
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