Realtek RTL8188 WiFi dongle teardown and hacking tutorial

cbm80 · Published in 2016-4-1 02:31:37

Edited by cbm80 at 2016-4-1 02:39

I have just received cheap WiFi dongle (paid $1.6 in Aliexpress). I don't know yet if I will solder it directly to Orange Pi One extra USB exposed solder points.
Currently I want to share how to disassemble this dongle without damaging anything.
Watch my short tutorial video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iv-nDW3JdeM
Using this module without the case significantly improves WiFi signal quality and range. Finally it would be possible to solder external antenna socket.
Some photos:

tgenc · Published in 2016-4-3 06:18:53

good job !

and a question. are you able to use it with ubuntu or debian? if yes, can i ask for which operating system version and which drivers (how install)?

thanks
Tanzer

cbm80 · Published in 2016-4-5 01:25:53

AFAIR WiFi was visible under Orange Raspbian. I tried only OpenELEC (older worked) and Androids (Zidoo).

Realtek RTL8188 WiFi dongle teardown and hacking tutorial

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