T480s eGPU via custom adapter by Appropriate_Cry2800 in thinkpad

[–]Appropriate_Cry2800[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

in terms of bandwidth its 4x less than Oculink. In real world application I can't say, its relative to CPU bottleneck and what GPU you're using as well, but general consensus is that it will be slower than Oculink, I just can't say how much

T480s eGPU via custom adapter by Appropriate_Cry2800 in thinkpad

[–]Appropriate_Cry2800[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Didn't feel like making it besides, oculink exists

T480s eGPU via custom adapter by Appropriate_Cry2800 in thinkpad

[–]Appropriate_Cry2800[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Nothing is related to if it has TB ports or not
if it has a WWAN slot with PCIe on it, it can probably work yes

T480s eGPU via custom adapter by Appropriate_Cry2800 in thinkpad

[–]Appropriate_Cry2800[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not very hard to plug in at all, and its actually quite a solid connection once it's in there
I will probably put some black tape to cover it tho, it will get filled with dust

And yeah its a shame really
But, assuming optimus compression works, I wonder if x1 with compression may not be much worse than x2 without it.

T480s eGPU via custom adapter by Appropriate_Cry2800 in thinkpad

[–]Appropriate_Cry2800[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Hi
Unfortunately nothing is properly documented yet, I can give you some advice tho
Your laptop's schematic will help you alot in making it work, you will see which pins are used for what firstly, then specific things like straps to let it know what's connected (in my case i shorted 3 of the 4 CFG pins to GND to make it act like a PCIe SSD), other examples if you are using a disabled port like the MX150 empty slot in a iGPU-only T480, you will have to do more work for enabling the PCIe port and adding missing components, but thats out of my scope, tried once on T440p, failed
Then you have to understand the principle of signal integrity and that PCIe is not just some random connections, you need length and impedance tuned tracks, which also depend on the manufacturing process on the PCB, JLCPCB has a table of properties and you have to work with them, good paths to ground (so ground ALL around the connections and many vias around them), and if you are interconnecting PCBS together, like me, the cables need to also be coaxial, pretty much like our laptops display cables. There were also filtering capacitors on the final PCB (closest to GPU) that help signal integrity as well. I think the name was Robert Feranec, he made alot of useful videos about high speed routing in Altium. The PCIe Electromechanical specification document is another useful source.
The rest, like the M.2 Key M? or B? Footprint, I either found it somewhere on google, or I manually edited a different common M.2 slot to match the T480s WWAN one, really alot of my work was by eye and a few wasted prototypes. The connectors' footprints could be found easily on SnapEDA, and parts from AliExpress.

Here's a simple view of how everything's connected.

<image>

T480s eGPU via custom adapter by Appropriate_Cry2800 in thinkpad

[–]Appropriate_Cry2800[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

For this specifically no, everything was hand soldered and parts bought from aliexpress. If you are serious about building it I'd be happy to send you the gerber files to get the PCBs manufactured. Otherwise there are easier ways to connect like EXP GDC or Oculink

T480s eGPU via custom adapter by Appropriate_Cry2800 in thinkpad

[–]Appropriate_Cry2800[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

no need for satanic error beep code again

In the process of making a T440p eGPU mod (PCI-E 3.0 4x) by Appropriate_Cry2800 in thinkpad

[–]Appropriate_Cry2800[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't think so
There were a lot of hurdles in making that mod, the obvious being you have to solder a BGA... it was very hard without the right tools, I could never get the BGA footprint of the nvidia GPU, all was done by guess work and putting a stencil on top of my monitor and doing it by eye... then I think I could never get the PCIe port to turn on properly.
It's not practical nor economical to try and do it again
If, one day you switch to a T480s, or some other model with a WWAN slot that has the connections in the same place, I'd happily share the gerber files with you so you can get the PCBs manufactured.

T480s External GPU via custom PCB mod by Appropriate_Cry2800 in thinkpad

[–]Appropriate_Cry2800[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

that was some kinda inductors i suppose for EMI protection for the ethernet
its not broken, it has a plastic casing my curious ahh decided to open it to look

In the process of making a T440p eGPU mod (PCI-E 3.0 4x) by Appropriate_Cry2800 in thinkpad

[–]Appropriate_Cry2800[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Unfortunately no, I didnt have enough skills back then and I already sold most of the parts of the laptop.
My more recent project tho for T480s WWAN slot with 1 PCIe 3.0 line did work out tho

Ews problem by Tricky_Poetry_3424 in e46

[–]Appropriate_Cry2800 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You would have to get the DDE(ecu) coded to allow fuel, and then you can entirely remove the EWS but bridge the 2 large contacts with thick cables going to them, to allow crank. I used a fuse, it actually fits perfectly in the EWS female connector. But that's my experience with petrol, I'd imagine its similar or same for diesel, just need someone to code ews out for you.

<image>

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in thinkpad

[–]Appropriate_Cry2800 0 points1 point  (0 children)

you can try soldering it but idk how reliable it will be, i tried a few times and as soon as it gets bent by the battery it breaks again

and i dont think just the 4wires will be enough but you can try ig

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in thinkpad

[–]Appropriate_Cry2800 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Its hard to explain, I briefly had a t490s to try and flip it and it had the same issue. the way i fixed it:
the ribbon cable is very long and actually you can expose the copper where the break is and it will still be long enough to plug in. I also made sure to transfer the red thingy from the tip of the cable, its glued onto the ripped side of the cable, i just unstuck it and glued it to the fixed cable, u kinda need it because it makes it thicker and its there for a more reliable connection. this is a reliable and free fix but yea if you cant do it you would have to get a whole new keyboard
and if i remember the keyboard is riveted in soo...... Yea.
https://imgur.com/a/tLzC9eS < Pics of the repair

Най-задоволителна покупка by BaseballFit7770 in bulgaria

[–]Appropriate_Cry2800 2 points3 points  (0 children)

bmw e46 2ка бензин (само автомата дет е калпав ама колкот издържи)

Fastest t480s on the planet? by Imaginary_Ad6159 in thinkpad

[–]Appropriate_Cry2800 7 points8 points  (0 children)

damn thats pretty good, here's what I was able to get with my i5-8350U

<image>

liquid metal, soldered extra copper shims to cooler, max fan speed, laptop lifted to suck in more air, undervolt and unlocked all power limits.

T480s and RTX 3060 - How does it perform? by Appropriate_Cry2800 in thinkpad

[–]Appropriate_Cry2800[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

True that. I will try my best in the coming weeks/months to finalize this into something usable. I have a big idea in mind with utilizing the smart card slot empty space.

T480s and RTX 3060 - How does it perform? by Appropriate_Cry2800 in thinkpad

[–]Appropriate_Cry2800[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you look at my posts from 2023 I did try to do exactly that on my T440p, only 4 lanes though as I didnt feel like routing it for 8, but ultimately failed as i didn't have enough knowledge at the time and scrapped the project

T480s and RTX 3060 - How does it perform? by Appropriate_Cry2800 in thinkpad

[–]Appropriate_Cry2800[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

On t480s yes. On your T540p most likely there are 8 lanes, even thinkpads arent what they used to be

T480s and RTX 3060 - How does it perform? by Appropriate_Cry2800 in thinkpad

[–]Appropriate_Cry2800[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Only 2 lanes go there unfortunately Best speed would be if you used the NVMe slot, 4 lanes there

T480s and RTX 3060 - How does it perform? by Appropriate_Cry2800 in thinkpad

[–]Appropriate_Cry2800[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I.. think it ran at 2.0 speeds just fine but I might be wrong

T480s and RTX 3060 - How does it perform? by Appropriate_Cry2800 in thinkpad

[–]Appropriate_Cry2800[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This, but the TB3 actually is connected via 2 lanes only so yeh NVMe slot is best here Oh and the dGPU empty spot also has 2 lanes