Accessing the unused USB port on the 4G modem

uConsole
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1

I opted to buy my uConsole with the 4G modem. I’m looking to do an internal RTL-SDR, but unfortunately, it seems like selecting the 4G modem makes this very difficult. Looking at the schematics for the 4G modem its clear that only 1 of the 2 USB ports is in use, so in THEORY this should be totally doable. However, as far as I can tell, the second USB port (USB4 on the schematic) doesn’t go anywhere that its easy to access. Is this correct or am I missing something? Here’s a picture of the top of the board:

4g_modem
4g_modem1913×1440 418 KB

Best idea I have is to tack some wires to the mini PCIe connectors on the PCB… I have to say its a huge missed opportunity not to break the USB port out as they have done with the UART.

2

I feel the same, looking forward to hearing any brilliant idea to make this works.

3

You are correct, USB4 terminates on the card edge, no traces ( same for most of the other ios also), if you are good at microsoldering you might be able to tap it off. There is a little bit of space there without interferring with the connector. Might be better to try to get signals off the core pcb, not sure if the io connector has any usb on it…