First prototype is being manufactured at JLCPCB.
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Really hyped by the progress. Go guys! 
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For reference I also payed Josh for a card, and a serial one as well.
On a lark I popped on here today to see the state of things.
I guess now the only thing to do is see who can come to market with a solution. I briefly looked at the original design to try and send it in to one of these PCB fabs and realized the rabbit whole it would have been to get them to make and mount everything with the design files in the state they were in. If anyone can get it to an accessible state of at least self ordering with a design I would be greatly interested.
YeahâŚrabbit hole is accurate, at least thatâs what I am finding myself. Very tricky (and expensive) to get a fab to do all these things and lead times for Quectel modems have increased for the fabs that can get them. Even just getting JLC to assemble that darn USB-C is $50 (for their âsetup jigâ). If my design proves to work, I would be open to sourcing in bulk but itâll take some time to get the prototypes and verify it all. Plus antennas are another rabbit hole, especially if you want a card that looks half decent. I think I can get MMCX antennas made but weâll see (for now, converters work). Anyway, stay tuned!
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I just ordered the modems form a random Alibaba seller and had them sent directly to JLCPCB. Worked like a charm, took on the order of a few days.
Yeah, I just paid the 50$. I mean, if I were trying to do it manually it would likely cost more in terms of my time and Iâd risk destroying an already-expensive card. And with a larger run, even with 10pcs this amount to 5$/pc, so whatever.
The great thing about JLCPCB is that you do not have to negotiate anything, you just upload the files, pay, wait 2 weeks and get a fully assembled PCB. When a design is finalized, anyone can do this without requiring much specialized knowledge. Thatâs quite powerful. Of course, coordinating a group order would be much more economical.
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Patiently waiting for the group order⌠This is the ExCard Iâd use literally every day. So damn useful. 
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Itâs alive!
And so tiny and cute.
Connected and so far got around 30 Mbit down, 20 up. Pretty much on par with a cat4 USB dongle that I have (at the same spot with the same SIM).
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AMAZING. With what antennas?
Accepting pre-orders� 
Good call on hiding the QR code .. Glad this project is moving along well
Some random FPC antennas from Ali that I have lying around. In general, figuring out a good antenna setup will be tricky due to space constraints. One option is to drill through the expansion card slot and route it through the laptop to the lid or other convenient place. Another option would be to embed a small FPC antenna directly to the expansion card. Not sure if one can fit two. But I probably cannot get such short cable, so there would have to be curled up extra cable taped down or something. Will be quite finnicky. Also, no case as of yet.
I have definitely no intention whatsoever of selling these commercially. Doing so legally would be a living nightmare, with certifications, taxes, customs and whatever. I have a happy and stable employment, I do not need to deal with that sh*t.
I intend to write up simple instructions of how one can order these manufactured from JLCPCB , however, ordering in small quantity (2 is the minimum) is not super economical.
I might be willing to coordinate a group order for the PCBA, given the understanding that everyone orders this as a development kit, there are no guarantees and its everyoneâs own responsibility to figure out if and under what conditions is it legal to use these in their country. These would be provided at cost, without any profit.
Or, if anyone wishes to take the risk and commercialize these, feel free. The design is under a free license, so have at it.
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Thank you for the amazing work!
Maybe two SMA connectors, pointing out the back?
The group order would be fire. Any regional restrictions on the EG95?
I presonally cannot imagine using a laptop with anennas sticking out of it, especially when carrying it around. But different people have different use cases. Also, SMA connectors are really big. See photo of one next to the expansion card PCB:
The whole idea of my design specifically was to make it maximally compact for comfortable everyday use, carrying it in a backpack and taking it out 20 times a day. Other people have suggested solutions with antenna connectors earlier in this thread but I have not looked into them very much.
I beilieve there is no global version. There are two versions that differ in band support:
Presumably E(X) is primarily for Europe and NA(X) for North America (the X versions differ only by GNSS support AFIK). Not sure about the rest of the world, youâd need to check specific bands you need supported.
Not sure if it is possible to mix module variants in one PCBA run. Not officially, but possibly if I convince them to just ignore the labelling and stock it under the same inventory number, maybeâŚ
Also, I donât think JLCPCB can split order to multiple packages. So theyâd send all to me (based in the EU) and then I could forward them one by one. But sending outside the EU could be a challenge, as customs could stop it and ask for some documents or certifications. I think that claiming it is a development board should be fine, but really cannot guarantee it. And if the target country happend to be the US, youâd probably be slapped with the 200% tariff or whatever it will be at that day as I believe that this is based on country of origin (China) rather than country of senderâŚ
Maybe it would be easier to do group orders by region. One for EU/EEA (and possibly UK too?). Possibly other ones for other people in other regions, coordinated by someone else. It depends on how does saving on fixed assembly costs compare to additional costs in shipping and/or customs.
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In other news:
- Cannot seem to get GNSS to work as of now
- The module gets really hot (62°C according to
AT+QTEMP). So thermal management could be also an issue. One could orient it modem down, perhaps even have a metal case, but then it will be unpleasantly hot in lap use.
Update: on the second unit, GNSS works like a charm (with normal big anenna, hard to get tiny ones). On the first one, maybe I accidentaly shorted it. Now I realized I have no overcurrent protection for the GNSS bias. Will update the design with a protection resistor probably.
I think this is the closest we can get to a compact gnss antenna:
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Break down of the costs (based on my order of 5pc PCB, of which 2pc PCBA, not sure if some of this changes in larger orders):
PCB fabrication: 9 USD/pc (min qty 5pc / 41 USD)
PCBA run fixed costs: 103 USD
PCBA per-unit costs: 2.5 USD/pc
Components (sans modem): 11 USD/pc
Modem: 25 USD/pc
Import taxes (to EU): cca 20 USD/pc (presumably would be like 100-200 USD/pc to the US)
Shipping: 40 USD
My rough estimate of per-unit cost given desired amount (incl. est. shipping and taxes to the EU):
| Desired qty | Effective price per unit |
|---|---|
| 1 | $340 (you get 2pc for this price, which is the minimum) |
| 2 | $170 |
| 3 | $133 |
| 4 | $114 |
| 5 | $103 |
| 6 | $97 |
| 7 | $93 |
| 8 | $90 |
| 9 | $87 |
| 10 | $85 |
| 11 | $84 |
| 12 | $83 |
| 13 | $81 |
| 14 | $81 |
| 15 | $80 |
This should be taken as a rough ballpark estimate.
A non-binding poll to gauge interest in group order:
- EU
- EEA/Switzerland except EU
- UK
- US (beware tariffs!)
- North America other
- Rest of the world (specify in a reply; check band support and customs requirements carefully)
0
voters
(not necessarily promising to handle anything except the EU)
Repeating the caveats from above, this wouldnât be a commercial sale, only aggregation of individual purchases of an open design, with no warranty and all responsibility being on part of the final user.
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As per a user suggestion, moved the poll here to the forum (did not know this feature was there). So if you voted in the original one please vote here again. Sorry for the chaos! If you selected ârest of the worldâ, let us know your country and desired EG95 variant.
Does the EG95 variant include GPS? I donâ t really need it, even less if I need an external antenna.
Thank you for all the hard work, this card is a good ending to a very long and suffered story 
ROW, Australia
The -X variants have GPS. I ordered the EX variant for myself. Does not make sense with a big external antenna but will try with the compact one mentioned above as soon as I get it. Not sure if it will work. I would not expect a significant price difference between the GNSS and non-GNSS module though, so my initial plan was just to use the GNSS version even if most people wonât need it. But itâs an option.
If the difference between modules is negligible, then the -X version is fine. Optional feature!
This is how it fits in the expansion bay:
The PCB itself sticks out about 5mm. Then there would be some case wall, so say 7.5mm.
With the addition of the small GNSS antenna, we would get to like 15mm.
Next steps are probably experimentation with antennas and case design. Iâll probably have some manufactured at JLC3DP but this should be doable even with a home 3D printer, at a local hackerspace, etcâŚ
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