So if you own a Panasonic Toughbook FZ-55, you may have noticed there's a sim card port behind a screw cover where the HDMI/USB cover on the back.
While you can insert a SIM, you'll notice nothing happens.
Basically by default (unless you bought the super expensive variant) SIM functionality will be set to disabled and you'll need to buy a WWAN card.
Toughbooks use Sierra cards, so depending on your region you'll have to get a specific model
I've been told the EM7511 technically works globally and is the best card out of the three out there.
But it is also the most expensive online and for me, requiring importing...
So for this example, I'll be using the EM7430 as that's what I ended up buying and is my region.
Caution!!! There's a lot of cheaper DELL specific version of these Sierra cards that are firmware locked.
If you see a DW number underneath the model area... DO NOT BUY IT
No matter what drivers you load, they do NOT work on toughbooks as they are locked to DELL specific laptops. Also see if the seller has a physical image of the card instead of a generic picture.
I got a couple DELL cards before I finally landed on the proper generic one. If you get the wrong one, it'll endlessly "Configuring Broadband Device" in the corner of the screen and always say "No Service"
Anyway, once you have the Sierra card, you need to remove the middle panel underneath the laptop, it uses a star screw.
You'll see an empty slot and a dummy PCB holding the antennas. This will be the the Antennas for the WWAN card.
Connect the Grey (or Red in some regions) antenna to MAIN, and the Blue antenna to AUX.
It should look like this:
Next step when you power on the computer, you need to enter the BIOS and enable it.
Mash F2 while powering on, and navigate to "Optional Kit Configuration"
It'll prompt for a password, the password is:
You should be able to enter a WWAN ID, depending on the model it could be a different ID.
For me, I got a working ID from a now deleted reddit post: The number 25 worked for me. Although I also found when extracting the official driver package for the EM7430 I found a batch script called Execute.bat intentionally looking for 27, 29
One comment user said 2e worked for his EM7511.
So I suppose:
EM7511 ID: 2e
EM7430 ID: 25
Save BIOS changes and reboot!
Next thing to do is download the driver package from the Panasonic website, it extracts to the C:\util2\ folder likely with other drivers.
global-pc-support.connect.panasonic.com
Launch PInstall.bat from extracted directory and it should start configuring, cross fingers that on the next reboot you'll get full data SIM functionality!
If not, maybe try a different WWAN ID in the BIOS. check device manager.
Should work the same across all the FZ-55's MK1/MK2/MK3(?) models
Hope this all helped!
While you can insert a SIM, you'll notice nothing happens.
Basically by default (unless you bought the super expensive variant) SIM functionality will be set to disabled and you'll need to buy a WWAN card.
Toughbooks use Sierra cards, so depending on your region you'll have to get a specific model
I've been told the EM7511 technically works globally and is the best card out of the three out there.
But it is also the most expensive online and for me, requiring importing...
So for this example, I'll be using the EM7430 as that's what I ended up buying and is my region.
Caution!!! There's a lot of cheaper DELL specific version of these Sierra cards that are firmware locked.
If you see a DW number underneath the model area... DO NOT BUY IT
No matter what drivers you load, they do NOT work on toughbooks as they are locked to DELL specific laptops. Also see if the seller has a physical image of the card instead of a generic picture.
I got a couple DELL cards before I finally landed on the proper generic one. If you get the wrong one, it'll endlessly "Configuring Broadband Device" in the corner of the screen and always say "No Service"
Anyway, once you have the Sierra card, you need to remove the middle panel underneath the laptop, it uses a star screw.
You'll see an empty slot and a dummy PCB holding the antennas. This will be the the Antennas for the WWAN card.
Connect the Grey (or Red in some regions) antenna to MAIN, and the Blue antenna to AUX.
It should look like this:
Next step when you power on the computer, you need to enter the BIOS and enable it.
Mash F2 while powering on, and navigate to "Optional Kit Configuration"
It'll prompt for a password, the password is:
Code:
toughkitYou should be able to enter a WWAN ID, depending on the model it could be a different ID.
For me, I got a working ID from a now deleted reddit post: The number 25 worked for me. Although I also found when extracting the official driver package for the EM7430 I found a batch script called Execute.bat intentionally looking for 27, 29
Code:
@echo off
setlocal
@REM Checking WWAN ID.
"%~dp0chkdev2.exe" /GetDevice 800A 8A27
IF %ErrorLevel% equ 0 (
>> %~dp0log.txt echo WWAN_ID:27
goto Command
) ELSE IF %ErrorLevel% equ 1 (
>> %~dp0log.txt echo WWAN_ID:27
goto Command
)@REM Checking WWAN ID.
"%~dp0chkdev2.exe" /GetDevice 800A 8A33
IF %ErrorLevel% equ 0 (
>> %~dp0log.txt echo WWAN_ID:33
goto Command
) ELSE IF %ErrorLevel% equ 1 (
>> %~dp0log.txt echo WWAN_ID:33
goto Command
)@REM EM7430 not existOne comment user said 2e worked for his EM7511.
So I suppose:
EM7511 ID: 2e
EM7430 ID: 25
Save BIOS changes and reboot!
Next thing to do is download the driver package from the Panasonic website, it extracts to the C:\util2\ folder likely with other drivers.
SEARCH - TOUGHBOOK Support - Panasonic
global-pc-support.connect.panasonic.com
Launch PInstall.bat from extracted directory and it should start configuring, cross fingers that on the next reboot you'll get full data SIM functionality!
If not, maybe try a different WWAN ID in the BIOS. check device manager.
Should work the same across all the FZ-55's MK1/MK2/MK3(?) models
Hope this all helped!