XNL R36 ModChip – Built-in Wifi for your R36H and more
I decided to solve a problem I was constantly having while developing on or for my R36 units running on ArkOS (which is basically put an modified Ubuntu Distro) aimed at Retro Handheld Consoles.
The problem I was having was that I often needed an active SSH connection while at the same time needing the USB port to test new hardware, for input devices etc. And that is usually not possible with these units, because while the do have two USB-C ports, only one can be used as host, the other one is just for charging and doesn’t support any form of data connection.
So I decided to design a custom ‘ModChip Board’ which would integrate a 4 port USB hub into the device, which has an standard (cheap) USB WiFi dongle attached to it, an additional location for another USB Dongle you might want to install (for example Bluetooth or even just an mini USB Stick for extra internal storage), and then using that USB port to re-enabling the (single) external USB port again.
This way I still kept the ability to use my external USB-C port for input devices for example (via the now integrated USB hub) while at the same time being able to use SSH etc without having to hook up an external USB hub all the time.
Small side note though, you will lose OTG capabilities when installing this ModChip, but in my opinion that is not useful anyway for these devices, and I even doubt (haven’t looked into it though!) is ArkOS even supports it by default.
I have made a full video on how to install the XNL R36 ModChip on my YouTube here:
