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I wanted to ask whether it is possible to somehow remove one of the double usb hubs and solder there additional RJ45 port? I know it is possible to use USB to ethernet dongle but that is sadly not an option in this case.

What I am trying to achieve is network between two devices (one being mentioned RPI) that are next to each other. Network cable, each device having its own RJ45 port and therefore unique IP, is the only way they can communicate. I'd like to avoid the option where I need to carry switch with me in order to make this work, but soldering additional RJ45-port and make one of RPI ports act as switch would make it work.

EDIT: Of course I am open to possible workarounds. The main issue is limited space thats why I can't for example use shield that adds 2 eth ports. Just to inform, the 2nd device is old PS2. It would be nice if ps2 NIC could be somehow connected to rj45 port of RPi and share the same IP, therefore I could host SMB localy. Sadly PS2 is quite ancient, dont think there will be any compatibility.

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  • you can remove the double USB connector and install an RJ45 port, but the RJ45 port will not have any ethernet capability because there is no supporting circuitry installed
    – jsotola
    Jun 5, 2018 at 1:56
  • the only way they can communicate ... why do you think that?
    – jsotola
    Jun 5, 2018 at 1:58
  • @ jsotola The reason is that 2nd device needs to be constantly connected to RPi SMB share which is being used for data streaming. So even though they would be able to connect via another interface, serial or something else, application running on the 2nd device would be able to use the data.
    – Boozehound
    Jun 5, 2018 at 2:36
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    I know it is possible to use USB to ethernet dongle but that is sadly not an option in this case. why not? you can get some pretty compact usb-ethernet dongles Jun 5, 2018 at 4:48

3 Answers 3

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You could use the Ethernet port to connect with the PS/2, and use the wireless connection that's built into the Raspberry Pi 3B to communicate with the rest of the network.

I realize this is a simple answer and I'm sure you'd thought of this.

Another solution would be to use an Ethernet hub and plug the PS/2 into one plug, the Pi into a second, and the rest of the network into the third.

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You can use an ENC28J60 which IS supported by the Raspberry Pi. You only have to wire it up to GPIO and enable the device tree driver in config.txt as shown in this Instructables tutorial. So you can remove the USB plug and squish the module in there.

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Removing a USB socket will achieve nothing: you won't be able to solder an RJ45 in its place anyway, and there's a chance you will damage your Raspberry while trying.

If your project has such constraints that there's no way to fit an USB Ethernet adapter, look into other boards. For instance there's Orange Pi R1 which has two Ethernet ports + WiFi and is tiny compared to a Raspberry model B.

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