SD cards in Jornada 720

Hey there!

I recently picked up a Jornada 720 from Goodwill and am having fun tinkering around with it The first thing I would like to change is to add some persistent storage to it. Given that CF cards are pretty expensive these days, I bought an SD to CF card adapter instead and threw in a random 16 GB SD card I had lying around. This is the adapter I got.

I put it into the bottom slot of the device, but upon powering it up, I'm greeted with a message telling me "Unidentified PCCard Adapter" requesting I tell it what the name of the appropriate driver is. I tried ATADISK.DLL, as suggested for when this happens with actual CF cards, but that doesn't seem to do anything. I also tried formatting the SD card with an MSDOS partition table and a single 4 GB FAT32 partition on my Linux laptop, but that didn't change anything.

Is there anything else I should try, or should I just try to get ahold of a real CF card instead? I tried searching around, but I literally can't even find a single instance of someone trying to use an SD card in a Jornada 720.

I suppose this adapter could be a dud, but I figured I'd ask to see if what I'm trying to do is even possible before buying a USB CF card adapter to know for sure.

Thanks!

From what I recall about SD cards, cards above about 4GB will be SDHC or SDXC, which are a slightly different standard and break compatibility with a lot of older devices. If you have any older SD cards below 4GB, these, if any, are more likely to work.

Can anyone confirm this? Are 'standard' SD cards signal compatible with CF?

As a side note, I have somewhere here either a 4GB or 8GB CompactFlash card and no devices left that can use it - Assuming I can find it you are more than welcome to it.

I've used all sorts of sdcards in my Jornada 720's....new and old. large and small, micro and regular,slow and ultra fast, Fat 16 and Fat 32, partitions up to 32 Gb and THEY ALL WORK!!! Of course I have some of CMonex's DLL's and drivers ( especially for wifi) added years ago...I'll try some sdcards with stock Jornada files only and see if specific drivers are needed.

I recently booted Linux based Devuan from a micro sd card in the cf slot. And contrary to what others say...2 partitions can show up as 2 storage cards depending on the type of sdcard to pcmcia adapter you use (which most users don't know is possible in WinCe and not Windows).

More than happy to help you along to figure this out..and if your cf slot is damaged the pcmcia slot can always be used too with a sdcard to pcmcia adapter.

There are lots of great programs to be found on this site. Hang in there...plenty of fun is on the way !!!

Posted from my Jornada 720 running on Devuan/X11/RasPi "synergy."

Edited by joval 2020-12-05 1:36 AM

Hi!



No, they are not compatible. Inside this CF to SD adapter is a microcontroller that converts all signals.

Regards
Stefan

In summary, the problem lies with the adapter, not the SD card. You need to get an adapter that is compatible with Windows CE. Jovial, do you mind sharing the brand and model of your SD-CF adapter?

Sorry if my previous post seems a boastful rant ( too many holiday chocolates and gingerbread cookies?). Time for me to eat a little humble pie:

Obviously when shutting down Devuan the J720 reboots into WinCe (white screen). at which time I do a hard reset by popping out the main battery for a second (Back up battery 2032 has been removed permanently for easy "hard reset" with power cord disconnected). The stock rom boots up and the storage card shows from the cf slot. So,clearly, no special drivers are needed ( first bite of humble pie)!

Stefan: Because I enlarged the Fat 32 first partition, my hp backup file is found there and I quickly restore back to my previous WinCE apps/files/desktop. ( Just need to update Time and Date).Yet I can access files stored there from the Devuan session and vice versa. There doesn't seem to be a noticable speed penalty using the sd card to cf card adapter IMHO, given the microcontroller conversion factor

ntware : My sdcard adapter is the same as jornadurs...which suggests his cf slot may be defective (or perhaps the sdcard is the culprit--definitely try formatting it on a Windows computer as Fat 32). Check for bent pins and straighten them. Perhaps the ribbon cable is loose or defective, ArchiMark had to return a purchased Jornada recently as Stefan pointed out the cf slot was probably defective.

Even so, sdcard to pcmcia slot adapters are cheap and may prove an effective alternative solution for now.

Posted from my Jornada720 running on Stefans Duvean OS + RasPi

Edited by joval 2020-12-05 3:30 PM

Thanks for the response, everyone!



I was able to get a USB CF card reader from my father, who used to own a photography business. He had a million CF cards too, but funny enough, he gave them all away only a couple weeks ago -.-

Anyway, there is indeed something wrong with my adapter. When plugged into my computer, the device keeps appearing and then disappearing. Going to exchange it and see if that fixes things.

It should arrive in a few days; I'll let everyone know how it goes.

Oh missed this. That's very kind of you, but given that you're in the UK, I'm sure the shipping costs wouldn't be worth it. Thank you though!

Anyway, so I got the replacement SD-to-CF adapter in and.... it's also a piece of junk -.- The J720 did recognize this one, but wanted to format it immediately, and formatting always failed. It was also super flaky in any other systems I tried it in. I ordered a cheap used 8 GB CF card that came in today, but alas, I'm still getting the "Unidentified PCCard Adapter" error. I confirmed this card is good and works in everything else I've tried it in. The brand is "TOPRAM" if that matters at all.

I'm still not convinced yet that there is something wrong with my CF slot. Is there a better 3rd party driver I can load than ATADISK.DLL?

Hi ! No extrinsic driver is required as it is included in the ROM.May I suggest 3 things:

1. visually check the cf card holder for bent pins...just pop it open and inspect. I once had a MP900 within which one pin was bent over such that 2 pins were sliding into one hole. I carefully bent it back using a dental pick but a mini flat blade screwdriver may work or even a toothpick.

2. Do a "hard reset" by removing the backup coin battery, the main battery while unplugged from AC charger. If the registry somehow became corrupted this will restore it ...so just replace the batteries and recheck the cf card function.

3. Buy an SDCard to PCMCIA adapter for your pcmcia slot...they cost 10 dollars on Ebay or Amazon with free shipping. This gives you an easier way to transfer files as most computers/ laptops have an sd slot and will always be useful even if you get your cf slot working...yanking out the cf card is rather a chore and may one reason yours is misbehaving.

best regards

Thanks for the tips, joval!

I inspected the slot and everything's essentially pristine as far as I can tell. Tried resetting the device too, and unfortunately it made no difference.

I found a negative review for the SD-to-CF adapter I bought mention that this is the adapter that worked for them in the end. I ordered it and it arrived today. I'm happy to report that it works perfectly! Glad that's figured out

It's a relief as I want to save the PCMCIA slot for a network card (probably wireless as PCMCIA ethernet cards are pretty rare/expensive these days) and screw around with Linux on the device at some point.

jornadur, do you have the exact info on the one that does not work? I'll add it to the HCL as being incompatible. I have added the one linked above.

Please use our sponsored link/Amazon associate links when buying from Amazon everyone!

Alright...good for you! Must be a quality issue as I have 2 of the others and they work fine...luck of the draw I guess. OK, now you're off and running. (What a relief for you)! Need any suggestions on useful programs for the J720?

All it says is "TOPRAM CompactFlash 133x 8GB" on the front and "Made in Taiwan" on the back. Unfortunately, I got it from an eBay listing where it was just listed as a generic CF card without a picture. Here is the listing if that's at all useful. Might be hard to avoid accidentally purchasing one of these :/



Yeah, must be it. Even if it had worked though, the new one I got is slightly slimmer and fits much better. And sure, I'd love some suggestions! I'm keeping an eye on the Devuan thread, but any Windows CE suggestions would be great too

My Favorites:

TCPMP :
media player great for mp3/audio books/music/photos (not movies so much /mp4)
can set hot keys to turn off screen, start and stop using J720 outer case button,
can access network drive to centralize audio books/music/photos...a big plus.

AlReader2:
great for reading Web pages! Just save a wikipedia, etc article as a full HTML webpage off your laptop (using "ctrl s keys in chrome for example) to an sdcard and transfer to the Jornada (use that sdcard to pcmcia adapter...less wear and tear), beautifully rapidly renders text and images (what easily chokes up the stock browser), instantly increase or decrease font size, cool text highlight colors, can read in 2 column mode and night time dark background mode(great for bedtime reading, etc.) After installing look for its folder under programs and create (send to ) desktop as shortcut. You won't be dissapointed!

H-Bomb:
good easy way to learn basic HTML4.0 and CSS webpage design...fun to do at any time ...change text size, color, bacground, borders. It's a good beginning and Jornada does a decnt job rendering those exotic "corn flower blue...crimson...hot pink colors. Jornada can't parse javascript...but there are some workarounds to make interactive web pages.

Pocket registry editor:
make a backup of your system first, then you can tweak or explore the registry.If you screw it up and won't act right or boot...just do a hard reset with all batteries and power unplugged) and stock rom registry is reloaded...saving your "arsky" Good fun to play on your neighbor's Jornada! Always make total backup first so you can restore after.

Plus! package:
a group of useful programs and utilities.I like Resmeter for battery and memory usage , pocket paint, image viewer, etc.

Tweaks2k2
makes network shares easy to set up, change size scroll bar, system font, card battery warning, soft reset, etc

SmallTweak
associate files to apps, power off options, card battery warning, etc

Games:
Pocket chess (I keep losing) Ms Pacman, ICBM...blast the invaders!

EzyUnZIP
to uncompress zip files before installing programs

Of course there's more...special dll's needed at times to run pocket pc programs, agere client driver for Lucent wifi cards (IMO the best of all). executability check, hex editors if you want to climb into the engine compartment and play with the spark plug wires!

Well...that should get you started.Have fun!!!



Edited by joval 2020-12-13 7:46 PM

TCPMP also has an audio equalizer option and an expanded file time line scale ( or what ever you call it) to easily pick up where you left off, forward or backup, etc, as well as a simple interface and quasi-poor-man's speed control (where pitch changes with speed change...(how low can you go when going slow, sorta)