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J720(WinCE)+Esp8266:: from Paperweight to Paperback

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joval Page Icon Posted 2022-02-13 2:47 PM
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Hi All!

I recently removed and replaced the stock Jornada720 dial up modem with a thin Esp8266 running as a open-to-wpa2 wifi-repeater.

The result has taken the J720 in WinCE mode from worthless Internet 'paperweight" to a nifty Paperback Book equivalent by using Frogfind.com to download all sorts of project guttenberg ebooks which I have saved to the storage card and view in either PIE4 or better yet, AIReader2.

And it's all stand alone: no RasPi proxy server (like WRP for WinCE mode or VNCviewer in Devuan-Linux mode) is needed. Futher, although it requires an Aironet wifi card or equivalent in "open" wifi mode the Esp8266 can be restricted to only 1 client and dhcp can be set to allow only one ip and mac address. It is an open-to-wpa2 repeater accessible from the browser at default 192.168.4.1 ip, and the ssid connection may be connected or disconnected both from that and even more so from Telnet(such as Pocket Putty).

So... connect to your home router, download your desired content, then turn off the ESP8266 connection or put it into "deep sleep" mode, etc. as you read it. Turn the J720 power off and walk away for a while, wifi is off so no worries, return later to resume with instant on and reconnect automatically. Pretty nice to be online in WinCE mode again!

I used a Robodyn Wifi-Nodemcu Esp8266 which is thin enough to readily fit under the J720 Keyboard and it is powered by an adjacent 5v capacitor... so it turns on and off when the J720's power button is pressed.
The Esp8266 circuit board needs to be trimmed with wire cutters about 1/4 inch (on the antenna end)and then fits perfectly into the modem recessed area.

Best thing... it looks like a normal Jornada720 with usual wifi card... no dongles, or adapters,etc. Combine this with a WRP proxy server and view complete web pages (7 to 30 sec page refresh rate depending on WRP server cpu speed)... even log onto sites as HPCFactor and post responses! (It's tricky and slow, but it actually works in WinCE mode.

With dual boot option, boot into Devuan-Linux for high speed web browsing and full featured RasPi desktop... as I'm doing now... when you want "full Phaser-Power." But WinCE + Esp866 will get you a basic internet connection as is. Photos, tips and tricks to follow...

joval ...posted from a J72(8)/Devuan/WPA/RasPi/Vnc Hybrid HPC



Edited by joval 2022-02-13 2:55 PM
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Jake Page Icon Posted 2022-02-13 7:16 PM
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Well done. Can't wait to see the pix. Re: readers--have tried ubook: https://www.hpcfactor.com/scl/449/Gowerpoint_Software/uBook/version_...

Used that a lot, back when I was looking at manuscript pre-Textmaker days.

Jake
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C:Amie Page Icon Posted 2022-02-14 3:13 PM
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This sounds like a really cool hardware mod. Are you planning on putting together a how-to? As always, I'm happy to publish it in the support section if you like.
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joval Page Icon Posted 2022-02-16 4:42 AM
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C:Amie - 2022-02-14 7:13 AM

This sounds like a really cool hardware mod. Are you planning on putting together a how-to? As always, I'm happy to publish it in the support section if you like.


Yes, just need to refine and test things out... a bit more... as I sacrificed part of the antenna so range may suffer until I fix such. I may look at smaller esp8266 modules too.

_dev-null (Stefan) has the bigger esp32 provide an Access Point with wep or wpa encryption, would be great to use it (or if esp8266 can provide AP more than open AP). He is amazing... full of marvelous surprises!

Thanks for the offer.

Joval
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joval Page Icon Posted 2022-02-16 5:09 PM
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Hi All!

Whoever thought I'd ever read Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" a book on my bookshelf for over 2 decades... yet the Frogfind.com/project guttenberg and my Paperback sized Jornada720 make it so easy and comfortable. This is using AlReader2 with colored background, 2 colunms, and shows easy font size change with the "4" key.

Edited by joval 2022-02-16 5:22 PM




(Darwin-OriginOfSpecies.bmp)



(origin-of-species-Darwin.bmp)



(ScrSnap001.bmp)



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Attachments Darwin-OriginOfSpecies.bmp (450KB - 0 downloads)
Attachments origin-of-species-Darwin.bmp (450KB - 0 downloads)
Attachments ScrSnap001.bmp (450KB - 0 downloads)
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joval Page Icon Posted 2022-02-16 5:41 PM
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Regarding wifi... you can control the esp8266 via the Putty telnet option and save your settings in both Putty and the esp8266 so as to disconnect the SSID when not using or to have the esp8266 go into deep sleep for 90 minutes ... all for security reason and battery drain.(will explain later in detail).

I am using a Linksys WPC11 wifi card ver 2.5 with firmware upgrade 1.7 , so I can dual-boot into WinCE or Stefan's great Devuan-Linux OS port so I have wifi with either one (my "easy install disk image" is now available at the repository.hpcfactor.com website ... many thanks C:Amie!) The WPC11 radio can be turned off to save power or the pcmcia card can be ejected. Snapshot below shows radio turned off on status bar.


And also, if you dual boot into Devuan-Linux with the RasPi as a "hardware extension/proxy", you can download and 'Rsync' anything from the web, etc to the mutually shared Fat32 partition on the J720 and view it later in WinCE mode.

There are still some issues/glitches with reconnecting to the ESP8266 from the Linksys WPC11 (because I want WPA wifi with dual booting into Devuan-Linux) that need working out... especially if 'max_clients is restricted to '1' ... seems the WinCE registry for wifi cards needs some tweeking on IP setting... a work in progress that I will update you all on later.

Joval

Edited by joval 2022-02-16 7:01 PM




(Putty disconnect SSID.bmp)



(Wifi--turn radio off.bmp)



(ScrSnap002.bmp)



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Attachments Putty disconnect SSID.bmp (450KB - 0 downloads)
Attachments Wifi--turn radio off.bmp (450KB - 0 downloads)
Attachments ScrSnap002.bmp (450KB - 0 downloads)
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joval Page Icon Posted 2022-02-16 6:00 PM
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Further.... using Frogfind.com

Downloading articles from Wikipedia is straightforward... you get the "text only" without any weird formatting characters. As I mentioned before, you can use google.com and search images for "wikipedia the-subject-you-chose" and it will give you small thumbnails as a workaround. Shown below in elephant article.

Downloading from Project Guttenberg in Frogfind includes a weird " carriage return" formatting string which is annoying to read. The simple fix is to open the download html in Pocket word and use the "replace" option to replace " with empty space and hit "remove all"==> after a few minutes save the file and then open inn AlReader2 (or equivalent app or PIE4) and you have a beautiful ebook, easy to read.

Joval



Edited by joval 2022-02-16 6:45 PM




(wikipedia elephant.bmp)



(google-image-wiki-elephant.bmp)



(removalOf-' 'Mohicans.bmp)



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Attachments wikipedia elephant.bmp (450KB - 0 downloads)
Attachments google-image-wiki-elephant.bmp (450KB - 0 downloads)
Attachments removalOf-' 'Mohicans.bmp (450KB - 0 downloads)
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Jake Page Icon Posted 2022-02-16 8:10 PM
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You might give ubook a try to see if it can remove the unwanted syntax on its own.

On older email programs, I find smart quotes, em dashes, etc can wreak havoc as well.

Jake

Edited by Jake 2022-02-16 8:10 PM
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joval Page Icon Posted 2022-02-21 7:00 PM
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Jake - 2022-02-16 12:10 PM

You might give ubook a try to see if it can remove the unwanted syntax on its own.

On older email programs, I find smart quotes, em dashes, etc can wreak havoc as well.

Jake


Jake: Appreciate your input, when I get the time I will try Ubook too.

Your Retro-proxy idea has led to a remarkable breakthrough for stock J720. I'm using WRP proxy because it's easier to set up and is working well... Many thanks for the pioneering this concept!

I've been reading numerous wikipedia articles with the Jornada 72(8) in WinCE mode using Frogfind.com or WRP.

The built-in Esp8266 now replacing the J720 modem has been improved by adding a small push button on/off switch where the telephone jack was... to save battery power I can load a webpage in either frogfind or from WRP-RasPi and power down the esp8266, leaving theRasPiZero2 running on battery (which lasts many hours). Later, I push the Esp power button and can download the next portion of webpage from WRP.

The Esp8266 works great as a router that connects to home wifi and the RasPi Zero2 connects to it as well so the WRP proxy works with page refresh of 15-20 seconds with 590x1500x256 page sizes. I'm having a good time... the jornada is a "portable Library" with Wikipedia or britannica, etc and also project guttenberg for classic literature.

I'm about 1/3 through Darwin's Origin of species for example... much of it applies to HPC's... struggle for survival, superceded by new evolutionary advances... Thus we need the frogfind.com or Retro-proxy/WRP (software extensions)and the Esp8266 or RasPi ( hardware extensions) for the HPC's to retain their intended online connectivity!

C:Amie; I finally worked out the "How to" for WRP proxy installation for Linux OS computers and will include it soon.

I'm back to my J72(8)/Devuan/WPA/RasPi4/VNC viewer for this post... having the best of both worlds!

joval

Edited by joval 2022-02-21 7:09 PM
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Jake Page Icon Posted 2022-02-21 8:02 PM
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Well, I didn't do anything except stumble through it. I don't even understand how r-p truly works. If you have a Window machine up and running, you could also try

http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/network/proxy.htm

which is very easy to setup, though without the https>http. Still, 68K.news/frogfind/et al do work.

Joval, I admire your boundless enthusiasm for it all. I don't think I've ever met anybody else so excited by Origin of Species--you didn't even default to its Cliff Notes

Jake
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Mjolnir Page Icon Posted 2022-02-22 4:03 PM
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Nice work!
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fantablium Page Icon Posted 2022-02-22 6:29 PM
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Great work Joval, looking forward to more info on this and then I'm going to give it a go!
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joval Page Icon Posted 2022-02-23 11:51 AM
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Hi All! Thanks for the positive feedback... the new addition of a push button on/off built-in switch for the esp8266 really works well, and its blue LED glows/shows next to the switch so you can tell when its on... it blinks when connected to open wifi card...and thr RasPi connects to it as a router subnet. Logging on to secure sites such as HPCFactor is possible... as I am now. Further, seems to work as well on a stock J720 with 32Mb as I'm using now!...getting by the reCatcha log-in is a bit tricky but if you move fast it works. WRP proxy should work for the Jornada 680 too, it does for the MP800, whereas frogfind.com doesn't... a DNS issue maybe. For posting IMO best to write things out in pocket word and copy paste into WRP text box... so things don't get deleted accidently when page refreshes.................. joval/j720/winCE/Esp8266/RasPi4/WRP this time!



Addendum: photos added later from my Laptop

Edited by joval 2022-02-23 7:02 PM




(esp8266-switch.JPG)



(After_ESP8266-Wifi.JPG)



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Attachments esp8266-switch.JPG (185KB - 1 downloads)
Attachments After_ESP8266-Wifi.JPG (186KB - 2 downloads)
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joval Page Icon Posted 2022-02-23 12:07 PM
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Oops... a bit redundant on that last post( just deleted dual post/paste)! Editing is a bit tricky. BTW, using 590x0x64 with .7x settings work well, shows entire thread for posting replies......Again this is from a stock J720 32Mb in WinCE mode via open wifi to built in Esp8266 to RasPi4 running WRP proxy!

Edited by joval 2022-02-23 7:03 PM
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joval Page Icon Posted 2022-03-13 12:46 PM
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FYI, just want to say how nice it is to log into HPCFactor using a Jornada 720in WinCE-mode! + open wifi (netgear ma401) to "built in esp8266" wpa2 + WRP proxy running on Windows 10 gigahertz cpu laptop.... sounds complicated but really isn't once set up. Webpage refresh takes 6-7 seconds giving numerous scrolling J720 screens per page... There are various tricks and I've yet to learn how to reliably enter text spaces between paragraph... Still, who would have believed the J720 cruising any webpage out there. Of course, no audio or video, but great to have such easy portable access from anyware at home. Who thought PIE4 would ever be useful online again? I added an antenna wire to the internal esp8266 ( replaced the old internal modem with it) and get great wifi reception, big difference! Just sharing....cuz "sharing is caring" .....................joval from J720/ WinCE/wifi +esp8266+ WRP/PIE4

Edited by joval 2022-03-13 12:51 PM
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