DIY Dockingstation HP Jornada

Does anyone know what that is?



Well, I built a docking station for my Jornada 690 because those things are hard to come by and I don't want to keep swapping the CF card back and forth.



The problem, of course, is the proprietary port on the Jornada. First I wanted to open it and access the serial interface from the inside, but since there is a screw from the housing under the large "sticker" I left it. For now.
Instead, the pins of the docking station are nicely exposed. But how could you tap it? The pitch is something around 3.2-3.3 mm. A normal pin strip is 2.54mm. But it works if the pin header bends a bit. However, since it is still too big and the pins are not spring-loaded, I glued foam around it. Thus, the Jornada is nice and soft and touches the pin strip tenderly. Now I can establish a serial connection with the PC and transfer data. You just have to be careful, every little movement could cause contact problems because the Jornada isn't locked in place. But sufficient for a workaround.

That is very cool
I had thought about doing something similar myself, but I have a serial cable, so never had the need.

The proprietary connector on the Jornada's has always been a weakness. If only they had used the USB lines on the SA1110 instead though and given us a USB host port

Will you publish the pinout for the docking connector?

Yes you are right.
The LX were easier with the pin header. I also thought about it to change the connector with an USB A and build a adapter cable but I also had to open tje device.
Yes I will post the pinout later!

That would be an interesting mod; but a fully working USB Host port would be more useful

Very cool

Nah...how cool it is to buy an old retro device and think about how (the hell) to get files on it
What comes next? A fingerprint sensor? No...
I love it the way it is. For USB host you need a Adapter HP to DSUB9, a DSUB9 Adapter to Gardena, Gardena to firewire, firewire to Toslink...etc.
I know... it would be so easy with USB
Time to ask HP if they would build a Jornada'23

You can mod a USB port on to the 720, the SA1110 has lines for it. the issue is drivers not being in ROM

Ah okay... is it not possible to install drivers manually?

It's getting hold of them that is the problem!

Here is the pinout of the docking station:



Ehm, remember, this is the pinout of the 680/690 model.
The 720 got also USB there.
But as you can see, you only need 3 connections for RS232 and 2 for the Power plug

USB Host? Never heard of that

Excellent, thanks for sharing. Good point about the difference between the 600 and 700 series.

You teach us oh master, for you are the guru.

In contrast to the serial port on the side, the pins for the docking station are of course much easier to reach. The problem is the contact. The pins of the docking station are spring loaded. But for a quick connection without having to open the device and without using the original serial cable, this is a good option.

There are these golden spring contacts for building pcb-testpad-connectors. They are easily soldered on anything and they have a tube, a spring and a contact (very pointy!)

I used to use them for building all kind of connectors when I worked at a testing lab - wonder where they all have gone I have taken from there

But this would be the solution to build ones own dockingstation.
BTW: I don't see that these kind of docks are rare or something. In Germany all Jornadas were sold with it and nearly every ebay-Jornada today comes with it.

The real rarity in my opinion are the original pointer (often lost in history) and the serial cable (same)

Stefan


Edited by dl1av 2023-01-16 4:53 PM