Old Jornada 680e Hardware Question

I'm a college student who is less than versed in the old way of computerage where one would edit text documents with command lines in them and such to obtain what one desires from drivers. I am buying a nice discount Jornada 680e to replace my palm tungsten T which served me faithfully, yet died 2 days ago. I know it can run an ethernet lan card and even a wifi card, the problem is, after 2 long nights of searching (maybe I'm just bad at it) and even after chasing after products on the HCL, I can't find a combination of "got the card, got the drivers". Can anyone point me toward the correct drivers for a correct card, wireless or otherwise, and I'll try to ebay the card? Can anyone help me out here?

Thanks
-Sal

OH I almost forgot, the Jornada 680e is running Windows CE 2.11, and if all possible, could you indicate a PCMCIA card? The CF card slot on this thing is underneath it and in a little battery like holder, which means not enough room for one. I think I heard of a CF -> PC card "gamegenie" like slot that holds it though. Thank you!
-Sal

Hi

If you want a PCMCIA card, you'll need to find a 16 bit one (without the golden strip near the connector), i recommend the orinoco bronze/silver/gold. but make sure it's the classic one, it's Lucent branded, it's silver with a white sticker. There are drivers for it in proxim site, if not, i can provide you with them. Another model i may suggest is the Cisco aironet 340 / 341 / 342 / 350. If you need 128 bit WEP you'll need the orinoco gold or the cisco 342/350 ones, as the other models don't support it.

You can also use CF cards in the PCMCIA slot through an inexpensive CF->PCMCIA adapter, which as it's name suggests, goes inside the pcmcia slot in your J, and allows you to put CF card on it. For CF cards, try some prism based ones. I used to have the SMC2642W and it worked fine with the intersil reference drivers. I think cmonex has a senao one which works well too, you could ask her.

Hope this helps

Edited by matrixcore 2005-08-26 11:52 PM

I second matrixcore's statements entirely. I have the ORiNOCO Gold card, which works great. There are lots on eBay. (Look for the name of the manufacturer; the card has been produced by a series of companies, and the older ones by Lucent and Agere work better.) Use the drivers in this site's Hardware Compatibility List.

Hey guys I found one of those SMC's you were talking about, the SMC2642W compact flash card. I have two more questions, I'm really sorry because I'm very new at this. 1) Say I did get the SMC2642W CF card, would I be able to get any old CF --> PC card converter? I've seen a nice little 7 dollar one by lexar. Would I have to get a special 16-bit only one or something? Sounds stupid I know, but I am near stupid. Second question! My college uses a VPN software to keep unregistered people from using the wireless internet. The registration process is easy, they provide you with a username and password. Then, you are supposed to log onto the wireless internet on campus, and the only page you are allowed to view (until you get the VPN) is the page to download the VPN client software. I doubt they have a windows CE compatible one, so would there be a way for me to enter my password and stuff to log into the school, or is this a hopeless route, and I should just find myself a nice 16-bit ethernet card (the plug in service doesn't require VPN client software). Thanks!

I'm not familiar with that particular CF network card, but any CF interface card should identify on its packaging whether it is Type I or Type II. (The former is the standard size that fits everything with a CF slot; the latter is thicker and will not fit in the CF slot of older devices. Microdrives are Type II CF cards.) There are CF to PCMCIA adapters for both CF card types. Check the label carefully; don't confuse Type II CF with Ultra II (a faster version of Type I), and make sure that Type II refers to the CF card that it's for, not to the type of PCMCIA card slot. (Type II CF to PCMCIA adapters are harder to find in computer/home electronics stores; I got mine on eBay, and only after a bit of searching.)

One other thing: I'm not sure myself if there's any problem with data transfer through the PCMCIA adapter from a wireless network interface card. I have a Belkin F5D-6060 CF (Type II) NIC, but I'm still trying to get it to work properly on my H/PCs through the PC card adapter.

Moved to H/PC Pro support

Stealthsa,

- your device is 2.11 not 2.0 - this is important for searchign for hardware....

If you go back to the HCL and look at the listings, you will see that where applicable there are drivers for the version of CE that you are using. Look at the help graphic on the hcl index page.

don't worry. i use my CF wifi with a pcmcia-cf adapter and no problem with data transfer.

any pcmcia-cf adapter will work.

Thanx for the info, cmonex. I'm glad that's not the problem. I probably have the wrong settings, but I'm still flying blind learning how to configure them. That seems to be one drawback with H/PC Pro v newer versions of CE - you gotta enter the network name manually and exactly. (I had lots of fun at a WiFi hotspot only yesterday, trying everything before figuring out that I had typed a space between two words where I shouldn't have.)

Thanks a ton guys!

Well, its the last question I'll likely ask (I hope) but I should've thought of this from the start. Do you all know how compatible the Excel, word, and powerpoint installed on a Jorn 680e are with present day versions running windows XP? I hope they are compatible enough for even rough viewing, maybe not powerpoint?

Thanks guys!
-Sal

Oh yeah and by the way, I scored this on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/WiFi-Card-w-ANTENNA-for-HP-Jornada-680-690-720-820_W0QQitemZ5803311649QQcategoryZ15004QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Hooray!

-Sal