Fixing Macros746's Jornada 680

This is going to end up being quite the project for a long time to come, the unit is... Well travelled.

First thing on the chopping block is getting some kind of serial support so I can use ActiveSync. Cables are expensive, and this unit so far isn't worth shoveling the money into buying a new cable.

The bottom of the Unit has 10 metal connectors. The cradles from what I've seen on the internet are just a straight through connection. These 10 holes are my plan of attack. I need someone who has a cradle and serial cable to check the connections from the DB9 end to these 10 pins so I can wire up some kind of serial port. Unless one of you knows of someone who's done it already

It won't be pretty, but it'll work. Despite the state of the 680, I still say it was worth $30US

Well, I've made some progress finding out the pins.

http://www.lowlevel.cz/log/pivot/entry.php?id=41

Has a slightly translated version of something posted on the JLime forums. The original person who figured it out was a little hard to understand, but it's a start. I'm going to try the pinouts some time within the next few weeks assuming I can get a new laplink cable.

On another note, I've removed the speaker/backup battery/CF card assembly so the unit no longer trys to tip to the right (the CF card holder no longer latched shut properly). Until I can find a way to keep it shut, it's going to stay out.

(Sorry for the double posting... I wasn't able to edit my last one)


Straying away from serial ports and metal circles, I've read a review of the Jornada 680 extended battery at

http://www.pocketpcfaq.com/wce/21/jornada680batt.htm

and the reviewer says that "It's loaded with 6 x 3.6 volt AA LiON (Lithium Ion) cells" can someone confirm or deny the fact that these are removable standard AA, or just looks like Lithium Ion AA? My Cassiopeia A11 rechargable pack has A cells, but they are glued in place and soldered. I've checked the voltages when the unit is plugged into AC and from the negative terminal (longest pin) to the center pin, I get ~10.8 volts. That would correspond to two sets of three series AAs in paralelle... If what I said made any sense at all.

i think the extended battery is 7.2 volts just like the standard jornada batteries. i'm sure it has standard 18650 li-ion cells. no AA, but they're standard size... you can get such cells rather easily and cheap (from batteryspace.com).
so that means six li-ion cells (that look like AA's, right, i've seen them before putting them into a jornada battery), each is 1500 mAh, so you get 4500 mAh in total (as the battery itself is 7.2 V, not just 3.6...). you can boost that up to 7200 mAh with new 2400 mAh cells from batteryspace

are you talking about the cassiopeia battery? then that's 9 ni-mh (or ni-cd? ) AA's in it, since they have a 1.2 V nominal voltage. (li-ion cells have 3.6-3.7 nominal voltage)

btw i was talking about the J720 extended battery, i don't know if the J680 one is the same, but the difference can't be much (and they must be compatible with each other), only the capacity would vary.

No, the voltages I got were for the three terminals in the Jornada. The cassiopeia has 4 . The extended battery should work for the HP Jornada 680, 690, 720, and 728. I should go and pick one up . How hard is it to replace the batteries? Is the extended battery just a holder?

whew, i don't know what that (10.8) means. the standard J batteries are 7.2 volts. probably the extended batt is no exception

nah no it is not just a holder... you need a bit of soldering skills, and get tabbed batteries, they'll be easier to solder in.

It means volts, but I'll trust what's written on the genuine hardware over my calculations any day

One step closer to getting this thing up and going; I've solved the problem of the non-latching CF holder. Seems it needs a card in it... heh heh... I guess the Jornada came with a dummy card in that slot or something.

Many updates in the fight to bring the Jornada up to usable conditions. I have gotten myself an old battery pack and have ordered some replacement cells as reccomended by cmonex. So far price of a 7.2volt 2000mAh battery is $21 canadian.

For anyone thinking of trying to pull off something like this by just buying some LiIon cells and making their own battery holder, it's a bad idea. The Jornada rechargable battery has a built in charging IC that is there for your saftey and to save the life of the lithium ion cells. Besides, dead Jornada batteries are pretty cheap from someone who deals in volume. I personally got mine for $6 shipping, so look around the net for someone who deals in that kind of thing.

As far as my serial cable pinout is concerned, I decided it would be safter for the Jorny if I bought a cheap infrared usb dongle. I have one and will be checking to see how well it works with the Jornada 680 within a few days. Activesync may give me some lip, let's hope not.

welll.. you could have got two 2400 mAh cells for 10$ + shipping...

Yes, but what about making your own battery holder with the chip of a dead Jornada battery...

I did . The cells came to something like $15US with shipping, the dead battery came to $6CDN. Quite the value considering the cost of a new one.

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/laptopsforless/f1262-80001.html
http://www.jksalesinc.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=198

As far as making a holder from just the chip, I say why not? I'm not sure if it could handle more than 2 cells properly though. A friend of mine is oddly well knowledged in the feild of charging circuits; he could probably find out a way to use more (though the charging ICs are almost too small to use). Actually, he guesses that the charging chip in the Jornada battery is able to charge the two cells independantly (for anyone that finds that interesting ).

Other great news on fixing up the Jornada, not only does my infrared dongle work PERFECTLY with ActiveSync, I got myself two power plugs at Radio Shack earlier today. I was having some issues with the old one I was using, so these new plugs are a refreshing change from constant resets. It's 5mm outer diameter, but as far as inner diameter, I just bent the pin to fit. Not the cleanest of solutions, but it's not like this system is going to win any beauty contests.

All I need are the cells (currently being shipped via UPS) and this poor little Jornada 680 will be back in a usable state. I guess cosmetics are next up after that...

That is good news; I have followed this thread, and could not give any further advice, but am glad you will be able to fix it.

I got now also 680 cradle so I measured the cradle pinout myself ant they are almost identical to 720. It should be easy to follow this jornada pinout and make DB9 connector out of cradle.

See, now I get the info on the serial pin out . To be fair, the site looks very familar... The infrared approach works swimmingly once everything's configured right.

Kind of a shout out to any Jornada owners, my hinge finally gave in, and I dare not use the unit. I'll be putting in a formal request on the hpcBay