Crazy idea: CE 4.2 on a Jornada 728?

By the way, why are we talking specifically about the J728? Theree's a lot more J720s about (including mine, dont have a 728) - is this a CE 4.2-specific requirement?

thanks for registering! i'll talk to you on msn

no idea why the thread says 728 ... maybe because jax has a 728
anyway the more ram the better.

Edited by cmonex 2006-11-05 7:30 AM

Mark G's idea is to build a complete new daughterboard, including more RAM and ROM space. I think he had a design in mind, and was wanting to contact manufacturers...

chiark, could you send me his email address, thanks

MMNNN PIE!!!! yum yum! why you want to run dif version of CE? the j720 already pwns with its software

Edited by Shiz 2006-11-05 7:34 PM

^^^not really, the WmP especially is not quite up to anything.

This would be for both the 720 and the 728, as they're pretty well the same.

A new daughterboard would be difficult, and kinda pointless when we already have one. That connector is pretty wonky.
If we have the equipment to replace the ROM chips with new ones, we can swap the RAM at the same time. This means all 72xs can have 64 megs of memory, perhaps even 128.

H/PC 2000 actually kinda sucks, once you've used CE 4 for awhile. And PIE is terrible next to IE 5.5.

How will you program the new ROM chips? Being SMT, you'll have to mount them to program them - sensible thing would be to mount them on the jornada board, then blow the image using the mythical JTAG interface on the board...

SMT rework is well beyond my skills and needs not only equipment but experience IMHO.

Best of luck with this, but I can't see it flying. Please prove me wrong
Cmonex: YGPM

I know people who've hand soldered chips as delicate as the ROM, so it's really not impossible to do.

I know it's not impossible to solder SMT, particularly with an SMT rework station and experience, but how about programming the chips?

I've dropped the chap who was making the flash boards a mail, as he's been quiet since June...

Well, those J720 "flash boards" (wherever the hell they came from) could be programmed using a parallel interface connected to some CL-CDxxx chip, if I recall correctly.

But finding or making one of those flash boards would be verging on impossible, and certainly not doable for everyone. I don't think they were very large eather.

I'm not sure if it's possible to burn the ROM chips while they're on the card. Would have to check the pinouts and all that. I Think it could be done though. Just take the other half of the connector off of a dead Jornada board (I have a few) and wire it up as a ROM flasher.

All manufacturing would need to manufacture the existing flash boards is a supply of components, a PCB manufacturer/assembler and the PCB layout files. I have the PCB layout files...

The connector is, as far as I know, unique to the Jornada. Soldering a handful of ICs to an existing board is a lot easier than making new boards, connectors, etc. And having flash isn't such a good idea, due to the ease of screwing it up to the point of never working again.

Edited by Jax184 2006-11-06 9:47 AM

Well, you can always connect the pins in such a way that on-device flashing is not possible (ie, only through an external connector, or by briding a jumper) - making it much easier to program initially (try to get such a small run of mask ROMs produced cheaply!) and still protecting it. And didnt somebody find a supplier for the connector?