I have 2 HP Jornada 690s for sale. I purchased them from a business that wasn't using them. Both come with a cradle, pen, and power supply. I bought a Tablet PC and no longer need them.
One of them is in excellent condition, the other has an issue where you need to recalibrate often. I've read that this can be fixed by taking it apart and finding where the connection is loose, but I haven't bothered. My plan was to use the one with the poor digitizer connection as a Linux terminal, thus not needing touch input.
The only other thing to note is that the trap door for the Compact Flash is poorly designed on the 690. I ended up taking off a small plastic clip that is supposed to keep it locked in place off the good unit because it kept falling off when I'd open the door. The other one came with a broken clip. The doors still stay closed, but it's not an optimal design.
If anyone is interested you may ask any questions you wish. I can take pictures of anything you request, including the bootup diagnostic tests. Please make offers for either one unit, or both. Internet payment is preferred and I will ship anywhere in the US for free.
Some people like to keep business private, but I'd prefer if people posted their questions/offers in this thread so all can see the progress of the sale.
They both stay closed. Normally there are two protruding clips that slide onto the sides of the door. These get pushed down and underlap a bar of plastic. But each only have one clip, so one side isn't secured. It's not that big of a deal, but could be fixed if you are clever and bothered by it.
I took some pics to help you understand, and in doing so I realized that there is a strip of plastic missing from the one of lesser quality as well as the PC Card mouth flap. It does not get in the way of operation as I have used ethernet PC Cards and Compact Flash in both. I'd think maybe he dropped it except the case looks too good, so I don't know the story there. Maybe he couldn't figure out the strange trap door design, got frustrated, and yanked the PC Card out. We can only guess.
The screen colors/brightness/contrast look slightly different using the default settings. When both contrast and brightness are maximized they end up looking about the same. Perhaps that has something to do with the loose connection causing the digitizer to lose calibration on one of them?
As you can see, they are in relatively good shape. It'd be best if someone were to want both. There are lots of uses, like using the better one as your primary unit, and the other as a JLime shell.
oh they look so nice too bad i can't buy these now. never seen a 690.
btw, don't worry about the different brightness, that depends on the individual unit. that's my experience with plenty of jornada 7xx's also the normal 680 i have is different from the preproduction 680LX.
I forgot to mention that both also come with a serial cable. One of them had this tiny black box with motor shaped magnets inside that wrap around the cable when clamped. What is that all about?
I forgot to mention that both also come with a serial cable. One of them had this tiny black box with motor shaped magnets inside that wrap around the cable when clamped. What is that all about?
That magnet looking thing is a ferrite core, it is used to filter out rf interferrence. It is a crystaline ceramic type substance.
I bought one a couple years ago, paid nearly $100 for it, but wished I would have held out for the 720 instead at the time. Today the often go on eBay for $75-$100 each depending on condition.
We can only guess. 
too bad i can't buy these now. never seen a 690. 
also the normal 680 i have is different from the preproduction 680LX.
