Friday 16 April 2010

The dulling edge...Jornada 720 and Sunvox



I have this Jornada 720 pda from around 2001 which by modern standards is massively underpowered and has limited functionality in that it has no bluetooth, wireless etc...but there are numerous reasons why I still love it as a piece of technology. First and formost it is still the only device I have with a good sized useable qwerty keyboard that I can turn on and type into a txt or a word.doc within 5 seconds (instant boot, slight lag to boot pocket word). Its really useful when I am poking around hardware/circuit bending and want to make quick notes. It also has a magnificent battery life I still get 7 hours plus runtime from the battery (and I've got 2!) and when turned off it keeps charge for months.

In a fit of fiddly hacking about today I've got the mighty mighty Sunvox music tracker running on it. I have already got milkytracker on it which is excellent (head to this thread here if you need to know how to do this) but slightly annoyingly milky would only run in 340x240 resolution using a tiny bit of the Jornada's large screen real estate. Also I am really into Sunvox at the moment it's combination of tracker form with modular instruments and effects is a glorious combination and a credit to its creator. Find out more and get Sunvox for virtually every platform here.

To get Sunvox running on your jornada you will need 2 things. The first is to install gapi on your Jornada which is available for free here. Secondly you need to place a sunvox_config.ini file or sunvox_config.txt file in the directory you install Sunvox to. In the config file you need to put

"width 640height 240"

without the quotes of course!

Lastly...why do this? Well because I can..but also it is great to use portable tracker apps in something with both keyboard and styli input..I'm using sunvox a lot at the moment on my dell axim x50 which is great.. but for writing complex parts..like drum patterns a keyboard is a godsend. Finally finding new uses for older tech feels good and I think is important.

Post proudly typed on Jornada 720:)

23 comments:

ashley said...

Awesome stuff mate. I've always liked the 720 and now you've made me start thinking about getting one again.

concretedog said...

I'm glad sometimes I get you thinking about buying things...over the years palm sounds has cost me a lot of money! The jornada is a nice part of my portable collection... they seem to hold their price more than some other pda's so its hard to find a really cheap one.

Anonymous said...

I tried this on my 720 but I couldn't get it to start. I have installed gapi, tried putting both sunvox_config.txt and sunvox_config.ini files inside the sunvox directory but still no go. It gives me the message - "Cannot find 'sunvox_full' (or one of its components). Make sure the path and filename are correct and that all the required libraries are available. Hmmm...any clues?

Oh, and good to see another 720 user! ;)

concretedog said...

sorry anonymous I missed this comment. Erm not sure what to suggest really, are you running 1.5 or 1.6...I haven't tested 1.6 on the jornada yet so it could be that.

DWD said...

to Anonymous:
u have to add "aygshell.dll" file to your SunVox directory. that's it :) i'm using 22kbyte version and it works just fine! :)
type "hpcmonex" in Google to find where u can dload that dll.
(also alot of very usefull stuff for Jornada there!)

cheerz

concretedog said...

@ DWD, cheers for that comment, I have done so many additions to my jornada I forget whats been added. I've tried running sunvox without aygshell and indeed it doesn't run so I think you've cracked it. I also notice that I don't actually need the config file. Also I can confirm that 1.6.1 runs well on the jornada.

Anonymous said...

I returned to this post a few days ago and found your replies. Many thanks to you concretedog and DWD! I finally got it to work. One more problem though, I am using v1.6.1 and it is only using a third of the screen space. Were you also able to run it fullscreen in this version? Thanks again.

concretedog said...

Yep I'm managing to run it at full screen. I'm using GAPI vers 4.04 in the GAPI setup I selected the device as jornada 710 as that is the closest model, Under the "setup" tab I have minimize taskbar ticked and nothing else, under GAPI tab I have zero degrees rotation checked and nothing else,under touch tab zero degrees and none(1:1) checked,display tab zero degrees and "don't" checked,under keyboard and emulator tabs nothing is checked.

Again with 1.6.1 I'm not using any config file.

Hope it helps..if you are still not sorting this email me and I'll email back the GX.dll and the Aygshell.dll I'm using for you to try, my email is on the frontpage of the blog.

Anonymous said...

Re-installed GAPI and did everything you mentioned in your reply, and now it works, full screen and all! THANKS THANKS THANKS!

concretedog said...

AWESOME...glad it worked (finally) for you. Feel free to send me any links to tunes you make on your super new setup!

Thomas Novotny said...

Wow that's awesome! Going to try this out on my Jornada :)

Have you considering posting this on the hpcfactor knowledge base?

organic io said...

Hi. I found your site through the warmplace forum. I just purchased a Palm Zire 31 to try out Sunvox and/or Psytexx. I have an IR keyboard for it. Do you have any idea if these programs will work with the IR keyboard?

I've already tried Milkytracker on PocketPC but I'm not completely satisfied with it (too much clicking around even with keyboard). I tried using styletap to get psytexx/sunvox to work but was unsuccessful... So I just scored a used Zire on ebay and thought I'd give it a shot!

Any info is appreciated

-Scott

concretedog said...

@ Thomas Novotny, hope you get it going on your Jornada. I haven't posted on the hpc knowledge base but feel free if you want to.

@organic io, firstly sunvox should run on your pocket pc without styletap...however psytex would need an emulator. Re palm IR keyboards...I have one which is a palmone keyboard and unfortunately the driver conflcts with both sunvox and Bhajis loops on my palm, you can turn the driver on and off so you can use the keyboard for other programs (documents to go etc). If you have a different IR keyboard though it may work. I know I've seen milkytracker working with an IR keyboard on a pocket pc in the past.

Also finally you should definately pick up the free Bhajis Loops and Microbe software for your Zire 31. Hit the "chocopoolp" link in my links in the blog.

Happy PDA'ing :)

organic io said...

I gave up on the Palm's... Couldn't get sunvox to work and Psytexx made me squint because of the resolution ... So I'm back to Milkytracker on the pocket PC. I'm going to try to pick up a Jornada 720 on ebay. Is there any reason you can't use the full screen in Milky? I noticed in the config file there is a resolution setting. Does that just not work?

concretedog said...

hey organic io, I can't say I've played with milky on the jornada for a while so I am not sure. I never got it running fullscreen and I ahven't seen it running fullscreen anywhere else. I'll have a play and see if I can do anything.

concretedog said...

So I had a play trying to get milkytracker running at fullscreen last night...no joy I'm afraid no matter how I configured GAPI or milky...It made me realise also that Milkytracker on the 720 is not great the interface seems a bit buggy and glitchy...Sunvox is much better..(although milkytracker is awesome just not in this device)

organic io said...

Hey concretedog... I missed your reply about getting Milky going fullscreen, but thanks for trying that out!

I recently got a NEC Mobilepro 900... Which I got Milkytracker working on now and I'm hoping to get Sunvox working on as well. I'll try the steps you mentioned here and report back with progress!

organic io said...

Hey, I guess I forgot to post my progress! Maybe you saw it in the Sunvox forums? I've been running Sunvox on it for a few months now and it's really awesome.

Check out my newest song on Soundcloud which was done exclusively in Sunvox on the Mobilepro :)

I did some tweaking and I finally did get Milky to run fullscreen as well.. It requires using the "emulator" option in the GAPI setup, as well as Nyditot's virtual display to force the screen to 320x240 stretched. It's not beautiful or anything, but it does technically work.

concretedog said...

hey organic io, yeah I had seen your progress over at warmplace ru, nice one for getting this running...I like those mobile pro as you have the functionality I have on my jornada but extra proccessing power!

TMothy73 said...

Hiya, I have recently got myself a Jornada 720 for lunchtime Sunvox noodling and am very much enjoying it! I was wondering if you could offer some advice on changing colour schemes? This does not work for me on the Jornada, although I can change other things like frame rate, levels on/off etc. I have started a thread on this on the Sunvox forum. Also, do you know which overclocking utility you used that you mention in another post? That link is unfortunately dead. If you have any other Jornada+Sunvox tips I'd love to hear them! Cheers! Teamoth

concretedog said...

hey TMothy73...glad you've got a jornada...I still use mine and enjoy it with sunvox a lot...I still don't think i've got a better portable device when it comes to the keyboard. Anyway...I've never been able to get sunvox to read the confic file properly on my jornada so I haven't been able to sort out the colour scheme issue you mention. I can't seem to find that overclocking utility at the moment but I'll have it backed up somewhere for sure...if you send me an email (my addy is on the frontpage of this blog) I'll try and send it to you...although I'm away until next weekend so it may take me while!

TMothy73 said...

Hi concretedog, yeah I think the 720 is fantastic for Sunvox! I have had some success with changing other things to do with Sunvox settings by having the sunvox_config.txt file in the directory "My Handheld PC", but not colour settings. Luckily it's not something that is massively important, but it would be nice... I'm also trying to find out if I can use some of the 720's application buttons to work as function buttons in Sunvox (F11 for example) but have had no luck with something called Autohotkey yet, so I'm going to keep looking. I recommend you try out 1.7beta if you haven't already as well. I'll send you an email so you can forward that overclocking utility. I was listening to a track you did called Meirion the other day, really like it, right up my street. Cheers!

jai said...

Woop woop, this post helped me in june 2020!
Thank you :)