From my experience, I think it is the system resources of the actual datalogger that are causing your problem. I have a bunch of Recons with limited RAM and same thing happens when I try to run disconnected editing with a robust .axf (subtypes and domains galore, but empty feature classes). Our Recons have 128 MB of RAM I think and they will crash every time with this configuration. I recently purchased tablets with 2 GB RAM each and a better processor. No issue whatsoever opening .apms with the robust .axf. They open in under 15 seconds which is pretty impressive.
Looks like the Juno has a the same amount of RAM as our Recons. I guess I would try to cut the images into a bunch of little tiles and put them back in the .apm that way (if feasible). Sounds kind of old school, but it may work for you. Maybe try some modifications to your compressed version of the images and see if that works. Good luck.
