The Sinclair QL Forum

Outsoft wrote:Ta daaaaaaaan!!!

I’ve bought 2 NEW MD units for the Speccy on eBay (never used before, serial stamped in green colour, so the last series).

One of them…connected on my QL…WORKS at 100%!!!

Read better than the internal units (less error in first reading) + Format and Write PERFECTLY!!!!!!!!!!!

This is the FIRST and ONLY ONE Speccy unit 100% compatibile with a QL that I've got in my hands!!!

Without and tricks or mPort connected!!

I’ve to test another 1 unit that I bought with this one that seems made on the same period...and another unit that I have here new for my Speccy too.

I absolutly need an MD cable inverted for use this unit in FRONT of me.

Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've tested also the other 2 units that I have and...no way: only this one I've found is totally working on the QL!

I've tested also writing on it and reading from the QL internal units what that MDV3_ wrote and...all works well!

Congratulations, it's certainly unusual to hear of an unmodified ZX Microdrive working so well on a QL.

dilwyn wrote:Congratulations, it's certainly unusual to hear of an unmodified ZX Microdrive working so well on a QL.

Thanks Dilwyn

Now I need only a twisted cable ^_^

I've had the same experience with unmodified ZX drives. Only managed to find one to work with the QL (out of the 10 or so tested so far). And that was only after recalibrating the motor speed (2400rpm unloaded or 2250rpm loaded seems optimum).

I haven't been able to locate copies of the articles mentioned in QL Today or Quanta on the OPD drives - can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks,

Charles

Then I must have been lucky with mine - My (single) Spectrum Microdrive that came with the IF1 that I no longer have worked perfectly on the QL. I was under the impression everyone's does. Apparently not.

Tobias

My discovery was that you can use only one extension microdrive unit on a QL if they are used backwards as forced by the connector. When fed from the left, they know their position in the chain to do drive select, when fed from the right side this doesn't seem to work right.

Dave wrote:My discovery was that you can use only one extension microdrive unit on a QL if they are used backwards as forced by the connector. When fed from the left, they know their position in the chain to do drive select, when fed from the right side this doesn't seem to work right.

That was assumed as a given. When connected the wrong way round (even if it looks "right" that way), the mdv doesn't do anything on the QL.

The difference seem s to be (in ascending order)

- does it read properly?
- does it write properly?
- is it able to format cartridges properly?

Tobias

tofro wrote:

Dave wrote:My discovery was that you can use only one extension microdrive unit on a QL if they are used backwards as forced by the connector. When fed from the left, they know their position in the chain to do drive select, when fed from the right side this doesn't seem to work right.

That was assumed as a given. When connected the wrong way round (even if it looks "right" that way), the mdv doesn't do anything on the QL.

The difference seem s to be (in ascending order)

- does it read properly?
- does it write properly?
- is it able to format cartridges properly?

Tobias

The unit that I've discovered works perfectly as it was an internal QL MD

Infact I was very SURPRISED to find it one with 100% compatibility because...I never seen one before!

I've tested with my QL QL's (one ITA, one DEU "Samsung made") and with all 2 I can read, write and cancel / format perfectly on the QL and naturally the same unit works on Speccy too

I've tested other 3 different units but no one works at 100% like this one.

I'm searching for another one "analogue"...I hope to find it

But in the meantime I can finally use an external unit (more comofortable) for dump and preserve (more than 3000 dumps made in 1 year) and possibly more easy to clean and access on it

Would you be willing to do the 2x resister modification to bring them into spec? Is there also a motor speed difference?

Dave wrote:Would you be willing to do the 2x resister modification to bring them into spec? Is there also a motor speed difference?

Well we will need to open it for check but I'm not the right person to do it.

I think that also the motor is working on a different speed because when I run an MDV on this unit I heard that the motor speed is exactly the same of the internal QL unit.

I use mDump2 to check the reading speed (and accuracy) and I've seen that with this unit is all more stable, more than with an internal unit, and very different from other Speccy units that I've tested that yes can read but makes a lot of errors before complete a unique good dump of a QL MD.