bwinkel67 wrote:I've seen that if you are good at soldering and have a heat gun (is that what they are called) that you can desolder chips from the top side. Anyone ever try this with a bad microdrive. I have a spare and some parts from another (including motor) so I could see how hard it would be (no sure if the spare is broken).
Don't think I'd want to try that, there are other things nearby that could be damaged. I think heat from the top may only be a reliable option for SMD components, but someone may correct me on that. If you have de-soldering equipment then it's best to de-solder the 6 pins for the read/write head and once they're out you have good access to everything.
bwinkel67 wrote:Btw, how could I plug my spare in as a 3rd microdrive? Do you need a second daughter board or is it just matching up the cable to the side slot pin outs?
I think you would need a daughter board (ZX md style, where it's called the Base board) because the transistors and stuff that are normally on the QL pcb for mdv1 and mdv2 would be missing. Perhaps someone will confirm that some kind of QL specific external mdv was planned but never materialised, hence the only practical way to use the mdv extension is with a back-to-front ZX drive.
https://QXL.WIN
Collector of QL related computers, accessories and QL games/software.
Ask me about felt pads - I can cut them to size and they have proved excellent for mdv data recovery.
