Q68 New users and general usage thread

[Peter]

Would it be possible to publish a full list of the decoded addresses and their function? (pretty please)

If you have specific questions beyond the SMSQ/E keys file, that you require for actual work, please ask. Unfortunately, my time is too limited to write a detailed documentation with explanations right now. Maybe later... If I did, other QL work would suffer. And I never even found time to enjoy my own machines as a user yet.

Everything Q68 display related, including flash and second screen, is exactly the same as on the QL, hardware-wise.

As you mention other ROMs, there is Minerva work in progress. If that is your interest, get in touch with Jan B. and Richard Z.

[Pr0f]

Would it be possible to publish a full list of the decoded addresses and their function? (pretty please)

If you have specific questions beyond the SMSQ/E keys file, that you require for actual work, please ask. Unfortunately, my time is too limited to write a detailed documentation with explanations right now. Maybe later... If I did, other QL work would suffer. And I never even found time to enjoy my own machines as a user yet.

Everything Q68 display related, including flash and second screen, is exactly the same as on the QL, hardware-wise.

As you mention other ROMs, there is Minerva work in progress. If that is your interest, get in touch with Jan B. and Richard Z.

Yes Minerva was one of the areas of interest. I will also take a look at the SMSQ/e keys - thankyou Tobias and Peter.

[XorA]

Many USB and generic wall wart type adapters give 5V at 1A or 2.1A and well regulated. However, many times more cheap Chinese supplies provide a nominal 5V that is typically 5.5 to 6.5V, and the voltage varying under different loads due to poor design. They also have a fair amount of ripple due to corner-cutting with capacitors.

This doesn't matter to cellphones or devices that use 3.3V or less and that can regulate the noise and excess voltage, but it does matter on the Q68.

It does matter and a lot of work goes into making phone/tablets work with Chinese (read Apple) PSUs

4.6v is what is needed inside a phone/tablet anyway. Thats why a lot of PSUs overclock the V to get that little bit faster charging boost.

[Dave]

Many USB and generic wall wart type adapters give 5V at 1A or 2.1A and well regulated. However, many times more cheap Chinese supplies provide a nominal 5V that is typically 5.5 to 6.5V, and the voltage varying under different loads due to poor design. They also have a fair amount of ripple due to corner-cutting with capacitors.

This doesn't matter to cellphones or devices that use 3.3V or less and that can regulate the noise and excess voltage, but it does matter on the Q68.

It does matter and a lot of work goes into making phone/tablets work with Chinese (read Apple) PSUs

4.6v is what is needed inside a phone/tablet anyway. Thats why a lot of PSUs overclock the V to get that little bit faster charging boost.

iPhone battery voltage is 3.8v. Main SDRAM cache is 1.8v. SDRAM is 1.125v. The A9 core runs at 1.2v (full speed) or 1.1v (down-clocked). Phones/tablets require a minimum of 4.6v because that is the drop-out voltage for the charge circuit for a 3.8v cell. They can handle up to around 7.2v typically for quality products but over around 5.5V the thermals prevent fast charging as a battery protection measure. (iPhone 6 thru 8)

Having lunch with an Apple engineer. One of the upsides of living in Austin. Their campus is riiiiight over there! *points*

Side story: My wife used to work in the building next door to their campus. I called her as she was leaving work to tell her a hailstorm was coming. "Drive to a gas station and stay under the canopy," I begged. "Nah, it'll be fine," she said.

It cost over $16,000 to repair that car.

[afx]

I have installed SMSQE 3.33 versión in my Q68 and I have obtained a different behavior in the "Initialize card 2 when booting" option (in Q68 config). The "Only if a drive is located there" value behaves differently than version 3.32.

For FAT drive work properly in my card 2, I have to put "Always" value in "Initialize card 2 when booting" option. (I always have two SD cards inserted, the second card has a FAT16 partition).

The "Only if a drive is located there" value in "Initialize card 2 when booting" option don't work in my system with 3.33 version, in 3.32 version it work perfectly.

What could be my problem?

[Derek_Stewart]

I have installed SMSQE 3.33 versión in my Q68 and I have obtained a different behavior in the "Initialize card 2 when booting" option (in Q68 config). The "Only if a drive is located there" value behaves differently than version 3.32.

For FAT drive work properly in my card 2, I have to put "Always" value in "Initialize card 2 when booting" option. (I always have two SD cards inserted, the second card has a FAT16 partition).

The "Only if a drive is located there" value in "Initialize card 2 when booting" option don't work in my system with 3.33 version, in 3.32 version it work perfectly.

What could be my problem?

Hi,

Did you configure SMSQ/E v3.33 correctly, there were some non-standard defaults setup.

The FAT and QUB drive commands were disabled, which on the SMSQ/E I send out, I enable.

When a new SD Card is inserted into a Q68, the CARD_INIT command is required to link the new SD Card.

So for Q68 SD Card Slot 2: CARD_INIT 2

Assuming that there is a FAT16 parition on SD Card 2, in the 1st primary partition.

Then just enter: FAT_DRIVE 1,2,1

If you are still having problems please email direct with a more detailed description.

[Peter]

Another good idea may be the ql-users mailinglist, as the SMSQ/E maintainer reads it.
AFAIK he is mostly using only one card himself, and small issues with the second card have happened before.

[duncan]

Hi,

I got my Q68 on Monday, thank you Derek and Peter. Massive amount of software on the supplied SDHC card. I wanted to make a back up of the card and thought to use the disk image mentioned in the manual p11. Looks like this has been taken down from the given link "www.wlenerz.com/Q68/empty_image_file.zip". Can it be found anywhere else?

Cheers

Duncan

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi,

I got my Q68 on Monday, thank you Derek and Peter. Massive amount of software on the supplied SDHC card. I wanted to make a back up of the card and thought to use the disk image mentioned in the manual p11. Looks like this has been taken down from the given link "www.wlenerz.com/Q68/empty_image_file.zip". Can it be found anywhere else?

Cheers

Duncan

Hi Duncan,

I have forwarded your message about the empty image file to Wolfgang, I will post the image file here for future reference.

The SD Card supplied cab be copied by using Winimager on Windows or Ecther has multi platform support.

[duncan]

Thanks Derek, have cloned card with Win32DiskImager.