The Sinclair QL Forum

Thanks chaps,

Was a bit of a gamble and I didn't realise the significance of it not having a power supply but I'll take my time with its restoration. The QL keyboard is the stuff of nightmares; it actually feels even worse than I was expecting. Still, not looking to bang out a novel on it so whatever.

Order of work:
Source power supply
Get Keyboard membrane once it powers on and I have a display working
Check microdrives. Not sure I care enough to fix them if they don't work. More of a nice to have.
Get some kind of floppy disk system.
Start exploring the system.

So the power supply gives two different voltages (picture attached). You can get either internal SD card(s) reader to replace the microdrives or an external one that doesn't require any mods (vDrive). I have the latter an it works pretty well. The internal SD reader is likely faster but I think takes up some free memory and maybe uses the external ROM slot (though doesn't plug into it so internally) ... not totally sure since I don't have one.

Brad wrote:Thanks chaps,

Was a bit of a gamble and I didn't realise the significance of it not having a power supply but I'll take my time with its restoration. The QL keyboard is the stuff of nightmares; it actually feels even worse than I was expecting. Still, not looking to bang out a novel on it so whatever.

Order of work:
Source power supply
Get Keyboard membrane once it powers on and I have a display working
Check microdrives. Not sure I care enough to fix them if they don't work. More of a nice to have.
Get some kind of floppy disk system.
Start exploring the system.

A little bit of work and you could have yourself a real street sweeper!

Hi Brad,

Brad wrote:The QL keyboard is the stuff of nightmares; it actually feels even worse than I was expecting. Still, not looking to bang out a novel on it so whatever.

I suppose it's what you are used to. Back in the day, the best keyboard was the "rubber fish" on the Spectrum! Then the QL came out with a real keyboard, and it did work very well - in my opinion. The membrane thing is a pain though, I've found that they snap at the slightest look.

Many many years later I had an accident with a desktop keyboard and a cup of sweet coffee! So I did what you do, I took the keyboard apart (I think it was a Dell) and lo, inside was a little rubber/plastic bubble mat and a membrane! Sinclair was ahead of his time!

Perhaps the rubber "springs" in your keyboard are a bit stiff through lack of use. There's a thread on a similar matter at viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2337 which might help.

Good luck with the restoration.


Cheers,
Norm.

Cheers for the help and words of support. I'll update next when I have power and video output.

NormanDunbar wrote: Many many years later I had an accident with a desktop keyboard and a cup of sweet coffee! So I did what you do, I took the keyboard apart (I think it was a Dell) and lo, inside was a little rubber/plastic bubble mat and a membrane! Sinclair was ahead of his time!

I think most PC keyboards use membranes today.
I still have some 30-year old PC keyboards with 'real' switches which produce an audible click when pressed. These are real solid ones. Also they don't suffer from loads of 'Windows' keys between the Ctrl and Alt keys

Jan

PSU, Replacement keyboard foil and QL->Scart all on the way now.

I'll hook it up either to a Commodore 1081 or via an OSSC.

You all set now

Brad wrote:PSU

Hi Brad,
please check your inbox: you will find updates and information

vanpeebles wrote:You all set now

RGB Scart just arrived.

Thanks Cristian.