Video: Sinclair QL Upgrades (PSU and vDrive mostly)

[Chr$]

Yes, in the 1980s at least.
My first floppy disk drive was a 5.25 inch unit (switchable 40/80 track unit IIRC), which got shared between a QL and a BBC Micro.
Eidersoft was one example who supplied software on 5.25". QJump was another.
Digital Precision supplied a few programs on 5.25inch for me, although I'm not sure if that was routine or just a favour to me as I was a regular customer and knew him back then.

I've certainly seen QL setups with a 5.25" in the mix and had wondered if it was just a personal choice for data storage over the original mdvs, or whether there had ever been anything commercial. The 3.5" was certainly becoming more dominant at about the same time as many QL owners were probably considering an FDD upgrade.

Right, new collecting goal then, is to find something that was retailed for the QL on 5.25"

[dilwyn]

Yes, in the 1980s at least.
My first floppy disk drive was a 5.25 inch unit (switchable 40/80 track unit IIRC), which got shared between a QL and a BBC Micro.
Eidersoft was one example who supplied software on 5.25". QJump was another.
Digital Precision supplied a few programs on 5.25inch for me, although I'm not sure if that was routine or just a favour to me as I was a regular customer and knew him back then.

I've certainly seen QL setups with a 5.25" in the mix and had wondered if it was just a personal choice for data storage over the original mdvs, or whether there had ever been anything commercial. The 3.5" was certainly becoming more dominant at about the same time as many QL owners were probably considering an FDD upgrade.

Right, new collecting goal then, is to find something that was retailed for the QL on 5.25"

Good luck.

For me, the reason I started off with 5.25" was that I happened to have one for the BBC micro. I bought a QL disk interface (I think it was one of the CST QDiscs) which happened to work with the BBC micro disc drive which I'd previously bought from Watford Electronics. At first, the 3.5 inch drives and disks in particular were rare and expensive, so I waited a little before getting one.

[NormanDunbar]

I've got a 486 with support for ED 3.2mb drives listed in the BIOS! So it was something that perhaps some PCs did support at least for a limited time.

Aye, the PC did have them for a brief time, but they never took off/succeeded quick was what I meant but phrased badly. English isn't my first language, I'm Scottish!

Cheers,
Norm.

[Cristian]

English isn't my first language, I'm Scottish!

Scotty, beam me up!

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi,

Nice Part 2 Video, very easy to understand.

The Minera rom upgrade looks really cumbersome, the original Qview Minet a Rom upgrade had the logic chip under the eprom.

The Ram upgrade plugging into the CPU socket will run at the same speed as the internal ram, the Trump Card 768K upgrade makes the QL faster than internal ram expansions.

I use the Tetroid power board with no problem as described on the video.

The QL is a good computer, but integration of a Floppy Disc
k Inteface makes the QL excellent to use, I have never used microdrives since 1989 as the main storage. All my microdrives cartridges are backup to disk and the microdrive cartfidge stored in a box, not required.

I used 5.25" floppy disks for a while, I have a copy of Digital Precison Supercharge on 5.25" floppy disk, but I think 3.5" disks are the best to use.

Moving on 20 years a Gotek with Flash Floppy , is a good replacement. Maybe a 3.5" HD floppy disk and a Gotek would be a good setup.

I do not agree with the comment no software on floppy disk. I have many floopy disks with commerical software for the QL, but they are now freeware.

Digital Precison, Jochen Merz, Progs, mostly supplied software on floppy disk.

[Derek_Stewart]

I've got a 486 with support for ED 3.2mb drives listed in the BIOS! So it was something that perhaps some PCs did support at least for a limited time.

The ED drives on a PC will only format the ED disk to 2.88Mb, only the Supergold or Gold Card can format the disk to 3.2Mb.

I remember Mike Thomlinson from Miracle Systems, saying if care is not taken, the drive head can damage itself, which why they wrote the DISK_JIGGLE command.

I never had ED drives, so I can only repeat what I have told.

[bwinkel67]

And here's the second part of the video on QL upgrades: https://youtu.be/UOJ5EtRN3kM

I really enjoyed the video. I also didn't realize that the Hermes sound couldn't be turned off permanently. I knew there was a key combo that you could deactivate but I thought it kept that state...now I'm thinking about that key click and how I can't turn it off without a boot program every time I hear a click

BTW, TF Services also made a battery backed clock board that plugged in with the Hermes. The design is simple enough you could probably use PCBWaaaaaaaaaay to create the board. Looks like a couple of resistors, capacitors and one diode (I can try and get the values if you need them).

Mine isn't functional as I borrowed the button battery connector for another project (I think I put it in a laptop to replace it's broken one about 5 years ago). Maybe with that plugged in the Hermes could keep its state...I seem to remember having it turned off on reboot without any add-on.

Now that I use my QL more regularly again I should fix it and put a battery on it to save my clock state. Plus, as Adrian suggests, the button batteries don't leak so it should be safe to leave it in.

[Cristian]

Another fantastic video!
A few comments:
- the fulscreen editor actually comes from Toolkit2. You may utilize it with non-Minerva Roms.
- the click noise from Hermes chip in my opinion is also a legacy of ZX Spectrum. Each Spectrum user knows very well the typical keyboard click
I'm so used to that little sound, that I don't hear it anymore.

Thank you again for the new video.

[RichardCGH]

A little more on QL disk drives :

I had two disk drive set-ups - one with 2 x 3.5" drives and the other with 2 x 5.25" drives.
The two systems were networked - one of the best things about the QL.
CGH Services offered all titles on mdv or floppy - where they would fit - as users had different preferences.
3.5" floppies were the best imho.
All my master disks were on 3.5" disks.

I still have the 2 x 5.25" drives as I wasn't able to sell them when I quit the QL scene.
By the mid 1990s 5.25" were out of favour.

Never had a QL hard drive though - too expensive IIRC.

[NormanDunbar]

Scotty, beam me up!

Scotty was actually Irish! Well, the actor was. Mind you, in Highlander, the Scotsman was French and the Spaniard Scottish!

Cheers,
Norm.