The Sinclair QL Forum

Hi

My mane is Jose Leandro. I'm a zx spectrum fan that also have a plain sinclair QL. I would like to load thing to see the ql in action. The few microdrives I have, only work one-two times before the stop to works.

I take a look in internet for schemes for disk drives but I don't found anything . I only found a unfinished project to make qubide interfaces:

http://omega.webnode.com/products/product-1/

With the information of this page, I make my own qubide clone. I put some information here:

http://hardware.speccy.org/temp/qubide.html

(sorry, only in Spanish)

It works well but I'm still make some test with 512k ram (sometimes qubide fails with the expansion).

Now my problem is the original problem. I don't find a program or emulator that can handle a compact flash with qubde file format and I can't pass information form PC to ql

Any idea?

Thank

José Leandro

P.D serial cable it isn't an option. I make the cable and try to use uqlx emulator to pass program form pc to ql with no success. Also I try hyperterminal program. I can pass words but not program without errors.

Wow that is impressive. Welcome!

Welcome - any new version of the QubIDE is always very welcome.

As you say, the main issue is around the fact that there are no tools ( that I know of ) on the PC to write to a QubIDE formatted CF card. I have emailed Daniele Terdina (the author of q-emulator), in case he has written anything to do this.

The other option is to look for a tool which can access a QXL.WIN file on a PC formatted partition - have a look at the ATAPICD and QXLWIN tools on the Sinclair QL Homepage - although I think these will only work under the SMSQ/e operating system. It looks as though we are missing a tool to run under QDOS which can access the files within a QXL.WIN container.

Details about the QXL.WIN file container appear at: http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/docs/formats/qxlwin.html

As for transferring programs using the serial connection - it is probably down to the BAUD rate - the standard QL works best at 4800 baud receive. Also have a look at the article on the QL Homepage - http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/gen/serial/serial.html, plus a couple of discussions on here: http://www.qlforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=539 and http://www.qlforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=525

It may also be worth speaking with JonB (member on these boards) as he has already gone through this process.

That's a tidy design.

Hey, long looking for this SD Card solution on the QL.
Is there a chance we can buy this in the future somewehre?

As mentioned others have explored this,

http://www.qlforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=535

Hi

A little update.

The pcb I made give my some little problems (bad solders) that made the interface didn't work all the time.

For this reason I've sent gerber files from prototype 2.0 to a manufacturer. Now I have a new board with professional look



The principal change are the 2 74hct646 that now are smd. This change has allowed put the ram chip ( dip 32) and extra GAL in the pcb. The pcb is 5mm smaller that prototype1

The bad news is that I don't found a way to put program in the CF or pass programs to ql from PC. The qubide clon is 100% done but I't not very useful

Bye

José Leandro

Looks great, if you could get it working you would sell them by the truck load!

That's great - is there no chance to do it via Q-Emulator?

Not at the moment - Daniele Terdina would need information on the format used by QubIDE for hard disks and hopefully try to replicate it....

Currently both QPC2 and q-emulator can handle qxl.win files.

There is a tool for the QL to read data from within a qxl.win file (eg. on a CD-ROM) - alas that tool supposedly only works under smsq/e so you need a Gold Card / Super Gold Card to run it....