Does ITX Cases work for any QL Compatible Motherboard

The Thor, Aurora, Q40, Q60 & Q68 etc. are discussed here.
bixio60
Brittle Membrane
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Re: Does ITX Cases work for any QL Compatible Motherboard

Post by bixio60 »

Thanks Derek,
I received yesterday (thanks god Amazon still work very well notwithstanding Corona V.) the new case for Q60 and other bit and pieces.
I will post results and photo here when finished :)

Fabrizio
Derek_Stewart wrote:
bixio60 wrote:
Hi Derek,
I am completely restructuring my Q60 and Q40 with new case, HD etc. I am pretty sure I can use an ATX power supply instead of the original AT being the voltage equivalent (5 & 12 Volt). Am I right?

I know that I have to short-circuit pin 4&5 on the motherboard main cable to get power on the IDE Molex connector, but at the end I need only Ide Molex.

Many thanks
Hi,

See the diagram below, showing the ATX Power Supply connections:

ATX.jpg

Most ATX power supplies have suitable disk drive and hard drive power connectors, which will also power the Q40/60.

To switch on an ATX power supply, pin 14: /PS_ON should be connected to GND and switch off disconnect from GND.

I used short pin 14 and 15 to power the ATX power on.

Q40-60 atxpowera.gif

But a push to make switch could be fitted to power the supply on. Or a simple flip-flop circuit could used to connect the ATX switch.

I have a Q40 and Q60 in Black Shuttle cases just need the switch to complete the installation.


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Peter
QL Wafer Drive
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Joined: Sat Jan 22, 2011 8:47 am

Re: Does ITX Cases work for any QL Compatible Motherboard

Post by Peter »

bixio60 wrote:I received yesterday (thanks god Amazon still work very well notwithstanding Corona V.) the new case for Q60 and other bit and pieces.
I will post results and photo here when finished :)
Looking forward to see it!

I have my main Q60 in this slim MiniATX case:
miniatx_front.jpg
miniatx_back.jpg
As one can see, I had to shorten ethernet and I/O card brackets because of the lower height. Not bad, but still much larger than would be possible.

For a long time I was thinking about a much smaller case with just slimline floppy inside, DVD drive external. Thanks to IDE-SATA converters and power-over-SATA DVD drives it's possible even without separate power supply for the external drive. But didn't get into 3D printing and all metal cases I found yet are not quite ideal.


bixio60
Brittle Membrane
Posts: 110
Joined: Sun May 04, 2014 7:05 am

Re: Does ITX Cases work for any QL Compatible Motherboard

Post by bixio60 »

Peter wrote:
bixio60 wrote:I received yesterday (thanks god Amazon still work very well notwithstanding Corona V.) the new case for Q60 and other bit and pieces.
I will post results and photo here when finished :)
Looking forward to see it!

I have my main Q60 in this slim MiniATX case:
miniatx_front.jpg
miniatx_back.jpg
As one can see, I had to shorten ethernet and I/O card brackets because of the lower height. Not bad, but still much larger than would be possible.

For a long time I was thinking about a much smaller case with just slimline floppy inside, DVD drive external. Thanks to IDE-SATA converters and power-over-SATA DVD drives it's possible even without separate power supply for the external drive. But didn't get into 3D printing and all metal cases I found yet are not quite ideal.
Since a long time I was also looking for an alternative solution for my Q60 case, even because I use a riser card on the second slot so to have 2 ISA I/O cards and the ethernet. Unfortunately I was never able to find an easy and net solution to host what I need without deep modification of the case.
Until I end up in such case that you can see below, well it is not a case but more a framework, it is advertised as overclocking PC solution but is really a DIY tools able to host any motherboard size and devices.
Something that i liked immediately.
So far, as you can see from the pictures, I did not install the riser card and the ethernet (Peter I will pleased to try your ethernet driver :) ) and I removed floppy also (not anymore necessary)
Two IDE Compact flash IDE devices, the first it is used with an 1 GB IBM Micro drive ;) :( just because it is the smallest CF that i have around needed to load latest SMSQ/E version and then with the command WIN_DRIVE 1,1,0,0,'QLWA.WIN' I replace win1 with the 8GB Compact flash.
Not yet replaced the Power supply with a modular ATX unit.
Work in progress.....

Fabrizio
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RalfR
Aurora
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Re: Does ITX Cases work for any QL Compatible Motherboard

Post by RalfR »

Ah, seems to be the only Q60 working with a genuine Microdrive :D


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Derek_Stewart
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Location: Sunny Runcorn, Cheshire, UK

Re: Does ITX Cases work for any QL Compatible Motherboard

Post by Derek_Stewart »

Hi,

Back in 2003, I did mention on the QL-USERS list about IBM Microdrives would mske a Q60 compatiable with the QL... But it got lost in conspiracy against the production of the Q60 by persons unknown.

I am glad to to see the Q60 is still running, you will note the 'A4' stuck all over the board, which means the Q60 board was the 4th board of batch 'A', or the 4th Q60 made.

I see the LCD Chip installed, any chance of some screen shots of the Q60 running?


Regards,

Derek
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Peter
QL Wafer Drive
Posts: 1948
Joined: Sat Jan 22, 2011 8:47 am

Re: Does ITX Cases work for any QL Compatible Motherboard

Post by Peter »

I still see the original EPROM version installed. Just want to mention that Wolfgang created a self-decompressing version of recent SMSQ/E that again fits into these chips, so one does not need to boot twice anymore. If you have someone with suitable EPROM eraser/programmer of course.


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