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Hello from Nottinghamshire!

Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2017 7:17 am
by Kermit
After decades of spectrums I've finally bought a QL!
In fact I have bought 2!
I have always wanted one since they came out but of course when you are 12 years old it's impossible.
So, I ebayed one last week for £205 working and complete. It arrived on Thursday, 2 days ago. All is well. It all appears to work. I purchased a Trump card from Sell My Retro and a double disc unit to match.
First job after checking it worked was an open up and clean. The leds didn't work so it was simply a case of reconnecting the cables. It is an issue 3.
I also found it had a Sandy 256K RAM hidden inside as an extra bonus.
I already have a Rgb cable for my +3e so it's crystal clear.
Yesterday I read up a little on getting programs from PC to disc. It's now a matter of gentle play and waiting for the disc drive and Trump to arrive. This QL has seen a bit of use. Some of the keys are shiny and the port covers are missing. But sometimes I think that kind of thing adds character! I found a microdrive cover already.

But..... Last night on eBay I found another QL for £85 that was all intact with psu manual and a stack of micro drives. It looks a lot better than mine so I went and bought it! I think it had only been posted minutes before I bought it. The plan therefore is to keep the best bits of both and resell the rest. Maybe give both a service by Ian Gledhill.

I also bought some 8 track felt to get the micro drives serviced.

I've used the forum a few times in the last few days and it looks like everyone knows what they are talking about!

Anyway there you go, another adventure begins.....

Re: Hello from Nottinghamshire!

Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2017 7:56 am
by NormanDunbar
Morning Kermits, welcome!

I'm sure you'll have fun with your new QLs, and there are indeed lots of people on here who do know what they are talking about, and we are a helpful bunch too.

If you need more info on the history etc of the QL, or where to find programs and such like, you could take a look at the wiki - http://qlwiki.qlforum.co.uk - you only need to register if you want to contribute.

Cheers,
Norm.

Re: Hello from Nottinghamshire!

Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2017 8:44 am
by RWAP
Welcome to the forums - the QL has always been my favourite machine.

With 2 QLs you can network them together and use load programs from the disks attached to the machine with the Trump Card - you can get an idea of how to do this with the SBASIC / SuperBASIC Reference Manual -
http://superbasic-manual.readthedocs.io ... ml#nfs-use
and
http://superbasic-manual.readthedocs.io ... tml#fserve

Re: Hello from Nottinghamshire!

Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2017 8:45 am
by vanpeebles
A very warm welcome to the forum! :D

Re: Hello from Nottinghamshire!

Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2017 8:54 am
by NormanDunbar
We're all up early for a Sunday then! :D

Cheers,
Norm.

Re: Hello from Nottinghamshire!

Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2017 9:29 am
by QLvsJAGUAR
Morning, Welcome and Congratulation! Good decision to buy a QL or two.
Kermit wrote:First job after checking it worked was an open up and clean. The leds didn't work so it was simply a case of reconnecting the cables. It is an issue 3.
Are you sure it's an Issue 3? Common UK built machines are Issue 5,6 or 7. See:
http://sinclairql.net/build_standards.html
Can you please recheck the printing on the PCB?

QL forever!
Urs

Re: Hello from Nottinghamshire!

Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2017 9:46 am
by Kermit
Ah!
Where the issue number is the board edge was chopped, so only a bit of it is visible. If it isn't a 3 then it's a 5.

Re: Hello from Nottinghamshire!

Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2017 10:06 am
by Kermit
I was in 2 minds regarding keeping them both. Obviously my wife is unaware because the answer is therefore obvious! But if I networked them then there could be a reason to keep them. When I see the second one I guess the answer will be more apparent.

Re: Hello from Nottinghamshire!

Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2017 3:20 pm
by RWAP
Kermit wrote:Ah!
Where the issue number is the board edge was chopped, so only a bit of it is visible. If it isn't a 3 then it's a 5.
Definitely this is an issue 5 and one of the later issue 5's at that (it was not one of the ones issued with EPROMs originally)

Re: Hello from Nottinghamshire!

Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2017 6:23 pm
by Kermit
Regarding the network Idea between 2 machines above, what cable would I need?
On inspection it looks like the same mono socket as the ZX81 and Spectrum.
I've just bought a new keyboard membrane too.