Q68 New users and general usage thread

Nagging hardware related question? Post here!
User avatar
Peter
QL Wafer Drive
Posts: 1953
Joined: Sat Jan 22, 2011 8:47 am

Re: Q68 New users and general usage thread

Post by Peter »

FrancoisLanciault wrote:The only problem I have is that on the monitor I currently use, the right end of the image is missing.
That would mean it can not even cope with VESA standard 1024x768 @ 60 Hz. What is it?


User avatar
Peter
QL Wafer Drive
Posts: 1953
Joined: Sat Jan 22, 2011 8:47 am

Re: Q68 New users and general usage thread

Post by Peter »

janbredenbeek wrote:I've made some photos of my Q68 - both cased and uncased - which can be viewed here.
(Don't worry - it's back in its case now and still working :) )

regards, Jan.
Great! Thanks for sharing! I don't even case my boards because I like the looks of the PCB. :D

And I hope the Moire pattern on some of the screens is just from taking pictures. In real that should not happen.


User avatar
janbredenbeek
Super Gold Card
Posts: 629
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2015 4:54 pm
Location: Hilversum, The Netherlands

Re: Q68 New users and general usage thread

Post by janbredenbeek »

Peter wrote:Great! Thanks for sharing! I don't even case my boards because I like the looks of the PCB. :D
He he... I remember back in the '90s there were worries about CE certification requirements regarding RF radiation which would prevent small companies like Miracle from making more peripherals for the QL because of the high certification costs involved. The Q68 will certainly be much 'cleaner' in terms of RF radiation when cased, especially compared to an plain QL :D
And I hope the Moire pattern on some of the screens is just from taking pictures. In real that should not happen.
Yes it's Moiré, the picture is very clear on my monitor even though the native resolutions don't match (my monitor has 1280x1024 so it needs to scale up a bit - Windows would look awkward here).

regards, Jan.


User avatar
Dave
SandySuperQDave
Posts: 2765
Joined: Sat Jan 22, 2011 6:52 am
Location: Austin, TX
Contact:

Re: Q68 New users and general usage thread

Post by Dave »

Alas, my Christmas will not include a Q68. Parcels2Go seem to have misplaced it. I'll give it several more weeks before starting to raise a stink, since things can take time. Normally, it would have been delivered by December 21st. However, Christmas mail volumes will change everything.

So, I'll just be patient and learn from all of you! :)


User avatar
Zarchos
Trump Card
Posts: 152
Joined: Mon May 08, 2017 11:49 am

Re: Q68 New users and general usage thread

Post by Zarchos »

Dave wrote:Alas, my Christmas will not include a Q68. Parcels2Go seem to have misplaced it. I'll give it several more weeks before starting to raise a stink, since things can take time. Normally, it would have been delivered by December 21st. However, Christmas mail volumes will change everything.

So, I'll just be patient and learn from all of you! :)
Sorry to read that.
It is the reason why I have asked all the people I bought something from to delay shipping after Christmas ...
I keep my fingers crossed your parcel isn't lost.


Owner of various QLs including accelerated beasts, and also a happy Q68 owner ;)
Now porting SOTB to the Archies, to then port it to the Q68.
https://www.youtube.com/user/Archimedes ... +%28100%25
User avatar
Peter
QL Wafer Drive
Posts: 1953
Joined: Sat Jan 22, 2011 8:47 am

Re: Q68 New users and general usage thread

Post by Peter »

janbredenbeek wrote:I've made some photos of my Q68 - both cased and uncased - which can be viewed here.
I just notice the Minerva picture ;) Is it a standard 1.97 ROM?


User avatar
janbredenbeek
Super Gold Card
Posts: 629
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2015 4:54 pm
Location: Hilversum, The Netherlands

Re: Q68 New users and general usage thread

Post by janbredenbeek »

Peter wrote:
janbredenbeek wrote:I've made some photos of my Q68 - both cased and uncased - which can be viewed here.
I just notice the Minerva picture ;) Is it a standard 1.97 ROM?
Yes it's 1.97.
It boots, but freezes after the F1/F2 timeout. I guess because the 8049 isn't emulated by the hardware? This probably will need a rewrite of some low level I/O code, as well as a WIN driver for SDHC access. Would be an interesting project ;) . Are there any details available about the I/O hardware?

regards, Jan.


FrancoisLanciault
Trump Card
Posts: 167
Joined: Mon Aug 08, 2011 11:08 pm

Re: Q68 New users and general usage thread

Post by FrancoisLanciault »

Peter wrote:
FrancoisLanciault wrote:The only problem I have is that on the monitor I currently use, the right end of the image is missing.
That would mean it can not even cope with VESA standard 1024x768 @ 60 Hz. What is it?
False alarm. Everything is working ok now!

François


daniel_baum
Bent Pin Expansion Port
Posts: 90
Joined: Sat Aug 26, 2017 11:58 am

Re: Q68 New users and general usage thread

Post by daniel_baum »

Peter wrote:
daniel_baum wrote:Once I've worked out how to get everything set up, I'll probably put my QXL.WIN file from QPC2 on the SD card and boot from that.
Good luck. If you had not used many PC specific functions, it should be easy.
I was able to set up my own SD card with very little trouble.

The only real obstacle was getting the FAT partition right. I think it finally started working when I realised that 255MiB is not the same as 255MB :)

I set it to work in 1024x768 in 4 colours as a default. It runs my usual set-up at a completely acceptible speed. The 512x384 hi-colour mode is also surprisingly useful, as someone else has already mentioned.

D.


User avatar
Peter
QL Wafer Drive
Posts: 1953
Joined: Sat Jan 22, 2011 8:47 am

Re: Q68 New users and general usage thread

Post by Peter »

daniel_baum wrote:The only real obstacle was getting the FAT partition right.
Just for completeness: The FAT16 partition, which Derek apparently has added, is not required for a standard Q68 card. A single partition FAT32 formatted card is fine. The manual contains information on suitable software to create it.


Post Reply