Anouncement for the 40th Anniversary of the Sinclair QL in Dormagen (Germany)

[Pr0f]

Thanks Martin, I echo your sentiments about the organisation at relatively short notice, and putting faces to many contributors I see posting on this forum. It was an excellent weekend and I even managed to avoid the bad weather. I will post something more complete tomorrow when I am on a computer rather than a phone, as I travelled very very light.

Thank you all for making me feel very welcome and for the support you give in person and on the forums. Viva the QL for another 40 years!

[Nasta]

Hello everyone,
Took some time to collect my thoughts - my journey to the meeting started very early Thursday, drove from my home to Nurmberg, then to Muhlheim and visited some friends that I have not seen for ages, slept over in Muhlheim then got to Dormagen on Friday afternoon.
And from then on there was lots of activity and most enjoyable time meeting people I have not seen at least a decade, as well as meeting new people that post on the forum. It was so nice to see known faces again and putting faces to names I only know from here on the forum.
Drove back on Sunday, some 1100km in just about exactly 10 hours, still sorting my thoughts
In any case, I will take this opportunity to thank everyone for an amazing event, amazing work in the QL scene, many pleasant talks - and the patience with me talking their ears off
I had a really good time and it was worth the trip 10 times over! I am looking forward to the next opportunity to meet!

[QLvsJAGUAR]

Right at the start of the official day we had a toast to the 40th anniversary of the QL.

Another great QL event! Somehow sad that events like this only happen once or twice a decade these days. Special thanks to Detlef for making it happen and to all the participants for making it as active as it was.

[Pr0f]

Thoughts from the 40th QL Celebration.

It was a late decision for me to attend the 40th Anniversary celebration in Dormagen, but I am glad that I did make that decision. Having been in and out QL ownership over most of those years, but strangely always having a couple of Sinclair products in my house, I have followed the QL’s history over these 40 years.

It was always a different machine, and the operating system was sufficiently different and capable to allow a proper form of multitasking with multiple jobs running concurrently – something we waited quite some time for in other product lines. Sinclair provided a decent enough set of documentation to allow a very inventive set of people to produce some truly amazing hardware over the years – and even today – with the current raft of products from Peter, and the efforts people are putting in to provide replacements for our aging chipset like Leon and the ZX8301 replacement he has now produced.

The engine of ingenuity is still running strong in this computer community.
I am excited for the future – where will we be heading next?

On a personal level – having travelled very light, I didn’t bring any computer with me, and seeing pretty much everyone connecting one or more units up – I felt strangely naked. But on the long (in hours) journey home, I had plenty of time to think about the idea of putting the relevant and already available hardware together into either a tablet, mini notebook or single ‘plank’ of keyboard and screen as a QL laptop. Useful for shows and to while away some time when the opportunity presents.

Some things I need to research further:

• Could or do any of Peter’s current line of FPGA based offerings support a letter box style LCD panel of 400 x 1280 / 1920?

• How much current do these boards take when running an average load?

• What sort of battery life for the LCD+FPGA QL from 2 or 4 LiFeP04 cells


I was also impressed with Martin’s progress on the network side – we have some things to look forward to here, I think. I won’t say any more as I suspect Martin would share what he wants to when he wants to.

Also Wolfgang’s continuing development and support for SMSQ/E – debugging new issues with new hardware.

Also it was evident that many people have ideas that sometimes surface as a product or open source device that helps the community – such as the QIMI replacement from Detlef, and the excellent Pi Pico VGA interface from Oliver.

Being a hardware guy by preference – it was also evident how much time and effort is still being put in to develop software for our aging beast, and the quality of it. My hat is off to you all for continuing to support the community. Without software a computer is nothing.

Echoing what Urs said – it’s a shame these events are not more frequent, they are great seeding grounds for ideas!

[Peter]

Hi Prof,
many thanks for coming, it was a great meeting!
I think it is realistic that most of us would come again next year.

• Could or do any of Peter’s current line of FPGA based offerings support a letter box style LCD panel of 400 x 1280 / 1920?

Ideally, the panel would allow a VGA or HDMI input and accept 1024x768.
To provide a different resolution would be no rocket science for me.
But Minerva and SMSQ/E also require changes for something outside the current range of modes.
Why letterbox?

• How much current do these boards take when running an average load?

typ. 110 mA, max. 120 mA

All the best, Peter

[Pr0f]

those current draws are favourable.

Letterbox - just that a keyboard and LCD screen combo may be a good way to do this - as it's one single case to make - no hinges.

The letterbox LCD screens are available with HDMI input - but the resolutions are a bit strange - they are usually 400x1280 or 480x1920 - and are used on their side to give landscape mode - as the screen is actually a portrait layout. A raspberry pi takes this in it's stride and will work with them and flip the screen 90 degrees.

I could probably find a 1024x768 screen that's HDMI and low power - and see if I can make use of an old laptop case...

thoughts in the ether at the moment

[BSJR]

I totally agree with the positive comments given on this event, including the ears being tested.
Special thanks to organiser Detlef, to Urs for the history lesson and to Peter for the way forward and his last minute update of my Q68, despite some uncooperative Chinese hardware.

BSJR

[Peter]

Special thanks to organiser Detlef, to Urs for the history lesson and to Peter for the way forward and his last minute update of my Q68, despite some uncooperative Chinese hardware.

Hi Bob,
I hope your Q68 continued to work. That Chinese JTAG adaptor is in the recycling bin now. At home I have the US version fortunately.
By the way, this kind of unreliability is why Qzero, QLbase and QIMSI (Gold) are only built with non-Chinese components from authorized distrinutors.
All the best, Peter

[QLObi]

Thanks to all for participation!
I am highly motviated to organize another meeting next year!

Detlef

[dilwyn]

That would be great. I managed to miss this year's event, so hopefully I'll be able to make it next year.