QL Drives on BBC Model B

[Sparrowhawk]

Hi,

Can I use my QL drives (3.5") on a BBC Micro, or are the cables, bits and bobs (that's technical talk, that is! ) not compatible?

I don't want to damage anything by just trying!

Thanks

[Dave]

The QL drives use standard cables and signals, and the QL and the Beeb both generally used WD1772 controllers, so everything should work just fine. If there's a problem, it just wouldn't work - it wouldn't do any damage.

[Sparrowhawk]

Thanks for the quick reply

When the Beeb arrives I'll give it a go. Mind you, it's coming fully upgraded with an internal CF 'hard drive' and other goodies (eg 32 of Sideways RAM etc). Not sure I'll need to actually connect a set of drives, but just in case...

[vanpeebles]

It's a good question I have a BBC B too and haven't tried it out with any disk drives yet. Would be nice to download some games and try it!

[Sparrowhawk]

I spoke to the seller (retroclinic.com) and Mark, the chap who runs it, had this to say on the topic:

The QL drives will work, but they will probably need recabling - I couldn't say for sure without dismantling the drive and looking at them. If they're mains powered and have a 34 way ribbon cable coming out the back, then open the top and look to see if the ribbon cable connects to both drives, without going onto any extra circuit boards, or having any twists in the wiring. If it's just a plain straight through fit, then they should work. Any "extra bits" in there, and I wouldn't risk plugging them in unless you want them converted

Does this sound like a QL setup? - I am not very comfortable opening up anything elctronic, let alone something that is over 20 years old!

When it comes to computers, I can code - just don't ask me to do anything hardware related. At a stretch I can add RAM and change a harddrive. heh.

"A user with an idea is as dangerous as a programmer with a screwdriver". As I once read in an Amiga magazine. Oddly, my users don't often see the funny side of that quote. Can't think why...

[tofro]

Not a problem - This sounds like a QL set-up. It used to be an IBM PC sickness to use twisted cables instead of re-jumpering the drives (DSx). Any decent computer has straight-through cabling

Cheers,
tofro

[Sparrowhawk]

Thank you

[polka]

Nothing hardware related, I guess... just a REM :

if the BBC basic on this machine is like the one I have on my ZX88, then I like much better QL's SuperBasic.

Paul

[Dave]

Seconded, although I did like BASIC V's inline ARM assembly feature