The Sinclair QL Forum

aalea wrote: Thu Jan 25, 2024 9:48 pm
Definitely I Will do this, smd, space for several ROM, and options to enable/disable toolkit II and the i2c interface, i Will put as OpenSource, but not estimated time for finish, hopefully It will be soon.

@Derek_Stewart : After see the post on Facebook, I have the same idea, and already did the schematic and the pcb on kicad, based on the information of a old topic here, I Will put in gitlab this weekend, if you are interested or I can save you some time.

Great news, glad there are so many devoted QL users still after 40 years developing accessories.
Thank you all for your hard work!
@Alvaroalea, I built your RAM expansion and it works perfect, thanks for sharing

/Chris

aalea wrote: Thu Jan 25, 2024 9:48 pm

Chris_68 wrote: Thu Jan 25, 2024 2:37 pm Hi

Great idea, I would be interested. Using SMD will make a nice design, if possible include a flash with room for a couple of images controlled by a switch.

/Chris

Definitely I Will do this, smd, space for several ROM, and options to enable/disable toolkit II and the i2c interface, i Will put as OpenSource, but not estimated time for finish, hopefully It will be soon.

@Derek_Stewart : After see the post on Facebook, I have the same idea, and already did the schematic and the pcb on kicad, based on the information of a old topic here, I Will put in gitlab this weekend, if you are interested or I can save you some time.

Hi, aalea,

Sound great, your Qsound Clone, Trump Card 2, Ram expansion boards, are really good quality.

I will look forward to seeing what you have done.

I have contacted the copyright holder, Qview : Stuart McKnight, who has no problems with the remake of the Minerva MKII, I just need to see what Tony Frishman's opinion is.

So much development work been going on this year, the QL scene is so alive at the moment.
Derek - best wishes with the project if it goes ahead. I'm sure there'd be interest.

Hi,

I have talked to Tony Frishman via email, who has no problems with remaking the Minerva MKI or MKII, in fact he has some PCBs and parts left over, along with I2C parts. I am just arranging the possible purchase.

Here is the Minerva MkII PCB layout files:
Only in PDF format, but would help in laying a PCB in KiCad or similar

So, here is:

https://github.com/alvaroalea/QL_Minerva_MK2

It's Untested, and probably wrong, for sure pins 6 & 7 of the GAL. but I've been unable to found what the square, circle and diamond means.

It's designed to be use with a IC socket and a row of double pins (not sure of the technical name) but this will cause for sure that the QL can not close the cover.

In any case is a good point to anyone to continue the work, I need to order some IC to do additional test.

Hi,
Just in case... has this prototype the option to reprogram it after?
I have a PCB with Minerva+TKII but the components are soldered and not socketed, thus it is impossible to update it if need it.

Shall be, because you need to put the 74ls133 under the EEPROM, It's best if you use this lovely turned pin sockets, you know

Hi,

I have cloned the git repository.

The original Minerva design did not extend the ROM area into the ROM Port, and only 32K ROM EPROM was used, this allowed the ROM PORT to be free.

If a 48K ROM, Minvera with Toolkit 2 added the end is used, the ROM Port is disabled, so hardware like QIMSI can not be used.

If you look at the Trump Card design, the Toolkit 2 ROM is located $18000 leaving thd ROM Port free. This requires added logic to link the Toolkit 2 code in.

The Minerva I & II designs do not use use this method.

Personally, I prefer the the Trump Card approach, which leaves Toolkit 2 on the expansion card and the main ROM on the plug ROM board. Where either Operating System or Tookit 2 can be updated indpendently of each other.

Hi Derrick et al

There is a simple GAL update that allows you to selectively enable/disable the upper 16KB of the onboard 64k EPROM (disabled in the original design).

With the addition of a micro SPDT (or should that be a DPST???) connected to the board with a flying lead (3-way), you can then have the best of both worlds - with our without TK2 occupying the memory-map shared with the ROM port.

You can find the updated GAL code posted (by me) elsewhere here on the Forum - let me know if you can't readily find it and I'll search on my laptop and upload the JED file again.

Happy Minerva'ing!