The Sinclair QL Forum

xelalex wrote:

Bloodnok wrote:My comments were only in jest (using relatively massive computing power for a simple hardware emulator is just too tempting a target - I thought using an ATMega328 for the vDrive QL was a step to far!).

But as I wrote further up, computer h/w has made tremendous progress of the last 50 years. What may seem powerful in comparison to a vintage machine, could be nothing by today's standards. And what motivates me to work on my projects, in addition to keeping the old h/w running, is combining it with what we have available today. I guess we all set the dials to different values here. And when it comes to my classic car for example, I'm taking a whole different approach. I'm quite a 'keeping it stock' fanatic there...

Amen!
Whatever the line between to use a powerful system to get the same feature than a very old one has not place when the goal is to enjoy developing and serves solutions for who has a problem. Just add to my argument that shares your POV is there are FPGAs that are so much powerful than a QL launched by Sinclair and nobody hesitate to get one of those FPGAs. Just get fun and give options to the users that need it is the best! isn't it?

About vDrive... I saw it in Noel video and I like it, but the cost is too high for my pocket. With your open project Alex you allowed a lot of people to access to a feature that was necessary when our mDrives become broken. Keeping the feeling of original one. Thank you for your intellectual donation to the QL community.

Bloodnok, maybe I misunderstood you, did you say that your vDrive has not sound emulation from original? ... Noel in his report add a sound emulation easily, I thought it came from you. Have you watch it?

Popopo wrote: About vDrive... did you say that your vDrive has not sound emulation from original? ... Noel in his report add a sound emulation easily, I thought it came from you. Have you watch it?

Hi Popopo,

I think the sound emulation you've mentioned was originally put together by Stephen Usher - he now has a built up PCB now on offer. The sound is triggered from the drive busy LED and so cannot differentiate between different drive states.

In 2015, when designing the vDrive, motor sounds were way down the feature list compared to everything else that had to be done. To do it properly required an MP3 player chip, some flash, an audio amp and a speaker, along with firmware and toolkit support. It would have added significant effort to the project for little gain and probably placed it out of reach for some due to cost.

That said, I did find time last year to finally add sound effect support and I have in production the hardware for a full sound upgrade. The upgrade provides custom sounds for each individual Microdrive (including the empty cart sound) as well as sounds for errors and toolkit feedback. The ZX version has firmware support but the QL version is yet to be done (if there is enough interest I'll press on to make it available). The same sound module is used for both vDrive models and is a DIY upgrade for existing vDrive owners. New customers can add the vSFX option if desired.

Here's some info from the vDrive ZX release.

The sound module: After installation in a vDrive: An excerpt from the vDrive ZX user manual describing how vSFX is implemented: And the new commands: The install guide is attached for those interested in checking out what is involved to upgrade (it would be the same for vDrive QL).

Hi,

The new sound module sounds great, when you are able to supply them, I would like one...

Derek_Stewart wrote:Hi,

The new sound module sounds great, when you are able to supply them, I would like one...

Hi Derek,

I can send you one for the cost of the shipping if you'd like? Just PM me on the forum and we can sort the details.

Cheers,

Charlie

I did a video of the other option, after Noel Llopis tried it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbBH4GgZxsM

That one just didn't sound right. Looking forward to your upgrade.

I've started playing around with capturing actual h/w cartridges into virtual ones using OqtaDrive, and my first experiments show that this is doable. I'm working out the details now. This is going to be the main new feature of the next OqtaDrive release.

xelalex wrote:I've started playing around with capturing actual h/w cartridges into virtual ones using OqtaDrive, and my first experiments show that this is doable. I'm working out the details now. This is going to be the main new feature of the next OqtaDrive release.

Hi Alex,

If you're relying on the existing SInclair ULA then the QL mDump utility, developed a few years ago, does this already and a great number of cartridges have been archived already - Simone Voltolini is the person to contact. Forensic recovery of difficult/poor MD cartridges would likely require a newly designed front end connected directly to the Microdrive heads - I think Dave Park explored this a few years back. The Microdrive system (mechanism and cartridge design) tends to limit seriously recovering data. Looking forward to see what you come up with

Cheers,

Charlie

bwinkel67 wrote:I did a video of the other option, after Noel Llopis tried it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbBH4GgZxsM

That one just didn't sound right. Looking forward to your upgrade.

It's a wee bit better than what was presented in the video I had done a short video for the Spectrum version - will try and get a link sorted.

It's not going to be fully fledged forensic recovery, and most likely will not work for cartridges in a rather sad state. It's more like h/w drive shadowing, i.e. whatever you do with a h/w cartridge will also be done with a virtual one. So you always have a copy that's in sync with the h/w cartridge. This can then be used to capture a (still usable) h/w cartridge just by popping it into the drive and running CAT/dir a couple of times.

It would be nice to see all of this integrated onto a single PCB.... Possibly using an RP2040?