The Sinclair QL Forum

Hi All,
Hello from Zuid Holland. A Brit living and working abroad, formally from the Noth-East.

I am new to the QL and I picked up a second hand one at the back end of last year but just got round to putting a new keyboard membrane in it. RWAP give you a listing with the membrane to type in and test the keyboard but, naturally I made a typo. I couldn't work out how to delete the typo so got the manual out!
That is how new to the QL I am!!!

However, I am not new to the Sinclair Microdrive and luckily, the ones that came with the QL still actually worked so I know at least one of the drives work!

And naturally, I found this forum to help me increase my QL competence!

Apart from RTM, what do you suggest I do with it next?

Regards,

Neil.

Hi, -B-, and very wellcome!!

Ah, nice nick you have (and above all, short and easy to write). Sorry, but, what does RTM mean?

RTM means Read the Manual....

Without access to disk drives, you would be advised to work your way through the Beginners Guide in the QL User's manual - there are several programs to type in there so that you can begin to learn SuperBASIC.

The QL User Group (Quanta) still remains very useful to new comers and you can find plenty of programs to type in in their magazines and in QL World.

It all depends what you are interested in learning and what your background is. If you are new to computers as a programming tool, then SuperBASIC is probably the best way to start out, but if you have programmed in other languages on other computers (for example C, LISP, PASCAL etc), then we can help you out with getting a QL version to use....

If you only want to use existing software, then have a look on sellmyretro.com for my own second hand stuff - at least I will sort you out with a working microdrive cartridge - whereas the programs onj ebay tend to be overpriced and there is no guarantee that the cartridge works or will continue to work once in your QL !!

Thanks for the welcome guys, Hi Rich, our paths cross yet again!

Now I have plenty of microdrive cartridges including a sealed pack of 4 new ones. I could struggle on with them but I'd rather have disks or the SD card reader that is for sale on SellMyRetro (a site I visit regularly BTW).

I have a double 3.5" floppy set (shugart) made by Bytedelight.com and a load of new DSDD disks, which interface would you recommend for connecting these drives to the QL?

What is the software availability like if I go down the SD card route?

I'm also looking for a Centronics interface.

Back to Microdrives, since the supply of felt pads seems to have dried up, has anyone tried using the pads from a cassette?

Cheers,

Neil

Welcome to the forum Where abouts in the north east originally? Nice metal mickey too!

To connect a disk drive to a QL, you ideally want any disk interface with built in memory - a Trump Card or SuperQBoard is probably the best thing to look out for - but disk interfaces do not appear very often and the one on ebay currently is (in my opinion) way overpriced, for a basic disk interface without extra memory.

I have loads of centronics interfaces - pm me if you want one - £8 plus £3.20 postage...

As for software running from the QL-SD Interface - the majority of software should work on this, although some older software may not work from within a sub-directory which can cause a little bit of a problem (there are some tools on the Sinclair QL Homepage to overcome this). The main problem is software which will not work under Minerva - although I believe you can ask for QL-SD to be provided with a normal QDOS ROM image?

RWAP wrote:although I believe you can ask for QL-SD to be provided with a normal QDOS ROM image?

I am happy to supply any qdos as Lang as you don't live in the usa.
Kind regards
Paul

Thanks Rich,
I will take one of your centronics interfaces. Can't PM on here yet so I will use FB.
I want a disk drive interface with memory too, could you keep an eye open for one while I check the usual places?
Cheers,

Neil.

@vanpeebles

Crook, County Durham - in fact I will be there from tomorrow to Sunday. I have some eBay purchases to pick up that would not post to NL.

Ah yes