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2 x QL Disk Interfaces

Posted: Sat Nov 28, 2015 12:45 pm
by RWAP
I have a couple of QL disk interfaces to sell on behalf of Quanta (Quanta told me that they were both working!)

a) A Gold Card - I need to do some more tests on this as when I tried formatting a DD disk in my ED disk drives, the Gold Card automatically thought they were (and tried to format them as) HD disks!! With FLP_DENSITY d, the FORMAT worked correctly, but that seems odd.

I have another ED disk drive set, so will try that.

I will update this thread with the outcome.

b) A SuperQBoard - this appears to be fully populated but needs some work - the banner said something about 128K RAM - and when the QL starts there is only 128K available which seems odd. Also it could not read DD disks in the above ED disk drives at all (not even ones I know work fine) - so it may need a new disk controller chip, and maybe some memory unless someone else has other ideas (maybe an oscillator)?

My only drives I have are two sets of ED disk drives, so possibly it may work with older disk drives.

So price for the SuperQBoard as it stands is only £20 plus postage - anyone fancy the project?

Re: 2 x QL Disk Interfaces

Posted: Sat Nov 28, 2015 1:46 pm
by XorA
An oscilloscope might be more use than an oscillator for debugging :mrgreen:

Re: 2 x QL Disk Interfaces

Posted: Sat Nov 28, 2015 2:13 pm
by RWAP
True - I meant maybe its the oscillator which has gone...

However, I don't have the time to fault identify - hence it is offered as a project for someone else

Re: 2 x QL Disk Interfaces

Posted: Sat Nov 28, 2015 10:36 pm
by RWAP
Vitaliy (he of the new Trump Cards) has put a claim on the SuperQBoard

Re: 2 x QL Disk Interfaces

Posted: Sun Nov 29, 2015 4:36 pm
by RWAP
I have now tested the Gold Card and paired it with a set of ED floppy disk drives:

http://www.sellmyretro.com/offer/detail ... ives-10908

It is interesting that when formatting several disks of varying formats, you have to use the FLP_DENSITY command before changing to another type of disk - I am sure the Super Gold Card never needed this!!