The Sinclair QL Forum

Hi guys,

Can anyone point me in the direction of good felt to fix my microdrive carts, I have tried various types of felt (mostly from sets of velcro) but no success with the 20+ carts I have to refelt.

If anyone has a brand they get good results with then please share an ebay or amazon link.

Thanks.

There isn't any felt available on Amazon that I know of. There was someone selling crudely cut pads for 8 track tapes on eBay. That stuff worked (when cut small). I can provide some ready cut pieces.

I have some of Chris' (chr$) felt pads and can recommend them.

Hi Chr$,

Thanks for responding, I would love to purchase 20 pads from you if you have that much to spare. I am in Ireland so would need them posted which of course I will cover.

Alpharius wrote: Wed Mar 22, 2023 5:23 pm Hi Chr$,

Thanks for responding, I would love to purchase 20 pads from you if you have that much to spare. I am in Ireland so would need them posted which of course I will cover.

Yes of course. You won't be able to PM me yet. email is on my little website (or it's collector [at symbol] qxl dot win)

Hi chr$!
I got some from you, sadly none of my mdrives work now since I have replaced all of them (incorrectly I assume). Before I did it, few mdrives worked, others didn't due to lack of felts.
I think it is due to my inexperience about how to fit them, please... could you explain some tips about how to do it?

It was months ago and I stopped trying to avoid to destroy them completely (mdrives).
Your felts are good, just I don't know how should put them or what to keep in mind in the process.

Thank you

Could it be that trying them with the old felt pieces has resulted in small bits of the old spongy stuff ending up within the tape and messing things up?

Here's how I do it:

https://qxl.win/ql_cartridge_recovery.htm

Also, are you sure they were QL formatted carts in the first place? If they are ZX Spectrum carts then they will just whizz forever and nothing will be read. It is also possible that they are too far gone, i.e. rendered unusable over the last 40 years due to climate/humidity/degradation etc. I find that when I get a batch of carts that don't respond well, that it tends to be most or even all of them that fail, as if their previous storage location played a role (physically there looks to be nothing wrong with them). The opposite is also true, i.e. carts that work tend to be accompanied by other carts that seem to work (on average).

Chr$ wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 4:25 pm Could it be that trying them with the old felt pieces has resulted in small bits of the old spongy stuff ending up within the tape and messing things up?

Here's how I do it:

https://qxl.win/ql_cartridge_recovery.htm

Also, are you sure they were QL formatted carts in the first place? If they are ZX Spectrum carts then they will just whizz forever and nothing will be read. It is also possible that they are too far gone, i.e. rendered unusable over the last 40 years due to climate/humidity/degradation etc. I find that when I get a batch of carts that don't respond well, that it tends to be most or even all of them that fail, as if their previous storage location played a role (physically there looks to be nothing wrong with them). The opposite is also true, i.e. carts that work tend to be accompanied by other carts that seem to work (on average).

Thank you for the link. I will check it out.

Yes, they are QL original cartridge. And some worked, others didn't have felts from very beginning and some get their felts destroyed when I tried to replace them.
Inside some pieces? could happen... to avoid that I operate them faced down. I mean, with the top (felt place) facing the floor to use the gravity in order to don't let any rest to get inside. Whatever... could happen yes.

I need to take myy QL back and try the re-felt cartridges again, but... no idea how to remove the glue now, and it was strong one. Maybe they cannot be recovered.

Popopo wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 9:16 pm
Yes, they are QL original cartridge. And some worked, others didn't have felts from very beginning and some get their felts destroyed when I tried to replace them.
Inside some pieces? could happen... to avoid that I operate them faced down. I mean, with the top (felt place) facing the floor to use the gravity in order to don't let any rest to get inside. Whatever... could happen yes.

I meant small pieces inside from previously, if they had been spun up in the drive with the old stuff still on them.

They should be fairly easy to remove though, carefully with a blade. The adhesive on the pads isn't that strong. You may just be unlucky and the data had already degraded from the actual tape.

How about formatting, are you able to format one that has been refelted?

And what about the drives themselves, can you be sure they work properly?

Chr$ wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 9:32 pm I meant small pieces inside from previously, if they had been spun up in the drive with the old stuff still on them.

Oh! At that point I have not an answer. I bought the system (used, second hand), so ... in case it were like that previously, I have not way to know it.

Chr$ wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 9:32 pm They should be fairly easy to remove though, carefully with a blade. The adhesive on the pads isn't that strong. You may just be unlucky and the data had already degraded from the actual tape.

Sounds good, I used superglue... kind of very strong glue. But hope be able to do it as you advice to me .

Chr$ wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 9:32 pm How about formatting, are you able to format one that has been refelted?

Not yet, I didn't want to loose whatever is inside the cardtrige cause I have not other software to try. Trying to keep any original software (even if it is common one) as possible. So I didn't try to format any of them. The few that worked before, cannot be read it now.

Chr$ wrote: Tue Mar 28, 2023 9:32 pm And what about the drives themselves, can you be sure they work properly?

Good point, one worked fine, the other one not. I did some changes (before "re-felt" cartridges) like to swap n1 to n2 and change the shield for RF, and It seemed to me that was fine sometimes. So I put them again in their original positions after get troubles, but didn't change the situation.

In general, it seems to me that I did blend (maybe) the metal support of the felts and now the pressure required is not a proper one. Or just... I touch something and my mdrives need to be re-calibrate. But how to do it? no idea.