The Sinclair QL Forum

Hi all,

I wish to ask you for advice, as to which QL, a year of release to
look for on ebay, to be able to later expand it with the toolkit and
additional memory, etc?

I learned on wikipedia, that 1983 was sort of difficult a year, and QLs
built in that year required more effort to upgrade, internal EPROMS etc.

Many thanks

Hello there, I think most machines off ebay will be fine as the really early QL with the rom dongle is very rare.

You might want to make sure you get at lest a version that has JM, JS or MGx even better.

The ones built by Samsung (that is, issue 6 or 7) were the electronically most evolved and had all the recommended hardware patches ex-works (See the service manual for that). Earlier ones where only fixed on occasion when in a repair shop. But that doesn't mean that you wouldn't be able to bring an earlier model up-to-date with a new ROM and a soldering iron

A dongled QL should be soooo rare today, you'd burn a lot of potential collector's value when boosting to up-to-date HW, however

Regards,
Tobias

Regarding the ql's age , and the various versions around ..................

I rather suggest to look at the budget , and the fact that the unit you buy is WORKING rather than anything else.

Said that , always verify the fact the QL you are looking for is not tampered with so a plain original one ( or a unit which has been loved and cared for by an enthusiast )

If you have electronic skills , and equipment at hand it is rather easy to modify them ( all manuals are available ) , some pcb's for rom and eprom are available .

Minerva is royalty free , original roms are available as well , so bringing an older QL uplevel is rather easy.

Mind that not all electronic components are available anymore ( so you need 2 to tango ) .

good luck , and if you have questions , ASK

techy

I have a stock of JM or JS ROM QLs here and can guarantee to sort out a working one if anyone needs one

Boxed ones are extra (of course!)