QL-SD Card Interface

[RWAP]

The first QL-SD Card Interface based on Peter Graf's design, and with drivers written in part by Adrian Ives is now available on SellMyRetro -
http://www.sellmyretro.com/offer/detail ... or-QL-3596

[vanpeebles]

Might end up in a bit of a bun fight for the first one!

[RWAP]

Ha ha - I have asked Paul if he would provide a certificate with it to say it is the first production model!!

[Mr_Navigator]

Might end up in a bit of a bun fight for the first one!

[JonB]

A bit pricy, but at least it started reasonably. I hope only the first one is going to be auctioned, otherwise it will be too expensive for a casual user like me. Interesting that the designers did it as a non profit making hobby thing, yet here it is being auctioned off to the wealthiest bidder. Not exactly in the spirit of things. Just set a reasonable price (I'd say £30-40, it is not much different to similar products for the Acorn Atom, which is a similarly rare beast), produce in volume and you'll sell a truckload.


A few questions, though:

Documentation says don't use with Gold / Super Gold card as it isn't compatible. What about a Trump card?

Assuming Trump cards work with it, will I be able to use floppies and Toolkit II at the same time?

Otherwise... It's an unexpanded QL, and I read the limitations of using it with one of those!

Finally, there is no reason other than lack of software that the image cannot be accessed on a PC. True or false?

[RWAP]

A bit pricy, but at least it started reasonably. I hope only the first one is going to be auctioned, otherwise it will be too expensive for a casual user like me. Interesting that the designers did it as a non profit making hobby thing, yet here it is being auctioned off to the wealthiest bidder. Not exactly in the spirit of things. Just set a reasonable price (I'd say £30-40, it is not much different to similar products for the Acorn Atom, which is a similarly rare beast), produce in volume and you'll sell a truckload.

It is difficult what you do with the first one - we auctioned off the first ZXpand unit - it helps judge the size of the market, as well as generate plenty of interest, and the proceeds can then be used to invest in buying a larger quantity of parts, to bring down the overall cost.

For example, with the ZXpand, we initially thought of producing 25 at a time, but after the initial one was auctioned, decided to take the plunge and get enough parts to make 100 units - we have now sold about 250 units in total....

Documentation says don't use with Gold / Super Gold card as it isn't compatible. What about a Trump card?

A Trump Card should work fine - the problem with the Gold Card / Super Gold Card is more to do with the speed of the signals as I understand it.

Assuming Trump cards work with it, will I be able to use floppies and Toolkit II at the same time?

Otherwise... It's an unexpanded QL, and I read the limitations of using it with one of those!

Hmm - as far as I know it will allow you to use the Toolkit II built into the Trump Card - you can load Toolkit II from the SD card in any case. Any disk interface should be compatible, so long as it is not a Super / Gold Card.

Finally, there is no reason other than lack of software that the image cannot be accessed on a PC. True or false?

True - q-emulator on the PC has a new driver layer which allows it to access the SD card...

[tofro]

Documentation says don't use with Gold / Super Gold card as it isn't compatible. What about a Trump card?

"Not compatible" regarding non-working GCs and SGCs is probably not quite the right term - There is actually no obvious principal reason why it shouldn't - But that doesn't help the fact that it doesn't . The "Miracle Problem" is still under investigation, however. We still hope to solve that eventually.

With respect to Trump Cards: One of the beta testers is actually using two Trump-carded QLs together with QL-SD without problems. In fact, I personally see the TC as the ideal extension to be used with QL-SD.

Assuming Trump cards work with it, will I be able to use floppies and Toolkit II at the same time?

Otherwise... It's an unexpanded QL, and I read the limitations of using it with one of those!

Hmm - as far as I know it will allow you to use the Toolkit II built into the Trump Card - you can load Toolkit II from the SD card in any case. Any disk interface should be compatible, so long as it is not a Super / Gold Card.

Right.

Actually, you should very well be able to use the full feature set of the Trump Card (i.e. Toolkit2 and Floppies). No need to occupy memory with a second TK2 copy.

Finally, there is no reason other than lack of software that the image cannot be accessed on a PC. True or false?

True - q-emulator on the PC has a new driver layer which allows it to access the SD card...

There is also a BDI driver that allows accessing the image on uqlx. Both of the Emulator drivers are, currently, however in an early stage - That means, they are still a bit awkward to use, but work reasonably well.

If someone is fluent enough in PC programming, he might also build a stand-alone image file manager for PCs in order to access image contents outside of an emulator. Let's see what is going to show up in future...

Regards,
Tobias

[Dave]

There is talk of a new floppy interface with lots of RAM coming our way. That might also be perfectly suited to the QLSD.

[dilwyn]

A bit pricy, but at least it started reasonably. I hope only the first one is going to be auctioned, otherwise it will be too expensive for a casual user like me. Interesting that the designers did it as a non profit making hobby thing, yet here it is being auctioned off to the wealthiest bidder. Not exactly in the spirit of things.

I was a bit surprised at first, but assuming it's just QL-SD #1 then I'd say fine - go for it! There are enough collectors among us that the first QL-SD may become a collector's item. Above all, it generates publicity for QL-SD, and any income from this will help Paul and his colleagues fund more of them.

[JonB]

A bit pricy, but at least it started reasonably. I hope only the first one is going to be auctioned, otherwise it will be too expensive for a casual user like me. Interesting that the designers did it as a non profit making hobby thing, yet here it is being auctioned off to the wealthiest bidder. Not exactly in the spirit of things.

I was a bit surprised at first, but assuming it's just QL-SD #1 then I'd say fine - go for it! There are enough collectors among us that the first QL-SD may become a collector's item. Above all, it generates publicity for QL-SD, and any income from this will help Paul and his colleagues fund more of them.

Yep, fair point, Dilwyn.

It's great that there is an option, but I will wait for developments on the commercial side...