The Sinclair QL Forum

I tried to start a discussion earlier on QL backplanes, and asked people to send photos of their systems and tell me how they used them, and what factors made their decisions... I got a very poor response of zero to the request.

I have decided I phrased the question too narrowly. The area I am looking at is much wider than my question, so I have decided to rephrase the conversation in a new thread.

QL2 looks like it will have some built-in expansion, possibly including two or three pre-decoded areas. It will need to be able to work as a swap-out replacement for QLs or Aurora in cased systems, while still fitting in the footprint of the original QL board so it can fit in a QL case. This implies an edge connector like the QL's own...

Given the generally poor signal quality of the Qplane, and the (some say) uncomfortable layout of the Mplane, and the slew of new hardware soon looking for a spot in systems that are already full, I have to consider the possibility of a new backplane learning lessons from everything currently existing.

I asked my question in the light of the above. I was hoping to learn what's important and what's not to most people.

This doesn't just feed into a maybe new backplane, but also feeds into the ultimate design and expansion possibilities of QL2 itself.

So, what do you think about expansion? What's the deal with your set-ups? What would you like to improve them?

Dave,

may very personal opinion:

My QLs need to stay in their box and I would probably allow them to grow to the size of about QL+Trumpcard. Whatever can be cramped into this space is fine for me, but anything that's larger or needs to go into a separate case is not my type of thing.

So I have got no interest in backplane solutions.

Tobias

That view is as important and as valid as anyone else's. I share the view for black box QLs, as shown by my desire to design QL2 in a format that will still fit entirely inside a QL case.

...and after having spent the best part of the afternoon with pin 1 of my oldest QL's edge connector that has sought final rest in the SGC's female end, I'm probably fed up with anything that uses connectors at all....

frustrated moanings,
Tobias

(who managed to rescue the SGC at last and has placed an order for some new edge connectors)

I don't know where you ordered yours from, but I have lots of them and will happily sell them at cost price if people need them.

I do not know if I need/want a backplane or not, in my ideal world I could convert all my retros to shuttle type cases and stack them up.

This obviously means I need all of them to convert though

Well, I have two Mplane backplanes that I bought from you last year (I think).
I have two "black box" QLs, two working uncased QL motherboards, an Aurora, a Gold Card and a Super Gold Card. I also have a QL hard disk I/F card in storage somewhere. I recently bought a QL-SD.

The "plan" is to mount one QL board in a nice case, and mount the Aurora in another a nice case, along with the SGC and hard disk I/F card.

But I have been busy with other things, so the Mplane backplanes have not made it into any kind of case. Worse, I have not yet found a case I like (I don't want a boring PC case). So sorry, no pictures of a QL backplane

Since I came up with this plan, things are looking brighter for new QL hardware... so I may need to rethink

Mark

*nods*

I suspect everyone who has a 1->3 backplane has three things plugged into it and won't want to swap cards all the time to trade functionality. That said, UltimIDE replaces the QubIDE perfectly, and UltraQ fits on UltimIDE...

...but still, it might be a hard sell.

Dave wrote:*nods*

I suspect everyone who has a 1->3 backplane has three things plugged into it and won't want to swap cards all the time to trade functionality. That said, UltimIDE replaces the QubIDE perfectly, and UltraQ fits on UltimIDE...

...but still, it might be a hard sell.

depends on price...

My own attempts at fitting a QL board in to a PC 'mini tower' are progressing slowly, the biggest bugbear is the length of the QL board, its a tight-fit without expansion. A 180 degree back-plane is essential.

Indeed.

I did a backplane design quite similar to the MPlane but with an extra connector on it, 1->4 instead of 1-3. It also has an ATX power connector and power control.

That might be the first thing I do when I get things going again in September. That said, the QL board wasn't designed to be back-fed power. Good job there are a bunch of Auroras in the world.