Breaking news: The QIMSI Interface

[Pr0f]

Please be aware that you need PS2 mouse + Keyboard. Note that USB will not work, als I tested some USB mouses from the "working" list, but they don't.

...
And before the question even comes up: I will definitely not write or port a full Windows/Linux-like USB stack for QDOS.

Peter, I fully understand that - it's a huge piece of work to do that!

I did wonder if a more limited form of USB support could be possible for the QL - but it's resource hungry, and the QL doesn't like devices coming and going - so plug and pray may be out of the window too !

[varmfskii]

I'm having issues with the win images.

By the third (small) file that I try to add to a drive image. I get a drive full error. I have tried 8, 15, 16, 31, and 32 Meg images and it is always the same. The images are created with qxltool.

My system has vMap installed. I get the same results with or without my Super Gold Card and with or without vDrive.

[Derek_Stewart]

I'm having issues with the win images.

By the third (small) file that I try to add to a drive image. I get a drive full error. I have tried 8, 15, 16, 31, and 32 Meg images and it is always the same. The images are created with qxltool.

My system has vMap installed. I get the same results with or without my Super Gold Card and with or without vDrive.

Hi,

The SD Card must be fragmented, and the first 16 entries in the FAT32 parition maybe full. This maybe due to deleting the files on the partition.

Thd only way to correct this is to copy all the files off the SD Card onto a PC, and reformat the SD Card as detailed in the manual. Then copy SMSQ/E file first, then all the QLWA files.

[varmfskii]

I'm having issues with the win images.

By the third (small) file that I try to add to a drive image. I get a drive full error. I have tried 8, 15, 16, 31, and 32 Meg images and it is always the same. The images are created with qxltool.

My system has vMap installed. I get the same results with or without my Super Gold Card and with or without vDrive.

Hi,

The SD Card must be fragmented, and the first 16 entries in the FAT32 parition maybe full. This maybe due to deleting the files on the partition.

Thd only way to correct this is to copy all the files off the SD Card onto a PC, and reformat the SD Card as detailed in the manual. Then copy SMSQ/E file first, then all the QLWA files.

The SD card started out as blank and freshly formatted.

I prepared the card by formatting it, then putting the WIN files on the card as indicated in the manual. What SMSQ/E file? None is mentioned in preparing the card.

Ok, it looks like the problem is that the qxltool was creating malformed files. If I take a file from my Q68, everything seems to work.

[Maskenlos]

Hi varmfskii,

I was just on the way to propose to use QLWA.WIN files from QIMSI section of the homepage of Dilwyn. We put all required files there.

SMSQ/E file is only required for QIMSI Gold not for Standard QIMSI. So this is not relevant for you.

Happy to hear that everything is working well now.

Best regards,

Stephan

[Derek_Stewart]

Sorry, I was getting QIMSI and QIMSI Gold mixed up.

I use the same QLWA file on Q68, copied to the QIMSI all works great.

Not got any QIMSI Gold yet.

[Peter]

I did wonder if a more limited form of USB support could be possible for the QL

Using the USB "Boot Protocol" with a hardware state machine like I did, is just that.
It appears that the majority of USB cable mice support this solution. No luck with wireless and some fancy gamer mice though.

- but it's resource hungry, and the QL doesn't like devices coming and going - so plug and pray may be out of the window too !

Plug & play does work. The hardware just shows zero movement/clicks to the QL side mouse registers while nothing is attached.
I have kept the registers PS/2 compatible, so the same QL mouse driver as normal QIMSI or QIMSI Gold could be used.

The bigger problem is keyboard, as it requires more QL side software work than mouse. In the end, the resulting USB driver would be not more complex than the PS/2 keyboard driver, given the hardware support. The driver is just not there, and the motivation to write it is not very high. Everything works well, people have their PS/2 stuff, so introducing an incompatibility to the existing hardware might cause more harm than good.

But in general, if PS/2 was not already established, using the USB "Boot Protocol" supported by a hardware statemachine and a native driver is something I find acceptable. Looks more "QL style" to me than using an external ARM CPU, 100 times faster than the QL, to handle simple peripherals.

[Will James]

Hi - where can I obtain one of these QIMSI Gold things from? I've searched everywhere...

[dilwyn]

"searched everywhere" - obviously didn't look very hard on this forum!

(PM Maskenslos)