QLion Gold Card

[lliont]

Thanks, one thing at a time, I don't have immediate plans to make any changes to the card for another use. Maybe later I could adapt the card to use the QLbase as a stand alone solution.

About the ESP as an add-on, I think and tell me if I am wrong that it could be a way to connect to the internet or to another QL, I don't know how it could be made to work as a NET interface, you Martyn are the expert in this field. I only can tell you that the serial port can be configured to higher than 115200 speeds, with 115200 tested, and it has a 1K+1K hardware buffer that I can increase.

[lliont]

I have good and bad news to report.

The bad news is that after the aurora modes and speed improvements QLion is no longer compatible with microdrives.
I had no working cartridges to test with but when I borrowed a vdrive I found out.
I'll try to patch Minerva to make them work but I'm not sure I'll succed.

The good news is that now the card is 5.8 bogomips and tindex at qdos 512x256 is 26 and 21 at 1024x768 4 colour aurora mode in smsqe.

[Peter]

The good news is that now the card is 5.8 bogomips and tindex at qdos 512x256 is 26 and 21 at 1024x768 4 colour aurora mode in smsqe.

This is technically interesting, as I get QTop-Index 24 and 23 here for Q68/Qzero/QIMSI in those modes. I.e. the QLion card is slightly faster with small screen memory, while Q68/Qzero/QIMSI are slightly faster with larger screen memory. What is the explanation?

My theory would be that SDRAM wins screen refresh (where it can burst), whereas SRAM wins CPU random access.

[martyn_hill]

Hi Leon!

I have good and bad news to report.

The bad news is that after the aurora modes and speed improvements QLion is no longer compatible with microdrives.

I may be able to give you a head-start there, as I had to rewrite some of the core MDV primitives (taken from Minerva) when I developed the proof of concept MDV interface for the Q68.

The timing is not so very tight on MDV access - just a few places in the code path that need consideration. Did you say that you included a high-res HW timer/counter in the QLion?

PM me if you need help here

[lliont]

I patched Minerva and read works with a vdrive without the need of the slow command, now I need to fix write.
I also managed to read an old microdrive.

edited: Ok now also write seems to work.

[lliont]

Added the option of an ESP-12E/F to be soldered on (under) the pcb. It connects to the fast uart at 115200bps by default.
Of course an ESP8266 WiFi Module can also be connected externally so I included this just for convenience (at least my convinience ).

[dilwyn]

I marvel at some of the things you've achieved with these cards! Congratulations.

[lliont]

I made the card more ZXSpectrum Next compatible (sprites, video modes, esp, ay sound) although QLion Gold has more capabilities (4MB, more video resolutions, runs smsqe in aurora compatibility mode).
I wrote a user guide and have built and sent 5 cards to "test" users so far.

[ql_freak]

 
Will you sell this card?

If yes, I would be interested.

[lliont]

Thank you for the interest in my card.
I will build more cards but still I don't do it for economic profit just want to share what I have done and be able to continue.
So the wait time is going to be long because I build them by hand when I find time and have the components and the courage to start.
I already have promised to people the next 2 cards I'll built after I'll return from vacations.
I'll contact the ones that showed interest (some used pm) and have the patience to wait when I have more cards ready.