Upgrade to QFLP does not work

[schombi]

I got hold of a Sinclair labelled MicroP interface along with the floppy drive - both in mint condition! There was no PSU with the DIN plugs, but since I don´t use a second drive, I simply connected a 5V/12V PC style PSU internally, which was also suggested in the WoS, where a user wanted to use the drive on his Betadisk.

I set the DIP switches to their default settings (OFF/OFF/OFF/ON) and it boots, showing version 5.3E. Formatting a disc, saving and loading a program using FDK1_ works great. However, I tried to burn a QFLP ROM. I used an ST M27C256B and also an ST M27128AFI EPROM to burn the ROM file. My cheap, Chinese EPROMMER G540 reported no errors and also reading back the content seemed to be okay. I installed the EPROM in place of the original ROM (with the correct orientation), but when booting the QL, it just boots like a standard QL, no ROM message and of course dir FLP1_ does not work then. At least the interface comes back to life, when I re-install the original ROM, so no damage on the hardware. Any idea what could be wrong?

[dex]

I got hold of a Sinclair labelled MicroP interface along with the floppy drive - both in mint condition! There was no PSU with the DIN plugs

Last time were on german eBay:
http://www.ebay.de/itm/Sinclair-QL-Flop ... 51bcd6584f

I tried to burn a QFLP ROM. I used an ST M27C256B and also an ST M27128AFI EPROM

Where You et the ROM image?
Why two different EPROM sizes?

[schombi]

Thanks for your reply. I know this auction, but I had massive trouble with this particular seller earlier - in fact the negative feedback he received was by me. However, the PSU is not the problem. In standard MicroP mode the unit works perfectly.

I tried to use QFLP_for_MicroP Disc_v1.24_1984.ROM, which is 8 KB in size. I was told that either size of the used EPROM would work.

[1024MAK]

Can you post a picture (or link to one) of the original ROM chip please.

Mark

[dex]

27128 should be enough.
Maybe this will help? https://www.mail-archive.com/ql-users@l ... 04823.html

[Paul]

Did you burn this 8K once or multiple times?
27512 is 64K, 27256 is 32K, 27128 is 16K.
I would advise to fill the ROM completely with this image multiple times. So any upper Adress line would be don't care instead of the need to pull them up or down.
Kind regards
Paul

[schombi]

Here´s a photo:

and the link:
http://schombi.de/onewebstatic/1657f185d2-uP.jpg

If I understood the mailing chain correctly, it could be also a mystery that never got resolved?

@Paul: The question is, how to achieve this. My crappy software in strange translation offers "Fill mode in blank area":
- with 00H
- with FFH
- user specified
- none care

[Derek_Stewart]

Some of the early QL Interfaces required a command to initialise, like FLP_EXT

If you have Toolkit 2 loaded, try the EXTRAS command to see if there is a Floppy Disk command to initialise the ROM.

[1024MAK]

If the file is exactly the right size (eg 8K bytes in length) then in Unix/Linux

Code: Select all

cat file file > newfile

will concat the file to double.

On Windows CMD shell

Code: Select all

copy /b file+file newfile

Mark

[schombi]

Strange, I followed Mark´s advice and doubled the file size using the copy /b command. Then I burnt the 16 KB file onto a 27128 EPROM. After installing the chip the first power on looked promising. I could see the ROM message on the screen, but then the QL resetted and instead of the message only green rubbish characters were shown. I unplugged and replugged power a few times, but each time, the QL seemed to behave in a different way. Sometimes the proper ROM messages was shown, but nothing happended, sometimes I could press F1/F2, but then both microdrives went nuts. I re-installed the original ROM and the interface works as expected.