The Sinclair QL Forum

vanpeebles wrote:Looks really good, I thought it was a proper QL drive unit!

Thanks for this reply

No it is not an original one , i sold all my ql stuff at the time i went over to using my first laser-pc , so end '80

And , G.. , i regretted that somewere end '90

i had 5 ql's networked around the house , floppy unit, modem ,internal diy ram upgrades eprom modules etc,etc
But the price of ql's went down so rapidly that selling it in those days seemed the only way to get some of the investment back .


Nowadays ofcourse they become hard to get .

well , with the children getting to the age they take care of their own ......................men starts climbing the ladder to the attick and find sweet memories of the past ( Ti 59 , zx81 , spectrum , ql , mattel aquarius mkI and mkII , sharp 1500 and more ..... )

And now it becomes the challenge to get all working back again .

luckily i have several spare units so i can assemble one working unit .

Sadly my spectrum 48 is beyond repair , and very hard to get in belgium .









techy

What is wrong with your 48K speccy? RWAP might have some spares

Sadly , the spectrum is only usable as a liitle tabletop heater .

So something must be really wrong inside.

no display, nothing only the smell of overheating electronics.

And since there is not much inside the only thing i can do is take out the memory , and see if it is overheating after that.

Most likly the ula has died out.


But i don't want to spent a fortune on it .

hopefully a friendly forum member in belgium or holland is willing to help me out.




techy

The fault with the Speccy could be a internal power circuit fault. The circuitry in the Spectrum 16k and 48k versions need +5V, -5V and +12V supplies. A 7805 voltage regulator generates the +5V. A two transistor inverter circuit generates the -5V and the +12V supplies. The loss of the +12V supply is a common fault, and it can result in no display. Alas, sometimes one of the lower 16k DRAM chips takes out this supply, but also the loss of the -5V and +12V supplies can cause some of the lower 16k DRAM chips to fail. So do not leave it on for more than 1 minute in its current state. All of this can be repaired

The World of Spectrum forum members are the best people to help.
Also visit http://hardware.speccy.org/reparar-i.html and http://www.dataserve-retro.co.uk/index.html as these give some useful information.

Mark

Hello,

I also want to add one of my old PC floppy drives to the QL using a Sandy Disk Controller.
Ok - first I will have to think about the correct cable from FPL to the controller and find a power supply.
So I will read the previous threads and browse the forum - I'm a newbie but have a soldering gun and finding the required parts (cables, connectors) should be no problem.
So if you could give me any basic hints that would be perfect!

But my actual question is: Has anybody a manual or similar for the Sandy interfaces?
I found - of course - the one Quill/doc/zip version on Dilwyn's site but is it also available as MSDos/Windows file?

Thanks!
Andi

Andi ,


pm sent .


You need a proper 5 volt supply ( maybe a Ebay one 5 V 1 A about € 4,- ) to power 1 3,5 " drive .

---only old 3.5" need 12 V and 5 V

Then a pc floppy cable with all connectors .

Modify the pc cable for use with only 1 drive ( so straight cable ) and then only swap lead 10 and 12 to identify drive 1 and 2 .

That should do it .

Please verify pin number 1 otherwise risk of damage , easy visible as in that case , the led on the drive will be always ON .







techy

Techy,

thanks for the helpful information.
I prepared a cable but I'm not sure if the pinout is correct.
Pin 1 is on the right top corner of the interface's connector acc. Sandy Manual and I hope it is then on the left side of the floppy connector. Lead 10 and 12 are swapped:


Does this look correct or is anything mixed up?
(I'll make some more step-by-step images and will upload them here as an instruction after a successfull connection.)

andi ,


pin 1 is most likely marked with a slight visible V ( so a little arrow V ) on the sandy connector .

all pin 1's must be the same .

only pin 10 and 12 need to be swapped to identify either floppy drive 1 or 2 ( first is straight cable other is swopped ), it was also one of my questions and the answer is also in the thread.

on my qdisk interface , the whole connector needs to be installed up[side down so that is a different story.




techy

Andi B. wrote:Hello,
But my actual question is: Has anybody a manual or similar for the Sandy interfaces?
I found - of course - the one Quill/doc/zip version on Dilwyn's site but is it also available as MSDos/Windows file?

Thanks!
Andi

Hi Andi,

PDF of the Sandy manual attached. I had to zip it, the Forum does not allow .doc or .pdf files to be attached to a message.

Dilwyn

Thank you both for the manual!

In lack of a power supply I plugged the floppy to my running PC disk drive power.
Then I connected my cable and started the QL to test it.

BUT

I have so many things laying around in my room: moonwalker's autograph, a bison skull, smartphone... but not one single 3,5 inch disk to test the drive!!!!
(all discarded because I don't have a floppy drive on the PC anymore...)

But at least when typing "dir flp1_" the LED goes on for a second...

Maybe I can grab a few disks tomorrow...


Update: I found a disk and could format it (1440 sectors).
It's possible to load and save files !