The Sinclair QL Forum

XorA wrote:Its possible Im just a weird person running out of deskspace who cant type on old 80s keyboard!

I can't type on it as well. At least not much.

Designing for the the QL case and keyboard was so much more work than for a normal case. What a pain if most end up using it ouside...

Postby Peter » Mon Feb 14, 2022 3:37 pm
Meanwhile, I have heard from several QL Users that empty QL cases have become very rare! There seem to be more working mainboards than QL cases, which is the complete opposite of my assumption. I fear the whole "mainboard replacement" approach is wrong, I always had a bad feeling about it... I can not even get an empty case for myself.

Unfortunately, I have almost finished the prototyping design already, this feels very demotivating...

I have tried to envisage your design and I see it in a positive light. I would not have a problem designing a
"QL" type case to house your carrier board, especially at 10 x 6.5 cm. I have already designed and made two keyboard
cases for the Q68. This was harder than expected because access has to be provided for the front and back of the Q68.

It should be much easier to house a carrier board that only has components on one edge and has provision for separate SD card readers.

I bought a 3D printer with a 40 x 40 cm print area to make my Q68 keyboard cases. The smaller case has an area of
30 x 12 cm to accommodate components.

Tinyfpga wrote:I have tried to envisage your design and I see it in a positive light. I would not have a problem designing a "QL" type case to house your carrier board, especially at 10 x 6.5 cm.

I appreatiate that, thanks. But still... for your purpose this is about 30% to 40% of board space wasted, 80% of design time wasted, inefficient use of the back side.
As for alternative cases: I believe it when it is actually available (and I don't mean I have to print it myself). In the past, there were at least two projects for Q68 cases. If I had not designed the Q68 metal case myself, nothing would be there.

I wonder where the former majority is, that voted for QL mainboard replacement. Up to now, I know only person who actually wants to build this into a QL case.

I 3D printed a case for my Q68. That was when I was playing around with the idea of a floppy interface on the extension bus. Unfortunately, SLA resins weren't as evolved then as they are now. It was brittle, and eventually shattered. Fortunately, the resins have improved greatly in the last 2-3 years and are now quite ABS-like.

Let me revisit it.

Meanwhile, I have ~100 CP2200 here on the desk in front of me and I really need to reassemble that ethernet project in my head and release the files.

Dave wrote:Meanwhile, I have ~100 CP2200 here on the desk in front of me and I really need to reassemble that ethernet project in my head and release the files.

Good to hear that you are still working on that project. Please keep us updated.

Even beyond a QL ethernet expansion, it is very helpful if a QLer keeps a batch of CP2200 chips now that Martin and Wolfgang wrote good drivers.
Someday I hope I will design something more comprehensive than the Qzero baseboard we talk about now. A Q60 successor or whatever would surely have a CP2200.

And: My current baseboard leaves the complete 40 pin "Raspberry-style" header of the Qzero untouched... plenty of signals to attach a CP2200 board. I just did yet not define on which pins the bus should be.

Peter » Tue Feb 15, 2022 4:39 pm:- As for alternative cases: I believe it when it is actually available (and I don't mean I have to print it myself.

I have just searched ebay.uk for QLs and seen that asking prices are high. Even the one described as,"for parts", was £150. I then looked at the case design and have decided that I will design and print a case that will look a bit like a QL, but house a compact Cherry keyboard.

If I succeed I will print 3 of them to give to anyone that wants one. The case will need a
top and a bottom and I will use screws to assemble the various components. Top, bottom, keyboard, SD card readers.
I have just one question:- Is the SD card board an off-the shelf component or one that you will design?

Tinyfpga wrote:I have just one question:- Is the SD card board an off-the shelf component or one that you will design?

It could be the existing QL-SD board, but more likely I will do a little redesign for more primitive soldering and to add mounting holes for existing SD slot extension cables that can also plug into a Q68. In both cases I'd provide Schematics and Gerbers for free.

Hi

I was going to make some QL-SD interfaces, by copying the one I have with a dual card reader, but never got sround to building it.

Derek_Stewart wrote:I was going to make some QL-SD interfaces, by copying the one I have with a dual card reader, but never got sround to building it.

You mean two SD card sockets in one microdrive slot, or a wider PCB covering both microdrives slots?
For the new baseboard I'm working on, it makes more sense to use both microdrive slots, as it suppots the QL internal drive LEDs.

My new mainboard replacement for the original QL case ... just prototyping at the moment ...