The Sinclair QL Forum

Amazing!

Thank you Peter. Do keep us informed of progress with this.

Looks good, I have a spare QL case that has been unused for far too long

BTW I just did a quick scale of image and aligned it with bare issue 6 PCB. Is the MDV extension cover insertion OK against P17 ?

Silvester wrote:Looks good, I have a spare QL case that has been unused for far too long

Thanks. Unfortunately, I don't... still looking for an empty QL case.

Silvester wrote:BTW I just did a quick scale of image and aligned it with bare issue 6 PCB. Is the MDV extension cover insertion OK against P17 ?

Well spotted. Yes it should be okay, I placed the board edge a little more to the left than the original for that reason.
Unfortunately the space consumption of the matrix keybiard converter did not allow me to place the Qzero (which sits on P17) more to the left. And board width 100 mm was my personal upper limit for standalone use. Would have been cool to actually use that extension slot for something.

This is how the prototyping PCB for my new QL mainboard looks: Before some get too optimistic: It won't support the microdrives, which will be replaced by SD card "drives". However, the original microdrive LEDs and the corresponding internal connector will be supported, to preserve as much as of the look & feel as possible.

Peter wrote:This is how the prototyping PCB for my new QL mainboard looks:

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Before some get too optimistic: It won't support the microdrives, which will be replaced by SD card "drives". However, the original microdrive LEDs and the corresponding internal connector will be supported, to preserve as much as of the look & feel as possible.

Looks great! ... very compact.

I think it's going to be a very significant development for the QL. It will certainly be "life insurance" for our QLs for many years to come.

By the way, how is the QL keyboard connected? (I don't distinguish the QL's membrane keyboard connectors).

afx wrote:By the way, how is the QL keyboard connected? (I don't distinguish the QL's membrane keyboard connectors).

P4 and P18 allow direct connection. The keyboard cables can be angled to the right and are then just long enough. I would recommend a replacement membrane, because it is more robust.

Ideally, the board should be one inch wider to make handling the keyboard cables easier. But I set myself the 10 cm board size limit for standalone use, and according to my measurements it should be okay. When the boards and components arrive, I will test in practice.

I'm curious how the hybrid approach of using a QL baseboard plus the Qzero as CPU module will work out. On one hand it means extra costs and work. Two boards are always more expensive than one, and more connectors are required. On the other hand it adds flexibility. Like going without Qzero and attaching a Q68 inside the QL case. Or others designing baseboards in different form factors.

Peter wrote:I'm curious how the hybrid approach of using a QL baseboard plus the Qzero as CPU module will work out. On one hand it means extra costs and work. Two boards are always more expensive than one, and more connectors are required. On the other hand it adds flexibility. Like going without Qzero and attaching a Q68 inside the QL case. Or others designing baseboards in different form factors.

That hybrid approach of using the CPU in a separate module is very interesting and clever. In addition to taking advantage of the development of Q68/QZero, could it open the door to other modules such as the Pi Zero? (of course as long as there are people who can develop the software).

I’m just hoping for a decent expansion connector. A low profile 3.5” drive would fit perfectly in the expansion bay.

Oh wow, we could finally have a QL with a built-in disk drive.