Target for major new QL hardware

[Peter]

I’m just hoping for a decent expansion connector.

In 40 pin with 2.54 mm raster okay for you or still too small?

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

I made every effort the case does not need to be modded, and you talk of floppy disc instead of my wonderful SD card "microdrives"?

[Peter]

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 ?

Confirmed.

[Derek_Stewart]

Hi Peter,

Looks great, fitting nice into the QL Case.

I do not need floppy disc drives, SD Cards are much better.

Besides, there is no Floppy disk interface hardware, no floppy disc driver software and I doubt there is any one to write the driver software.

I use FLP images on an SD Card and use FDI to read the images, also use MDI for Microdrive images.

Also why not use the other excellent feature of the QL to use the QL Network, where a Floppy Disc drive can be attached via the QL NET as a device on the Q68 or Qzero.

Connection by Q68 Ethernet, Serial port using Sernet, can access floppy disk drives on a slave node.

[Peter]

Looks great, fitting nice into the QL Case.

Thanks. I'm espcially proud of the power switch in disguise of the Reset button. Not 100% sure about the mechanics yet, the USB connector next to the HDMI connector is still in question. I did not receive all components yet. Also, the design is based on measuring one single case, I don't know how large tolerances can be.

I do not need floppy disc drives, SD Cards are much better.

Well my anger about floppy was not serious ... it is retrocomputing after all. If someone connects a floppy to the Qzero, I will watch with technical interest.

If I had endless time, I'd design separate boards for standalone usage and QL case, and the latter one would even support the microdrives hardware-wise. This design is a compromise.

Besides, there is no Floppy disk interface hardware, no floppy disc driver software and I doubt there is any one to write the driver software.

I'm not sure about that, it appears like Dave has successfully connected a floppy to the Q68 with primitive driver patches.

[bwinkel67]

[quote="Peter"

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

I made every effort the case does not need to be modded, and you talk of floppy disc instead of my wonderful SD card "microdrives"? [/quote]

I was just responding to Dave's post. It had never occurred to me that one could have an internal drive (floppy or hard disk) on the expansion slot. Usually you had a card and then a ribbon cable attaching to the drive. I'm just thinking of what could have happened in the late 80's if someone had a creative solution to build a small-footprint drive that stuck out the left side.

[Peter]

I was just responding to Dave's post. It had never occurred to me that one could have an internal drive (floppy or hard disk) on the expansion slot.

Thanks for mentioning the expansion slot again! I start to understand that Dave does not want to mod the case.

The only issue here is that SER and joystick for the british QL would also need the expansion slot to be mounted nicely without modding the case. (My plan was to simply support ribbon cables with D-Sub.) We'd probably need an extra board with the BT style connectors. Which I tried to avoid as they are hard to get and I don't have any british stuff to test.

[Dave]

No, I don't want people hacking up their cases.

There is room for a D-SUB connector in the microdrive expansion bay.

[Peter]

There is room for a D-SUB connector in the microdrive expansion bay.

In my current design, the Qzero module sits too far to the right on the baseboard PCB. But even if there was sufficient PCB space, I don't see how a D-Sub should be possible. The PCB is held by the 7 mm bolt during insertion, it can not be moved sidewards in order to push a D-Sub through that case opening. (In the picture, the D-Sub was just attached from the outside for demo. If it was soldered in that position, the PCB could not be inserted into the QL case.)

[Dave]

Ah, I see. That's a panel mount D-SUB which has a large backplate. The one I imagined using is a 90 degree board mount unit with no backplate. I do see how that's really best suited for a joystick though, and not a serial connection.

[Peter]

Still I have no idea how that could work. Unless you don't support the 7 mm bolt, which would bring other issues.