The humongous Sandy Electronics thread...

[dex]

I do think that development of new drivers is the one area where the QL community is lacking the knowledge and expertise.

Adrian Ives surely is experienced with drivers, but last time I have read post from him, he was sent to hell with his general mass storage driver.

a) An ethernet driver for communicating with an ethernet device - although the question here is where will the TCP/IP stack reside, or could that be provided on the device itself (one solution may be to look at how the Spectranet has implemented TCP/IP and DCHP for the ZX Spectrum).

Although we have real TCP/IP stack for ZX Spectrum, nobody uses it. http://www.ipsec.info/w/software.php
Both ethernet/wifi solutions (Spectranet with WizNet chip, SIF with ConnectOne ethernet / wifi module) have their own TCP/IP stack built-in, and the humbly 8bit is not bothered with these technical low-level details as TCP/IP or ARP.
(That is, why my try to connect QL to internet was so simple: just having an iWiFi ConnectOne module connected to the serial port, I talk to him using modem-like AT commands and get a web page content as an answer.)

[prime]

That said, USB is much harder.

There's always the FTDI Vinculum range of chips for implementing things like USB storage details here : http://www.ftdichip.com/FTProducts.htm The DataCentre addon for the BBC Micro uses the first version of this chip to add USB storage to the BBC, including emulated disk image support.

Should be possible to use it to creata a keyboard / mouse interface.

There is also a pretty decent USB stack for the USB enabled AVR micro controllers called LUFA that is able to work in OTG mode which should be enough for a mouse or keyboard interface.

Cheers.

Phill.

[Dave]

I have some experience with the FTDI USB chips, used with microcontrollers. It's Vinculum II now, and they are spiffy, so it is the family we're looking at. The hardware design is informed a little by the driver, so the person who did it would need to tell us their requirements first.

To show how confident I am, I already have 250 PCB mount USB connectors

[Dave]

Some battery adapters have shipped today. I hope to get current with all orders tomorrow or Friday

I did a scary thing and placed a VERY large order for DIN connectors (the QL expansion port connectors). These are quite expensive and less common nowadays. I managed to secure 100 for a little more than half the going rate - it all works towards keeping the price of finished products down. What it does mean is that the 'QL Fund' is very low right now. Hopefully when the QUANTA mag comes out I'll get some sales to replenish the fund a little.

I am also going through the recent haul seeing what I have that can be sold and easily shipped (most is too bulky) that can go to good homes.

The SuperRAM PCB is about half done.

[1024MAK]

Don't worry Dave.

It's now time for me to put an order in on your site

BTW, if you have enough of those DIN "edge"-connectors, I'm after one.

Somewhat off-topic: Funny that during the night, I have just been swapping (changing) industrial 68000 CPU system cards due to life expired Ni-Cad 3.6V batteries. Did hit a snag, the headers that select the baud rate that feeds the backplane on the spare cards (which I have fitted the new Ni-MH batteries to) had the same label (these are the type of DIL header with a neat cover that was glued on, so I could not see the internal wiring), so did not swap the first one. Had me puzzled for a few minutes as the replacement card appeared to work, but all the communication cards showed link failures
Then the brain caught up, fitted the header from the old card and off it went

I'm just off to bed, so will "go shopping" later

Mark

[Dave]

I am having a difficult time ordering from a supplier that has an expensive part at an unbeatable price. They accept orders from almost every sub-Saharan country, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and some place called "Wallace and Fortuna", by CC/debit and PayPal.

However, Americans can't even register on their site, and if they contact the export department, they can ONLY pay by bank transfer. My bank doesn't do IBT any more - most banks don't. Western Union charges >100% fees for EU IBT.

If anyone can think of an imaginative solution to this problem, that doesn't involve an inside EU VAT-bearing transaction, I'd love to hear it.

The company is reichelt.de and the product is FL-Q 64W. The price for 100 is 2.10€ each, plus shipping of €45 to the US.

Alternative suppliers charge 3x-4x this price.

Help! I need these parts.

[Edit - moved post from separate thread to here.]

[tofro]

Dave,

if you want to evade European (German) VAT, there's not mach else you can do than finding someone with a professional trade in an E.U. country other than Germany ("Wallis and Futuna" will do, that's French ) who would be willing to forward to you (and thus illegally evading tax in his own country).

European Tax Regulations say inner-European trade (between professional traders) has to pay VAT in the destination country. I wouldn't necessarily try Italy, they are known to be very nosy about such business.....

Tobias

[RWAP]

if you want to evade European (German) VAT, there's not mach else you can do than finding someone with a professional trade in an E.U. country other than Germany ("Wallis and Futuna" will do, that's French ) who would be willing to forward to you (and thus illegally evading tax in his own country).

European Tax Regulations say inner-European trade (between professional traders) has to pay VAT in the destination country. I wouldn't necessarily try Italy, they are known to be very nosy about such business.....

I don't think it is necessarily that difficult - if someone who is VAT registered purchases the parts from within the EU - the VAT they pay could still be used as input VAT (presumably) and offset against their output VAT (what they have collected from their customers). If they then sell to USA at cost price (excluding VAT), there Dave still gets them at the original price.

I can't do this as I am not VAT registered - Tony F is still VAT registered I believe.

[tofro]

You're right Rich, that would work (asked my wife who is more fluent in stuff like that and she says that works). The trade must cross borders, though, and VAT registration is a must, she says (otherwise the first receiver would be charged for VAT and had to reclaim, which can be tricky, especially for small traders).

Tobias

[Dave]

Tony Firshman is retired from the commercial QL scene; a state he has made quite clear to me

I will try to find a UK or similar person who is VAT registered who might be able to help me. Unless there's a volunteer in the audience!