The Sinclair QL Forum

Hi, now that I have a QL, I will be exploring it now but using just the stock Microdrives.

But.... in short time my guess getting a device for easier use of applications and saving data will be some form of SD/CF Card device.

My eye so far drifts me to a vDrive and have one of the neat side external QL cases printed for it.

Anyone here using one of these and how has it done for you?

If not and using something else... what are you using and why did you feel it was a better way to go.

I am looking for the easiest more novice route for better data handling for the QL and only use the Microdrives when I have to.

TJ

vDriveQLs work well.

To extract the data from real Microdrive carts you will really need at least a floppy drive and plenty of disks and a PC or Mac floppy drive to extract the MDV images and put them onto a SD card for the vDriveQL to use.

Ti extract my MDV images I used mdump 2.0.1 from the preservation project and saved the files on virtual floppies on a Gotek running Flashfloppy. Once I had done that I could use SMSQmulator to mount the floppy images and copy the MDV image files onto the native filesystem. Once I'd done that I could just put them on an SD card, slot it into the vDriveQL and access them by loading them into the virtual Microdrives using the BASIC extensions provided (inbuilt into the vDriveQL).

vDriveQL: emulates 1 to 8 microdrive units. Each unit is assigned to a microdrive image file on the SD card - so drive space is limited to microdrive's capacity (about 110k). Reading and writing to it is slow, at original microdrive speed.
On the plus side it is easy to move it from one QL to another, if you have several - and it is the best device for playing QL games and old mdv programs as it offers maximum compatibility
On the minus side - due to the small capacity of the microdrives many newer programs will not fit on one image, and no way to use it for running SMSQ/E
Also no level 2 directories

SD-QL emulates 1 to 8 hard drives (win1_ always on SD card 1 and Win2_ always on SD card 2) - so size of a drive is much larger - up to 256 Mb, depending on how much memory your QL has. 32Mb for an unexpanded QL is ok, and 256Mb for Ql + Gold Card works ok, but access to a larger drive is slower than to a smaller drive (but still much faster than microdrive speed).
If you will use QL-SD you should use the version that comes with Minerva 1.98 ROM and the QL-SD driver, otherwise you will need to load the driver from a floppy or a microdrive.
Also QL-SD is mounted in a microdrive slot - so you will loose a microdrive unit (not a great loss).
Unexpanded Qls can work only with the driver in ROM.
It can use level 2 directories.

Tetroid's Trump card clone with QUIBIDE interface and DiskOnModule - it adds 512k ram and storage to the QL (but not speed). Cheap solution that adds both RAM and fast storage. You can define several hard drives on the DOM card. Has level 2 directories. On the minus side it is a pain in the back to connect the DOM card to the PC to transfer files

Tetroid Trump Card 768k + CompactFlash Card - Same as QUIBIDE+DOM but adds more RAM and a dual DD floppy interface . It is easy to connect the CF card to the PC to transfer files

I have the first 3 on this list and each has it's advantages. I mainly use vDrive QL to run old games and to transfer files between the QLs. For transfering files also the QLAN seems very interesting https://github.com/dandelion-labs/QLAN
I bought the parts and I will build one when I have some spare time

vDrive: A 100% replacement of the microdrives, both in terms of capacity and speed - Great if you want to play games or generally run software from the early days of the QL. Works great with unexpanded QLs. Gives you 100k of capacity per image/emulated drive. On the other hand, some later software, like bigger PE programs will simply not fit.
Any floppy disk interface plus a GoTek drive and HxC or (preferrably) FlashFloppy software: Replaces floppy disk equipment we used to have in the 90es, also both in terms of capacity and speed. If you use a Gols or SuperGold card and ED images, you can come close to a "hard disk experience". Can run more demanding software, some older games will not run.
All other solutions (QL-SD, QubIDE, Tetroid's extended TrumpCard) are used more the way hard disks are used. While the above are typically used with specific BOOT files for specific program disks/images, the storage solutions with greater capacity typically need a bit more work to get all sorts of programs going. On the other hand, such a QL feels more like the professional solution and shows the full potential (and, sometimes, limitations) of QDOS/SMSQe

I have all of them on various QLs for all of the above reasons

I should also note... I believe in the end I will want my QL to be running a mouse driven GUI at some point or SMSQ/e, so think a Super Goldcard will be in my future.

To boot direct into SMSQ/e form a QL with a Super Goldcard clone, is one of these device discussed above the recommended?

TJ

SinclairSociety wrote:I
To boot direct into SMSQ/e form a QL with a Super Goldcard clone, is one of these device discussed above the recommended?

TJ

The SMSQ/E binary for GoldCards is roughly 240k in size - that is, any medium to hold it must be at least this size. This obviously excludes the vDrive. SMSQ/E runs fine from floppy disk, if you can stand the loading times (not much, anyhow), so, technically, you can boot it from anything, starting from a floppy disk-based system.

The fun with SMSQ/E starts with the systems above that I marked as hard-disk-like. Traditionally, an SMSQ/E system on a QL consisted of QubIDE plus a GoldCard. The modern versions of QUbIDE, however, lack a through connector, which makes it physically impossible to use both QubIDE plus GC at the same time - same (and other reasons why it doesn't work with SMSQ/E) apply to the Trump Card clones. You might be able to use a backplane system, but that opens up a whole series of other adventures.

So, your only option is to use QL-SD or a much slower floppy/GoTek based system.

Tobias

I used a modern QubIDE with a dom, and QL-SD