The Sinclair QL Forum

Hi

I have got what must be a relatively early Sinclair QL with an AH ROM. See attached photo. Its got the piggybacked ROM on left slot, then a wire attached to one of the pins.

Been a few ROM replacement boards on ebay lately with Minerva/Toolkit II etc. Description on the auction clearly says
"Note that some early QL’s had 2 ROM chips piggy-backed in the left ROM socket with extra wires going to other locations. If your QL looks like this inside – i.e. it doesn’t just have 2 normal chips and no extra wires - then it’s probably a good idea to investigate the modification further just to make sure that this adapter board can be used."

Is it possible to easily upgrade an AH ROM QL? Or better to keep what I have & just use uQLx for the emulator experience of something newer?

Ultimately I want some way of getting Minerva (or at least a newer OS) & toolkit II on my QL.

cheers
Daryn

That's my ebay listing you're referring to, and I put that because I haven't seen one like that and wasn't sure what was going on with them.

To remove your current setup I think you'd have to change some of those JU jumpers to the right of the right-hand chip and of course remove the 3x EPROMS and the wire. That motherboard has a 74LS00 chip (later ones didn't), which is required when using EPROMS but is not used when using the conventional Sinclair branded ROMs.

I should really know by now, but I suspect someone will be along to explain things much better.

It will certainly be possible to install a newer ROM version.

palmheads wrote:Hi

I have got what must be a relatively early Sinclair QL with an AH ROM. See attached photo. Its got the piggybacked ROM on left slot, then a wire attached to one of the pins.

Been a few ROM replacement boards on ebay lately with Minerva/Toolkit II etc. Description on the auction clearly says
"Note that some early QL’s had 2 ROM chips piggy-backed in the left ROM socket with extra wires going to other locations. If your QL looks like this inside – i.e. it doesn’t just have 2 normal chips and no extra wires - then it’s probably a good idea to investigate the modification further just to make sure that this adapter board can be used."

Is it possible to easily upgrade an AH ROM QL? Or better to keep what I have & just use uQLx for the emulator experience of something newer?

Ultimately I want some way of getting Minerva (or at least a newer OS) & toolkit II on my QL.

cheers
Daryn

I had the same QL AH version as you. I had to upgrade it to Minerva when I installed QL SD. If I remember correctly Marcel documented all changes in the QL-SD Manual.
There also is an old thread here on forum, when members helped me to upgrade my QL. I'll look for it andI'll put a link here.
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2554&p=24739#p24739
(sorry, the pictures are gone - I deleted my photobucket account)

There's a section in QL-SD manual which describes upgrading a system with AH EPROMs, don't know if this is of help. Also, the QL service manual section 4 has information about upgrading a machine with EPROMs - although I can't remember if that referred to early FB QLs or if still relevant to AH machines.
https://www.sinclairql.net/srv/qlsm4.html#s4 (Section 4 Firmware Upgrade)

Hey everyone!

Cheers for the replies. Looks like might be a way forward. Soldering is something I want to learn, so not at the point I can try this yet. But good to know it can be done & has been documented.

Thanks again!