The Sinclair QL Forum

Hi All,

Firstly it’s great to still see the interest on here that I had in computers in the 80’s.

I have a one owner (me) from new SinclairQL and printer which I would like to sell to a SinclairQL enthusiast.

A little bit of history first and apologies to you Sinclair people for the next bit …

I was in my early 20’s, busy with a new job, part of which meant (as a Production Engineer) I used a TRS-80 computer and subsequently learnt Basic programming on it.

The Tandy was industrial capable with the 5.25” floppy twin drives and I used it to perform various job associated tasks.

These computers were very interesting and useful, thought I.

End of apologies …

As a single guy with a few bob in his pocket and who watched the occasional Tomorrow’s World program (probably because of Judith Hann rather than the technical content) I became drawn into the Sinclair world.

I had never been interested in computers for gaming other than the occasional game of Space Invaders in pubs, but then saw Sir Clive as potentially the equivalent of what some might see Elon Musk nowadays.

I was (and still am pro UK manufacturing) and saw Sir Clive as a saviour and potentially the next Prime Minister of UK plc.

With the above in mind I ventured to Dixons and spent a King’s Ransom on a Sinclair QL and a Serial 8056 Compact Printer to help me with my P/T degree course.

It later turned out that my time on the QL would be limited due to life’s other distractions and also being able to use the work computer and printer.

Therefore the QL and printer were boxed up and put away in storage and have remained so since approximately 1988 when I bought my first house.

We have been at our current property since 1997 where they have remained in the loft until recently in their respective boxes.

Now at an age where I need to downsize I have decided to QL needs to go to new pastures and ideally used again.

I would like the QL to go to a new owner with a genuine interest in the product and it is the reason why I am on this forum and not advertising elsewhere.

I took some photos of the unboxing and if able I will post some photos below.

Can only add a few on here maybe file size too big ?

I carefully removed everything from there respective boxes and powered them up.

There is a light on the QL and the self feed mechanism on the printer works.
(The printer uses thermal paper by the way).

I dare not try the micro drives as I suspect from what I have read on here and elsewhere there might be an issue with them.

I’m not sure how it works on this forum as a newbie but ask that people please contact me via the forum initially.

Again, apologies in advance if, due to other commitments I don’t reply straight away.

Thanks for taking the time to read,
Steff

So a bit off topic, and not directed at Steff, but was the idea for Tandata's Q-Connect to fix the QL's serial port shortcomings? I find that whole stack a bit odd having three modules to basically give the QL a modem connection. I used a plain old modem back in the late 80s and eventually bought a Hermes chip to get higher baud rates. And what exactly does Q-Call do? Don't Hayes modems have auto-answer as part of their command set?

The Tandata stack split the three main functions of a "normal" telephone modem into three boxes sold separately:

Q-Con basically implemented split-baud rate support (basically, sending and receiving at different baud rates. Those were typically needed by modem connections with viewdata services, like 1200/75 for Prestel, for example, but couldn't be done by the QL. Q-Con could be used stand-alone if you just wanted to establish a direct RS-232 connection to a mainframe or mini, typically used in conjunction with the included vt100 terminal emulation software. You could use Q-Con in combination with "standard" telephone modems of the time, it was not specifically made to connect to Q-Mod or Q-Call only.

Q-Mod was the actual modem. It would simply keep up the data connection once the dial-up connection was done. Q-Mod alone couldn't auto-dial or auto-answer this was done by

Q-Call, which implemented both auto-dial and auto-answer.

Why they sold three boxes instead of one? I think, Q-Con alone made sense because it supplied a properly-working and standards-compliant RS-232 interface and terminal emulation to connect to mainframes directly via RS-232. Why Q-Mod and Q-Call are separate boxes, I don't know. The whole stack wasn't specifically aimed at the end user, I think. Universities and large data users could use Q-Mod separately with Q-Mod, you don't need auto answer or auto-dial when you're working analogue leased lines. Any maybe they thought "If you can sell three boxes that's definitely better than just one"........ Also, keep in mind this was early eighties, not late. What the market wanted, wasn't so clear, especially when aiming at the educational market, which is what Tandata apparently did.

tofro wrote: Sat Jun 08, 2024 5:10 pm Q-Con basically implemented split-baud rate support (basically, sending and receiving at different baud rates. Those were typically needed by modem connections with viewdata services, like 1200/75 for Prestel, for example, but couldn't be done by the QL.

Interesting...I don't think any of the modems I used could do split baud, so that definitely seems unique...or is it that Hayes compatible modems could do that and I just never needed that. If so, what AT commands would do that? If that's unique, then that's an interesting feature from Tandata.

Someone on my YouTube channel commented how they'd like to get a QL and I pointed him to this post so maybe we can make a connection and get that QL to good use again

Good morning Steff!

Welcome to the party - if only to find a good home for your well-cared for QL

If the QL is still available, I too have a friend who is looking to get his feet wet with a QL and hasn't had much luck on eBay recently, so I've sent him the link to this post.

Wishing you well.

I'm interested. Have sent you a private message.

Hi Steff,

If available, I am interested for ql software development.

Regards,
ansar