Trump card cover

[Marcel_X]

While unboxing another crate, I discovered my beloved Trump Card that I had in my early '20s. Didn't work initially, but after reseating each chip firmly in its socket, it worked!
Nearly burned my fingers on the 7805 because I had taken off the heatsink cover to get to all the chips. So... first mod was to replace the 7805 and stick in a DC-DC converter and now it is running cool. I can even leave the heatsink off.

But because I never really liked the looks of the black metal heatsink, I thought I'd give it a makeover... So modelled up a cover and 3D printed it. It is just stuck on with double sided tape.

Next up is a cover for the dual floppy drive that I found in another box. It looks quite crusty after all these years. Especially all the screws that hold that thing together are rusty.

Anyway, I will post the files on makerworld or printables for anyone who wants to print it!

[Marcel_X]

Oh, and while we're at it, my Trump Card is a v1 with version V1.21a and Toolkit V2.12
Does anyone know if that is the latest version? I have found a V1.21b with TK 2.13 somewhere, but maybe there is a newer version floating around?

I have an EPROM programmer and some spare 27C256 EPROMs, so I should be able to upgrade it myself.

Thanks!

[XorA]

A load of different Trump roms here.

https://dilwyn.theqlforum.com/qlrom/index.html

[vanpeebles]

Looks great!!

[Marcel_X]

A load of different Trump roms here.

https://dilwyn.theqlforum.com/qlrom/index.html

Thanks for the link!
Indeed quite a load of ROMs... Hmmm... I guess I'll pick the one with the highest version number and see if that is working.
Fingers crossed.

[dilwyn]

One little note of caution: the "v2" ROMs have level 2 directories.
What I don't know if these ROMs will work in a Trump Card which came with a V1.xx ROM, or if there are hardware differences between the version 1 and 2 cards. (i.e. I don't know if the only difference is the software in the ROM or not).

If you do manage to get them working together, please let me know and I'll update the info on my website.

[Marcel_X]

Much better.

[Marcel_X]

One little note of caution: the "v2" ROMs have level 2 directories.
What I don't know if these ROMs will work in a Trump Card which came with a V1.xx ROM, or if there are hardware differences between the version 1 and 2 cards. (i.e. I don't know if the only difference is the software in the ROM or not).

If you do manage to get them working together, please let me know and I'll update the info on my website.

Hi Dilwyn,
I will let you know. I found two empty 27C256 and I will start with v1.36 which seems to be the highest v1 number. Then I will test v2.19.
Had a quick search online and the two versions of the card only seem to differ in the type of memory used. Same number of PALs, the same logic ICs, same floppy controller. I can only see one 74F175 (quad flip-flop) added to the v2. But my best guess is that that one is used for memory decoding. v2 looks like a cost-down version of the v1.
Anyway, let me dig up my EPROM programmer and UV eraser and see what happens...

[dilwyn]

OK, good luck.

Some of the later Miracle cards had the possibility of adding an external third and fourth drive adaptor card (four drives in total), maybe the extra chip could be additional decoding for that? (just a guess on my part)

https://wiki.theqlforum.com/doku.php?id= ... k_expander

[Marcel_X]

That's another good theory! It would at least explain the quad flip-flop. I did find an image online of a TC2 with no memory and just PAL2 for the EPROM and WD1772. But it has the quad flip-flop soldered in!
But I just checked v1.36 and that one is working. I'll try 2.19 next.