The Sinclair QL Forum

Sorry, I've fallen a bit out of the loop of what is happening with this at the moment, I have read threads and posts that cover this issue, but rather than stretch one out even further, I thought I'd start a new one!

Essentially, my question is, where do we stand in terms of an SD card based storage system for a QL now, and say in the coming year? As far as I can see we have the following:

1: The QL-SD system that has been covered extensively recently in the forums and by Dilwyn in his blog, that requires being placed in the case, and replaces MDV1. From my searches, I see that only a few of these have actually seen the light, and that Paul is making them as and when he desires, rather than trying to make a go of selling them (fair enough). As such, unless there are plans afoot, these are not going to be that common.

2: The Emudrive(?) system, that plugs into a disk interface, and acts as a disk emulator, but apart from IanJ's post which seems to be a bit uncertain, there is little else?

3: The HXC, which also acts as a floppy drive emulator...

My reason for asking the question is that one of the reasons I am not using my QL as much as I would like or should is that I don't find micro drives work very much (I will be getting hold of a batch of Dave's new felt tabs soon, after my own experiments came to naught), and I really don't like having to resort to old 3.5" disks.

I would like to move to an SD card system, but have no idea what the strengths and weaknesses are of each system out there. I suspect that option 1 is out for me, as I don't like to make unforced changes to retro computers themselves, but what are the experiences of others out there?

There are a few more possible systems too:

a) The microdrive emulator which connects via the microdrive port - although there has not been any news of development on this for a while - there was a working prototype which worked at the same speed as the microdrive units

b) The UltimIDE from Dave (Sandy Electronics) - this will have a built in CF card interface

c) A Spanish SD card interface which plugs into the QL's ROM port - there is a working prototype, although there are no drivers and Adrian Ives reported some issues with the hardware when he tried using it on his QL.

Rich sums up quite nicely.

The UltimIDE will support one 1.8" PATA SSD on-board, plus two CF cards, plus two external hard drives. It will also work as a carrier for the UltraQ board, which will add faster CPU and 4MB of RAM, for those that want it.

I think we will see good numbers of QL-SD arriving shortly. It can go in either mdv1_ or mdv2_'s position, or it can be positioned elsewhere inside the case, if you use a little imagination. It is a quite neat little set-up - I would really like to incorporate it into one of my designs.

Dave wrote: I think we will see good numbers of QL-SD arriving shortly.

Maybe this one adds a bit of encouragement (Picture courtesy Urs König, taken on the Sinclair meeting Mahlerts, Germany, last week)
https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=c250d874 ... 215042&v=3

Tobias

Thanks for the responses, that makes things look much more promising. I do like the whole QL-SD thing, which does offer a very neat solution, but I will really need to take a deep breath before doing a micro drive transplant! oh well, I'll be patient a little longer, and see where it all leads...

Cheers,

Simon

I'm very happy with mine but I used it on my modding QL rather than a machine I knew had good microdrives

Simon_Carr wrote:Thanks for the responses, that makes things look much more promising. I do like the whole QL-SD thing, which does offer a very neat solution, but I will really need to take a deep breath before doing a micro drive transplant! oh well, I'll be patient a little longer, and see where it all leads...

You talk like its major surgery, 2 screws, 1 detatable lead the microdrive is free

XorA wrote:You talk like its major surgery, 2 screws, 1 detatable lead the microdrive is free

Fair point, but I guess it is more the principle of the thing... I only bought a QL last year, having coveted (yet never even seen) one for the best part of 30 years. Part of the reason I wanted one was the built in microdrive units, so, even though they don't work very well, I am still loathe to change any of the internals. I recently bought a SuperQBoard, and have the bits to go with a 3.5" floppy drive, but if an SD card unit could connect to that interface, this would be completely in line with the ethos of keeping a QL original.

Anyway, I appreciate any advice on which systems work well. I guess I am looking for something that I can transfer files using my Mac onto an SD card without too much hassle, and then open on the QL. having looked through the posts on the HXC, that looks to be a little complex to work with. perhaps I am just looking for something that does not exist yet!

Cheers,
Simon

If you have a floppy disk interface, the HxC is very easy to use with the QL - have a look through my user guide on Dilwyn's site - http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/docs/manuals/

RWAP wrote:If you have a floppy disk interface, the HxC is very easy to use with the QL - have a look through my user guide on Dilwyn's site - http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/docs/manuals/

Even easier now I made a qltools version which deals directly with .hfe files. This is also on Dilwyn's site.