It's all lies!
I have written this as if everything happened chronologically, because it is easier to describe that way. But really, all this stuff happened at the same time in an explosion of discovery - the big bang!
A (quantum) leap into the unknown
I bought a QL online with no knowledge of whether it worked. There was a single photo, and I could see all the keys were presented, and a tatty box too. The description said "QL with all the bits"
I bought it, and, when it arrived I discovered that most bits were there, although no MDv carts.
First signs of life!
The first thing was to see if it lived. To do this I knocked up a basic composite cable, which only requires you to connect 2 pins.
After making the cable, I powered the QL up and saw a pretty awful quality image. But, the QL lived!
Next, I bought a better quality RGB scart cable and this gave a great picture, although the monitor mode cut off the edges of the screen. Not being happy with this I looked for a solution.
There is a great project that involves a Rpi Pico and a few resistors. I bought all the bits and after some very messy soldering I tested my creation, and everything worked! Now I had a perfect screen image for less than £10.
I 3d printed an enclosure and it was job done.
Keyboard cleaning
Soon, I discovered that all the keys worked fine apart from the ctrl key. A very important key on the the QL. The delete function requires it for a start.
Opening it up, I discovered what looks like a modern membrane, I took it out of the housing and cleaned it with IPA. After everything was dry, I reinstalled the membrane and the keyboard has worked perfectly since. At this point I also used a marker pen and labelled where the screws go the in keyboard base plate.
Microdrives... So much could be wrong!
Now, it was time to find out about those MDvs. This was difficult, as I bought some carts and they were all missing their felts. So a friend sent me some new felts and a known working MDv for testing.
When it arrived, the formatted MDv worked the first time...
Dir mdv1_ worked as expected. But only once and never again!
I refelted the MDvs I'd bought, this was fairly simple actually. Some of the tiny metal parts that the felt rests on were lose. I removed these and bent them back into place. I thought this would be hard, but everything went super smoothly.
Sadly, the situation didn't improve.
Next, I cleaned the read heads and rollers with IPA. This didn't help.
After some online research, I decided to replace the regulators. This was nerve wracking, but the next easiest thing to try! I had read that the MDv regulators almost always need replacing if the unit isn't working. Worth noting here that I tested the regulator voltages and they showed as working fine even though replacing them fixed my issues!
So I removed MDv1, and replaced the regulator. The middle pin was stubborn, but eventually I was able to replace it.
I couldn't wait, so quickly tested my repair. MDv1 now worked perfectly!!!
Soon I had repeated the procedure with MDv2 and by the close of the day I had a fully working QL.
Pinch roller perfection!
However, I had read that the rollers could cause problems, and that replacements were hard to find, or dissatisfactory. After some research, I managed to find some Sony pinch rollers that had the same diameter.
I ordered a load, drilled out the Teflon core to 2mm using a manual hand drill, and 3d printed a smaller washer so that the new rollers, which are a little taller than I needed, fit perfectly.
I tested these rollers for many weeks, and they work perfectly on my QL. The pinch rollers are top quality too, so it felt like a very nice upgrade.
Serial offender
Now, I needed to get some software on my QL. Since I have a Z88 I am used to using serial to transfer files. I made up a cable for the QL, and using QPC I was able to communicate between my PC and the QL. This felt very good.
Hermes
My excitement was short lived, since the QL hung when trying to send any data of a meaningful size. So I identified some coprocessor chips online, and was able to get Hermes blown on to the chips with the help of a forum member.
I used a flat head screwdriver to remove the old chip, and it came out cleanly. The install went without issue.
QUBIDE is cool
But, while I was waiting for all that... Someone had built a Qubide card and posted it for me to try. Now I could use a SD card to get software onto the QL, and it also gave me a tone of extra RAM too.
Using the Habi software I was able to get software on to the QL and run something for the first time. This was handy, because Hermes comes with a file that should be loaded at boot, and other software.
Updating the ROM
I had also bought a replacement ROM from a seller in Germany. This came with Minerva and TK2.
TK2 has a command called ED that gives you a great editor for Super Basic. Worth it just for that.
A very Super Gold Card
But, I couldn't stop there, as I had read so much about the gold card and the super gold card... I got a bit carried away and ordered the Tetroid Super Gold Card one night. This was somewhat nerve wracking too - if you know, you know!
This arrived, and I hooked up an old PC disc drive. I made a 5v power connector, and used an old phone charger, as well as 3D printing yet another enclosure. I searched my house for some old discs and found about a dozen. I was able to format about 50% of these with the QL. One thing to note is that the QL sees my real PC floppy as FLP2_
Although, this didn't help me get software on to the QL, as I could not get the discs to work on a PC. I even tried and old XP laptop I had, running QPC2. Still, this didn't work correctly!
I was frustrated to say the least. But then I knew I had a Gotek in my CPC6128. Should I take it for the QL? Yes, I must. It's what Alan Sugar would have wanted!
So I thought this would be very straightforward, and it wasn't really. At first, nothing worked. I updated the flash floppy firmware and still nothing. I updated the config files on the SD card, and still nothing. Then I realised my problem was the disc.img files I was trying to use. I managed to find a 1.44 meg disc image through the QL forum, and this worked.
Finally, I had a great set up. The super gold card is amazing. 4 meg of ram, and 12 times faster than a standard QL. It also has a RTC. It is expensive, but worth it for mad-men like us!
The only issue I have now is that the Microdrive's don't work very well when the SGC is in. I suspect that it is a power issue - but solving this is a story for another day.
Now to enjoy...
Super basic is cool...
This image actually got uploaded to Wikipedia - but sadly a Bot deleted it, despite the fact I licensed it to them for that use!
Wow - I have been busy, and looking back I have surprised myself with everything I have been doing in the last 10 weeks!
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