Sinclair QL arrives at Chez Farrell

It just shows you, Paul - size does matter!

I have asked Richie what the heck he's doing there and it's may be he's found a new way of de-soldering stubborn RAM chips via an extra hot cucumber.

Aye, the mind boggles...I mean my avatar is perfectly 'normal'.

I rest my...

ass.

 

I'm not so sure from that look on his face I reckon the cat's in for the shock of its life, the cat thought a rectal thermometer was bad enough!

 

It were me first try at growing a cucumber and I was quite chuffed with the result.

Like you say the cats were not so impressed

 

So the PCBs arrived to allow a single 27c512 EPROM be used instead of the two original chips. As the OS only takes up 48k you can add another 16k image on the back of it. You just need to make sure that it starts at $C0000 as that is where the QL is expecting the additional ROM to appear in it’s memory map. There is a utility that has become almost expected to be in a QL tinkerers system and that is QJumps Toolkit2. So that is what occupies the 16k on my EPROM. After a small mixup with the jumper configuration, I know have Minerva 1.98 and Toolkit 2 installed. All I need to do next is make the 512KB SRAM expansion when the PCB arrives. I also had to replace the old Microdrive cables that connect the Microdrive to the mainboard as trying the refit them was very difficult as the end were stripped wire that was soldered. So they bend or buckle very easily. Luckily there is a modern replacement part which you can buy from Farnell which is a flat cable but with solid wire pins on each end and fit a lot easier and being flat wire it can bend a lot easier as space behind the main heatsink is cramped.

 

So the 27c512 EEPROM is fitted and my QL is now running Minerva 1.98 and my 628512 SRAM is on it’s way. So I should be able to finish off the expansion soon. I will have to remove the sockets fitted as they are a type which is very high and there won’t be enough clearance inside the case if I use them. So I picked up some nice turned pin sockets both 48 & 40 pin.
So be interesting to see how things pan out.

 

It's a Shame that Sinclair pinned all there hopes on the QL. They Struck a Deal with Motorola to supply the 68008 chips, Somewhile after the QL's design had been implemented, Motorola dropped the pricing on the full fat 68000 to below the deal Sinclair cut.
by this time it was to late to redesign the machine.
It is however great that we see addon with additional memory, faster CPU think theres even a co processor as well.
And like many 'RETRO' computers still peeps writing software..