The Sinclair QL Forum

Hi all,

I have a working serial cable (I wrote a quick and dirty basic program on the QL to read the serial port and display any incoming data on the QL screen and then used a simple App Store app on the Mac to type characters that all appeared correctly on the QL's screen to prove it worked)

But that App Store app won't let me paste a file/text

I tried to use echo, cat & cp (having used stty to set the Mac end baud rate to match the QL) from the MacOS terminal but nothing ever gets thru to the QL using those methods

I was wondering if anyone has any experience of trying to do this and could give me any tips please?

Many thanks
Tony

I found an app (not from the App Store) called CoolTerm

That let me paste and it seemed to be doing something as the file I sent was way too large and it filled up the Microdrive

So I tried sending a much smaller basic program and it wrote to MD (and I sent a Ctl-z to end the transfer)

But when I load mdv1_test and list there's nothing there

Is there an easy way to display the contents of an MD based file on a base QL (with no way currently to transfer an application) please?

If not, I guess I can try to open the file in basic and read/display it

Many thanks
Tony

You could try using Kermit at both ends. I believe a QL version exists. Not sure what the baud/bits etc would be though.

As an aside, on the Mac I use a paid-for app, "Serial" (https://www.decisivetactics.com/products/serial/) which whilst not cheap, avoids having to install any third party drivers for usb to serial adapters, as they come bundled and stay within the application bundle. Not cheap, but works really well for me when connecting to various single baud computers running CP/M.
I must try it with the QL sometime soon, actually.

Sparrowhawk wrote: ↑Tue Nov 28, 2023 4:21 pm You could try using Kermit at both ends. I believe a QL version exists. Not sure what the baud/bits etc would be though.

As an aside, on the Mac I use a paid-for app, "Serial" (https://www.decisivetactics.com/products/serial/) which whilst not cheap, avoids having to install any third party drivers for usb to serial adapters, as they come bundled and stay within the application bundle. Not cheap, but works really well for me when connecting to various single baud computers running CP/M.
I must try it with the QL sometime soon, actually.

I did look at "Serial" but don't really want to pay out on it until I know it can do what I want (the cost could go towards a cheap windows laptop if I end up having to go down that route to run various utilities). And it's a catch-22 as I can't load any software on the QL like kermit.

I did a quick and dirty open and read/print of the file that was written and it seems to be on there. I can only assume it won't load and list either due to a corruption or maybe there should be some header info that won't be there from a "copy ser2z to mdv1_test"

The application I originally tried to copy across, that filled up the MD - which I should of realised was going to happen, was the basic program to create the unzip executable as I assume I'll need that. The cut down file was the basic program without the data.

I definitely seem to be in a catch-22, and am not sure, with just a Mac, that the vDriveQL I've ordered will be of use for solving this particular problem as not much software seems to be readily available as MDV

Thanks
Tony

Most stuff is indeed available as a qzip file but you will be able to put anything into your own newly created .mdv files and then use those via the vDrive. I do that with qemulator when I need to. Not sure if you need the paid version to do that, but I believe there are other ways of creating your own .mdv files and then filling them what whatever you like.

Sparrowhawk wrote: ↑Tue Nov 28, 2023 4:21 pm works really well for me when connecting to various single baud computers running CP/M.

Single board. Single baud would be painfully slow transfers!

Also as Chris says, Q-emuLator would solve your mdv issues without the need to transfer via serial. But... I think the mdv creation/read/write is for paid only? Don't quote me on that and definitely try it out to see if that feature is available.

If you have an M-series Mac, Q-emulator runs absolutely fine on that using the Rosetta 2 emulation layer (I now have an M3 MBP, and Q-emuLator has not crashed once yet - admittedly, I've probably only used it for under 5 hours so far)

Update: I just checked the web page and until the end of 2023, Daniele is providing a free temporary license key to unlock all the features, including the mdv image stuff:
http://www.terdina.net/ql/registration.html

Thanks Chr$/Sparrowhawk

I hadn't realised there was an emulator for Mac with those options

The website seems to only have Intel Mac support currently, but I'll install it on my old Intel Macbook and give it a try

EDIT: Of course I can run it on my M1. My brain is getting more addled than I realised

Thanks
Tony

That all looks great, thanks. I guess I won't be needing to worry about serial connections any more!

Next up for me is to make a list of software I want to put on MDV's

Many thanks
Tony

Have created an MDV with TK2 & Ramdisk on it, which works fine on the emulator.

But won't be able to try it on real iron until my vDriveQL arrives (which I assume won't be this side of Christmas from NZ)

Thanks for all the advise, the Q-emuLator gives me something to play with, QL wise, for the time being

Many thanks
Tony