The Sinclair QL Forum

Now that I have a working original GC attached to my QL I've just been playing around with my normal QL stuff. It doesn't seem to work with anything from the original Psion suite. Is that normal? I read that the Psion progs like to take all the available RAM. When I try to EW e.g. Quill, it goes ba...

Yes, it's how to connect the original QL printer to a PC com port which is running a QXL card. There should be no BBQL involved. The BBQL connection voltages I listed were mainly just for reference, as I know the printer works on that, so the connections there are correct (and in case of confusion ...

Just to be sure... are you trying to connect your PC running QXL to the QL Printer or to your BBQL? Yes, that's what I'm trying to do. My QL printer has a connector that fits the German SER1 and works perfectly on the German BBQL. So you're sending data from PC to SER2 on the BBQL, right? Are you u...

No, sorry for misunderstanding. When I said QL printer plug pins I really meant the pins on the BBQL! Just to be sure... are you trying to connect your PC running QXL to the QL Printer or to your BBQL? And thankyou again for your immense patience with me and this whole thing! Do you have a Q68? It ...

When you have OPENed a channel to the ser port, check pins 4 and 7 on the PC port. They should both measure about +12V to indicate the port is ready. Also, CTS should be +12V, else the PC will wait forever for the printer. If pin 7 (RTS) doesn't go to +12V but pin 4 (DTR) does, then use pin 4. (I d...

I removed the +12v from the PC from PC pins 1 and 6 and now have: PC pin 1 (DCD) is connected to QL printer plug pin 9 PC pin 2 (RXD) is connected to QL printer plug pin 3 (RXD) PC pin 3 (TXD) is connected to QL printer plug pin 2 (TXD) PC pin 4 n/c PC pin 5 (GND) is connected to QL printer plug pi...

Hi Chris, Much appreciated Jan. It's all Chinese to me but I think I have followed your instructions. I now have the following: PC pins 1 (DCD) and 6 (DSR) and QL Printer plug pin 9 are connected to the +12v from the other PC COM port (in my PC manual it states that only COM 2,3,4 are powered and at...

Hello Jan, I had a look inside the plug of the QL printer and only pins 1 - 5 and pin 9 are connected. I checked the voltages on those pins and got the following: 1 - 0v (def ground) 2 - nothing much detected 3 - minus 11v 4 - nothing much detected 5 - minus 11v 9 - plus 12v So does that mean that ...

BBQL with Minerva and (non-super) Gold Card: 5.640
Q68: 24.125 (SMSQ/E)
Raspberry Pi 3B+ with uqlx and Minerva: about 103
QPC2 on an i7-4790 PC: about 1500.

Jan

I haven't used my BBQLs much with composite colour, but I remember the picture quality was quite poor. Lots of dot crawl and definitely not suitable for a 80x25 screen. On the other hand, the monochrome picture is rock steady. I'm still using my green monochrome Philips monitor of almost 35 years wi...