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Re: Mini US 2018 QLer meetings

Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2018 11:15 am
by QLvsJAGUAR
QLvsJAGUAR wrote:
mk79 wrote:The rest of course, too ;) Looking forward to hearing what you did a whole month over there :-o
Full story coming soon in an unboxing video on YouTube. Stay tuned...
Here's the unboxing & story on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91oa-7s0f38

QL forever!
Urs

Re: Mini US 2018 QLer meetings

Posted: Sun Aug 12, 2018 1:32 pm
by mk79
QLvsJAGUAR wrote:Here's the unboxing & story on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91oa-7s0f38
Very nice. Could you maybe make a scan of the unpopulated boards so one can have a look at the tracks? Especially Issue 6 I'd find interesting.

Cheers, Marcel

Re: Mini US 2018 QLer meetings

Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 11:02 am
by QLvsJAGUAR
mk79 wrote:Very nice. Could you maybe make a scan of the unpopulated boards so one can have a look at the tracks? Especially Issue 6 I'd find interesting.
Cheers, Marcel
Luckily I have made some 600 dpi scans of the naked ISS 6 way back in 2013. Here they are:
http://www.sinclairql.net/srv/Sinclair_ ... 600dpi.JPG
http://www.sinclairql.net/srv/Sinclair_ ... 600dpi.JPG

Re: Mini US 2018 QLer meetings

Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 3:13 pm
by mk79
QLvsJAGUAR wrote:Luckily I have made some 600 dpi scans of the naked ISS 6 way back in 2013. Here they are:
http://www.sinclairql.net/srv/Sinclair_ ... 600dpi.JPG
http://www.sinclairql.net/srv/Sinclair_ ... 600dpi.JPG
Ah well, I think I've seen them before, but forgot :-) Do you by any chance know if this PCB is pre-Samsung?

Re: Mini US 2018 QLer meetings

Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 3:57 pm
by QLvsJAGUAR
mk79 wrote:Do you by any chance know if this PCB is pre-Samsung?
To distinguish between THORN (EMI) DATATECH UK made QLs & PCBs and SAMSUNG Korea made QLs & PCBs is very easy:
1. THORN (EMI) DATATECH QLs all have serial numbers starting with a D (for Datatech). Known build standards are D02 to D16. Most likely there was also a D01. The only reference for a D17 build standard is in an article in one specific QL World magazine. It could be a typo.

2. THORN (EMI) DATATECH QLs all have PCBs with naming ISS.x where x is the issue number. Known issue numbers are 2 and 4 to 7. Most likely there were also a 1 and 3.

3. SAMSUNG QLs all have serial numbers starting with a S (for SAMSUNG). Known build standards are S13 (The North American edition) and SG18 (the German edition). It looks like S13 started as a fork of D13, but evolved to a motherboard much closer to D14-D17. It looks like SG18 started after the D16 and, if ever existed, the D17 build standards.

4. SAMSUNG QLs all have PCBs with naming USx where x is the issue number. Known issue numbers are 3, 5, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 6. Even the earliest one of those is at least based on the UK made ISS.6 PCB. In other words, all US PCBs have the IC38 (HAL16L8). US stands for USA and indicates that the design targeted to comply with the US FCC regulations. Because Germany had their VDE regulations which were much stronger to the UK ones in the mid-80s, the FCC compliant US PCBs were good enough for the German edition of the QL.

A picture is telling more than 1000 words. Hence see this picture gallery:
http://www.sinclairql.net/pic/Index.php ... RmNWI3ZTIw

Re: Mini US 2018 QLer meetings

Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 5:12 pm
by mk79
QLvsJAGUAR wrote:
mk79 wrote:Do you by any chance know if this PCB is pre-Samsung?
To distinguish between THORN (EMI) DATATECH UK made QLs & PCBs and SAMSUNG Korea made QLs & PCBs is very easy:
[...]
Cool, very interesting, thanks. I've only ever owned German QLs, so they are all very late models. But the scan being an original Issue 6 proves that the schematics are all wrong, the ZX8302 data bus is connected to the ROM chips, not the RAM.

Cheers, Marcel

Re: Mini US 2018 QLer meetings

Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2018 9:10 am
by Derek_Stewart
Hi,

I think Tony Firshman did some corrections on the QL Schematics, but I never seen anything.

Maybe a good idea would be to draft up the QL Schematics in an Open Source CAD software like gEDA or KiCad.

I will see if I can draft up the schematics from the Service Manual and correct any errors relating to the actual PCBs.

Re: Mini US 2018 QLer meetings

Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2018 10:26 am
by vanpeebles
I wonder if some part of Samsung still has information/documents stored away to do with the QL (and Speccies) etc? A compnay of that size must have a vast archive, I wonder who, how or where you would contact?

Re: Mini US 2018 QLer meetings

Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2018 10:41 pm
by M68008
Nice video and collection. Congratulations for finding and sharing the PM ROM!

Re: Mini US 2018 QLer meetings

Posted: Tue Aug 14, 2018 11:17 pm
by XorA
vanpeebles wrote:I wonder if some part of Samsung still has information/documents stored away to do with the QL (and Speccies) etc? A compnay of that size must have a vast archive, I wonder who, how or where you would contact?
You better practice your Korean, your going to need it for that investigation :-)