SDHC adaptors...

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tofro
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Re: SDHC adaptors...

Post by tofro »

All,

The ROM that will come with QL-SD is supposed to have the SDHC driver, Minerva 1.98 and TKII on it - TKII has just been chosen because it is probably the most important ROM extension for the QL and it just about fits together with the driver and the hardware I/O registers into the available space - Should anyone happen to have TKII already through another extension, simply don't activate the QL-SD version - No harm done.

Regarding multiple drives and partitions: QL-SD will most probably come with the recommendation of one single partition per SDHC card with somewhere like 64 - 128MB available space (on a sufficiently expanded QL). This should be more than enough for the average user. Hard- and Software will support multiple and larger partitions and even - as Paul mentioned - multiple drives - But once you get there, it becomes increasingly easy to shoot yourself in the foot and loose complete partitions or even the complete contents of your SD card (which is not a particular problem of QL-SD, but one that every removable media on the QL has. Just the extent of possible data loss is bigger). I guess anyone has at least once lost the contents of a floppy because of one or the other mishap. You don't want that to happen to Megabytes of space on an SDHC card.

Regards,
Tobias


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Dave
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Re: SDHC adaptors...

Post by Dave »

I was asking about dual SD card slots because I imagine it will always be desirable to duplicate SD cards. They are 99% reliable, but not 100%.


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tofro
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Re: SDHC adaptors...

Post by tofro »

Dave,
it's actually much easier:

the cards for QL-SD normally use a standard VFAT file system, the QL file system is hidden within an image file - similar to a QXL.WIN file that emulators use. You can easily back that up using a PC or other computer that can read or write SDHC cards - And the backup medium doesn't necessarily have to be an SD card. No need to part with both microdrives ;)

But anyhow - Should you insist to have two SDHC drives - it's technically possible.

Regards,
Tobias


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Dave
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Re: SDHC adaptors...

Post by Dave »

That's great :)

Paul, I PM'd you back asking you to email me. It would be good if you did that when you could. :)


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Peter
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Re: SDHC adaptors...

Post by Peter »

Hi all,

first of all kudos and many thanks to Adrian and Paul for their great contributions to the QL-SD project. My mission was to transfer design, drivers and knowledge to others, so the device can be built and the project can survive without depending on my person. Until recently, QL-SD still required lots of personal support from my side, but there are signs that I can say "mission completed" soon.

Tobias has greatly improved my manual, and the small German QL Community was very helpful in general. Many thanks for that.

Let me be a bit more precise about publishing drivers and hardware design files. The drivers will be free and open source, independent from any sales or production issues. They will be published under the terms of the General Public License. Adrian and me will keep our copyright.

As for the hardware design files, I will keep them private, unless Paul wants to see them published.
I would recommend to think twice before doing so. The more uncertainty Paul has about others possibly re-using my design in some way, the harder it becomes for him to plan ahead, purchase parts, and supply the community.

When I say "mission completed", I only mean the QL, not the (Super) Gold Card. I'm still looking into the (S)GC issues and still have ideas how to proceed and what to try next. But time is limited and I can not tell what will be the outcome.

Today I did one more redesign of the QL-SD PCB to make production easier and allow a wider range of PCB suppliers. I consider this the final PCB design of QL-SD for the QL.

Peter


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dilwyn
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Re: SDHC adaptors...

Post by dilwyn »

Paul wrote:I am also planning to produce a QL-SD interface with memory expansion for the expansion bus next year.
This is aimed at persons not wanting to open their QL and those having an unexpanded QL.
My friends and me are also trying to find the Supergoldcard and Goldcard problems in order to fix those.
Kind regards
Paul
Such an interface with memory expansion and SD card interface (and possibly floppy disk interface, although that adds cost and layout complexities) would be an excellent add-on for the QL. Perfect for those who do not have the confidence to modify a QL.


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Dave
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Re: SDHC adaptors...

Post by Dave »

I have been asked to produce 50 Sandy SuperQBoards, so I have reached out to Paul in a hope to combine our efforts. I have *lots* of space available. With modern SMD tech, it should be possible to put *every* interface on a single card.


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Peter
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Re: SDHC adaptors...

Post by Peter »

Hi Dave,

unless I have overlooked it in a different post, could you be specific about your SMD soldering equipment?

Currently I have no project waiting for soldering, and the USA is far, but it is always good to know the capabilities which are available in the QL world.

Thanks, Peter


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Dave
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Re: SDHC adaptors...

Post by Dave »

The usual gear:

Pair of Weller TCPs with temperature read-out. Anti-static work area. GQ-5200 hot air rework station. Board preheat plate and reflow oven. 30MHz digital oscilloscope. Bench PSU. CCD board inspection camera. Eagle workstation.

Through my makerspace I have access to a Kenthe pick'n'place machine, reflow oven, and Trotec laser cutters (great for making solder paste templates). 100 MHz digital and analog oscilloscopes, NatSemi 16 channel data capture, etc, all the usual gear. Also, a Shopbot Mini that has been adapted to mill PCBs - not good at fine work <.4mm but good for doing boards for PSUs, etc.

Through my board maker, up to 8-layer 450x450mm boards with everything. Quite cost effective compared to high tax EU prices, and my preferred way to order boards. I save a LOT of money by panelising the boards. Also really helps with pick'n'place.

By hand, I am comfortable doing consistent work down to 0805. For larger amounts of smaller items, I can time-effectively just use the pick'n'place machine if it's a longer run.

My recent work - a bitcoin miner I assembled - contains 8 x 0.5mm pitch BGAs.


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Dave
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Re: SDHC adaptors...

Post by Dave »

It was too big to attach - resized.
m-chili2-1-final.jpg


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