New microdrive internal replacement
New microdrive internal replacement
Hi!
Recently I got my first (dead) QL. I repaired it and got it working, but the unit had no microdrive. I investigated a bit about the replacements and I didn't liked none of them because as far as I know all are dessigned to be external, and are really expensive, so I have designed my own replacement
The thing looks like this:
It is based on the Raspberry Pico, thanks to the PIO units reproducing the internals of a microdrive has been somewhat easy. The thing is cheap, you can build one for around 20-30€ and that is taking into account all the connectors (I used a ribbon cable with male pin connectors instead of the stained wires that the original microdrives use) and the PCB.
Also, something that I wanted was in some way to preserve the feeling of the "cartridge", the device uses an edge female connector and then I designed a "cartridge" that contains an SD card, some buttons and an I2C screen, so you connect the cartridge and select the image you want to load. This also makes a lot easier to manage the images, as far as I know the other drives need to be connected to a PC to send/manage the images, this uses a standard FAT32 SD card so is a lot easier.
With a single "cartridge" you can manage two drives, the image is loaded into the pico's memory so the cartridge can be removed once it has been loaded, put the cartridge in a second unit and repeat the same operation. If you modify the content of a microdrive then you can reconnect the cartridge, it will rearm the image and then pressing a button it will be persisted in the SD card.
I have published all the work in Github: https://github.com/gusmanb/micropicodrive
The documentation is right now non-existent as I'm still finishing it, I need to adjust a bit the PCB's (I need to displace a bit the screw holes and the connector to make it fit at the center of the cartridge hole) and test the drive with Minerva (I have read that Minerva is a bit picky with "perfect" microdrives and unless there are some corrupt sectors it rejects the format, so I need to get a Minerva ROM and try it).
In any case all is there, the PCB's in KiKad format, the Pico firmware and more, if anyone wants to assemble one please feel free to contact me and I will solve any doubt about the device
Also, something else I have created is a replacement for mdvtools, I have created a .net version mith more functions, a GUI (but a console one, in the stile of Norton commander ) and is fully portable to Windows, Linux and MacOS.
Again, this is a work in progress and there is no documentation, so if anyone wants to try it you can download the source code (it is in the same repo) or just ping me and request a compiled version for your OS.
Cheers!
Recently I got my first (dead) QL. I repaired it and got it working, but the unit had no microdrive. I investigated a bit about the replacements and I didn't liked none of them because as far as I know all are dessigned to be external, and are really expensive, so I have designed my own replacement
The thing looks like this:
It is based on the Raspberry Pico, thanks to the PIO units reproducing the internals of a microdrive has been somewhat easy. The thing is cheap, you can build one for around 20-30€ and that is taking into account all the connectors (I used a ribbon cable with male pin connectors instead of the stained wires that the original microdrives use) and the PCB.
Also, something that I wanted was in some way to preserve the feeling of the "cartridge", the device uses an edge female connector and then I designed a "cartridge" that contains an SD card, some buttons and an I2C screen, so you connect the cartridge and select the image you want to load. This also makes a lot easier to manage the images, as far as I know the other drives need to be connected to a PC to send/manage the images, this uses a standard FAT32 SD card so is a lot easier.
With a single "cartridge" you can manage two drives, the image is loaded into the pico's memory so the cartridge can be removed once it has been loaded, put the cartridge in a second unit and repeat the same operation. If you modify the content of a microdrive then you can reconnect the cartridge, it will rearm the image and then pressing a button it will be persisted in the SD card.
I have published all the work in Github: https://github.com/gusmanb/micropicodrive
The documentation is right now non-existent as I'm still finishing it, I need to adjust a bit the PCB's (I need to displace a bit the screw holes and the connector to make it fit at the center of the cartridge hole) and test the drive with Minerva (I have read that Minerva is a bit picky with "perfect" microdrives and unless there are some corrupt sectors it rejects the format, so I need to get a Minerva ROM and try it).
In any case all is there, the PCB's in KiKad format, the Pico firmware and more, if anyone wants to assemble one please feel free to contact me and I will solve any doubt about the device
Also, something else I have created is a replacement for mdvtools, I have created a .net version mith more functions, a GUI (but a console one, in the stile of Norton commander ) and is fully portable to Windows, Linux and MacOS.
Again, this is a work in progress and there is no documentation, so if anyone wants to try it you can download the source code (it is in the same repo) or just ping me and request a compiled version for your OS.
Cheers!
Re: New microdrive internal replacement
Ok, all is in place
I have created the [wiki](https://github.com/gusmanb/micropicodrive/wiki) at Github with instructions on how to assemble and use the device. Also I have added the BOM to the Hardware folder with links to the components, I have updated the mdv tools with the latest version and have created a release with the binaries ready to use and the firmware compiled.
Cheers!
I have created the [wiki](https://github.com/gusmanb/micropicodrive/wiki) at Github with instructions on how to assemble and use the device. Also I have added the BOM to the Hardware folder with links to the components, I have updated the mdv tools with the latest version and have created a release with the binaries ready to use and the firmware compiled.
Cheers!
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Re: New microdrive internal replacement
Hi,
Nice wiki information.
I will see about getting PCBs made.
Would this work with an Oqtadrive setup as Microdrive?
Nice wiki information.
I will see about getting PCBs made.
Would this work with an Oqtadrive setup as Microdrive?
Regards,
Derek
Derek
Re: New microdrive internal replacement
It should, I have replicated the shifter logic for device selection and chaining so it should work with any other device in the chain, no matter if it is an oqtadrive or a real microdrive.Derek_Stewart wrote: ↑Fri Sep 22, 2023 4:14 pm Hi,
Nice wiki information.
I will see about getting PCBs made.
Would this work with an Oqtadrive setup as Microdrive?
Cheers!
Re: New microdrive internal replacement
Firstly, Great job. We need lots of options to replace the aging microdrives.I have a couple of questions, firstly does this use qlay *.mdv images or qemulator ones? or maybe both? and have you tested a copy protected mdv image yet?
Re: New microdrive internal replacement
To be honest, I have reverse-engineered the images from the ones that are in dilwyn's home page, so I'm not sure which ones are they, the only thing that I know is that these are exactly 174930 bytes.
The layout of the images is this (this is from my notes):
*MDV format:
255 sectors
686 bytes per sector
12 preamble bytes + 16 header bytes
12 preamble bytes + 646 sector bytes
Total 174930b
About erase, there is no erase protection implemented, I don't think it's necessary, as far as I saw the QL itself does not read the signal, it's a pull-down done by a transistor, and changes to the images aren't persisted automatically (the cartridge is loaded in the Pico's memory, and unless you store the changes pressing the save button the changes will be lost when the unit is powered down or another cartridge is loaded).
Cheers!
Re: New microdrive internal replacement
Thanks, that answers most of my questions. I believe they are Qlay based images. I'm still interested in if the magic number copy protection works as Xora added the ability to change the magic number when creating Qlay images.