Peter wrote:
Cutting it down to just one, smaller SDRAM, the smallest FPGA, no microSD and tailoring it for USB-QLNET might be an option. But the board requires BGA machine soldering, which makes no sense for 10 to 20 adapters or so.
SDRAM is needed to act as a kind of buffer for the moving of the data? Forgive my ignorance. And for 100.. would that be do-able?
Peter wrote:A QNET to USB adapter could turn out a low quantity item, as SD cards will in many cases be sufficient for data transport. Also, many have a Q68, which can do the same job via a cheap SER-USB cable.
People here have solutions for getting files across to a BBQL should they so desire, and some are lucky enough to own a Q68 but this (to me) is a device for the man on the street, so to speak. The simplest, easiest and best value (and most basic) way of getting files to a BBQL - to discover or re-discover what is out there. Just for playing around, not 'serious' QLing. Problem is though, it may not be of any much/use without expanded BBQL RAM, which is of course fairly expensive to produce.
Peter wrote:£40 for an adapter would be less than an external QL-SD while the hardware is more complex.
Yes, it wouldn't be something to compete with the QL-SD which is marvellous and obviously more useful (and rightly so, more expensive). I envisage QNET-USB as the entry level device out of the few devices that allow some kind of interaction with an original QL.
Sales pitch along the lines of: Dig your QL out of the loft and all you need* is a PC and within a short space of time and for very little investment you can easily be up and running and discover the basics of the original QL via the free software that is now available. Something like that. I know I get quite enthusiastic, but I really do believe that commercially the main potential is for BBQL's. I know you chaps that develop the wonderful new QL soft-/hardware do it more for love and not for profit, when you factor in the massive amount of time you put in. However, to somehow attempt to quantify the number of potential BBQL users... that Retro Computer Shack man who is the largest and most well-known seller of QL Scart leads has sold 554 of them (and he's not the only seller of scart leads). So that indicates that there are at least 554 people out there who are interested in getting a original QL going and mostly just to use it for simple stuff. Also, personally I've sold about 400 Microdrive cartridges in the last year or so. Those are the customers!
And for me too, I'd love to have a networked BBQL/Q68/PC running QPC, just for the sake of it!
*Assuming the keyboard works and you have a means of getting a video connection - but those are both fairly easily solved with new items.