The Sinclair QL Forum

A recent acquisition. Here are some pics etc. It seems to work; at least so far I have read 27256 and 2764 EPROMS but haven't programmed anything yet. It didn't want to read anything at all while plugged in to a bus plain with an SGC and TDI, but is fine on its own. I haven't been able to get it to read/check a 2564 yet, which is a shame as the compatibility with the 2564 (which requires 25v) was something I was hoping for, as none of the modern EPROM programmers can burn 25v chips. The ZX Interface 1 uses a 2564.

It has a green PCB with hand-drawn traces, the plastic shroud is Sinclair branded. As you can see in the pics of the top of the PCB (taken without the heatsink), the 2 Motorola MC6821P chips have 'QL' on them.

Front angle (SINCLAIR branding): Bottom of PCB: Top of PCB (heatsink removed): It is recognised!: Reading a 27256: Perhaps my 2564's are dodgy.

The QEPIII is not compatible with either SGC or GC or any clones of those - because they lack the 'E' signal which is used by the QEPIII board

I think you should be ok to use a 2764 chip in the interface 1 from what I remember - would have to take a look at the pin out and circuit diagram to see if any specific requirements for that ROM version.

Actually just did a quick browse for the 2564 pin out - and it's different - so that won't work without an adaptor board or similar:

http://www.mcumall.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=10478

Pr0f wrote:The QEPIII is not compatible with either SGC or GC or any clones of those - because they lack the 'E' signal which is used by the QEPIII board

Thanks, good to know that it will work with the TDI then and by extension a WINchester HDD - but I still want to burn one from a file on real cartridge and with 128K ram, just for the experience

Pr0f wrote:I think you should be ok to use a 2764 chip in the interface 1 from what I remember - would have to take a look at the pin out and circuit diagram to see if any specific requirements for that ROM version.

I'll check that out then, I mean it's obviously not something of massive urgency.

Hi,

The Trrump card and Gold Card do not allow any expansion other than to ROM Port.

So the QEPIII will only work with any expansion that allows uses standard QL expansion slots.

The supported rooms are limited, there are better QL EPROM programmers, like the design by Jan Bredenbeek.

Derek_Stewart wrote:Hi,

The Trrump card and Gold Card do not allow any expansion other than to ROM Port.

So the QEPIII will only work with any expansion that allows uses standard QL expansion slots.

The supported rooms are limited, there are better QL EPROM programmers, like the design by Jan Bredenbeek.

I did like the QEPIII interface though, and the ability to 'jumble' pins and you could tailor the program algorithm too if you so desired.

Used to have one of those myself - I used it to burn the DJToolkit and Megatoolkit EPROMs back in DJC days. If it came without a manual, this might help:

http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/docs/manuals/qepiii.pdf

And on this page there's Ian Burkinshaw's Service Manual and Test Results spreadsheet for it:
http://www.dilwyn.me.uk/docs/hardware/index.html

Seem to recall it wouldn't work with other things plugged in at same time (actually, I think I could get it to work with a RAM expansion and a passive 2 slot expander, but not sure what I had at the time), so I used to network two QLs and send images to burn over the network to the QEPIII QL.

As well as the original QJump version, for a while Qubbesoft P/D produced their own version of the QEPIII

dilwyn wrote:...

As well as the original QJump version, for a while Qubbesoft P/D produced their own version of the QEPIII

Is there a ROM available for that version ?

dilwyn wrote:Seem to recall it wouldn't work with other things plugged in at same time (actually, I think I could get it to work with a RAM expansion and a passive 2 slot expander, but not sure what I had at the time)

Yes, that combination will work, I once had my QL put into a small PC case with an unbuffered bus and the (QJump) QEP III worked in combination with an SQB and a QFLASH 3 Eprom card without problems.

BTW: QEP III can multitask with the command "EPROM_M"

Thanks for the comments. I did find the instruction PDF, which is very useful.

Just for fun and to explore the software, I attempted to use the ROM data that I took from the original chip in Qemulator as an "ext. ROM", but it didn't do anything - no boot message and of course no reaction when entering 'eprom'. I expect one of you will know instantly why that is, not that it's important, I was just messing around.