Quasi QL
Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2023 12:42 pm
I was an SMS2 enthusiast but knowing that its roots lie in the demise of the QL, and as a homage to the Sinclair design, I decided to amuse myself by printing a Quasi QL.. The QQL consists of a micro pc and wired USB keyboard running SMSQE at a display resolution of 1920*1200.
The user interface is taken from my SMS2 startup file and its associated applications.
Most SMS2 applications run in SMSQE, but QL applications that bypass QDOS, and BASIC programs written to be interpreted, do not run in SMS2 and are thus not used in my QQL setup.
The goal was to make a machine that had the look of a QL but cost less than buying a real one.QQL cost me less than 200 CHF (£182) to make.
3D printing is not without its problems, even for someone experienced with 3 axis machine tools. The results of the success and failures can be seen in the pictures.
On an associated venture I was given an HP detachable notepad that had become unable to run its embedded and bloated version of Windows 10. I thought it would make a great machine in which to run QPC1 and the same SMS2 interface that I use on the QQL. The goal was to have a system booting QPC1 from a USB key by default.
Unable to format the "hard disk" or doing a factory reset I took the pad to an HP specialist with instructions to return it OS free and booting from USB.
A have prepared two keys, one with Puppy Linux and one with QPC1, that bootup correctly on a Lenovo Thinkpad but are not even recognised by the HP pad.
The problem lies, I think, with the fact that the pad can only boot from a UEFI compatible configuration. I used Rufus to create the bootable files.
Does anyone know how to boot DOS on an UEFI enabled PC?
The user interface is taken from my SMS2 startup file and its associated applications.
Most SMS2 applications run in SMSQE, but QL applications that bypass QDOS, and BASIC programs written to be interpreted, do not run in SMS2 and are thus not used in my QQL setup.
The goal was to make a machine that had the look of a QL but cost less than buying a real one.QQL cost me less than 200 CHF (£182) to make.
3D printing is not without its problems, even for someone experienced with 3 axis machine tools. The results of the success and failures can be seen in the pictures.
On an associated venture I was given an HP detachable notepad that had become unable to run its embedded and bloated version of Windows 10. I thought it would make a great machine in which to run QPC1 and the same SMS2 interface that I use on the QQL. The goal was to have a system booting QPC1 from a USB key by default.
Unable to format the "hard disk" or doing a factory reset I took the pad to an HP specialist with instructions to return it OS free and booting from USB.
A have prepared two keys, one with Puppy Linux and one with QPC1, that bootup correctly on a Lenovo Thinkpad but are not even recognised by the HP pad.
The problem lies, I think, with the fact that the pad can only boot from a UEFI compatible configuration. I used Rufus to create the bootable files.
Does anyone know how to boot DOS on an UEFI enabled PC?