Thanks for the comments and apologies to Tony for any misunderstanding and for Malcolm I am not sure if a ZIF socket is needed for what I have in mind but thanks anyway.
I only need the QL to run the boot file from floppy (or SD card if that becomes a real possibility) from a cold power up without the user having to press anything. The delay that Minerva offers and then boots anyway is fine for my needs, I just need to find away to realise its installation The comments including those below suggest I can take the existing two Sinclair QL ROMs out and replace with a (programmed and taped) EPROM with the Minerva code + Toolkit II and maybe SpeedScreen if there is room (its not essential) already in place and following the instructions from Peter G. this would all I need. Now unless I have got that wrong and I am sure somebody will tell me, my next step is to source the hardware for erasing and burning the EPROM. Lee Privett ¦--------------------------------------------------------¦ Sent from my Laptop running XP but emulating the QL using QPC2 ¦--------------------------------------------------------¦ ----- Original Message ----- From: Malcolm Cadman To: [email protected] Sent: Sunday, February 13, 2011 10:17 AM Subject: Re: [Ql-Users] Hardware question In message <[email protected]>, Plastic <[email protected]> writes The ZIF carrier would be a neat way of doing it. The BBC Micro also has a slot, to the left of the keyboard area, for this purpose (it is a perforated). It is normally covered over, so most people would not notice it being there. For Lee's project with the QL, a PCB taking 4 ROM's with a ZIF, would be neat way of getting easy access to alternative ROM's. >If there's enough demand, I would be happy to make a few of these boards - >though they would be "prototype" PCBs and fairly expensive. Short run PCBs >tend to run around $40 each just for the PCB. Everything else would be >around $10. It might be easier to have more than one QL. > >On the upside, ZIF sockets would make things easier. > >At Sandy, we had one of the QEPIII programmers, which we used to program all >the EPROMS in everything we made. We also had a ZIF carrier which could hold >four ROM sets. It didn't just switch the CL lines - it unpowered the >unwanted slots, because once we put four Sinclair plastic-cased ROMs in >there and the current draw was too much and popped something in the power >section! Weird. > >Dave > >On Sat, Feb 12, 2011 at 6:16 PM, Peter Graf <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Hi Lee, >> >> > So I need to look out for a Gc, SGC or Minerva conversion kit, >> > haven't seen those on eBay or sell my retro >> >> For Minerva ROM you could try >> >> 1. Get an M27C512 and a 28 pin DIL socket (wide, long pins) >> 2. Program lower 48 KB with Minerva, and upper 16 KB with extension ROM >> binary of your choice >> 3. Lift up pin 1, 20, 22. >> 4. Press M27C512 into an IC socket >> 5. Wire socket pin 20 to M27C512 pin 1 >> 6. Wire socket pin 22 to M27C512 pin 20 >> 7. Wire M27C512 pin 28 to M27C512 pin 22 >> 8. Remove both QL ROMs from socket >> 9. Press in the M27C512 with it's socket into one of the QL sockets >> >> All the best >> Peter >> >> _______________________________________________ >> QL-Users Mailing List >> http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm >> >_______________________________________________ >QL-Users Mailing List >http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm -- Malcolm Cadman _______________________________________________ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm _______________________________________________ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
