All, Peter has been sharing information with me for a while on this project so it is going to be relatively easy for me to take it forward, and I do plan to release it as a commercial product as soon as possible.
Here is the current position: The hardware is working on black box QLs but there are still some issues to be overcome relating to noise pickup. This is especially problematic if the SD card holder is mounted in a vacated microdrive slot. Peter has already redesigned the PCB to get around this problem. There are problems with the Super Gold Card that have not yet been resolved. The Gold Card has not been tested at all (because I don't have one). The software is written. There are two drivers available: 1) QL-SD, a driver written in C derived from Dirk Steinkopf's QL-HD driver. At present this is too big to fit into a 16K EPROM and needs further optimisation. 2) An EDDE 2 driver that is both compatible with the Ser-USB and USBWiz over Q-BUS and is able to mount FAT32 volumes holding file system images. This is ROM-able and supports booting from an SD Card. All v2.x Ser-USB/Q-BUS utilities (Partition Manager etc) work with this and the partition formats are identical. 3) An EDDE 2 Block Device Interface driver for Q-emuLator's emulated hardware interface. This allows file system images to be accessed on the PC and read/written by QL software running under Q-emuLator. I currently have two functioning hardware prototypes: The QLROMEXT which plugs into one of the QL's interal ROM sockets. The SD Card carrier fits into a vacated microdrive position. The QLROMEXTernal which plugs into the ROM port with the SD Card socket onboard. This last month has been a busy one for me, but as soon as I am able to do so I will publish some information on the Memory Lane web site. The next step will be the creation of some new production prototypes. If anyone is interested in testing these units when they are available (there will only be a very limited number - probably no more than two or three) please get in touch. I don't expect to be in a position to supply these until the beginning of March due to other commitments. I would like to pay tribute to Peter's design and engineering skills in creating the QL-SD and getting the original C driver up and running. The product has always been his brainchild but we are very happy to be able to take it forward and will hopefully do that design justice. Adrian www.memorylanecomputing.com On 01/02/2012 14:29, Tony Firshman wrote: > > On Feb 1, at 13:56 | Feb1, Dilwyn Jones wrote: > >> Peter Graf wrote: >>> I have decided to pass on the QL-SD project to Adrian Ives. Adrian has >>> received all my schematics, partslists, files for PCB manufacture, >>> source code and a small number of PCB prototypes. He is entitled to >>> release the product or modify it. >>> >>> The project was slowed down by my lack of time, so I'm extraordinary >>> thankful that Adrian is willing to move forward with QL-SD. >> Great news. >> >> The ability to replace a microdrive cartridge with a SD card will be really >> useful. >> >> I look forward to its release. >> >> > I have seen the designs and it looks very professional. > I know Peter was very very close to giving up the project in its early stages > before design, and I gave him some encouragment. > I am glad he continued. > > Tony > _______________________________________________ QL-Users Mailing List http://www.q-v-d.demon.co.uk/smsqe.htm
