On 5/3/01 at 1:06 PM Bojan Kotur
wrote:
> The Problem with QL's in Slovenia (anyone know
where my country is?)
Of course I do, I'm from Croatia... living in the
US now, though :-)
> was that they weren't very popular... to tell
you the truth, I've never even
> seen a QL until I bought this one :) So...
getting another second hand
> machine would be close to impossible. Sad
isn't it?
Not sad - wrong!
There is at least one user from Slovenia on this
very list, though he seems to be sleeping right now (Branko? Are you here? Type
1 for yes, 0 for no!). In any case, I'll give him a buzz privately, he will
probably be able (and hopefully willing) to help you. I think he may be one of
the rare remaining sources of QL hardware knowledge around, and he's in
Ljubljana.
In the old days there used to be quite a lot of QLers in Slovenia, and
certainly in Croatia (some are still there, I'll see if I can get a hold of
them).
> Hmm... I'm not very familiar with the design of the keyboard itself but I
> wonder... would it be possible to make a membrane at home using a
> very thin electric circuit and connecting it to the motherboard by a flat
> cable?
Short answer: yes. Done that myself. Actually, I've used the metalic paper
from a Sinclair ZX printer to construct membranes.
When Iskra-Delta went bust around 1990 I used to travel to Ljubljana twice
a week to their auction sale, and I bought a number of keyboards and
rewired them for QL use.
> If I got it right all the keys actually do is close the contact when
you
> press down... ok, it's just an idea. :)
Yes, that's what they do. The basic matrix is 8x8 (not surprising since the
QL has 64 keys, not counting dubles). In practise, there are added rows/columns
for keys such as shift, alt, ctrl. A look at the membrane should tell you
everything you need to know.
Connectors: it was almost standard procedure to pull out the VERO modular
connectors and modify the case to use standard DB9 connectors. It does require
some carefull work but it's not extremely difficult. In my experience the Vero
connectors are very difficult (if not impossible) to find on mainland Europe
since to my knowledge they were never in any widespread use.
Thanks for all the answers!
Bojan Kotur
