I seem to recall the following information from many years ago:

1) cabling has to be reversed, i.e. using standard leads, the
microdrives end up facing away from you. (you probably knew this
already if you've actually got 2 of them working)

2) there is a slight speed difference between QL and ZX microdrives,
but usually does not matter too much, but may show up in format
operations or reading 'marginal' cartridges. IIRC, there was a
recommendation that you did not format QL cartridges using ZX
microdrives on a QL, not sure if this was due to speed variations or
what.

3) the format of ZX, QL and OPD/Tonto cartridges are different

4) presumably you have tried these drives on a Spectrum to check that
they do actually work on a spectrum system?

Dilwyn Jones

Rich Mellor wrote:

> Here's a little oddity...
>
> I have got 3 ZX microdrives which supposedly work with the Spectrum
(and
> Interface 1).  However, I have tested them by adding them to the
QL's
> microdrive expansion port and using FORMAT ram1_mdv3 (thanks
Miracle) with
> the following results:
>
> 1) All 3 plugged in together, give format failed on mdv3 to mdv5
> 2) I tried the middle ZX Microdrive on its own - that gave format
failed..
> 3) I tried each of the other two ZX Microdrive units on their own -
both give
> 255/255 sectors (ie. all sectors on the cartridge are copied
across).
> 4) I tried these 2 working ZX Microdrive units together - both now
allow the
> format command to copy the microdrive cartridge, but they only give
248/255
> sectors and 221/255 sectors
>
> Hmm - is there a loss of signal when using more than one add-on ZX
Microdrive
> ?? I seem to recall that these units were not up to the same
standard as the
> built -in QL microdrives - am I correct??


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