User Manual - Dilwyn Jones Sinclair QL Pages
Contents
1. You do not need to actually back up to another real SD card you can simply copy all the files onto a safe place on your PC hard disk or even better Store it on a CD ROM From a PC viewpoint there is really nothing non standard on this SD card it should happily copy all the files across 3 Hardware Installation As QL SD is intended to go inside the QL s case leaving the original stylish outside intact as much as possible you will need to open up your QL case and replace some chips No soldering is required just a bit of caution and common sense If you have never handled electronic devices before please be assured installation is actually quite easy just take your time and don t force it Important note regarding keyboard membranes In order to install QL SD you will need to open up the QL case and handle its inner parts QL keyboard membranes usually become brittle with age and tend to break easily when moved and you need to do that when installing QL SD resulting in a non working keyboard Sometimes it is possible to repair a broken membrane by just shortening the ends that go into the QL main board connectors a bit but that is not recommended and will not last long anyway If your QL still has its original membrane probably now is the time to look for a replacement RWAP services in the U K are selling high quality replacement membranes QL SD User Manual Document Version 1 01 12 1 2014 6 3 1 Opening t2. s root directory It must not be resized renamed or otherwise tampered with other than from the QL or a QL Emulator equipped with a proper BDI driver The FAT32 system may contain further files but caution must be taken so the native QL file system image is not harmed Makelmage exe needs 4 parameters in order to create the QL disk image for you 1 Image Filename This is the DOS Name of the image created It will be shown when you display a directory of the SD Card from the PC The name should have the drive and root directory designation in front of it Make sure you choose the correct drive the SD Card when you use Makelmage exe For the name itself there is not much of a choice Current versions of the QL SD driver will only pick up image files named QL BDI BIN 2 QL Medium Name Choose the name of the medium that you want the QL to display when you request a directory listing Otherwise the name is of no further relevance 3 File System Size in MB Megabytes Choose your file system size but make sure you read and understand the Memory Considerations text box below beforehand If in doubt enter 64 This will give you 64 MB of disk space Plenty of space for a QL 4 Group Size This is the size of a disk allocation cluster Explained in the text box Memory Considerations If in doubt enter 8 Note that by the time of writing this document group sizes larger than 16 have not been extensively tested
3. 2 signifying an EDDE 2 core the remaining three characters will either be a or an alphanumeric option letter You wouldn t normally need this command except for reporting bugs with the driver there are none 9 QL SD Hardware Level Commands The QL SD driver supports some commands that control how communications with the SD card is handled by the driver Most of those commands will not be of much use for normal operations but some of them might make sense for tracing bugs and make specifically nasty pieces of hardware work 9 1 SPI MODE Number The QL SD driver normally comes pre configured with the best mode for fast and reliable operations If your hardware will absolutely not cope with this mode you can slow down communications to the SD card and try if this will work better for you SPI MODE 0 Switches to the most basic SPI mode bit banged SP In this mode the QL itsself is directly transferring any single bit to and from the card without support from the QL SD hardware SPI MODE 1 Switches to high speed SPI mode fast background SPI SPI_MODE 2 Switches to the medium speed mode slow background SPI QL SD User Manual Document Version 1 01 12 1 2014 22 10 Direct Sector Access For compatibility with existing software that does direct sector I O on hard disks the QL SD driver supports this facility on native QDOS volumes To do this open the special file D2D as in OPEN 3
4. smaller you make the group size for the same size of disk the larger your map grows as there are more groups to keep track of The larger you make it the larger your slave blocks grow Groups are slaved together QL SD User Manual Document Version 1 01 12 1 2014 19 If you are tight on memory maybe you only have 256kb memory extension do not be tempted to make your File system too large You may end up with an unusable system because all your precious memory might be used up by the QL SD driver A recommended sensible setup for a QL with expanded memory would be a file system size of 64MB with a group size of 8 Miracle x Card owners can easily go for larger File system sizes The most extreme case is with an unexpanded QL Originally we thought it wouldn t even work with QL SD But a Group Size of 8 and a file system size of 3 MB seems to be the optimum working setup Maybe it s about time you consider expanding your QL s memory 8 QL SD Driver S BASIC Procedures and Functions The QL SD driver EDDE 2 core installs the following new procedures and functions into S BASIC SDC_START MOUNT UMOUNT SDC USE SDC BASE SDC VERS 8 1 SDC START Activates the QL SD driver in case activating it during the ROM initialisation sequence has been aborted by a key press If you simply boot your QL without pressing a key you will hardly ever need this command The ROM will then activate the driver and mount the
5. F2 If vou then wish to load the QL SD driver at a later time vou must use the SDC START command 11 4 Formatting The QL SD EDDE driver 2 can run in native mode and image mode Native mode allows to format an SDHC card purely with the QL or compatible computer However this would restrict usage of the card to the QL and not allow inter operation with PCs and emulators The default EPROM which comes with QL SD is configured for image mode To enforce native mode the driver load must be aborted during the QL startup banner and done manually with the SDC_START command The FORMAT commands then allows to do a directly physically format an SDHC card which has not been prepared For example FORMAT SDC1_ MySDHC Note This should not be done unless you are sure you do not wish to use the default image mode In the more versatile Image mode QL SD can also access native file system image but it resides within a normal file of the usual FAT32 partition of an SDHC card This is the recommended way of using the device 11 5 QL SD Driver Configuration Items The QL SD driver provides a number of configuration items in order to be able to adapt it to specific user or hardware environment requirements Obviously this makes only sense for the RAM based driver or for the ROM driver before it is actually burnt into EPROM The configuration is done using the QJump config or menuconfig programs QL SD uses a level 1 co
6. Group size 64 is known to not work with the current driver settings QL SD User Manual Document Version 1 01 12 1 2014 18 Image filename Afoa Ti QL medium name A i Filesvstem size in MB Group size The Makelmage exe program will not warn you if you specify Group Filesystem sizes your QL is not fit for How should it know how much memory you have Most probably the QL will simply crash when trying to mount that card for the first time and memory gets tight Very large group sizes might look desirable at first because you would be able to use more disk space But beware They could even slow down read and write operations The operating system can only read and write complete groups so your QL might end up in a situation where writing a small file will actually have to transfer much more bytes than just the file size to the card Remember The recommended group size of 8 means that the driver will read and write chunks of at least 4kb A group size of 64 will use a minimal allocation size of 32kb A simple rule of thumb might be Simply use a Group Size of 8 for everything smaller than 128MB 16 for everything bigger than 256MB 32 for 512MB and up should you really need it Really large images what would they be good for should use a Group Size of 64 By the time this document is written there is really no stable opinion on this from the beta testers It is however known that Group sizes above 32 will n
7. SDC1_ D2D The driver also allows the shortened form OPEN 3 SDC1_ D The channel so opened has the following limitations Data must be read or written in 512 byte blocks e The file pointer is interpreted as a sector LBA number relative to the start of the partition e Only absolute file pointer movements are permitted e Itis not possible to read a sector beyond the end of the partition Any attempt to do so will return End of File e Note that no files can be open on the logical drive with which you wish to perform direct I O 11 QL SD Driver The QL SD driver implements a Level 2 Directory Device Driver with subdirectories The current driver uses the EDDE 2 core no longer the initial QL SD core For more details see the Acknowledgements section There are further EDDE 2 based drivers e g for Ser USB and Q Emulator which are compatible and work on the same image files Important When working with the QL SD driver a minimum of 256K expansion memory is thoroughly recommended You will be able to use QL SD on an unexpanded QL but possible File system sizes are very limited Other versions of the QL SD driver may also be used with QL clones and QL emulators 11 1 Device Name The name of the QL SD device is normally sdc If this causes problems on your system or you wish to change it for some other reason you may alter the name of the device with the SDC_USE command changing it to win is probably a part
8. card in the drive SDC_START takes an optional single Long Word parameter containing a bit field of flags and configuration settings one of which is bit 6 F NATIVE FS which if set forces the driver to look for a native QDOS file system instead of a FAT32 image We already told you we do not recommend to use this mode did we SDC_START also allows you to pass the starting LBA of an image file on the FAT32 card and the number of buffers to use but this is for non standard configurations and not further explained here Example SDC_START Note that in current versions of the driver repeated use of SDC_START when it is not necessary might waste QL memory by allocating unnecessary duplicated space for the disk map and sector buffers So don t do it Note SDC_START is only available and needed in the ROM version of the driver The RAM based driver will execute an SDC_START functional look alike automatically once it is loaded and CALLed QL SD User Manual Document Version 1 01 12 1 2014 20 8 2 MOUNT Number Drive Partition Mount the specified physical drive and partition as the SDC device with the given number The short form of the command mounts logical drive 1 from partition 1 on the physical drive with the same number This short form is probably all you will ever need to know about this command Before a storage device can be used it has to be mounted as a QL drive There are eight drive numbers associa
9. drive LED from the daughterboard and instead connect the original QL microdrive LED in the case with two short pieces of wire and a connector This is perfectly possible and will retain a bit more of the original QL style Make sure you get the polarity right QL SD User Manual Document Version 1 01 12 1 2014 9 If you use the QL SD driver in the EPROM you should see the driver initialisation message on your trusty F1 F2 selection screen SD Card Driver v0 07 078 Press any key in 1 5s to abort load Congratulations You have just successfully installed QL SD in your computer Remark It is absolutely not mandatory to fit the QL SD daughterboard into a Microdrive slot of the QL We just think it is the most convenient solution given the declining usability of Microdrives these days If you want to retain the second Microdrive at all cost Feel free to find another space in the QL casing that can take the daughterboard without interfering with other components Some space near the ROM slot might as well suffice simply make sure the daughterboard is fixed firmly in place and does not have any electrical contact with any other QL component 4 First steps with QL SD In order to operate QL SD properly you obviously need an SD card QL SD will only work with SDHC card media typically cards with a capacity of 4 GB or higher although only a fraction of this size is actually used with the QL cards made according to older standards
10. even working at all in QLs equipped with the Miracle Gold Card It is thus not recommended to use it together with this extension 2 QL SD is not working reliably sometimes it is not even working at all in QLs equipped with the Miracle SuperGold Card It is thus not recommended to use it together with this extension 3 QL SD is principally incompatible with any software using the ROM slot area The Eidersoft ICE and mICE suite of programs and some Metacomco compilers are known examples 4 Unexpanded QLs with only the original 128k memory have severe limitations on possible filesystem sizes due to shortage of memory for the driver It is thoroughly recommended to use QL SD with a memory extension Problems 1 and 2 are still being worked on by the time of writing 3 and 4 are not considered problems It s just the way it is and will and can not be changed QL SD User Manual Document Version 1 01 12 1 2014 4 1 Introduction This is the User Manual for the QL SD device for Sinclair QLs and other computers running various QL alike operating systems QL SD is intended for retro computing and fun purposes not to process important data It has been developed with the aim in mind to give the QL a state of the art mass storage device given that Microdrives now nearing their 30th year tend to break a lot and replacements are very hard to find QL SD has been put together for you by a number of QL enthusiasts some of the
11. in there as well The following is just a list of files you should at least have a look at most are really worth installing them some of them are still commercial programs but most are in the Public Domain e Toolkit 2 Absolutely essential e pth device driver e sub device driver e dev_ device driver Note Needs THING extension from HOTKEY system II And by the time of writing we could not find a version that properly worked outside of SMSQ E QL SD User Manual Document Version 1 01 12 1 2014 15 e QPAC2 commercial needs Pointer Environment e Q Trans Part of Launchpad but freeware Note needs sdc use win or a patch to work with QL SD e Launchpad commercial e Pointer Environment e FiFi Jochen Merz commercial A fast file finder that helps you locate files by content or name This is about all you need to know to be able to work with your QL SD as a Hard Disk replacement The rest of this manual can actually be skipped in case you are content with mass storage you have now Most of the S Basic commands that come with the driver will only be needed for troubleshooting QL SD User Manual Document Version 1 01 12 1 2014 16 7 Preparing the SDHC Card The card needs to be freshly formatted FAT32 A card that has been in use for a while might possibly only be able to store the image file fragmented In order to prepare your card for QL SD operation you should have access to a PC with an SDHC capable card adapt
12. like MMC or SD only will not work QL SD normally uses the SD card in a way that most QL emulators do The QL file system resides in a large file on a DOS formatted disk The driver that came with the EPROM on your QL SD is also configured to use this mode as default When starting up the driver consults the card for a file named QL BDI BIN and assumes it holds the QL file system This file needs to have a special format otherwise the driver will refuse to load it Your QL SD comes with an SD Card that already holds a number of standard size file systems you can and should use to get you going Just pick the one you think that fits you and your QL and rename it on your PC to QL BDI BIN You can create your own QL_BDI BIN files using the tool Makelmage exe This is covered later in this manual 4 1 Selecting the File System Image to Use Memory Considerations for QL SD Image Files Any block device on the QL needs memory for various purposes and so does the QL SD Memory is used for slave blocks temporary buffers that hold data while it is being shoved in and out to the SD card or drive maps maps that hold information where on the SD card which piece of the respective file can be found In a nutshell the actual amount of memory needed mainly depends on the chosen file system image size The larger it is the more memory is needed for buffers and the map If you are tight on memory m
13. removal tool in case you have one or use a small screwdriver carefully sliding between socket and ROM repeatedly from either side prying the ROM from its socket slowly but steadily Make sure you do not bend the legs you will need the ROM intact afterwards should you decide not to use the QL SD EPROM If you intend to use the QL SD with its own dedicated ROM you need to remove both original QL ROMs IC33 IC34 in case you want to retain your original ROM version only remove one of them QL SD User Manual Document Version 1 01 12 1 2014 7 Once the ROM is removed the QL SD goes into one of the now empty ROM sockets of the QL Make sure you align the pins properly and carefully insert the QL SD into the ROM socket the connector to the daughterboard facing to the front of the QL pressing firmly down once you have made sure everything goes where it should If you have removed only one ROM that one goes now into the socket on top of the QL SD Make sure the small IC notch faces to the back of the QL Put the ROM into the inner rows of connectors on the QL SD and push it back in cautiously watching you do not bend the pins and all of them are properly inserted in the socket Inserting the QL SD EPROM is a bit more tricky but is already done for you by your supplier As the EPROM has much more capacity than the original ROMs it needs to be inserted a bit differently Some pins of the EPROM need to be bent outward a bit and do not go int
14. result in loss of the last writes or worse If you want to do something extra for your data safety you can issue a UMOUNT 1 command and then remove the card before actually switching off 5 Data Exchange with your PC Nowadays when most of the software for your QL comes from the Internet you might probably be wondering how you can transfer files from your Internet connected PC to your QL For a normal PC without additional software it is not possible to access the contents of a QL_BDI BIN file and thus read and write files in the QL file system contained therein 5 1 Transfer Using Disk Drives The least complicated way would be Use floppy disks if you have QL software is typically that small that a lot of software can be pushed onto a single even DD floppy disk You can also transfer zip files in compressed form and you get even more software onto the disk If you have owned that disk drive for a while you might already know how to best transfer from a DOS or Windows based computer to a QL disk There are some programs out there that facilitate FAT to QL disk transfers Search your favourite QL software archive 5 2 Transfer Using a BDI Driver Disk drives and disk interfaces are becoming a scarce resource nowadays and are heavily sought after If you watch the prices for used devices on popular auction platforms they are often even higher than what the equipment used to cost new decades ago So there must be an alternative
15. structure and do not store a lot of support files in their program directory we just got rid of the mess in the root directory you do not want to have it here instead Executables that do not fall into this category Psion Exchange or C68 might be examples should go into a directory of their own Obviously you would then have to remember where you have put that program before you would be able to start it This is where the pth_ dev_ and sub device dri vers see next paragraph come into play Note how the example picked pretty short names for the directory names Make sure you don t choose too long path names for the first level directories A QL path name is restricted to 36 bytes of length not including the sdc1_ device name no reason to waste a single character 6 2 2 Create a WORK_ directory With a large disk like QL SD it is very easy to end up with a completely cluttered root directory after some time of work Make sure that when you start a new project programming word processing whatever you create a new directory under sdc1_work_ and put everything that belongs to that project into that directory You want your root directory clean and tidy without having to search a long time for a file you created last week 6 2 3 The MAKE_DIR Command MAKE DIR is a command that comes with QL Toolkit 2 MAKE DIR creates a real Level 2 directory on QL SD or other Level 2 storage devices Level 2 directories are s
16. to using disks and there is Some QL Emulators for PCs might have a BDI driver that is able to access the contents of your QL disk images By the time of writing this document there are preliminary versions of such drivers available for Q Emulator and uglx Other drivers might become developed for other QL Emulators Please refer to the documentation that came with the BDI driver for your Emulator on how to transfer files between the systems 6 QL SD Usage Recommendations For a lot of users that are used to be using only floppy disks or even microdrives the huge capa city of storage that you can have with QL SD might be some sort of Culture Clash This chapter gives some general recommendations on how to adapt your organisation of data and ways of work ing with this huge amount of storage While we are trying to give some hints this is obviously not the place to explain all of the possible QL mass storage extensions TK2 is a must for every advanced QL user so should be the first extension loaded from the SDHC card if not included from ROM Through another extension like for example a Miracle TrumpCard 3 3 If you have a disk version of TK2 load TKII like that base RESPR 16384 LBYTES SDCI TK2 EXT base CALL base If that does not work i e crashes your QL it is because you might have a ROM binary which has a header that needs to be skipped Try this base RESPR 16384 LBYTES SDCI TK2 EXT base C
17. 4 SDC_USE Name Change the device name of the driver It is possible to rename the QL SD driver to something else This can for example be useful for compatibility with older programs that cannot recognise devices other than those installed on the basic QL You can use any three characters These must be upper case and the fourth character must always be a zero QL SD User Manual Document Version 1 01 12 1 2014 21 Example SDC_USE MDV The QL SD now pretends to be a Microdrive SDC_USE without a parameter resets the driver name to SDC SDC_USE WIN probably makes quite some sense and makes QL SD pretend to be a real hard disk 8 5 SDC_BASE Return the address of the QL SD driver s variables If this fails it means that the QL SD driver is not installed Other than checking whether the sdc device is available this command is only useful for debugging the driver 8 6 SDC_VER Mode Return QL SD driver version information as a string If the optional parameter Mode is omitted or is zero this function returns the full driver version string including core driver build number and status as a string Valid values for Mode are 1 the four character hardware version string is returned 2 the four character hardware type string is returned This will be QRXB for QL SD 3 returns a four character string containing the compile time options used when the driver was built The first character will always be a
18. ALL base PEEK W base 6 QL SD User Manual Document Version 1 01 12 1 2014 13 6 1 No more Reboots From now on the days of Insert Disk and re boot will probably be gone for you You can go on working like that but you will be losing a lot of potential of your new set up Instead invest a bit of time to develop a proper BOOT program that sets you up for rather longer sessions There are a number of good examples for such BOOT files around Check your favourite QL software repository or discuss the issue in one of the QL fora 6 2 Make Directories your Friends Large disk space will become largely unmanageable if you don t organise your files into directories It is not the slightest bit of fun to CTRL F5 yourself through screens and screens of file names because you decided to put everything into the root directory As QL SD comes with a fully fledged Level 2 device driver you can use real directories provided you are using at least TK2 Which normally comes with the QL SD ROM in one of the Images 6 2 1 Organise your Disk Space We would recommend a basic structure that employs a sys_ directory that is going to hold everything that you want loaded at BOOT time using LRESPR This makes maintenance of file locations versions and updates much easier Another one would be a progs_ directory that would hold all frequently used executable programs that do not expect a specific subdirectory
19. QL SD User Manual Contents CONEA iste ade A eee ee AT 2 1 IntroduetiOn ia sneren dessen dida 5 1 1 About This Manual ascii iecied hudddgeecetlane dad ictededaceiuiweievadasalacesteamaadaeecatlanad ateneaht tali eba 5 2 Qk SD Package Contents cidad data tt 5 2 11 BACKUP Yet sieb st abi tail nd 6 35 Hardware Installation tecate ltda lc 6 31 Opening the OL Casciari L g ab d re 7 3 2 ROM EPROM ConsideratlOnsS citrato lec abria 7 3 3 Installing the QE SD Main PCB vei cocccsetiad sa cocebetes ba it teste ctgcacietedve ei e a tt bi li ab tg abba 7 3 4 Installing the QL SD SDHC Daughter Board nanna ann nn nr mn nn 8 3 4 1 Mierodrive Removals etn ico 8 3 4 2 Daughterboard Installation eiii tit cta 9 32D Reassembliv is isir adek pi tatek b E eku titi ERE 9 45 First steps with QLESD it ocre eten baatte alleen erva troba 10 4 1 Selecting the File System Image to Use nn nn nn nn nn ann nnnnt mnn ee r ran n rn severe 10 Aalt Unexpanded Qis dir idi stars gab a tear ar tr cil add tas Aardenne tete daens 11 4 1 2 QL with 256kB Memory Expansion nennen enraiar edadia rai ai vennen 11 4 1 3 Fully Expanded QLs Gold Card and SuperGold Card Users nn 11 4 2 Installing the File Syste siasi a rt aa A erde dede danae 11 4 3 Starting Up the First Taine cri initiate aaan haven Ga denderen teha anaes 11 44 Changing SD Cards ii ia A ai 12 4 5 SWITCHING OM sirenes nternet Eater dte d
20. aybe you only have 256kb memory extension do not be tempted to choose a File system too large You may end up with an unusable system because all your precious memory might be used up by the QL SD driver for copies of the drive map and buffers A recommended sensible setup for a QL with with at least 256kB expanded memory would be a file system size of 64MB if you have 640kB memory you could go for 128MB image size Miracle x Card owners should be able to easily use even larger File system sizes although this has not been extensively tested by the time of writing Be aware the larger the buffer area needs to be the longer the QL will need to search through it Very large file systems can severely slow down your QL The most extreme case is with an unexpanded QL Originally we thought it wouldn t even work with QL SD But a file system size of 3 MB seems to be the optimum working setup leaving just about enough free memory to be able to do at least some sensible work with it Maybe it s about QL SD User Manual Document Version 1 01 12 1 2014 10 time you consider expanding your QL s memory If you are in doubt choose a 64MB image if you have an expanded QL to start with See how this works out with your particular QL for a while and decide then 4 1 1 Unexpanded QL For an unexpanded QL the choice of file systems is rather limited There is exactly one that you can sensibly use This file system gives you 3MB of space to wor
21. eft alone and on your own with any problems you might have Just make sure you support us as much as we support you This might probably give us a bit more hobby time to supply you with more exciting hardware and software developments around the QL QL SD User Manual Document Version 1 01 12 1 2014 28
22. ere are a number of programs out there especially older games that were written assuming the memory map of an unexpanded QL Those programs load code onto fixed addresses without using the proper QDOS mechanisms to actually claim that memory They Cuthbert in Space is a known example will happily overwrite crucial memory areas used and properly claimed by the QL SD driver and thus crash the QL 13 3 Acknowledgements Hardware and initial Firmware has been developed by Peter Graf The current QL SD Driver using the EDDE 2 core was originally written by Adrian Ives derived from the QUBIDE hard disk driver by Andrew Reed amp Phil Borman and from the SDHC card driver and FAT32 support written by Peter Graf The manual has been written by Tobias Fr schle and Peter Graf QL SD User Manual Document Version 1 01 12 1 2014 26 14 Copyright Notice amp License The QL SD EDDE 2 driver software is Copyright by Adrian Ives Andrew Reed Phil Borman and Peter Graf QL SD EDDE 2 is free software under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation The source code for the driver can normally be obtained from the same place that holds this manual No charge may be made for distributing copies of this manual or the software other than reasonable costs of duplication and postage 15 Disclaimer QL SD EDDE 2 is distributed in the hope that it will be useful but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY wit
23. f you are using a new card make sure no other files are on it before If the card saw other uses before consider to format it QL SD assumes the file system to be a contiguous file of data blocks If the card was in use before or there are other files on the card the PC might scatter the QL_BDI BIN file all around the card This will not work in the QL 4 3 Starting Up the First Time Now comes the moment of truth Insert the prepared SD Card You are working with a back up do you into QL SD s SD slot and power up or reset your computer You should be seeing the QL SD driver s sign on message followed by a number of further progress messages and finally OK QL SD should now be ready The device name used by QL SD is normally sdci Simply try a dir sdcl_ This should give you a directory of the QL SD file system note you will not see the same files as when you do a directory of the card in your PC QL SD does not operate directly on the SD card but instead in a file system image within the QL_BDI BIN file Any file system command will work as usual you simply use the sdc1_ device name instead of the QL SD User Manual Document Version 1 01 12 1 2014 11 flp1_ or mdv1_ you have been using up to now 4 4 Changing SD Cards Keeping in mind that QL SD has been designed as special type of hard disk for your QL and is also handled that way by the operating system you might wonder whether you can change SD Cards dur
24. gh there is quite a bit of protection built into the driver against destroying the image when cards that are still mounted are removed like frequently updating the disk map and trying to keep the unwritten data in slave blocks at a minimum there is still a very high chance to loose data Unmounting a partition that has not been mounted will not hurt so make sure you do it If you are an expert user and for some reason work with several partitions on the card Make absolutely sure all of them are un mounted before card removal It is pretty easy to forget one and destroy it 4 5 Switching Off As we have now discussed in length what might happen to your data if you inadvertantly remove the SD card without the driver noticing you might wonder what might be the right procedure to switch off your QL and end your QDOS session Actually there is not much to notice here except The driver waits about one second to write the map on the SD card after your last write access to the card The driver waits whether there are more write accesses to come because it does not want to constantly update the map on the card QL SD User Manual Document Version 1 01 12 1 2014 12 and thus wear the card s Flash memory more than necessary You might have noticed that after about one second after the last write access the drive LED is switched on for a short period of time Do not switch off the QL before this has completed Failing to do so will most probably
25. ghterboard sits too deep in the case you might have problems inserting and removing SDHC cards later or you might even damage the SDHC card slot Now you should connect the two boards with the supplied ribbon cable When you put the cable in place simply make sure it doesn t interfere with Microdrive 1 it would be passing by in the recommended set up The cable should pass mdv1_ on its rear and use the same path mdv1 s cable takes This is how the installed QL SD should look likez 3 5 Reassembly Bad manuals would now state Assembly follows the exact steps as disassembly but in the opposite order And we do exactly the same Re Insert the top case LED connections the keyboard connector strips and place the top cover on the bottom cover Make sure you didn t forget any screws or washers inside the case They might do severe damage when you switch on the QL Also thoroughly check that you have fitted all circuits the correct way round before applying power to the QL QL ICs at least the socketed ones all have their notches facing towards the back of the QL Leave the casing screws for the moment you first want to verify everything works as intended Power on your QL do not insert the SD card yet and make sure it boots up properly Also check that all the keys are working Once you have verified this you can put the screws back in place 2 Hardware cracks with some experience in soldering might want to remove the QL SD
26. he QL Case Before opening the case make sure you remove all Microdrive cartridges expansion and ROM boards from your QL Also make sure power is disconnected The QL case can be opened by removing the screws holding the upper and lower parts of the body together The screws are located on the underside of the QL 4 towards the front side on a recessed ledge and 4 towards the back side equally spaced along the length of the QL Note one of the rear screws might hide underneath a sticker On the right side of the QL there are two additional screws directly underneath the microdrives in about the middle of the bottom case Leave those alone when opening the case they are holding other QL parts on the inside Once you have removed the screws flip the QL around making sure that it doesn t fall apart yet and carefully lift the keyboard and top cover There are still some cables for the power LED and the keyboard connection that hold the upper and lower part together Carefully unplug those from the QL main board and remove the upper case QLs that weren t made in Korea by Samsung that is basically all U K and pre Issue 6 Models are said to have some tricky connectors for these cables be careful because if you bend the wires they seem to be very hard to slide back in 3 2 ROM EPROM Considerations You should now decide whether you want to use QL SD with its own dedicated ROM that comes with Minerva 1 98 and the QL SD driver This ha
27. he SPI bus Which is obviously much slower and normally only used during driver startup As QL SD lives in ROM space there is actually no direct way for the QL 68008 CPU to write access the QL SD registers A write of one single byte to QL SD is thus initiated by a read acess to a specific QL SD register bank offset by the value of the byte to be written to QL SD The CPLD translates this into a write into its internal data register 13 Known Issues 13 1 Hardware e Itis at least at the moment not recommended to use QL SD with the SuperGoldCard Instabilities have occurred on some of such systems e QL SD together with the normal especially older Gold Cards might also work unreliably There have been reports of at least one Gold Card user me unfortunately where QL SD would not work e QL SD will most probably not work with other hardware that uses I O addresses in the range of c000 to ffff the ROM slot area or copy protected software that wants to see its ROM in this area The Eidersoft ICE and mICE suite of programs are known examples 13 2 Driver e Partitions that require group sizes larger than 8 degrade performance and have caused problems on some systems Group sizes 64 and 128 were affected but the exact circumstances of these problems were not known at the time of writing Please test large partitions thoroughly on your system before using them for important data Best stick to partitions of 4 to 64 MB size e Th
28. hout even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE See the GNU General Public License for more details No responsibility is accepted for the loss of data or consequent damage of any kind resulting from the use of this device QL SD User Manual Document Version 1 01 12 1 2014 27 And a last word By the time of writing this document QL SD is still in its test phase Although we have done our best to supply you with a thoroughly tested working and secure system of software hardware and documentation you still might suffer data loss SD card corruption and other catastrophic failure Please make sure you install and operate QL SD with the best possible care and forethought you can Keep to the operating procedures described in this manual If something is unclear Do come back to us but please don t expect professional level support The team that brought you QL SD is a team of hobbyists that neither make any money from it nor have the time to support you with fixing broken parts damaged partitions and exploded file systems Before you care to bother us thoroughly try yourself or try and find someone around you with a bit of QL experience who might be able to support you QL SD is intended as a community project where people help each other to fix problems The QL Forum http www qlforum co uk or the QL Mailing lists might be a good place to start looking for help This does not mean you re l
29. ically interested You don t actually need to read or even understand this chapter in order to operate QL SD 12 1 The Address Map QL SD uses a quite a bit of address space in the QL SFEEO SFFFF QL SD Hardware register space C000 SFEDF QL SD on board ROM driver 0000 SBFFF Minerva 1 98 Replacing original ROM Minerva replaces the original ROM which has to be removed QL SD itsself occupies the complete address space originally reserved for the ROM slot for its driver software and hardware register space lt is obvious from the above address map that QL SD is not compatible with any other QL extension that uses the 16k ROM slot addresses C000 FFFF 12 2 The Hardware QL SD s hardware consists mainly of the Lattice Mach 4000 CPLD a pretty modern and fast it QL SD User Manual Document Version 1 01 12 1 2014 25 runs at 50 MHz reprogrammable logic chip The CPLD does the address decoding for the various QL SD hardware registers that it provides and for the QL SD EPROM The CPLD provides background SPI Serial Peripheral Interface The standard used to access SD cards transfer to and from the SD card In its normal mode the CPLD acts as a serial to parallel converter clocking the 8 bits of one byte directly in and out of the SD card without the need of further intervention from the QL There is however SPI mode 0 which allows the QL to directly access the data and clock lines of t
30. icularly good idea in order to be compatible with a lot of software that was designed to use QL hard disks 11 2 Buffers The EDDE 2 driver core does not use the QDOS SMS Slave Block system Instead it allocates it s own private slave blocks which are strictly limited to a configured maximum to avoid all available RAM being taken up by them You may use values between 0 and 2048 but the EDDE 2 core will automatically scale back that value if it would take an excessive amount of RAM A value of 0 causes the EDDE 2 core to allocate the most appropriate number for the amount of RAM in the system So better don t even try and care QL SD User Manual Document Version 1 01 12 1 2014 23 11 3 Starting the Driver The software comes in RAM or ROM versions The ROM version starts when booting the machine The RAM version is started by loading the file sdcard_target_RAM_bin where target must be replaced by a string identifying the machine for example qrx082 for the standard QL It can be loaded either with LBYTES followed by CALL or with the Toolkit II LRESPR command The ROM driver prints a message identifying itself to channel 0 for example SD Card Driver v0 07 078 Press anv kev in 1 5s to abort load At this point you have 1 5 seconds to press any key which will keep the driver from loading If you hit a kev in time this message will be displaved Load driver with SDC START command The QL can then be booted as normal bv pressing F1 or
31. ie bead daneen desea Ta ua 12 Sa Data Exchange with your PG i a dert deren ardennen daten ate eee Abies A aaa 13 Dt Lranster Using DISK Drives na arn Saves Gate Gate Gace bared Ga settee 13 9 2 Transfer Using a BDI DIVE ermana a Af aa d a en Aare Gl eae 13 6 QL SD Usage Recommendations zur die ei deren e e o eh taat an a da na fa 13 6 1 NOMOS REDOOIS ik mn T dna deken nn canal ged buen eae leenheer draa ende 13 6 2 Make Directories your Friends cani 13 6 21 Organise your Disk Space ii cad head 14 6 2 2 Cre te a WORK GOCO ooi a E ss 14 6 2 3 The MAKE DIR Command nanne eneen enenenennneereneneeersennserennnersneneeennennnerennnerenennnenen 14 6 2 4 Use DUP DDOWN DATA USE and PROG USE nnen nanna mnn nnnnnnmnnn nt 15 6 2 5 Use a File Manager ii zn ia in ki a iden EREE E eenen elende 15 6 3 Important Software for Large Disk Users mnn nnnnnn nn ran nn ne nc ren vennnen eenen 15 Preparing the SDHC Cards iia eee aen eeen heem alkeen Ras 17 7 1 Preparing the QL File System Image nnn enen nenenenennneneerennennnereerenvennnee veren vennnenee rene 17 8 QL SD Driver S BASIC Procedures and Functions seen ner ennenneereevennnennense vennen vennen 20 Srl SDE START ta ekke eeen a a an 20 8 2 MOUNT Number Drive Partition nn 21 8 3 UMOUNT N mbef is i avo ite dd di Si eae eed ener ane 21 874 ISDEZUSE NAame i ita is ed att daders nete hae der ene etende 21 8 57 ODE BASE
32. ing operation The simple answer for the casual QL user is Don t do it Computers aren t made to have their hard disks changed while running You might want to power down your QL before changing cards if you are unsure The more complicated but more dangerous answer is You can very well change SD cards while the QL is running provided you make sure you will always adhere to the following procedure Note that if you fail to use this mandatory procedure for changing SD cards on the fly you will sooner or later loose data Maybe single files maybe the complete QL file system or even the whole card contents You have been warned Before removing an SD card during operation always make sure you use the new S BASIC command UMOUNT 1 This tells the QL that its card is about to be removed The driver will walk through all its temporary buffers and write them to the card making sure everything that still needs to be written actually is As an additional activity it will update the sector map and write that as well Once the UMOUNT command returns and the drive LED is off you can safely remove the card After inserting a new card properly formatted and with a proper BDI image on it issue the S BASIC command MOUNT 1 This command tells the driver to inspect the newly inserted card for a proper FAT32 file system and a proper BDI image read the disk map from there and collect the root directory The new card is now usable Althou
33. ives up to now you probably didn t have much use for the above TKII commands Now you have Make yourself familiar with those commands and do use them In case you decide to use the pth_ Extension you probably want to leave the Program Default Directory set with PROG USE left untouched and constantly set to pthi Just add every new directory that is going to hold a specific program you regularly use to that path Make sure pth_ items are sorted by usage frequency The earlier a directory comes in there the faster it will be found 6 2 5 Use a File Manager When trying to manage a lot of files in complex directory structures file management programs can really help a lot Q Trans would be worth a recommendation 6 3 Important Software for Large Disk Users Make yourself familiar with at least the pth_ and sub_ device driver extensions if you find one that actually works the dev_ pseudo device would also be thoroughly recommended Instead of searching the lost file yourself the computer can do it for you pth_ is useful for having the computer find the files you want to execute spread across a number of directories dev_ and sub are particularly useful for programs that assume they can put or find all their files in the root directory or just cannot work in subdirectories like the Psion Four Most of the essential drivers have already been collected for you on the example BDI images on your SD card The associated manuals should be
34. k with on a typical unexpanded QL with no other tools loaded you are left with about 60kB of free memory after mounting that image This might be a severe limitation depending on thow you use your QL Generally it is not recommended to use QL SD on unexpanded QLs 4 1 2 QL with 256kB Memory Expansion For QLs with a memory expansion up to 256 kB a sensible file system size would be either 32MB or 64MB This leaves you with enough elbow room to work with on the QL while on the other hand you have plenty of space on the SD card Remember The Miracle Hard disk came with 40 MB 4 1 3 Fully Expanded QLs Gold Card and SuperGold Card Users Note GoldCard and SuperGoldCard systems are at the moment not recommended for usage with QL SD Memory should not be so much an issue here But remember the larger you make your file system the slower disk handling is going to be Depending on your storage space requirements 128MB to 256MB seem reasonable In any case it is thoroughly recommended to start with the 64MB file system image and explore your actual requirements before building your system 4 2 Installing the File System This is probably the easiest step Insert the SD card into your PC s card slot and rename the selected file system to QL_BDI BIN and you re done If you are starting with a freshly purchased card simply copy one of the images from the backup you did make one did you to the card and name it QL_BDI BINf I
35. m are listed in the acknowledgements section 1 1 About This Manual The QL users scene is manifold It ranges from the relatively novice unexperienced retro interested user who just obtained a QL from a flea market or a garage sale to the long time experienced QL Expert who writes an S Basic extension during lunch break This manual tries the impossible it is written for both types of users and all the rest that are located somewhere in between The first about half of it part covers all the basics you need to know to operate this new type of mass storage device with your QL The second part of the manual handles the more obscure and potentially dangerous to your data and your peace of mind probably aspects of the hardware and software Should you be willing to explore the commands and procedures described in the latter part of the manual it is assumed that you know what you are doing and are not trying to risk important data but instead work on backups and test cards For the more novice users There is really nothing in there you could probably need or really benefit from Most of it is diagnostic stuff or low level commands You won t be missing any of this If you notoriously tend to ignore manuals In case you belong to the 99 of people who want to see their newly acquired gadget working in no time and thus typically turn a blind eye to most sections of your precious manual Please make sure you at least read the chap
36. nfig block The only item that could actually make some changes would be the Buffers items that could be used to adapt to very small memory sizes or on the other end of the scale to very large partitions The defaults are adjusted for partition sizes at or around 64MB QL SD User Manual Document Version 1 01 12 1 2014 24 Configuration Item Function Default SPI Mode 1 SPI mode that is used during initialisation BITBN Bit Bang initial mount of the SD card BITBN Bit Bang FBGND Fast Background SBGND Slow Background SPI Mode 2 SPI mode that is used during normal FBGND Fast Background operation of QL SD BITBN Bit Bang FBGND Fast Background SBGND Slow Background Buffers Number of Buffers slave blocks of size 128 512 to allocate Note Should correlate with 0 2048 typically used partition sizes 0 means auto allocate but is currently untested Name Internal Device name for QL SD driver SDCO Any 3 Chars 0 LBAO LBA for initial logical block of QL partition O to mount if in native mode or 0 for image mode 0 419304 SDC1 Which physcal drive should be mounted as SD Card 1 initial drive sdc1_ when working with multiple drives None means Don t mount anything on startup SD Card 1 4 None 12 Some Technical Details This chapter covers some of the inner workings of QL SD for the techn
37. o the inner row of connectors but instead into the outer row on the QL SD socket If your QL SD did not come with the EPROM already inserted use a pair of fine pliers to slightly bend the respective pins outward with a short break inwards at the bottom so that the pin can be inserted vertically in the outer row of socket connectors Make sure the EPROM is inserted with its notch facing to the back of the QL and all pins are settled in their respective connectors properly 3 4 Installing the QL SD SDHC Daughter Board The second board holds a socket into which the SDHC card is inserted This board can be mounted instead of a microdrive unit allowing to insert and remove the card just like a Microdrive cartridge For this you need to remove one microdrive we recommend mdv2_ the rightmost one 3 4 1 Microdrive Removal In order to remove the microdrive which one doesn t actually matter We recommend to install QL SD into the right MD slot that is the most convenient place requiring the least modifications It makes life easier if you first remove the large heat sink on the right of the acl just behind the microdrives It is just a single screw in the centre of the heat sink and some washers and once removed makes access to the microdrive connectors on the QL main board much easier Temporarily remove that heat sink unplug the Microdrive cable from the main board then re install the heat sink The picture marks the Micr
38. odrive screws that need to be removed Leave the other screws in place You can now lift the Microdrive from the case and store it in a safe place You hopefully won t ever need it again al l adh eh ah sty 1 You can instead of mdv2_ alternatively remove mdv1_ and replace it with QL SD Note you will have to insert a bridge between the COMMS_IN and COMMS OUT connector of mdv1_ if you want mdv2_ to be operative after removal of 1 mdv2_ will the operate as mdv1_ You will have to insert a bridge for the same signals on the mdv2_ connector if you still want the external microdrive connector to be operative after the removal of mdv2 Genaerally If you remove one drive in the continuous chain of drives you need to insert that bridge at the removed drive s position to keep the drives later in the chain operative QL SD User Manual Document Version 1 01 12 1 2014 8 3 4 2 Daughterboard Installation The QL SD daughterboard goes into exactly the same place as the Microdrive and is mounted with the same screws Once installed check with the top case on whether the daughterboard fits correctly You want the top side of the daughterboard exactly flush or a little bit above with the casing slot Depending on the PCB material used the daughterboard might sit slightly deeper than the microdrive slot in the casing Should that be the case you should shim the daughterboard with thin plastic washers in order to lift it a small amount If the dau
39. ools from https www sdcard org downloads formatter 4 eula mac e Select Overwrite format e Make sure you have selected your SD Card and not something else e Click Format Linux e Use gparted or the command line version parted if you prefer if you don t have it install it as you usually would e Format the entire disk as FAT32 FAT16 will not work Make sure you select the correct disk 7 1 Preparing the QL File System Image The step above has prepared the SD card for use with a PC You want it to be usable with the QL QL SD User Manual Document Version 1 01 12 1 2014 17 however So the next step is to create the DOS File that will actually hold the QL file system As mentioned above QL SD comes with a number of pre created file system images of various sizes If you can t find one that suits your specific needs you can create your own images A QL image file can easily be created on a PC using the tool Makelmage exe tool that should have come with your QL SD or downloaded from a QL software repository on the internet IMPORTANT NOTE To keep the driver lean to fit into the available ROM space and fast there is no full implementation of a VFAT32 file system in there For this reason the driver will only work if the QL_BDI BIN image file is located in contiguous sectors on the VFAT32 SD card partition This is most easily achieved by copying the image on a freshly formatted SD card or at least on a card tha
40. or most of these nowadays are QL SD has two ways to store your data The native way of storing data on the card that is the one we do not recommend and you should only use this method if you 1 know what you are doing 2 know why you are doing it that way We can pretty much imagine 1 might be the case but not 2 There are actually only very few very obscure reasons why you would want to use the cards in native mode Data exchange with a PC or other modern day hardware will not be possible in this mode This manual concentrates on the usage of QL SD in image mode for the moment only The actually recommended method is to use the card in a mode that most QL emulators do The QL file system resides in a large file on a DOS formatted disk The driver that came with the EPROM on your QL SD is also configured to use this mode as default In case you don t know how to format an SD card on your computer refer to the text box below NOTE Formatting a card will wipe all data from it Formatting an SD Card Original borrowed from eLinux org Windows e Download and install the SD Association s Formatting tool from https www sdcard org downloads formatter_4 eula_windows e Open the Application you have just installed e Set FORMAT SIZE ADJUSTMENT to ON in the Options menu e Make sure you have selected the Drive your SD Card is inserted in e Click Format Mac e Download and install the SD Association s Formatting t
41. ot work with the current driver Note that if you choose a group size too small for the image size Makelmage will adapt it to the minimum figure for that image size Unfortunately for the moment we have no native support for creating BDI QDOS images other than on MS Windows but Linux Users please note Makelmage exe will happily run on Wine MacOS X Users please note Makelmage exe will happily run on Mac Parallels Memory Considerations when creating an Image File Any block device on the QL needs memory for various purposes and so does the QL SD Memory is used for slave blocks temporary buffers that hold data while it is being shoved out to the SD card or drive maps maps that hold information where on the SD card which piece of the respective file can be found The actual amount of memory needed depends on two parameters that need to be given when the BDI file is created File system Size and Group Size File system size sounds easy It simply specifies the amount of storage space you want in your image file But it has some hidden implications The larger you specify the File system size the larger your disk map is going to grow The more QL memory will be used by the driver for buffering the map On an expanded QL this should not be a problem unless you specify a ridiculously large file system On an unexpanded box it is A large one Group size is the size in 512 byte sized sectors of an allocation block on disk The
42. pecial files in the file system that hold the names of all further files contained in this directory You can easily distinguish Level 2 directories from normal files They are marked with a gt following the directory name when you issue a DIR command on the drive MAKE_DIR takes one string argument the full name of the directory to be created MAKE_DIR takes account of the TK2 data defaults Level 2 directories should be created before the actual files that go into them are copied to the directory So if you have a number of files like QL SD User Manual Document Version 1 01 12 1 2014 14 sdcl work file asm sdcl work file rel sdcl work another file You might want to first create the directory sdc1 work By issuing the command MAKE_DIR sdc1_work before you actually copy the files there Doing it the other way round will work just as well and move already existing files with matching names into the new directory but might waste disk space Level 2 directories can be deleted just like normal files using the DELETE command but only if they no longer contain any files You must first make sure a directory is empty before you can actually delete it If you don t have a proper MAKE_DIR command the images on the supplied SDHC card have a binary that implements MAKE_DIR and can be loaded into any QL 6 2 4 Use DUP DDOWN DATA_USE and PROG_USE When you only have been working with floppy disks or Microdr
43. s the advantage over any other solution that you will not need to load the driver from disk or microdrive before you can actually start using QL SD Minerva on the QL SD s EPROM is probably the most advanced and bug free versions of all QL ROMs The disadvantages of changing to Minerva are small There are still a small number of pieces of software around that are said not to be compatible with Minerva and you will need to load any non English keyboard layout from disk or rather QL SD It is thus thoroughly recommended to use the QL SD EPROM unless you have very good reason to do otherwise Unexpanded QLs will only work with the driver in ROM due to memory restrictions Should you go with the QL SD EPROM you need to remove both original QL ROMs from their sockets if you want to stay with your original ROMs remove only one of them once QL SD is installed it is going to be re fitted on top of QL SD If you want to go with QL SDs EPROM remove both original ROMs IC33 IC34 Actually it does not matter which of the ROM sockets is used QL SD works in both we recommend the right one Please note that the QL SD driver and hardware registers operate in the memory area originally intended for the ROM slot C000 FFFF With QL SD installed the QL ROM slot is no longer usable for other purposes 3 3 Installing the QL SD Main PCB As QL SD goes where the QL ROMs are normally located these need to be removed first Either use an IC
44. t has not had files deleted from it since the last format Deletion of files will create small areas of free space that a normal VFAT32 driver would collate into larger Space re use and allocate to files That files are called fragmented afterwards because the sectors belonging to them are not in contiguous space but instead inter mixed with other files sectors The QL SD driver is not able to handle fragmented image files It is not even detecting this situation but will instead happily overwrite areas of the SD card that do not belong to the image file And thus might destroy other PC related data on the card There are even tools in the PC world to de fragment a disk i e collate all files into contiguous space on the disk While those tools are available and some of them would even do the job It is probably not worth the effort As a general rule If you want to put a QL_BDI BIN image on an SD card simply format it first Start the tool press the New Image Icon and select a location for the image You then need to decide on File system size and Group size explained below Press OK and you are done This new image should be stored on your freshly FAT32 formatted SDHC card under the filename QL_BDI BIN BDI stands for the term Block Device Image and is also used in the context of a more general interface for QL file system access from within an emulator The image file must reside in the SD Card
45. ted with the QL SD driver SDC1 to SDC8 Any partition on any physical drive that the QL SD recognises can be mounted as any one of those drive numbers On startup of both the RAM and the ROM based version of the driver the first partition of the first SDHC drive most probably the only one is MOUNTed automatically if the driver is left at its initiel configuration So there is no need to do this manually Please refer to the paragraph on SD card changes for guidance on how to use this command properly Examples MOUNT 1 1 1 Mount partition 1 on drive 1 as SDC1 MOUNT 1 Mount partition 1 on drive 1 as SDC1 If the driver is configured to use BDI images it will mount QL_BDI BIN Note With the current driver BDI images can only be mounted from the first primary partition of the card 8 3 UMOUNT Number Unmount the specified SDC device This removes the mapping from the physical storage device to the QDOS drive number allowing the drive number to be re used by attaching it to a different physical drive partition Will also make sure that all the data that might still reside in slave blocks is truly copied to the disk After this command has been issued the card can be safely removed from the drive It will not be accessible before the next MOUNT command has been successfully executed Please refer to the paragraph on SD card changes for guidance on how to use this command properly Example UMOUNT 1 Un mount SDC1 8
46. ter on hardware installation followed by the quick guide for preparing an SDHC card Also don t forget to make a backup copy of the supplied SD card Once you have seen QL SD working please do come back and read the rest it is worth it 2 QL SD Package Contents QL SD consists of the following components 1 A small PCB board that makes up the actual QL SD This is intended to go into the ROM socket of one of the QL 4 4 svstem ROMs which one does not matter It contains y rT ff the main QL SD circuitry and has a second socket on top gt Kiih GEN to hold either the original ROM or a 64 KB EPROM with gt o LAR the Operating system and QL SD driver software QL SD User Manual Document Version 1 01 12 1 2014 5 2 A second small PCB board with an SD card socket to go in place of one of the two QL in built microdrives allowing you to change cards easily through the former microdrive access slot 3 A short piece of ribbon cable connecting the two PCB boards 4 A64KB EPROM with driver software and replacement operating system 5 An SD card containing a number of QL file system images the PC software and some QL software we deemed too important to miss for users of large storage systems 2 1 Backup Before you do anything else with QL SD please make sure you create a backup of the supplied SD Card It holds a lot of useful QL SD support software the documentation and a number of pre built file system images
47. wah ciate a Nek heeren banda eden sie eo ae 22 8 6 sSDC IVERS MOde is he ead abelen dbnl haden ee ad ee 22 9 QL SD Hardware Level Commands nanne errr tne eee e vennennereevennnenen se vennnennen arena ner rr seven 22 9 15 SPI MODE Number ic gece a e advent ever renee daterende A 22 10 Direct Sector ACTOS runnin cae tee as 23 112 OL SD Driver saar nternet a estonia died ae et deel 23 11 1 Device Name oi dee Mee at eee oben Ly 23 11 2 BUMENS tn reren neerde Ob entailed A haga a cee etd enol eve 23 11 3 Starting the Driver nnee eben dd da 24 11 4 Formattiva utd elen evn aten beleden denn naden tE 24 11 5 QL SD Driver Configuration Items nnn onnnennne een ennneenner anna nn nn nn rra nn rra r vennen ve vennen 24 12 Some Technical Details tm eve caddie deden wadden ennen On dada derden On ER RRE 25 12 1 The Address Map eds acetate cede nnn i nakede en ah Aen bene AR 25 12 25 The Hardware xi i date os eter eden eee ne ene 25 13 KNOW ISSUES A eed A A dede 26 A TA 26 UD a dedos Le 26 T AGkHOwedge menten oien Ea E ENE 26 QL SD User Manual Document Version 1 01 12 1 2014 2 14 Copyright Notice amp License i e ai ie e ice arden da gebed a ieee ee 15 Disclaimer QL SD User Manual Document Version 1 01 12 1 2014 IMPORTANT NOTE By the time of writing this document the following incompatibilities between QL SD and standard QL hardware were known 1 QL SD is not working reliably sometimes it is not
Download Pdf Manuals
Related Search