Noel, I really liked the part of the video where you broke out the breadboard and made your own sound circuit. Seeing that sort of thing really helps us new electronic hobbyists to imagine what we might be able to do with the various things we have learned so far. One of the hardest things when you are new at electronics is to put together bits and pieces of knowledge you have learned into something cohesive and tangible. Thanks for showing us newbies the way and broadening our horizons in the process.
A warning about PCBWAY: These guys add the shipping cost to the "declared value for customs", and if you chose a fast delivery company, lets say DHL, you are going to have your PCBs stopped at customs and required to pay an order of magnitude more than expected for the PCBs. (in my case a $9 PCBs ended at $81 :(
Great video again! I'd add a buffering transistor between the power signal (the one that lights up the LED) and your contraption, though. The first time you connected it, your circuit produced a sound but the LED didn't even illuminate. In the final version the LED pulsates together with the sound. So your sound circuit is pulling more current from that line than it was made to provide. Long term, it could damage whatever pin is providing that signal (the one that goes into the LED).
The 555's Reset pin can be used as an enable signal for the sound. This would let you power the circuit from a different supply if you wanted to. It is usually a good idea to bypass the supply running a 555. You can scale the resistors up and the capacitors down to get the design to use a physically smaller capacitor.
Back in the day, I installed a mouse interface called the QIMI in my QL, it allowed me to connect an Atari ST-compatible mouse. The problem was I didn't really have any mouse-driven software! The thing I really wanted, but never got, was the replacement for the 8049 coprocessor which I think was called Hermes. It had a number of enhancements but the main one was a fix for the key bounce issues that the QL suffered from.
Noel, I agree, the vDrveQL plus vMap are the two first add-ons for and basic black QL. The addition of the Banks makes it possible to setup whole environments for work or play. One niggle though The Gold Card (and clone) or the Super Gold Card (and clone) do not like the vDrive software.
A really great video. I work most of the time on emulators and software in general. This video has motivated me to install the vmap this weekend after it was in storage for some weeks. Also I've added the sound as you showed in the video. Please make more of those little hardware projects which are doable also for hardware rookies like me. Most of the channels show either (too) big projects or too complex ones. Big compliment again, i love your channel 👍👍👍
If you measure with a scope it measures peak to peak AC voltage. A multimeter measures RMS AC voltage. Thats why it seems higher with a scope. I love your channel.
The side pin on these power jacks is not connected to the outer terminal, instead, it is part of the switch contact that gets opened when a plug is inserted (it is connected to the other pin when there is no plug inserted, to switch over to a battery). Often, when its not needed, the switch contact is grounded, but it doesnt need to be and sometimes, isnt. The outer/negative contact is the one under the jack.
I love how even the power supply is actually an upgrade because it has a switch! I also love the Lego minifigs. :) Interesting! I don't know if I would have thought of running a piezo device at 30Hz. It makes a nice effect. The 3Hz one sounds like a disk drive head seeking. :)
Noel, I suspect your piezo speaker is actually an integrated beeper rather than just the bare element so when you apply power to it it will produce a constant tone all by itself. This is likely why the emulated sound for the microdrive is so terrible. If you get a bare element, hook that up, and maybe glue it to the plastic case for the microdrive emulator, it may well sound a heck of a lot better. It's possible that who ever assembled the unit in China did not understand what was actually needed. I've seen the same problem with digital alarm clock kits too.
The 555 on the sd drive reminds me of electric vehicles needing noisemakers to alert pedestrians of their presence. Nice job, (though beware of assuming adhesives stay non-conductive over the long-term, probably not a huge deal here).
And people thought the I/O sounds the Atari 8-bit was annoying, but actually it lets you know data is moving around. So you added an I/O audio upgrade for your Microdrive. Heh! 👍
You have a way of explaining your thought processes that makes it almost seem doable for a mere mortal. I wonder if this microdrive will work on the ZX spectrum also?
I wondered that. The QL plugs into the left side of the v/drive, but the Interface 1 plugs into the right side of the m/drive. So I have no idea if drives are swapable between the two.
The drive shown is the vDriveQL, but there is a vDriveZX for the Interface 1/Spectrum. Basically slightly different firmware and the cable connects to the opposite end as the QL has the drive interface on the right and Interface 1 on the left.
What an excellent idea!. All systems should make some noise and, is so easy. Tempted here to install a 555+cap+resistor to my turtle..... Another brilliant video from Noel!!!!
instead of whirr, you use a fan. 12v 30/40mm or something similar and run it from 5v-9v if you can. (depending how loud you want it) Still not the same noise but it seems like a closer match and it's a tolerable sound. If you really wanted to do it justice you'd want a small motor pulling small looped tape around but that getting a bit to extra. Also 3hz (and the other slow one) from the 555 sounds like a FDD or something so that's quite nice.
For the vDrive QL, it is recommended to install a vMap, that way you can assign driveletters to the mdv_ drives, like f.e. you can make mdv3_ into mdv2_ or probably (not sure) mdv1_
Love your stuff! if you want the 3d print to look smoother like the original power supply, there is a 3D print spray you can use on it to smooth out the layer lines :)
Oh nice, there is a comment about the PSU case. I think there is an unanswered question: Why is this only an adapter? You cannot put a mains connector into a 3D printed case. Unless you want to kill others and yourself...
Oh, please don't adopt RR's puns and "Dad jokes". It's just PCBway ;-) I've never seen a Sinclair in person. Wasn't quite the phenomenon in the US, but I do enjoy these breakdown videos.
What a great and informative video. I'd really like to purchase a retro system to brush up on my basic and assembler programming skills, something I haven't done for a while. Do I go C64, C128 or Sinclair ZX Spectrum or QL route? What are the pitfalls and is there anything that can make these systems work with modern monitors rather than the older CRT screens?
That ended up being a pretty nice replacement whirr sound. If I can't get the recorded whirr sound to work I will try that. With yours, could you have used the built-in piezo buzzer?
top stuff yet again Noel good job!... i really like them 3d printed cases for the QL...they go together nicely... its a little strange to need to add that whir(?) emulator and external buzzer...with it having the buzzer already on the board... it should be able to pump out some sound when accessing.. i guess the arduino boards need some updated code...with your solution, the buzzer is always running whenever the external drive is powered... it should only be making noise when its accessing....
@@JorgeCarvalho_web_dev I'm sure your opinion is as valid as anyone elses', but equally, not everyone else will share it. Perhaps let them decide for themselves, rather than saying nasty things about the QL. I've never used one, but it's one of many oddball computers that never took off. A SAM Coupe? Good luck with that, they are as rare as hen's teeth and rocking horse poo.
Great job (as usual) Noel! However, I've noticed that your mod makes the LED light to fluctuate a bit (see 23:20). I guess because of the current draw. Perhaps a transistor might help there :)
I bought a refurbished QL, maybe about 2 years ago? Just a machine, didn't know exactly how stupidly difficult it is to get an PSU for it... Maybe in future I'll get this power converter and definately need to get the MD-emulator...
I'm really puzzled why the qdrive has a piezo sounder in it that it doesn't appear to use - an obvious use for it would have been to make the drive activity noise. Is it possible that it might be a feature thats not implemented or not switchen on?
Did anyone see four green stripes at about 22:43. I also had this on Adrian's digital basements youtube video yesterday. Kind of wondering if its my firestick or TH-cam. Very odd. Does it every time I replay it. Thanks.
I see someone is a fan of the Calvin & Hobbes comic strip! The option with the 47 uF capacitor makes it sound more like the disk head-seek sound on an old Apple Disk ][ drive! 🤓
I thought maybe a tiny motor that slowly spins a scraper over a metal disc mountet to the case for resonance to create the sound for the microdrive could be interesting. The problem might be finding an inexpensive motor that size. Maybe an old phone vibration motor without the imbalance part could work? I don't know, probably not.
Wow, you've made a wonderful work with the whirr unit, it sounds much better. Congrats. But... I really would like to whatch a good game running on the QL instead of such crap.
I was reading some of the manual-text as it scrolled by, and i think there is a way to disable the internal 2 drives and get a full 8 drive setup (with some drive-access caveats) so maybe that could get the quill program running from a differently numbered drive?
Good catch! Yes, that's from an earlier take that for some reason made it into the final video 😜 I did plug it in the right row right after and there was no signal either.
@@NoelsRetroLab please also replace the LED on the vdrive to match the red LED on the original microdrives. Also, is it possible to put the vdrive internally inside the QL where the first microdrive is?
@@WacKEDmaN you mean that thing with games that look nice as long as nothing moves on the screen (or you are looking at screenshots) and are half deaf? 😁😂
A ground pin not connected? This is different from the minus connection of the 12v power supply? Because, you do need a plus and a minus connection....
Maybe I am wrong... but I think in the breadboard when you worked with the buzzer... it is not right connected. One pin was connected one pin out, I mean to the next one.
Nice video. Did you know the Microdrives and V-drives suck as the QL version connects to the left and the Spectrum version connects on the right which makes them non interchangeable. Oh and you suck at checking your Facebook messages :-P
you should have pure sine wave. class-d amplifier puts out square signal but you have a filter so you get sine wave. if you have too many volts in, the power regulator inside the computer will be hotter!
buzzers work well on square waves as they are piezo... tiny ones are horrible for normal audio coz they only produce a certain range of frequencies..eg no low end..they only like the fast stuff...eg the 30khz or so Noel had setup (which is strange coz human hearing only goes to 20khz!)
@22:01 - sounds more like a broken hard drive. 😥 Maybe not the sound to aim for, eh? And why does the vDrive need a “sound” unit when it already has a piezo-buzzer on the PCB?
I also had a speccy with a microdrive. Until it fried a chip one night back in 1986. I used it as an alarm clock in high school. I guess it didn't enjoy being on every night.
@@donaldklopper I fried my Interface 1 overnight as well, in the 90's. I was rendering stop motion animation and saving the frames as compressed Screen$ to M/Drive. When I got up in the morning, all 3 drives were just whirring to themselves, the IF1 ROM chip had overheated, melting the interface to the bottom of my +2. The Speccy still works to this day. :). The IF1 was toast. :(
@@frankowalker4662 I had a 48K Speccy, and it also fried the IF1, the Speccy still worked, even though it had left around a 1 inch melt mark on the bottom of the Speccy. I couldn't get anyone to fix it. Very sad.
@@donaldklopper Yeah, No-one seemed do do repair work back then. It was classed as too old to bother with. :( I've seen a few IF1's on ebay with a shiny spot just above the ROM chip, AVOID these at all costs, it's a sign of overheating.
First to watch, first to like, first to comment! :) Anyway, baad Noel, baaaad... Now I want a QL again... I guessed I grew out of it since QLvember, but now it's back...
Haha, tell me about it. I didn't grow up with the QL, but it really hit something for me. It's a very interesting system with a lot of potential. It was killed early, so we never got to see what it could have been, but the community has been active and keeping it alive. I'm really liking it. Now that I have the vDrive, I'm looking forward to checking out some of the games and utilities on it too!
@@fcastellanos My decision was based on the fact the the Atari ST had built in MIDI( I'm a musician so that was a not brainer) and that it was Atari. I was already burned by Sinclair when I bought a TS2068, only to learn a week lter that it was discontinued. I was rather ticked off.
@@NoelsRetroLab you didn´t need to type any command to launch QUILL. Just put it in microdrive1 and power on the QL. You can also make your own microdrive volume autoboot in the same way.
The case designs are lovely, but they are utterly let down by the 3D printing. They just look like mock up prototypes rather than finished items. With quality cases, or even higher quality professionally 3d printed cases these would look and work fantastic!
Waste of time, none of the decent games or even most of the commercial games have been archived for free download like EVERY OTHER HOME COMPUTER because some 'businessman' licensed them all then hoarded them and threatened legal action against any kind of TOSEC project continuing.
Be careful showing LEGO figures or even replicas. Their lawyers are currently making themselves unpopular everywhere. Especially when figures are not LEGO but are the same size. Even if the lawyers are worried some traders, there is now growing resistance in the community of youtubers and buyers.
Noel, I really liked the part of the video where you broke out the breadboard and made your own sound circuit. Seeing that sort of thing really helps us new electronic hobbyists to imagine what we might be able to do with the various things we have learned so far. One of the hardest things when you are new at electronics is to put together bits and pieces of knowledge you have learned into something cohesive and tangible. Thanks for showing us newbies the way and broadening our horizons in the process.
A warning about PCBWAY:
These guys add the shipping cost to the "declared value for customs", and if you chose a fast delivery company, lets say DHL, you are going to have your PCBs stopped at customs and required to pay an order of magnitude more than expected for the PCBs. (in my case a $9 PCBs ended at $81 :(
Great video again! I'd add a buffering transistor between the power signal (the one that lights up the LED) and your contraption, though. The first time you connected it, your circuit produced a sound but the LED didn't even illuminate. In the final version the LED pulsates together with the sound. So your sound circuit is pulling more current from that line than it was made to provide. Long term, it could damage whatever pin is providing that signal (the one that goes into the LED).
Do they do a sound emulation for the grinding screech of the microdrives self destruction?
The 555's Reset pin can be used as an enable signal for the sound. This would let you power the circuit from a different supply if you wanted to.
It is usually a good idea to bypass the supply running a 555.
You can scale the resistors up and the capacitors down to get the design to use a physically smaller capacitor.
Back in the day, I installed a mouse interface called the QIMI in my QL, it allowed me to connect an Atari ST-compatible mouse. The problem was I didn't really have any mouse-driven software!
The thing I really wanted, but never got, was the replacement for the 8049 coprocessor which I think was called Hermes. It had a number of enhancements but the main one was a fix for the key bounce issues that the QL suffered from.
Yeah, that Whirr unit was like nails on chalkboard to me. I like your solution much, much better. Well done.
Fascinating stuff. Too many of these videos and I'll be digging out my old QLs and spending silly money upgrading them.
Noel, I agree, the vDrveQL plus vMap are the two first add-ons for and basic black QL. The addition of the Banks makes it possible to setup whole environments for work or play. One niggle though The Gold Card (and clone) or the Super Gold Card (and clone) do not like the vDrive software.
Yes, once you get used to it, the power of the vDrive and vMap is awesome. I didn't know about the Gold Card incompatibility though. That's a bummer!
The trusty NE555 to their rescue again. Such a useful versatile little IC.
Thank god you changed that sound! I was thinking...what was that person thinking making such an annoying sound. xD
A really great video. I work most of the time on emulators and software in general. This video has motivated me to install the vmap this weekend after it was in storage for some weeks. Also I've added the sound as you showed in the video. Please make more of those little hardware projects which are doable also for hardware rookies like me. Most of the channels show either (too) big projects or too complex ones.
Big compliment again, i love your channel 👍👍👍
If you measure with a scope it measures peak to peak AC voltage. A multimeter measures RMS AC voltage. Thats why it seems higher with a scope.
I love your channel.
The side pin on these power jacks is not connected to the outer terminal, instead, it is part of the switch contact that gets opened when a plug is inserted (it is connected to the other pin when there is no plug inserted, to switch over to a battery). Often, when its not needed, the switch contact is grounded, but it doesnt need to be and sometimes, isnt.
The outer/negative contact is the one under the jack.
I love how even the power supply is actually an upgrade because it has a switch!
I also love the Lego minifigs. :)
Interesting! I don't know if I would have thought of running a piezo device at 30Hz. It makes a nice effect. The 3Hz one sounds like a disk drive head seeking. :)
Noel, I suspect your piezo speaker is actually an integrated beeper rather than just the bare element so when you apply power to it it will produce a constant tone all by itself. This is likely why the emulated sound for the microdrive is so terrible. If you get a bare element, hook that up, and maybe glue it to the plastic case for the microdrive emulator, it may well sound a heck of a lot better. It's possible that who ever assembled the unit in China did not understand what was actually needed. I've seen the same problem with digital alarm clock kits too.
The 555 on the sd drive reminds me of electric vehicles needing noisemakers to alert pedestrians of their presence. Nice job, (though beware of assuming adhesives stay non-conductive over the long-term, probably not a huge deal here).
PCBWaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy is how I think it's pronounced. :D
I concur.
And people thought the I/O sounds the Atari 8-bit was annoying, but actually it lets you know data is moving around. So you added an I/O audio upgrade for your Microdrive. Heh! 👍
You have a way of explaining your thought processes that makes it almost seem doable for a mere mortal.
I wonder if this microdrive will work on the ZX spectrum also?
I wondered that. The QL plugs into the left side of the v/drive, but the Interface 1 plugs into the right side of the m/drive. So I have no idea if drives are swapable between the two.
@@pe1dnn Cool, But the price of an Interface 1 is far too high.
@@pe1dnn Oh man that would be AWESOME to play with. Too many toys, too little time (I mean money) ...
The drive shown is the vDriveQL, but there is a vDriveZX for the Interface 1/Spectrum. Basically slightly different firmware and the cable connects to the opposite end as the QL has the drive interface on the right and Interface 1 on the left.
What an excellent idea!. All systems should make some noise and, is so easy. Tempted here to install a 555+cap+resistor to my turtle..... Another brilliant video from Noel!!!!
The video content is so excellent, congratulations
that is such a magical t-shit .... gone but not forgotten Mr Hobbs.
instead of whirr, you use a fan. 12v 30/40mm or something similar and run it from 5v-9v if you can. (depending how loud you want it)
Still not the same noise but it seems like a closer match and it's a tolerable sound.
If you really wanted to do it justice you'd want a small motor pulling small looped tape around but that getting a bit to extra.
Also 3hz (and the other slow one) from the 555 sounds like a FDD or something so that's quite nice.
I like your whirr noise! (47 seems about right)
For the vDrive QL, it is recommended to install a vMap, that way you can assign driveletters to the mdv_ drives, like f.e. you can make mdv3_ into mdv2_ or probably (not sure) mdv1_
oops, didn't look at the complete vid before i reacted here :)
Love your stuff! if you want the 3d print to look smoother like the original power supply, there is a 3D print spray you can use on it to smooth out the layer lines :)
Oh nice, there is a comment about the PSU case.
I think there is an unanswered question: Why is this only an adapter?
You cannot put a mains connector into a 3D printed case.
Unless you want to kill others and yourself...
Oh, please don't adopt RR's puns and "Dad jokes". It's just PCBway ;-)
I've never seen a Sinclair in person. Wasn't quite the phenomenon in the US, but I do enjoy these breakdown videos.
What a great and informative video. I'd really like to purchase a retro system to brush up on my basic and assembler programming skills, something I haven't done for a while. Do I go C64, C128 or Sinclair ZX Spectrum or QL route? What are the pitfalls and is there anything that can make these systems work with modern monitors rather than the older CRT screens?
That ended up being a pretty nice replacement whirr sound. If I can't get the recorded whirr sound to work I will try that. With yours, could you have used the built-in piezo buzzer?
Yes loved it as Spectrum and PC Speaker :D Too bad Sinclair never planed sound experience
👍 🍀 Cool video! I'm big fan of vintage comptuers.
top stuff yet again Noel good job!...
i really like them 3d printed cases for the QL...they go together nicely...
its a little strange to need to add that whir(?) emulator and external buzzer...with it having the buzzer already on the board... it should be able to pump out some sound when accessing.. i guess the arduino boards need some updated code...with your solution, the buzzer is always running whenever the external drive is powered... it should only be making noise when its accessing....
The vDrive and vMap are excellent.
Contact me if you would like full details of a better ATTiny85 board for the vDrive sound (designed last June).
I never had a QL, it's one computer I've always wanted to try
Shitty machine, I had one and sold it. Dont waste time with it :D Grab a Sam Coupe
@@JorgeCarvalho_web_dev Where can I get a Sam Coupe (even non functional) for a decent price? It seems to be impossible
@@rapiqui Well, it is a little bit hard to find, but put a post in "wanted" on Amibay and wait a for offers. Is there that I sell and buy
@@JorgeCarvalho_web_dev I'm sure your opinion is as valid as anyone elses', but equally, not everyone else will share it. Perhaps let them decide for themselves, rather than saying nasty things about the QL. I've never used one, but it's one of many oddball computers that never took off. A SAM Coupe? Good luck with that, they are as rare as hen's teeth and rocking horse poo.
Another excellent episode! thanks
Great job (as usual) Noel! However, I've noticed that your mod makes the LED light to fluctuate a bit (see 23:20). I guess because of the current draw. Perhaps a transistor might help there :)
I bought a refurbished QL, maybe about 2 years ago? Just a machine, didn't know exactly how stupidly difficult it is to get an PSU for it...
Maybe in future I'll get this power converter and definately need to get the MD-emulator...
I'm really puzzled why the qdrive has a piezo sounder in it that it doesn't appear to use - an obvious use for it would have been to make the drive activity noise. Is it possible that it might be a feature thats not implemented or not switchen on?
Came to ask this!
2:45 Look up the IC bro. Old school is still valid, but yeah these ICs are impressively efficient
Wow! I really enjoyed this!
Switch mode PSU, floating ground to get the higher voltage.. also might be different when not under load....
Did anyone see four green stripes at about 22:43. I also had this on Adrian's digital basements youtube video yesterday. Kind of wondering if its my firestick or TH-cam. Very odd. Does it every time I replay it. Thanks.
Yes, on iPad Pro I see the same.
I see someone is a fan of the Calvin & Hobbes comic strip! The option with the 47 uF capacitor makes it sound more like the disk head-seek sound on an old Apple Disk ][ drive! 🤓
You didn't mention what the existing buzzer on the board was for.
It's only a beeper which can beep briefly when accessing the drive or use issue a command to it, such as change images.
I thought maybe a tiny motor that slowly spins a scraper over a metal disc mountet to the case for resonance to create the sound for the microdrive could be interesting. The problem might be finding an inexpensive motor that size. Maybe an old phone vibration motor without the imbalance part could work? I don't know, probably not.
I don't know either, but it sure sounds like something worth trying :)
I ment to ask before, but whats the brand and modell of your eprom burner that also can test ttl chips?
Great video as always!
Wow, you've made a wonderful work with the whirr unit, it sounds much better. Congrats.
But... I really would like to whatch a good game running on the QL instead of such crap.
0:58 that 3d print..is nasty
Always fab; thanks so much :-)
It is just a standard boost / buck converter I believe, with a dc to ac converter on the end
I was reading some of the manual-text as it scrolled by, and i think there is a way to disable the internal 2 drives and get a full 8 drive setup (with some drive-access caveats) so maybe that could get the quill program running from a differently numbered drive?
Hope you found a use for the leftover arduino. I thought the same thing. 555 timer!
very nice and useful
QL!!!! Thank youuuu
Got a name for your audio gizmo - The Cricket ^^
18:20 Could it be that you didn't get anything because you plugged the cable in the wrong breadboard row?
I'm on a tiny screen right now...
Good catch! Yes, that's from an earlier take that for some reason made it into the final video 😜 I did plug it in the right row right after and there was no signal either.
@@NoelsRetroLab please also replace the LED on the vdrive to match the red LED on the original microdrives. Also, is it possible to put the vdrive internally inside the QL where the first microdrive is?
some time ago I made a siren out of two 555 timer ICs.
Great sound hack noel maybe you should also add a switch to turn if off when playing games.
Today we are going to take a Sinclair Culo and put some lipstick to it, while cool people use a C128. 😂🤣
cooler people use a CPC6128! :P
@@WacKEDmaN you mean that thing with games that look nice as long as nothing moves on the screen (or you are looking at screenshots) and are half deaf? 😁😂
Nice! :D
Very interesting
15600 subscribers and counting. Soon Noel won't have time to reply to our messages personally :-(
A ground pin not connected? This is different from the minus connection of the 12v power supply? Because, you do need a plus and a minus connection....
Maybe I am wrong... but I think in the breadboard when you worked with the buzzer... it is not right connected. One pin was connected one pin out, I mean to the next one.
why not a video about all the QL roms? like AH, FB, FF (never released), JM, JS etc...?
Nice video. Did you know the Microdrives and V-drives suck as the QL version connects to the left and the Spectrum version connects on the right which makes them non interchangeable. Oh and you suck at checking your Facebook messages :-P
you should have pure sine wave. class-d amplifier puts out square signal but you have a filter so you get sine wave. if you have too many volts in, the power regulator inside the computer will be hotter!
buzzers work well on square waves as they are piezo... tiny ones are horrible for normal audio coz they only produce a certain range of frequencies..eg no low end..they only like the fast stuff...eg the 30khz or so Noel had setup (which is strange coz human hearing only goes to 20khz!)
Do you think it could be connected in such a way that it makes sound only when actually accessing the sd card?
That's exactly what it's doing. When it accesses the card the LED light goes on and it powers up the sound circuit.
@@NoelsRetroLab Oh, that's great! I thought the LED was always on!
Good stuff! 👌
I'm surprised you didn't put a potentiometer on there and give the user the ability to adjust the sound to preference. ;)
very nice ..........
@22:01 - sounds more like a broken hard drive. 😥 Maybe not the sound to aim for, eh? And why does the vDrive need a “sound” unit when it already has a piezo-buzzer on the PCB?
Cute!
What about some type of add on that can use SD Cards.
Do you think the adapter has a power issue? I noticed that your camera flickered when you plugged it in.
I miss my Micro-drive on my Speccy. The 10uf cap sounded better to me.
I also had a speccy with a microdrive. Until it fried a chip one night back in 1986. I used it as an alarm clock in high school. I guess it didn't enjoy being on every night.
@@donaldklopper I fried my Interface 1 overnight as well, in the 90's. I was rendering stop motion animation and saving the frames as compressed Screen$ to M/Drive. When I got up in the morning, all 3 drives were just whirring to themselves, the IF1 ROM chip had overheated, melting the interface to the bottom of my +2.
The Speccy still works to this day. :).
The IF1 was toast. :(
@@frankowalker4662 I had a 48K Speccy, and it also fried the IF1, the Speccy still worked, even though it had left around a 1 inch melt mark on the bottom of the Speccy. I couldn't get anyone to fix it. Very sad.
@@donaldklopper Yeah, No-one seemed do do repair work back then. It was classed as too old to bother with. :(
I've seen a few IF1's on ebay with a shiny spot just above the ROM chip, AVOID these at all costs, it's a sign of overheating.
First to watch, first to like, first to comment! :) Anyway, baad Noel, baaaad... Now I want a QL again... I guessed I grew out of it since QLvember, but now it's back...
Haha, tell me about it. I didn't grow up with the QL, but it really hit something for me. It's a very interesting system with a lot of potential. It was killed early, so we never got to see what it could have been, but the community has been active and keeping it alive. I'm really liking it. Now that I have the vDrive, I'm looking forward to checking out some of the games and utilities on it too!
@@NoelsRetroLab I remember considering a QL back in the day but I'm glad I went with My Atari ST.
@@GORF_EMPIRE Me too! When I had the money to buy a MSX, an Amstrad or a QL I freferred invest it in an Atari ST 520STFm
@@fcastellanos My decision was based on the fact the the Atari ST had built in MIDI( I'm a musician so that was a not brainer) and that it was Atari. I was already burned by Sinclair when I bought a TS2068, only to learn a week lter that it was discontinued. I was rather ticked off.
@@NoelsRetroLab you didn´t need to type any command to launch QUILL. Just put it in microdrive1 and power on the QL. You can also make your own microdrive volume autoboot in the same way.
is it just me or is the video glitching a bit (for example at at 22:43 )
The ac is using a modified sine wave at 60hz
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The vDrive looks like it is based on Arduino shields
That looks like 2 Arduino Pro Minis and I suppose.
Not shipping to the UK at present due to bloody Brexit!
The 3D printed Cases of the Power Supply and the Microdrive Emulator look very bad. This can be done much better.
The case designs are lovely, but they are utterly let down by the 3D printing. They just look like mock up prototypes rather than finished items. With quality cases, or even higher quality professionally 3d printed cases these would look and work fantastic!
the sound is not good I am quite disappointed
Waste of time, none of the decent games or even most of the commercial games have been archived for free download like EVERY OTHER HOME COMPUTER because some 'businessman' licensed them all then hoarded them and threatened legal action against any kind of TOSEC project continuing.
Be careful showing LEGO figures or even replicas. Their lawyers are currently making themselves unpopular everywhere. Especially when figures are not LEGO but are the same size. Even if the lawyers are worried some traders, there is now growing resistance in the community of youtubers and buyers.
The big coil of the power supply have to be glued in place or it will broke with time.