Complete Sinclair QL

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Complete Sinclair QL

Postby tezza on Mon May 10, 2010 8:03 pm

Fully loaded Sinclair QL system on Trademe which I'm sure you've all seen.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Computers/Vint ... 330777.htm

One weakness in these machines was the keyboard membrane, which would turn brittle and stop working after a while. I note this one has a spare one, although who knows how old it is.

At $150 reserve it's not that cheap but you get everything. I'd be snatching it if I didn't already have one.
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Re: Complete Sinclair QL

Postby YetiSeti on Mon May 10, 2010 10:58 pm

It's the software I find interesting - Area Radar Controller (Gatwick)
-> http://www.sincuser.f9.co.uk/039/qlsoft.htm
-> http://www.rwapadventures.com/ql_wiki/index.php?title=Area%20Radar%20Controller

and the ZX Spectrum+ auction title - (Heathrow) Air Traffic Control (Mikro-Gen)
-> http://www.sincuser.f9.co.uk/039/htsquad.htm <-- great read

If I hadn't bought a couple of custom modded QLs a wee while ago on a whim and a buy now I'd be interested in the auction. Haven't tried them yet but the boards were put into PC cases and HDDs and FDDs chucked in. I doubt any of it goes now, but one can hope.

Last two QLs sold for I think $100 (computer & little else) & $200 (with extras) respectively.
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Re: Complete Sinclair QL

Postby tezza on Tue May 11, 2010 12:36 pm

As a computer the QL is certainly an eccentric beast. I'm interested to hear someone put it in a standard PC case and added those extras. I'd be interested to see photos of the internals of the machine if you ever get to pull it out Clinton.

I guess special driver software was needed for the hard and floppy disk yes?
Tez (Terry Stewart) (Administrator)
Collection: https://www.classic-computers.org.nz/co ... /index.htm
Projects and Articles: https://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/index.htm
Twitter: @classiccomputNZ | YouTube: Terry Stewart
Trade Me: tezza5
tezza
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Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 12:00 pm
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Re: Complete Sinclair QL

Postby YetiSeti on Sun May 16, 2010 11:38 pm

Fortunately there are only two other computers stacked on top of where the QLs are kept. So I took them out for a few photos (but quite a bit of blur going on).

http://picasaweb.google.com/clinton.rowe/RetroweMuseumSinclairQL#

The pictures so far are unlabelled and are a mixture of pictures taken by the original owners and some by myself last night.

The bigger case is "JamesCo Electronics Mail Order Electronics Worldwide".
Inside was a Miracle Systems midi card, Miracle Systems Expanderam, a Cumana CU1635 Iss 1 (along lines of http://www.clive.nl/storage/disk-interface-qjump-cumana-cu-1635-sinclair-ql), a PC-08 Keyboard card, expansion frame, and SPEM QEPROM card.

The slim cased one has a CST Q+4 interface (Cambridge Systems 1985), an expanderam, keyboard interface, the thing sticking out the back is what the HDD/FDDs connect to, SPEM QEPROM card (? ( http://rwapadventures.com/ql_wiki/index.php?title=QL%20System/2%20SPEM&lang=) ) , some other card I don't know (in last picture on right side).

I would need to ask the original owners re running the hard & floppy disk drives and I will take a picture of the keyboards if I find my phone charger.
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Re: Complete Sinclair QL

Postby tezza on Fri May 21, 2010 12:36 am

Thanks for those images Clinton,

Interestingly I was talking to a Danish guy last night who said he was involved in a small company (in Denmark) that specialised in putting QL motherboards in PC cases in the mid-late 1980s!
Tez (Terry Stewart) (Administrator)
Collection: https://www.classic-computers.org.nz/co ... /index.htm
Projects and Articles: https://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/index.htm
Twitter: @classiccomputNZ | YouTube: Terry Stewart
Trade Me: tezza5
tezza
Site Admin
 
Posts: 2382
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 12:00 pm
Location: Palmerston North, New Zealand


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