Flashy QL

[Icky]

Screenshot 2022-08-03 at 17.14.51.png

Have gone a little off-piste today. Was looking for a better way of doing ROM switching on the QL and there have been a few solutions around but due to various restrictions in the world they are not available to buy.

I looked at the old Flashy Clock dev boards and there were chips we used that are compatible with the QL so started to work out a board. This probably won't go anywhere than a few simple boards for my own QL but its interesting looking to see if a true Flashy could be designed where the ROM is uploaded via software on the QL like we do with the Flashy Clock in the ST world.

[Icky]

Almost there, just need to sort out the programming header.

Screenshot 2022-08-05 at 15.10.52.png

Screenshot 2022-08-05 at 15.11.53.png

I may make about 5x of these up if it works so @PhilC, @rubber_jonnie, @stephen_usher if you are interested in testing once I get them working and built.

[PhilC]

@Icky yes that would be very cool, thank you. Just got a Gold Card 2 recently as well And a third QL arrived today but this one is in really nice external condition and will be fixed up and sold on once the work to it is done.

[rubber_jonnie]

Almost there, just need to sort out the programming header.


Screenshot 2022-08-05 at 15.10.52.pngScreenshot 2022-08-05 at 15.11.53.png


I may make about 5x of these up if it works so @PhilC, @rubber_jonnie, @stephen_usher if you are interested in testing once I get them working and built.

That would be a yes from me please :)

[stephen_usher]

Yes, I’ll do some testing. I can use my second QL which has the vMap in it which needs the “ribbon” cables fixing anyway.

[Icky]

Just a little fettling done on the FlashyQL board and its away for manufacturing.

Screenshot 2022-08-16 at 13.17.11.png

It's going to need an Arduino or PI to program the flash chip but it's similar to the code we have for the FlashyClock boards. Eventually would like to bodge one of these boards for the QL to flash internally from QL software but I expect I will never get the time to do that.

[Icky]

And we have an actual board, it was easier to have the whole lot assembled by JLCPCB

Pic of two boards next to a ROM PCB I purchased a while back.

IMG_1594.jpeg

[stephen_usher]

:dualthumbup:

[Wrangler]

Neat! Do you have any plans to do other QL hardware, eg a mouse interface?

[Icky]

Neat! Do you have any plans to do other QL hardware, eg a mouse interface?

I don't think so. I have way too many Atari projects on the go. This was really down to the fact I wanted a flash based ROM board and one that was on SellMyRetro is no longer available due to various reasons. I had a load of flash chips left over from the Atari Flashy Clock initial development days so designed the board around those.

I actually plan on open sourcing this board here and the software to program it once I get it working. If I was to do any more QL related it would probably taking this further and programming it from with the QL itself as a software program just like we do with the FlashClock board.