20-05-2014, 04:00 PM
Hot on the heels of the release of the Sinclair QL came the 3rd party attempts to put right the things that Clive failed to address through budget or functionality. One of the biggest failings of the QL was a lack of external storage other than the somewhat twitchy Microdrives (not even a tape port). At the time the humble 3.5 floppy drive was still new technology and a basic FDD system could set you back anything in the region of £400 notes, hardly an incentive but needs must and you can see how the Microdrive was at the time a viable alternative other than 8.5 and 5.5 floppies. One third party product was the Trump card range of products from Miracle systems.
Boasting a memory boost to the QL system of 896k the Trump Card 2 was designed to slot into the side expansion port on the QL, providing extended memory and a FDD port. This particular example was somewhat grubby and the protective metal cover, doubling as a heatsink, made the whole thing look like it was knocked up in someone's back shed, but remember that this was cutting edge for the time.
After much cursing due to the poor way interface cards slot into the QL the computer was powered up and nothing, zilch. Not an encouraging start whatsoever but hey ho. After much faffing the metal heatsink cover was removed to access the mainboard, the QL was powered up and rewarded a boot screen along with extended memory, the reg was shorting to earth via the heatsink. At this point a clip on heatsink was provided for the 7805 reg as it was getting a bit unhappy. The command TLK_EX2 activated the card correctly and it was then off to the PC junk pile for a 3.5" FDD, power supply and suitable lead for testing.
After some trial and error caused by the lead I could access the FDD drive via the B: access, at some point I will have to knock up the correct lead in order to make the FDD respond to the A: command as the cable twist does not appear to work in this config. The Trump 2 card was designed around the use of low density 720k floppies and as I only had 1.44s to spare a bit of tape blanked off the 1.44 identifier square and enabled me to format it for correct use.
Access speeds are respectable considering the somewhat primitive method of disk operation, but a darn sight faster and more storage than a Microdrive. You have to remember that at the time Clive launched the QL on the quick to beat Apple launching their first 32 bit Macintosh machines, and one does wonder where the QL would have been today if Clive had spent a few bob more and fitted the thing with proper floppy drives.
Boasting a memory boost to the QL system of 896k the Trump Card 2 was designed to slot into the side expansion port on the QL, providing extended memory and a FDD port. This particular example was somewhat grubby and the protective metal cover, doubling as a heatsink, made the whole thing look like it was knocked up in someone's back shed, but remember that this was cutting edge for the time.
After much cursing due to the poor way interface cards slot into the QL the computer was powered up and nothing, zilch. Not an encouraging start whatsoever but hey ho. After much faffing the metal heatsink cover was removed to access the mainboard, the QL was powered up and rewarded a boot screen along with extended memory, the reg was shorting to earth via the heatsink. At this point a clip on heatsink was provided for the 7805 reg as it was getting a bit unhappy. The command TLK_EX2 activated the card correctly and it was then off to the PC junk pile for a 3.5" FDD, power supply and suitable lead for testing.
After some trial and error caused by the lead I could access the FDD drive via the B: access, at some point I will have to knock up the correct lead in order to make the FDD respond to the A: command as the cable twist does not appear to work in this config. The Trump 2 card was designed around the use of low density 720k floppies and as I only had 1.44s to spare a bit of tape blanked off the 1.44 identifier square and enabled me to format it for correct use.
Access speeds are respectable considering the somewhat primitive method of disk operation, but a darn sight faster and more storage than a Microdrive. You have to remember that at the time Clive launched the QL on the quick to beat Apple launching their first 32 bit Macintosh machines, and one does wonder where the QL would have been today if Clive had spent a few bob more and fitted the thing with proper floppy drives.
