Disclaimer In no circumstances will QUBBESoft P/D be liable for any direct, indirect or consequential damage or loss including but not limited to loss of use, stored data, profit, or contracts which may arise from any error, defect, or failure of the QUBIDE Hardware or Software. Acknowledgements Hardware:- Zeljko Nastasic QUBIDE ROM:- Phil Borman, Andrew Reed QUBIDE Partition, WinEditor & Wintools Software: Phil Borman Norback & Search Software:- Arvid Borretzem & P Monstad Finance & Marketing:- Ron Dunnett Please note: If your Qubide has a version 1.53 or later, or version 2.00 or later, please see the QUBIDE2_DOC file as well for further information on new facilities. CONNECTING AND CONFIGURING IMPORTANT NOTICE: Always switch off the QL before installing or removing QUBIDE. Please read the following BEFORE plugging QUBIDE into the expansion slot of your QL since it may save you pulling it out again to configure and connect it properly !!! Power Requirements QUBIDE uses power from the QL. We have taken all the steps we could think of to keep the power drain to a minimum. The interface should represent a negligible power drain on your system, but the power requirements can run higher if more drives are connected. With the addition of QUBIDE into the circuitry of the QL alongside the Gold Card and Super Gold Card, the power consumption of the QL will be increased. The Standard QL Power Supply may not be able to cope with this extra power consumption, thus it is recommended that the 68008 CPU be removed from the QL motherboard when using a Gold Card or Super Gold Card. It is made redundant due to the use of the 68000 on Gold Card and the 68020 on the Super Gold Card. With the removal of the 68008 more current is made available, thus enabling QUBIDE to function correctly with Gold Card or Super Gold Card. You must not remove the 68008 CPU if you are using QUBIDE with Trump Card or any other Interface except Gold Card or Super Gold Card. To power your Hard Drive, you should use a separate power supply, which can also double as a floppy disk power supply - do not even try to use the QL's internal power (although some 2.5" IDE drives would probably work with no problems). Having the QL mounted in a PC Mini Tower Case or similar, using a switch-mode power supply, powering everything from the same supply is the best solution. Cables, connectors and jumpers The Hard Drive should be connected to the interface by a 40 way flat ribbon cable with 40 pin female IDC connectors at both ends. Such cables are readily available since they are standard for the PC as well If you make your own cable, be sure of the correct connector orientation. The ribbon cable should be no longer than 0.5 metres (18 inches). Longer cables may work, but you can expect 'strange' errors, due to crosstalk and reflections in the cable When connecting the cable take care that the orientation of the cable matches the connector on the circuit board. Pin 1 is usually marked on the cable by a wire of different colour, and this wire will be on one of the edges of the cable. QUBIDE has five connectors and two jumper blocks, one of which consists of 5 jumpers (J1, J2, J3, J4 & J5 used to configure the card) the other consisting of 2 jumpers (J6 & J7). The location of these are shown in Figure 1. FIGURE 1 - QUBIDE AT/IDE INTERFACE ------------------------------------------------------------------- | This side goes into the QL | | | +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ | o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o | | +-------+ +---------+ | | |o o|o o| |o|o|o|o|o| +--------------------------+ | | +-------+ |o|o|o|o|o| | | | | J6 J7 +---------+ | | | |+----------+-- J1J2J3J4J5 |) EPROM | | || | | | | | || |7805 |-- +---------------+ | | | || | | | | +--------------------------+ | |+----------+-- |) 74HCT688 | | | | | | | +---------------+ | |+-------------------+ +-------------------+ +--------------------+ | || | | | | | | ||) GAL 1 | |) GAL 2 | |) 74HCT646 | | || | | | | | | |+-------------------+ +-------------------+ +--------------------+ | | | | +-----------------------------------------+ +--------------------+ | | | o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o | | | | | | o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o | |) 74HCT646 | | | +-----------------------------------------+ | | | | +--------------------+ | | +---+ +-----------+ | | |o o| + |o o o o o o| Exp. Conn. | | +---+ +-----------+ | | LED | | | | o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o | +---------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | Through Connector | ------------------------------------------------------------------- Configuring the card Be sure to configure the card BEFORE you fit it into your system, because the jumpers might be inaccessible once the card is plugged in !! Selecting the base address The current situation in the QL world makes it impossible to assume anything about the address at which the interface should be situated. Unfortunately, the setting of this address cannot be made automatic, so it is left to the user to set it by using a 5 jumper block ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Base Address | J1 J2 J3 J4 J5 | Comments ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 00000h | I I I I I | UNUSABLE, ROM 04000h | : I I I I | UNUSABLE, ROM 08000h | I : I I I | UNUSABLE, ROM 0C000h * | : : I I I | Use with (Super) Gold Card, | | Trump Card 10000h ** | I I : I I | 14000h ** | : I : I I | 18000h | I : : I I | UNUSABLE, QL I/O 1C000h *** | : : : I I | 20000h | I I I : I | UNUSABLE, SCREEN 0 24000h | : I I : I | UNUSABLE, SCREEN 0 28000h | I : I : I | UNUSABLE, SCREEN 1 2C000h | : : I : I | UNUSABLE, SCREEN 1 30000h | I I : : I | UNUSABLE, RAM 34000h | : I : : I | UNUSABLE, RAM 38000h | I : : : I | UNUSABLE, RAM 3C000h | : : : : I | UNUSABLE, RAM C0000h **** | I I I I : | C4000h **** | : I I I : | C8000h **** | I : I I : | CC000h **** | : : I I : | D0000h **** | I I : I : | D4000h **** | : I : I : | D8000h **** | I : : I : | DC000h **** | : : : I : | E0000h **** | I I I : : | E4000h **** | : I I : : | E8000h **** | I : I : : | EC000h **** | : : I : : | F0000h **** | I I : : : | F4000h **** | : I : : : | F8000h **** | I : : : : | FC000h **** | : : : : : | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The jumper settings are marked as follows:- A jumper is set onto the two pins if it is marked with an [ I ] and removed if marked by [ : ] Many addresses cannot be used, due to their being occupied by other parts of the QL hardware. Some special considerations apply when selecting the base address: * The default setting This is the ROM slot area, it is the only free area available if you have a Gold Card or Trump Card fitted. Can be used with any expansion system including Super Gold Card. If this area is chosen you are still able to use FAST-NET plugged into the ROM slot. Any ROM cartridges, such as TK2, plugged into the ROM slot must be removed. We are aware of a problem using Yellow Board Gold Card and QUBIDE. The Yellow Board Gold Card does not generate the A19 and A18 address lines. These lines are left open. However, they are needed for QUBIDE's decoding logic. The removal of J5 (Figure 1) will overcome this problem and thus allow QUBIDE to work happily with Yellow Board Gold Card. ** The Minerva OS can initialise add-on ROM from these otherwise non-standard addresses, provided something else is not using them, i.e. a (Super) Gold Card or Trump Card As far as we are aware, no other add-on uses these addresses. If you have a 'standard' memory expander floppy disk interface and a Minerva fitted, you should use one of these addresses, as it leaves all the standard ones free. *** This area of the memory map is "unused" on the QL, but that is not necessarily true for all board issues and hardware revisions. Although it is possible to set up QUBIDE to operate from this address, none of the operating systems recognise it as a possible location for an add-on ROM, so it will not be initialised automatically. This address can, therefore, theoretically be used, providing you do NOT have a (Super) Gold Card fitted, AND initialise the ROM manually. **** These addresses were originally intended for ROM or add-on card expansion. Unfortunately, general address space shortage has cornered add-on designers to use it for other things, mostly RAM expansion. If you use an older RAM expander (Expanderam, PCML, Sandy ...) which leaves either of these addresses unpopulated, you can use any of them, provided it does not conflict with other add-ons you have. Typically, if you have a Disk interface card, it will be situated at COOOOh, so anything other than that is acceptable. The safest combination to use is FCOOOh, and will work on 99% of such systems. If you have a JM ROM, due to a bug in it, only addresses OCOOOh and COOOOh can be used. Running the board from +5V There are two connectors (J6 & J7) which when left open (default setting) allows QUBIDE to convert the 9V unregulated supply given out by the QL into +5V via the 7805 Voltage Regulator on board QUBIDE. If you have a powered backplane, where the 9V rail is being supplied with +5V, QUBIDE will cease to function. To get QUBIDE functioning again you must place a jumper on both J6 & J7. This will by-pass the on board 7805 Voltage Regulator and supply the interface directly with +5V. WARNING !!!!!! If these jumpers are not removed when plugged into a standard QL arrangement there will be FATAL consequences to QUBIDE and possibly any Hard Drive connected to QUBIDE. LED Connector Not all IDE Hard Drives are fitted with an activity LED (Light Emmitting Diode) indicator. You are able to connect an LED to the two pin connector just behind the 40 way ribbon cable connector. The pin marked '+' should be connected to the Anode of the LED. Fitting the interface. Before you do any connecting or disconnecting of your system's parts BE SURE TO SWITCH OFF ALL THE POWER TO YOUR SYSTEM !!! Also, connect the IDE cable to the board before plugging it into the QL if the connector is inaccessible when the board is plugged in. Bare QL (No Expansion System) If you have a bare QL (which is unlikely, but possible) remove the expansion port plastic cover by pulling the small protrusion under the left-hand edge of the keyboard This should expose the QL's expansion port. Carefully plug QUBIDE into the exposed expansion port, taking care not to apply destructive force. Systems with add-ons and no bus extenders The general rule here is to plug the add-on into QUBIDE's through connector first, then plug everything into the QL's expansion port. Depending on what kind of boards you have, the base address selection is different, refer to Configuring the card for details. If you have a through ported RAM card (such as the Expanderam), the interface should be able to function in an alternative arrangement, where the RAM card is fitted into the QL first. Systems using bus extenders, bus flip-overs or backplanes In case you use a cable type bus extender (such as the one from Jurgen Falkenburg), consider using QUBIDE as an extender instead. For bus flip-over connectors, the same rules apply as for systems with no bus extenders. The QL's board itself is usually long enough that almost any combination of add-ons using a flip-over will not reach the other end of it ! If you have a backplane in order to fit several expansion cards, you can either use a free backplane position if you have one (which is recommended), or unplug an existing card, plug it into the through connector of QUBIDE and then plug the combination into the backplane, based on the mechanical requirements (combined board size). A good candidate for such an arrangement is a disk interface. Avoid through-porting memory boards if you have a passive (unbuffered) backplane. If you have a buffered (active) backplane, any arrangement should work. Fitting the Hard Drive into the system If you do not have a QL case which can accommodate an internal Hard Disk Drive, you should mount one into an external box, ideally with its own power supply. If you have a newer 3.5in drive, a standard external floppy box should be big enough for it, but the power supply usually will not fit. It might be a good idea to think about a QL case, or a separate box which could mount your floppy drives and their power supplies as well. Getting up and running Once you have set up QUBIDE to the address you have chosen, connected QUBIDE to your QL and connected a Hard Drive to QUBIDE you can now power up your QL and Hard Drive. A Logo should appear on your screen as follows:- QUBIDE/Rebel Driver Vn.nn 1994 Initialising ..... Where n.nn represents the version number of the QUBIDE ROM and Initialising ........ means waiting for Drive to spin up to maximum speed If this Logo does not appear switch everything off and check the address settings and the connections. Providing the QUBIDE Software can read the manufacturer's information from the Hard Drive you will also see the name of your Hard Drive appear on the screen. You may also get an error message such as 'Check clock' or 'Bad FAT try rebooting'. This can be ignored at this stage as probably the Hard Drive hasn't been formatted to suit the QL. If your Hard Drive has an LED, or you have connected an LED correctly to the LED connection on the QUBIDE board, you should notice the LED come on a couple of times then remain out. If there is no LED activity check the LED connections, you may have them round the wrong way. You can now select either F1 or F2 which will take you into SuperBASlC. Using your hard drive. Before you can use your hard drive, it needs to be formatted. You can only format the drive (Win1_) using the FORMAT command from basic, or the FORMAT option in the partition program (version 1.00 or later). You cannot format Win2_ from SuperBasic. Win2_, Win3_ etc. etc. up to Win8_ can only be created using the Partition program on the Diskette supplied with QUBIDE. Before this is explained further, it is worth spending some time deciding how you are going to use the drive, as it will make life easier for you if you do a little planning first. The QUBIDE driver is capable of supporting multiple partitions spread across multiple drives, so to stop you getting confused it is recommended you give each partition a unique name, eg FORMAT WIN1_MAIN_DRIVE rather than just FORMAT WIN1_. The unique name can be up to 10 characters long. A word or two on partitions, block sizes and other concepts. A partition is a "logical" drive, rather than a "physical" drive, which is the whole hard-disc. IDE drives can work on their own as a "master", or in a pair, where the second drive is known as the "slave". If you are going to use a Master/Slave combination it is recommended that both Drives should be from the same manufacturer and the same type. The driver supplied on the rom works with two different block size options. A block size of 4 limits the maximum size of a partition to 128 Megabytes, and sets the "file allocation unit" to 2K (4 sectors of 512 bytes each = 2K). A block size of 8 sets the maximum partition size to 256 Megabytes, and the file allocation unit to 4K. You can use a mixture of 4 or 8 blocksize on different partitions. You are given a choice as the block size represents a trade-off of memory usage against partition size and storage efficiency. A small block size gives better disc usage (less wasted space) but occupies more memory for the map than the same size partition with larger blocks, and a small block size also reduces the maximum partition size available. As a recommendation, if you have 2 Megabytes of memory or more (Gold Card or Super Gold Card), but your disc is smaller than 128Mb, a block size of 4 will work well for you. If you have less memory than this, 1 will probably be a better option unless your drive is less than 64Mb. If your disc is larger than 128Mb but less than 256, you can use it all as one drive by selecting a block size of 8, or split it into smaller partitions as you wish Over 256Mb you will have to use partitioning, or only use part of the drive. Another recommendation. While it is tempting to use the whole available drive space, it will almost always be better to work out how much storage space you really need, and create a disc of a more suitable size. The partitioning software will let you add more space at a later date should you need it. QL programs tend to be very small compared to their PC counterparts, and hence require far less storage space As a rough guide, the whole Quanta library will comfortably lit on a 40Mb drive with room for at least a year or two of new additions. The software imposes some limits on partitions and physical drives which are as follows.... (1) You can have up to eight partitions installed at any one time (2) The interface as supplied supports one physical drive, or two if the drives are configured as a "master-slave pair". If you only want to connect one physical drive, go to point (3) and skip this bit. See your hard-drive manual for details on master-slave pair configuration. Please note that it may not be possible to get a particular pair of drives to work in master-slave mode. This is especially true if the drives are by different manufacturers, or even different models from the same manufacturer. The alternative (and preferred) method of linking more than one physical drive to the interface is to add a "drive expander" which allows up to eight drives to be connected, each behaving as a separate "master" drive. (3) Partition 1 (win1_) is special. It MUST exist, and must be the first logical partition on the first master drive It holds details on all other known partitions, so if you reformat winl_ you will lose the stored details on other partitions. The partition utility program (version 1.00 or later) can safely format, re-size, or wipe win1_ without this restriction. (4) Partitions are limited in size to 256 megabytes, or 128 megabytes if you use smaller blocks. See the suggestions on block size above. (5) If you have a single master-slave pair attached to the interface, you are strongly recommended to make win2_ the first partition on the slave, as the FORMAT command in the rom works this way. Upgrade Information There has been a major change in the way partitions are handled to give maximum flexibility. The new partitioning scheme includes dynamically loadable and unloadable partitions. See 'partition_txt' on the disk supplied with QUBIDE for more details. Partitioning The new partitioning system is much more flexible than the old one, and allows you to load in a partition when required,a nd unload it again when you have finished with it. This is particularly useful if you have more than 8 partitions spread across several drives, or have limited memory available. The QUBIDE ROM will install WIN1_ from the first partition on the first master drive. It will not automatically install any other partitions. If you want to always have other partitions loaded (or perhaps use a different partition as WIN1_) you will need to add one or more WIN_DRIVE commands to your boot file. WIN DRIVE Command The keyword "WIN_DRIVE" accepts either one or three parameters as follows: WIN_DRIVE win_no will unload a partition WIN DRIVE win_no,drive no,partition_no will load a partition eg WIN DRIVE 2,1,4 will make win2 be the 4th partition on the 1st drive WIN_DRIVE 2 will unload win2 (provided it is not in use) Drives are numbered from 1, with MASTER drives as odd numbers. If you have a single master/slave pair, the drive numbers will therefore be 1 for the master, 2 for the slave. If you have multiple masters, they are numbered 1,3,5 etc. When WIN_DRIVE is used to load a partition, it will unload any previous partition with the same win_number provided the old partition was not in use at the time. There is no need to use a separate WIN DRIVE command to unload a previous partition before re-using its slot. The WIN_DRIVE command will also lock removable media such as the Syquest EZDrive 135 for security, you must unload the partition to be able to eject a cartridge. Other Qubide Commands There are a few other keywords added to basic by the Qubide rom. These are... MAKE_DIR (in case you don't have a new enough TK2). Used to make directories. e.g. MAKE_DIR win1_c68_ (the last underscore is optional) will create a sub-directory called c68_ When you copy files beginning with C68 they will be placed into this new directory. You cannot use MAKE_DIR if there are files already on your disc which by virtue of their name should be within this new directory, e.g. if you had a file on your disc called win1_c68_docs_ then MAKE_DIR win1_c68_ will fail with an 'In Use' error. The new directories are files of a special type. They can be deleted only when they are completely empty, and they cannot be renamed. WIN_USE is used to make the IDE pretend to be called something else. e.g. WIN_USE FLP to make the QUBIDE disc pretend to be called FLP If you have some badly behaved software which expects to run from floppy disc, you can type WIN_USE FLP to make the QUBIDE disc pretend to be called FLP, so what was win1_c68_docs is now called flp1_c68_docs. WIN_USE by itself or WIN_USE WIN will reset it back to normal. WIN_CSUM is used to implement/turn off checksumming. e.g. WIN_CSUM 1,1 to turn checksumming on for drive 1 WIN_CSUM 1,0 to turn checksumming off for drive 1 Checksums slow the 'write' process down by about 20% but add security. Checksumming can be switched using WIN_CSUM drive,flag where flag is 0 for off, non-zero for on. Flag is stored inthe map, so is remembered for next time. Formatting the Drive From Basic, type FORMAT WIN1_xxxxxxxxxx where xxxxxxxxxx is the name of your choice. If you want to include spaces or punctuation in the name, you will have to add quote marks around the name, eg FORMAT "WIN1_IDEone" You will be presented with the following message:- Formatting IDE WIN1_xxxxxxxxxx How many cylinders (0 = all)? If you wish to abort the format, press 'Enter' you will be presented with 'Format Failed' and returned to SuperBasic. If QUBIDE isn't told how many tracks to format, it will give up. If you enter a number here, your hard disk will be formatted. You don't get another chance to change your mind. When the system first boots up, in addition to the Qubide/Rebel driver' message, the ROM will print the names of the drives it finds. If your drive is listed as 'Unknown Drive' you will need ot contact Qubbesoft for help as your drive does not support the command required for automatic installation. If your drive is correctly identified, and you want to use a maximum size partition (128 or 256Mb depending on block size) you should enter '0' here. You are now asked for a block size. Answer 4 or 8 (see above). The drive will start to format. If you ignored the other warnings and decide now that you don't want to format the disc after all, press the Reset button. Assuming you answered 4 or 8, Qubide will display 'Pass 1 > nnnnnn' which will start at the highest block number and rapidly count down to 1. It will do this twice, displaying 'Pass 2 > nnnnnn' the second time, and then display 'Format complete.' You may get other messages appearing during one or both passes, such as 'ID not found' or 'Command Abort'. Large numbers of these messages may indicate that the drive is not set up correctly, or may be incompatible with Qubide. Here is a full list of the 'format' messages and their meanings. (1) Data address mark not found Corrupt or non-existent sector. Driver will mark this plug as 'bad'. Usually indicates a sector damaged by a head crash. You can safely ignore this error as the driver will not attempt to use the sector. (2) Track 0 not found Power failure or drive failure. Fatal error. Drive is not useable. (3) Command abort Usually means a write-fault occurred. Qubide will mark this block as 'bad'. You may also get this error if incorrect drive parameters have been supplied. In this case the error will occur repeatedly at regular intervals throughout the entire format process. Contact Qubbesoft for assistance if thisis the case. Occasional 'command abort' messages can be safely ignored. Qubide will not attempt to use these sectors. (4) ID not found Usually means incorrect parameters have been supplied. In this case the error occurs repeatedly at regular intervals throughout the entire format process. Contact Qubbesoft for assistance. Occasiona; 'ID not found' messages can also occur as a result ofse you can ignore the error as Qubide will not use these sectors. (5) Uncorrectable data Indicates a read error. The sector will be marked as 'bad' and will not be used by Qubide. You can safely ignore this error. (6) Sector marked bad by host Indicates that the manufacturer detected this sector was bad and has prevented Qubide from using it. You can safely ignore this error. (7) DRQ Error Indicates that the driver was expecting a signal from the drive which did not appear. Usually means a 'marginal' sector, which will be marked as 'bad'. You can safely ignore this error. Repeated DRQ errors could indicate a communication problem between the drive and the software. The drive may not be compatible with Qubide. Contact Qubbesoft for assistance. (8) Timeout Indicates the driver was expecting a signal from the drive which did not appear. Usually means a particularly slow drive is attached. Repeated timeout errors would normally indicate a communication problem between the drive and the software. The drive may not be compatible with Qubide. Contact Qubbesoft for assistance. On completion of the format process, Qubide will display a count of good and total sectors available. With some older versions of TK2 these numbers may be negative. This is normal. With TK2 linked in, if you do a DIR WIN1_ you will see the numbers are correct. You may now use your hard drive to store your programs and data.