vDrive QL – Microdrive Hardware Emulator

vDrive QL – Microdrive Hardware Emulator delivers hardware emulation for up to eight Microdrives and includes a comprehensive toolkit for managing Microdrive cartridge images which are stored on SD Card. The vDriveQL simply connects to your QL’s external Microdrive bus and is accessed with the usual Microdrive commands.A 3D printed case is available (as an option) to house the vDriveQL or otherwise a standard ZX Microdrive case case also be used (check out the installation manual vDriveQL Hardware Installation).

The SD Card file system implementation is DOS based and is compatible with systems which can read or write to FAT16 or FAT32 media. The vDriveQL has been tested with SD Cards having a capacity of up to 32GB.

The vDriveQL adopts the MDV image format. This format is supported by emulators such as Q-emulator and QLAY. In general, images created with these emulators will be compatible with the vDriveQL and vice versa. MDV images can be formatted, saved to, read from and erased by standard QL commands on real QL hardware.

Other formats, such as the mDump archive format, and MDI, are also supported. They are automatically converted to MDV format prior to assigning to a vDrive.

As well as the standard 128K QL hardware with either the JM, JS or Minerva 1.97/1.98 ROM, the vDrive QL has also been tested on the following:

Miracle Systems Gold Card (including Tetroid’s clone)

Miracle Systems Super Gold Card

512K memory expansion cards

QL Trump Card (including clones)

vMapQL Microdrive Address Translator

Any combination of system firmware and peripheral listed above are supported. It is likely that many other peripheral cards will also be compatible but these haven’t been tested. The toolkit is compatible with Toolkit II and both extensions can be resident at the same time.

For greatest flexibility, the vDriveQL is best paired with the vMapQL Microdrive Address Translator. For more information on this versatile interface go the vMapQL product page.

The vDriveQL aims to take the hassle out using Microdrives and replicate what the original hardware set out to do.

The vDriveQL can also provide a simple way of preserving existing cartridge contents, ensuring that future cartridge wear and tear is kept to a minimum.

The result is a unique solution that will hopefully go some way to provide the original Microdrive experience for the QL.