QL-SD update

Just a slight update before I go on holiday for a week. The design of the MDV adapter board has been finalized and I already have the PCBs here:

The board can be built into four different configurations of which I will probably offer two:

1. Single slot drive using a ready-made daughter board soldered onto the MDV board:
   
2. Double drive where one slot is soldered directly onto the MDV board and the other is on a daughter board stacked on top of it.
   
   The initial plan was that the upper slot is by default “WIN1” and the lower slot “WIN2”. But turns out the card in the lower slow is difficult to change when the upper slot is occupied, so I think it makes more sense to have a permanent “WIN1” in the lower slot and use the upper slot for data exchange. In any case, there are simple jumpers on the board so the final decision can be made by the user, no soldering necessary.

The other variants are fall-backs that I added in case the two versions above made problems because when ordering 50 boards without having a prototype first it’s good to have some options. Looks like I don’t need them, though.

A few parts are still on their way from China and a few more parts I need to order from the US after my holiday. I have bought 300 LEDs from China and initially I was very happy with them, but compared to brand-name LEDs they are a bit more “spotty” and less diffuse/homogeneous, so I won’t use them after all. Which also means that the colors are not yet defined, if you’ve got anything against amber/red then speak up now or forever hold your peace 😉

Speaking of LEDs, I have added some solder pads where one can connect external LEDs (in one case I wired the original MDV LED to it). This is for the tinkerers and not used by default.

So, the project is still moving along, stay tuned.