Re: Newly made Gravis Ultrasound compatible cards ... what's the degree of interest?

Posted on 2015-02-19, 13:15

by

by shock__

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I think some more universal approach would work out better. An ISA card where you have some CPU or DSP with some RAM that emulates a certain soundcard by firmware. You could set the firmware and could have a GUS, SB16 some MIDI wavetable or maybe even everything at the same time on a single card. …

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Re: Newly made Gravis Ultrasound compatible cards ... what's the degree of interest?

Posted on 2015-02-19, 12:22

by

by shock__

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

I think so ... never had a GUS Extreme myself. As stated ... the PCA761AW would be a nice reference design ... GUS PnP compatible, can be made GUS classic compatible by adding RAM and adding up to 4 Banks of 4MB (each) of extra memory for soundfonts shouldn't be too hard. And I have physical access …

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Re: Newly made Gravis Ultrasound compatible cards ... what's the degree of interest?

Posted on 2015-02-19, 11:36

by

by shock__

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Hehe ... funnily enough my first clone project was a 4-layer amiga/atari st/mac se board as well 😉 But yeah, personally I'd prefer a minimal GUS approach as well. SB cards are cheap these days and ESS chips may not be easy to obtain and aren't free of issues either.

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Re: Newly made Gravis Ultrasound compatible cards ... what's the degree of interest?

Posted on 2015-02-18, 23:14

by

by shock__

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

The GF1 and it's companion chip GF1D1 seem to be a lot harder to obtain and has the sample rate drop issue. Wouldn't be a good start. Going with the Interwave chip one could also add a SIMM-72 socket for easy 16MB RAM expansion.

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ARGUS Project thread - Now with gerbers and documentation in initial post!

Posted on 2015-02-18, 21:09

by

by shock__

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Update: 3.9.2022 Gerbers are here: [attachment=0]argus_final_shock__.zip[/attachment] Documentation here: [attachment=1]ARGUS_final_doc.zip[/attachment] Have fun :) If you need AM78C201AKC chips, I have some listed on eBay Germany. Looks like inline attachments are broken ... check the post, both …

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Re: Covox Sound Master Reverse Engineering / Replica

Posted on 2015-02-18, 20:19

by

by shock__

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

The original Pro Audio Spectrum would be possible to reverse if John Neary had and could give us all the necessary information. Like shock said, a lot of custom chips in there and with quite a few GAL's as well. With no help, the amount of work would be too great. An AdLib Gold clone would be …

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Re: Covox Sound Master Reverse Engineering / Replica

Posted on 2015-02-18, 18:09

by

by shock__

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

This guy has been experimenting with 3D printed ISA brackets : http://www.lo-tech.co.uk/blog/ However, I think the best solution is to take a 2 x DE-9 bracket and drill a hole in it. I think that instead of asking Chuck G to decode the GAL, you could use the method he described to try to decode it …

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Re: Covox Sound Master Reverse Engineering / Replica

Posted on 2015-02-18, 09:12

by

by shock__

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Nice effort! Don't expect too much tho, I managed to find the guy who designed the SSI-2001 who actually promised me schemes & docs ... and possibly a card. After a year of "I didn't get to check yet" I stopped asking. That was a bit less than 4 years ago. Glad to hear I'm not the only crazy who …

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Re: Logitech Soundman Wave

Posted on 2015-02-17, 10:23

by

by shock__

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Drivers I found online

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Re: Reversing the Disney Sound Source

Posted on 2015-02-15, 15:15

by

by shock__

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

CD40105 variant added, component placement map added, custom Eagle library added & documentation updated.

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Re: Reversing the Disney Sound Source

Posted on 2015-02-14, 22:47

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by shock__

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Nah, I think the original driver is pretty much the same crap ;) And pretty much intended for Win3.11 anyways. Seeing how the guy in the youtube video has the same issue I can at least strongly assume it's not the hardware's fault. Adapting the schematic/PCB layout to use the CD40105 chips now, over …

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Re: Reversing the Disney Sound Source

Posted on 2015-02-14, 21:37

by

by shock__

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

The Windows driver seems to be a piece of crap tho. Bluescreens after every sound. But hey ... using a 5 minute long startup sound I could play back a converted MP3 😉 Pretty much as shown here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OKNKwPQ3Gg

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Re: Reversing the Disney Sound Source

Posted on 2015-02-14, 20:34

by

by shock__

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Great news everyone! Using cheap and available CD40105 FIFOs ($0.50 instead of $6) works as well 😀 Just needs an additional inverter.

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Re: Reversing the Disney Sound Source

Posted on 2015-02-14, 18:41

by

by shock__

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Would anyone of you have the Windows95 driver for the Sound Source by chance? I can only seem to find the Windows 3.11 one for some reason. Would like to test if my circuit works with Windows (don't have a Win3.11 system at hand).

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Re: Innovation SSI 2001 re-engineering and/or conclusions

Posted on 2015-02-14, 01:33

by

by shock__

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

http://www.ebay.de/itm/191209685438?_trksid=p2060778.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT They're new, old stock produced near the end of commodore (Datecode implies they were made in December 1992). I've bought 11 from them so far and all worked flawlessly (voices and filters tested …

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Re: Innovation SSI 2001 re-engineering and/or conclusions

Posted on 2015-02-14, 00:34

by

by shock__

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

All 6581 need the same external circuitry and different revisions can be interchanged. The Innovation SSI-2001 had a flawed design in the filter circuit. 470pF filters are the intended value (as used on a C64) while 1nF was used on the original SSI-2001 cards. While it may not cause trouble or will …

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Re: Reversing the Disney Sound Source

Posted on 2015-02-13, 22:35

by

by shock__

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Someone just poked me into the direction that the expensive 74ALS232 chips might actually be substituted with CD40105 chips (which seem almost identical, but might need inverting on some pins). If that works that would be awesome - lowering the price from ~$20 to ~$5 per clone. I'll keep you …

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Re: Unknown NEC Board

Posted on 2015-02-13, 17:03

by

by shock__

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Probably "Interface 2 Board" :D Other hints given: Apple LocalTalk adapter: Can probably be dismissed as such an adapter is quite a simple device and wouldn't require those bulky gate arrays - also seems to be using Sub-D jacks on PC cards. Medical device: not remotely, see the botch caps on the …

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Re: Unknown NEC Board

Posted on 2015-02-13, 12:57

by

by shock__

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Quite hard to find out ... the silkscreen printings turn up no results on google and the 2 larger NEC chips are generic gate arrays allowing no conclusions on their functions. Might be a midi card ... or a scanner driver ... or a video processor.

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Re: Covox Sound Master Reverse Engineering / Replica

Posted on 2015-02-12, 17:46

by

by shock__

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

If a full layout has been drawn one can revert the schematic from that (knowing the GAL's function isn't critical to that) - allowing one to largely redesign the layout with ease (I've done that before ... it's cumbersome, but nice if you want to build expansions on a known working design where the …

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