Re: Arduino-based PS/2 to serial mouse adapter

Posted on 2019-10-07, 21:01

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Update: Package has arrived and I've gotten to work. https://tweakers.net/ext/f/dXzHVpKUwhDZd2VlccP35EPn/full.jpg It's a mess. On the right an Arduino Nano clone I had lying around. On the bottom (somewhat in the shade) a PS/2 bracket, on the left the I/O card of a 486 with a few pins hooked up and …

---

Re: Yamaha OPL YMF262 driver ?

Posted on 2019-10-07, 17:49

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Intel486dx33 wrote: [...] What about in DOS ? If you read my earlier post instead of ignoring it you might find something relevant...

---

Re: Yamaha OPL YMF262 driver ?

Posted on 2019-10-07, 14:36

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

The OPL3 doesn't play MIDI natively (it also doesn't do the digital playback that lets you play the .wav files, that's the Soundblster DAC). Normally an SB16 routes MIDI to the joystick port. You can use software to play MIDI over OPL3 (badly), such as: http://dosmid.sourceforge.net/

---

Re: AMD K6-III+ higher CPU usage than K6-III

Posted on 2019-10-06, 19:09

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

What performance drop? Higher CPU usage means less waiting for I/O. Might be due to more efficient cache on the III+. What happens if you actually benchmark performance per second instead of CPU usage?

---

Re: Other than Roland, what are the other "best" sounding MIDI devices/sound cards out there?

Posted on 2019-10-05, 19:42

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Another vote for Yamaha. I have an MU50 and it is great. Not as many features as the MU80, but doubt that difference would matter for game GM or XG output. My main comparison is a Korg wavetable card, which is nice but lacks sparkle compared to the Yamaha. Also have pile of cards with wavetable, but …

---

Re: Identify the card in this picture?

Posted on 2019-10-05, 19:38

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Looks more like a memory card slot to me, but not too up-to-speed on mid-period 386, so could be wrong.

---

Re: SB Pro2 + GUS Classic (for the hundredth time!)

Posted on 2019-10-05, 18:18

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I have a 2.x GUS (not home so can't check exactly which) and definitely can use FM on other cards in the system - I run it with PAS16 and NXPro. Can't recall which of those two does FM (both OPL3 anyway) but definitely not the GUS.

---

Re: Questions about Asus p55t2p4

Posted on 2019-10-05, 13:23

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

[...] You are right, but if they are cheap chinese clones maybe they can't handle the 83mhz bus.. Can I use CACHECHK with more than 64mb to see if it works properly? Nobody actually makes ancient DIP SRAMs like this anymore, clone or otherwise. What usually happens is that the inscription on …

---

Re: Largest storage drive size for specific boards?

Posted on 2019-10-05, 08:57

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Sadly not always the case. I have a 1996—dated 486 board that supports 5x86, yet LBA doesn't work so it's limited to 512MB HDDs, and many early Pentium boards have the 2GB limit. There are also more or less common 3.2GB and 4GB limits you might hit. Bottom line is not to make assumptions and have a …

---

Re: Should a period correct 386DX25 have an external cache?

Posted on 2019-10-04, 09:32

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Best reason to go for cache: if you want the performance, you have it. If not disable it whenever you want. No cache and you don't have that option.

---

Re: Questions about Asus p55t2p4

Posted on 2019-10-03, 22:34

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You can't really be sure - but at this price it doesn't matter, just see if the do the job or not. Generally this sort of old stuff sold cheap just works, regardless of whether some genius thought it was a good idea to re-do the label.

---

Re: Torn between two choices.

Posted on 2019-10-03, 22:31

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I think I had a keyboard like that - awful squishy rubber domes unfortunately. If this is similar, I'd go for the mouse...

---

Re: Torn between two choices.

Posted on 2019-10-03, 22:13

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Do you have some pics of the parts?

---

Re: Arduino-based PS/2 to serial mouse adapter

Posted on 2019-10-03, 21:55

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Oh well. You need to crank your soldering iron up to 350 C to easily de-solder this stuff, and install the biggest tip you've got if you iron has interchangeable tips. I tried it at 350C first, then at 380C, using my biggest tip. Sloshed on flux, added a blob of leaded solder, sloshed on more flux, …

---

Re: running p55c ppga at 133mhz

Posted on 2019-10-03, 21:48

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I don’t think a single cpu has ever been harmed by running too slow. Try it at 100mhz next time ;) I would be surprised if it would harm it, but it cost nothing to ask. My main concern really is about the stability. Maybe I was not clear when I mentionned I did try the 1.5x ratio and would expect …

---

Re: Arduino-based PS/2 to serial mouse adapter

Posted on 2019-10-03, 20:47

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Grmbl. Found a few 74LS00 NAND-gates and managed to desolder one successfully, but only found one 7805, and it was SMD with ROHS solder. Desoldering SMD is a skill I still have to master, and ROHS isn't the easiest way to do so. Destroyed the unit while trying :'( So have to order after all.

---

Re: Arduino-based PS/2 to serial mouse adapter

Posted on 2019-10-03, 15:24

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Has anyone tried this project, any comments / knowledge to share? https://github.com/Lameguy64/ps2serial I'm looking for a way to get a mouse working as I already have two systems with no PS/2 ports. While a simple passive PS/2 to DIN adapter solves the keyboard problem, mouse is not as simple and …

---

Re: SBC in a regular computer...

Posted on 2019-10-03, 15:03

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

AlessandroB wrote: very interesting, but that not means two separate system in the same case. No. If you really want two separate systems, they can't share the same bus.

---

Re: SBC in a regular computer...

Posted on 2019-10-03, 14:05

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

IIRC it will work if you remove the BIOS chip on the motherboard, so it doesn't initialize anything. That leaves the ISA bus free for the SBC. I once built a system like this, but that was very long ago and I don't recall details.

---

Re: Sound card for super socket 7 ?

Posted on 2019-10-02, 23:24

by

by dionb

in Marvin \ Sound

in Marvin \ Sound

Avoid eBay, With a bit of patience you can get a lot on Craigslist/Marketplace type sites for a fraction of the price. Tbh, max quality in Win9x is probably an SBLive, which is dirt cheap too. Not the street cred of an Aureal2, but decent enough (if you don't have a Via 686 SB) - in DOS too. However …

---