shimart wrote on 2023-11-04, 07:00:

Hi!
I need help with my SD card not being recognised.

Definitely sounds like a bad SD card adapter. I have had the exact same thing happen and it turned out that I needed to replace the entire SD adapter, as it is a super flimsy/cheap ($0.99) component that doesn't always go in nicely.

From there though, make sure to test that your connections are correct. The MicroSD line occupies the tiny little 0603 caps/resistors on the corner bottom side of the board, and hopefully you don't have any bad connections.

Lastly, make sure your connections going back to the SOM header itself are good. Make sure that you don't have any cold solders around there - try pushing on them with an exacto blade knife, if they move they are cold soldered and not in correctly. I recommend using a wide-tip on the SOM headers.

Otherwise reflow the entire circuit. Double check your connections with meter.

Hope this helps.

Okay, last one that I have up for sale is an earlier Series-I build that I had reserved originally thinking I could use it in a contest or something silly like that but in the end decide that I rather put it up for sale and find it a good home: https://www.ebay.com/itm/335100866875

It's the last one outside of SN14 (which is still out on Loan and will be going out to Ron after Adrian Black is done with it), which will be the absolute last one I ever will sell but that will be a far date in the future.

The SN3 listing also includes this dorky PS/2 keyboard that I got thinking that I could "snazzy up" the original listings with it (because I didn't know if anyone would want one), as well as this cheapo inline VGA->HDMI converter that I had to go to town trying to find that could support DOS screen resolutions.

I likely won't sell SN1 since it is my own personal device, and is kind of a mess. SN2 was a world better than SN1, but likely won't see SN2 on sale anytime soon. SN3 however was my first truly decent build that shows a huge increase in technique and skill and came out really well. I have had it packaged on the side of my desk for about a year now and decided that it's time to see it go to a good home.

So if you're in the market for a weeCee, SN3 is the last one you'll see from me until I get SN14 back. I don't have the card credit available for another run unfortunately, but am open to any ET/electronics jobs if you know any that are actually hiring.

NachtRave wrote on 2023-11-04, 16:13:

Definitely sounds like a bad SD card adapter. I have had the exact same thing happen and it turned out that I needed to replace […]
Show full quote

shimart wrote on 2023-11-04, 07:00:

Hi!
I need help with my SD card not being recognised.

Definitely sounds like a bad SD card adapter. I have had the exact same thing happen and it turned out that I needed to replace the entire SD adapter, as it is a super flimsy/cheap ($0.99) component that doesn't always go in nicely.

From there though, make sure to test that your connections are correct. The MicroSD line occupies the tiny little 0603 caps/resistors on the corner bottom side of the board, and hopefully you don't have any bad connections.

Lastly, make sure your connections going back to the SOM header itself are good. Make sure that you don't have any cold solders around there - try pushing on them with an exacto blade knife, if they move they are cold soldered and not in correctly. I recommend using a wide-tip on the SOM headers.

Otherwise reflow the entire circuit. Double check your connections with meter.

Hope this helps.

Thank you for your advice on my issue.

I took your advice and took the time to try the dumb way.

I have tried soldering the SD card adapter directly to the board.
(Also, I double-checked and triple-checked the motherboard and connectors.)

However, both boards still don't recognise the SD card.

Could there be an IDE problem with both boards at the same time?

I wish I could fix the recognition problem, but I'm at the point of giving up.

Do you have any other advice for me?

Thank you.

P.S.

Funnily (or sadly) the

everything is fine except for IDE detection.

VGA output
PS2 keyboard
FreeDOS USB booting
CS4237 sound card output

Hey guys is anyone interested in a bunch of 75% populated WeeCee boards? I bought a run of 20 and populated most everything (including the Crystal sound chip) but I don't have time to finish them.

I'm having an interesting problem I'm wondering if is also a problem on the weeCee as well - Assuming a stock system without a wavetable card installed, try booting up the talkie version of Beneath A Steel Sky... assuming you have a way to mount an ISO under DOS. I've noticed the CS4237B won't do anything in this game but provide FM synth, no talkie. and when characters do talk, the game stutters, slows to a halt with the character's mouth moving away, or just not functioning at all.
Wanting to know if I'm experiencing this on my system here or not, because this game working or not is a make-or-break for keeping this sound chipset in my machine or not. Given the weeCee is an easy system to test this on given it has a 4237B soldered down, I'd expect this to also be the case with this particular project.

touche112 wrote on 2023-11-05, 22:46:

Hey guys is anyone interested in a bunch of 75% populated WeeCee boards? I bought a run of 20 and populated most everything (including the Crystal sound chip) but I don't have time to finish them.

Mind sharing some pics of how populated 75% populated is? There's a chance I might be interested just to get my hands on one or two of these.

@Sudos

If you're using daemon tools to mount an ISO image, it's a known issue that CD audio won't work in DOS games.
Unless you use WDM drivers, then CD audio will work.

Using WDM drivers entirely defeats the purpose of using an ISA sound card though, as all WDM drivers use a crappy sbemul.sys file to emulate a sound blaster for DOS games and ignores your ISA hardware entirely.

Sudos wrote on 2023-11-16, 04:27:

I'm having an interesting problem I'm wondering if is also a problem on the weeCee as well - Assuming a stock system without a wavetable card installed, try booting up the talkie version of Beneath A Steel Sky... assuming you have a way to mount an ISO under DOS. I've noticed the CS4237B won't do anything in this game but provide FM synth, no talkie. and when characters do talk, the game stutters, slows to a halt with the character's mouth moving away, or just not functioning at all.
Wanting to know if I'm experiencing this on my system here or not, because this game working or not is a make-or-break for keeping this sound chipset in my machine or not. Given the weeCee is an easy system to test this on given it has a 4237B soldered down, I'd expect this to also be the case with this particular project.

I'm having a hard time understanding your problem.

What is the booting OS you're running for the game? MSDOS6.22? Win98 SE?

As for what I can do with sound with my weeCee:

Under MS-DOS6.22, I can at most mount a .iso file and only access the data of the disc. I have no way to play CD audio tracks while it's mounted. I use SHSUCD to do the mounting.
Under Win98SE, I can use Daemon Tools (not the latest and greatest, but a version that I found works for me under these conditions) can I can mount a pair of .BIN/.CUE and get access to CD audio under windows media player if I want.

Whether you can mix adlib fm synth sound with other types of sound like MIDI is entirely up to the game on a per game basis. Sometimes, patches exist to provide mixing that otherwise did not exist at launch at all. For example, some games had you select 100% sound blaster or 100% MT-32, but with patches if present, you can get the best of both world, MT-32 music as well as sound blaster sound effects.

Sudos wrote on 2023-11-16, 04:27:

touche112 wrote on 2023-11-05, 22:46:

Hey guys is anyone interested in a bunch of 75% populated WeeCee boards? I bought a run of 20 and populated most everything (including the Crystal sound chip) but I don't have time to finish them.

Mind sharing some pics of how populated 75% populated is? There's a chance I might be interested just to get my hands on one or two of these.

https://imgur.com/a/OCJ31sK

Pardon the flux. I'll clean them up beforehand.

Most have the sound chip flowed. I also have four extra chips in the package that they'll come with. Some boards are more populated too. Kinda depends. But if you're interested I can get them all out

Hi Everyone!

It is my first message here and i was able to snacht the last weeCee on ebay (by mere luck i could say!)

i tried to read all the pages in this super cool thread (so full of knowledge,passion and so on) and i would like to ask you 2/3 questions about the gameport on the weecee:

- i have roland MT32 and SC-55 and and yamaha MU 2000.i want to connect them to the weecee. do i need to use an adaptor gameport-->midi connector and from there go to the MIDI-in of the MIDI modules if i am right and then connect them to the speakers if i am right again.)?(if i can still find them) or it is better to to use the USB adaptor like Roland UM-ONEmk2 MIDI Interface or YAMAHA USB-MIDIインターフェース UX-16 (if they are recognized by windows98) using the
weeCee usb port? which is better?

- in few day will receive the Serdaco DB15MIDI and i read about it here in the thread.should be ok to connect it to the weeCee and then a midi cable to the midi in of the Roland or Yamaha,right?

thanks in advance and i am happy to be surrounded by geniuses here! so much to learn!

breakz wrote on 2023-11-20, 00:58:

Hi Everyone! […]
Show full quote

Hi Everyone!

It is my first message here and i was able to snacht the last weeCee on ebay (by mere luck i could say!)

i tried to read all the pages in this super cool thread (so full of knowledge,passion and so on) and i would like to ask you 2/3 questions about the gameport on the weecee:

- i have roland MT32 and SC-55 and and yamaha MU 2000.i want to connect them to the weecee. do i need to use an adaptor gameport-->midi connector and from there go to the MIDI-in of the MIDI modules if i am right and then connect them to the speakers if i am right again.)?(if i can still find them) or it is better to to use the USB adaptor like Roland UM-ONEmk2 MIDI Interface or YAMAHA USB-MIDIインターフェース UX-16 (if they are recognized by windows98) using the
weeCee usb port? which is better?

- in few day will receive the Serdaco DB15MIDI and i read about it here in the thread.should be ok to connect it to the weeCee and then a midi cable to the midi in of the Roland or Yamaha,right?

thanks in advance and i am happy to be surrounded by geniuses here! so much to learn!

The Serdaco DB15 MIDI adapter (plugs into the weecee's joystick port, creates 2 MIDI outs for up to 2 external MIDI modules) is a perfectly valid solution which only requires a male to male standard MIDI cable to complete the data link.
Upside: very easy to use, throw money at a problem and be done with it
Downside: you can't use a joystick at the same time

In order to get sound out of it, one option is to use the MT-32 L/R jacks to a set of speakers dedicated to the MT-32, or use the mini-jack's single stereo output of the SC-55 to get to a dedicated set of speakers. I don't like to have a set of speakers for each sound producing device, so more on this below**.

The Roland UM-ONEmk2 MIDI interface will probably not work with win98se (I can't say 100% for sure, but I would be extremely surprised if it did) and is more useful for more modern PCs. USB support in Win98se is often met with problems, though you can get by with the simplest devices (mouse, disk drive, etc).

If you want to have it all (MIDI at the same time as joystick), BUCKLE UP.

Here's what I did: I took pin 12 of the DB-15 joystick port's output and sent it to a little breakout board with a DIN5 MIDI socket, like so (BEWARE, I bought a bunch of diodes from aliexpress and they were surprisingly marked the WRONG way, as unbelievable as it sounds; this is why it looks like it's bringing IN a midi signal but it's in reverse, it's pushing it out to the socket instead, out into the external MIDI module).

This is only reproducing what your DB15MIDI from Serdaco is doing, but WORSE. There's only 1 output instead of 2. However, I have to combine that with another self-made Y-split cable that takes all the useful pins of the joystick port and splits into a joystick socket and a MIDI out (pin 12 is used for MIDI data, a 5V pin and a GND pin are also used) socket. Here's what it looks like (connector at the top goes to the WeeCee and the bottom 2 connectors are for a joystick and my MIDI custom cable above):

All together on my weeCee:

So, if you are adventurous and want to go down that same path, this DB-15 pinout will be useful:
https://allpinouts.org/pinouts/connectors/inp … ck-pc-gameport/

As for the MIDI breakout board, I only reproduced the small simple MIDI OUT part of the diagram of this ("UART" is the joystick port on your WeeCee, only 3 pins are used, 5V, GND and MIDI OUT):

Source: https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/midi-tut … -implementation

** in order to get Sound Blaster Pro sound from the weeCee AND a midi module output to the same set of speakers, I use a passive mixer (4 inputs, 1 outputs, all mini-jacks) from Amazon, like this one:
https://www.amazon.ca/Portable-Channel-Audio- … 116&sr=8-8&th=1
Keep in mind it's not powered, only resistive-passive, so the output is only cutting power compared to the inputs. If you plug a powered set of speakers at the main output of this mixer, you'll be fine.

breakz wrote on 2023-11-20, 00:58:

- i have roland MT32 and SC-55 and and yamaha MU 2000.i want to connect them to the weecee. do i need to use an adaptor gameport-->midi connector and from there go to the MIDI-in of the MIDI modules if i am right and then connect them to the speakers if i am right again.)?

I also have mt-32 and sc-55 connected to my weeCee.
You need Sound Blaster Midi Kit that is basically gameport/midi cable with joystick pass thru. There's few on ebay always I think and they cost around $30. You can probably get the same cable from Ali /China but now they have lower quality silver ones that are not recommended.
Then you daisy chain both Rolands using midi extension cable. They're around $5 on Amazon.
So in my case it's weeCee midi port -> MT-32 midi IN. MT32 midi THROUGH -> SC-55 midi IN.
I then connect all three devices (weeCee audio out, MT-32 audio out, SC-55 audio out to mini mixer that outputs to my speakers. And while all three are playing I adjust volume of each channel/device. Volume to 0 mutes the channel completely. It's the clean and elegant way I think and you can adjust sound effects and music volumes on the fly.

The only problem is S2 Wavetable is gonna play at the same time, when you select General Midi, Sound Canvas, MT-32 in game sound setup and there's no way to turn it off. Problem was described earlier in this thread. The only way is to pull it out.

If you go for similar configuration, don't forget all misc cables, like rca and 1/4 audio jack to rca for MT-32.

Good job if you find a Sound Blaster MIDI kit. It's basically what I fabricated "homemade" using the schematics I linked.

Mu0n wrote on 2023-11-29, 22:06:

Good job if you find a Sound Blaster MIDI kit. It's basically what I fabricated "homemade" using the schematics I linked.

I got couple on ebay few weeks ago. I see 2 more now, new and sealed.
I wish I had your skills, I went through this whole thread in last few days, what a journey! Unfortunately I have to rely on ready made solutions. The best I did in my life was soldering rgb cable & plug for my commodore 64 😜 That's my peak.
Have you ever figured out any way to disable S2 without pulling it out? There are sometimes rare situations when I wish I could use it instead.

Emerson Wagner wrote on 2023-11-29, 23:05:

Have you ever figured out any way to disable S2 without pulling it out? There are sometimes rare situations when I wish I could use it instead.

Short of adding a mechanical switch on top of cut traces, I don't see how personally. So I haven't.

Guys really thanks about eveything you explained me above! it helped a lot. i would like to create my cable but let'see what i can do.For now really thanks.basically this forum is another Wikipedia! 😀

Hello,

I'm interested in purchasing the parts to build a WeeCee and want to make sure I avoid any known errors or issues. I am comfortable in my SMD soldering skills and have no worries about doing assembly myself if I am able to source the right components. I fully understand some of the MOQ limitations of these parts and am prepared to order assemble a few if needed with hopes of gifting them to my family / friends or selling them.

I tried looking through these 44 pages of comments and feel I might be more confused as to what to order and where the most up to date BOM is.

What I would like:
A system for playing DOS games without software emulation. Possibly win 95/98. [We went from DOS -> 3.1 -> 95 -> XP when I was growing up]. I have a MT32-Pi that I would like to hook this system up to for MIDI. I am set on PS/2 mouse / keys. I also have a few older joysticks that I held onto from my childhood that I can see what works. I also have several CRTs that I have held onto and plan on parting with after I set up this 90s system.

Games I remember from my childhood that I would like to replay and share with my kids. I still have many of the original discs!

Sierra Games (Kings Quest....)
Lucas Arts Games (Monkey Island....)
Doom / Wolf3D
7th Guest
Journeyman Project
Night Hunter
Myst

Please advise or correct me if I am wrong. This is the best of my understanding at the moment.

* The PCB should be 1mm thick (not the default 1.6mm) to accommodate the SD card.

* Is the BOM available on PCBWay is current? If not, where should I be looking?

* The SOM that is ideal is the 256MB Vortex86DX with the VINE part number (some have used the VIBE with a modification to a resistor).

* The SOM has a max capacity of 32GB because it is a SDHC controller, it does not support SDXC.

* Are there any difficult to source parts that are currently known? Some older comments I saw mentioned issues with BIOS and the SD card? Was this specific the VIBE (with resistor mod) or the recommended VINE, or both?

* I saw that a member may have some partially completed boards.... I may be interested in that.

* Careful attention was needed for the Crystal selection....I believe I read that 16MHz was wrong and I needed to be ~16.9.

* Do I need any other parts to connect it to the MT32-Pi? I saw something about a MIDI Wavetable that I am unclear if it is included or not.

Thank you all again,

Aaron

ODINITE wrote on 2023-12-12, 03:28:

7th Guest

This one is tricky because you need to CD swap near the end of the game and under win98se, alt-tabbing out of the game will lock you out. I perservered and found a convoluted solution to do it, I documented everything under this Tinker Different forum post. But it's doable! I felt great after finding out it was possible!

https://tinkerdifferent.com/threads/how-i-swa … n-win98se.2673/

I'll answer the questions I can:

ODINITE wrote on 2023-12-12, 03:28:

* The PCB should be 1mm thick (not the default 1.6mm) to accommodate the SD card.

1.6mm thick for the main board itself (that has the electronic components)
and
1.0 mm thick for the case front and case back panels (physical holes, no electronic component)

ODINITE wrote on 2023-12-12, 03:28:

* The SOM that is ideal is the 256MB Vortex86DX with the VINE part number (some have used the VIBE with a modification to a resistor).

These are exactly what I ordered directly from ICOP from their Californian office. It's produced in Taiwan and it was the best I could do living myself in Canada.

SOM304RD52VINE1 system-on-module
and
4x PH2*38(1.27)-5.3MM pin headers to mate the SoM on the board

ODINITE wrote on 2023-12-12, 03:28:

* Careful attention was needed for the Crystal selection....I believe I read that 16MHz was wrong and I needed to be ~16.9.

16.000 MHz for the sound chip clock crystal rounded is wrong. It needs to be 16.9344 MHz.

ODINITE wrote on 2023-12-12, 03:28:

* Do I need any other parts to connect it to the MT32-Pi? I saw something about a MIDI Wavetable that I am unclear if it is included or not.

I use a MT-32 pi regularly (as well as a real MT-32!) with my WeeCee and you need some sort of cable to bring the MIDI data from pin 12 of the WeeCee joystick port to the appropriate pin of the midi IN cable of your mt-32pi. I made a detailed post last week on the topic. You can do self-made like me, or purchase a vintage sound blaster split midi cable on ebay if you're lucky enough to find one. If you can solder SMD, you have enough skills to make your own cable, trust yourself.
Re: Tiny Vortex86-based DOS gaming PC - weeCee

If you install a S2 Dreamblaster from Serdaco shop in Belgium, it's basically the only wavetable mini card that can fit inside the small weecee case. It would give you General MIDI support (ie like the Roland Sound Canvas 55 of old) but not MT-32 support at all. Your MT-32pi has more functionality because it does can toggle across both types of MIDI music (GM and MT-32), at the cost of being bigger and living outside your WeeCee case.

I still occasionally try to extend and improve my Google Sheets notes on music compatbility. Sometimes, the default 800 MHz (cpu divider by '1' aka no division) is too fast for MIDI signals, especially for the MT-32 era right at the start of VGA or sligthly before in the 88-90ish era, so you gotta turn it down to 50 MHz or less (divider by 16 or 32).

Not perfect, some omissions, but here goes:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ka_q2 … dit?pli=1#gid=0

Mu0n wrote on 2023-12-12, 19:43:

I use a MT-32 pi regularly (as well as a real MT-32!) with my WeeCee and you need some sort of cable to bring the MIDI data from pin 12 of the WeeCee joystick port to the appropriate pin of the midi IN cable of your mt-32pi. I made a detailed post last week on the topic. You can do self-made like me, or purchase a vintage sound blaster split midi cable on ebay if you're lucky enough to find one. If you can solder SMD, you have enough skills to make your own cable, trust yourself.
Re: Tiny Vortex86-based DOS gaming PC - weeCee

You can also use a an adapter such as the DB15MIDI that you can also buy on Serdashop.

One downside of this solution is that it doesn't allow you to connect both joysticks and MIDI devices at the same time. The aforementioned splitter cables do allow that, if I'm not mistaken.

@Mu0n && @digger
Thank you for your replies!

It looks like I will be building 3x WeeCee in the near future. So far, Spencer Wu @ ICOP (email on the Rasteri's PCBWay page) was able to help get me 3x of the SOM304RD-52VINE1 and appropriate connectors. I was able to get enough of the Crystal chips ordered off of eBay.

I will source the remainder of the parts (hopefully) by this weekend. I noticed some members here have done a few mods to the design (CMOS battery, power / reset button with LED). I would love to replicate that on these builds. Are there any other mods that seem recommended?

As I look toward ordering the PCB's, I was curious where the most up-to-date version is? It seems there are a few revisions and forks mentioned throughout this topic.

Finally, it looks like there has been quite a bit of tinkering with the BIOS to get everything working nicely (or perhaps I am mistaken and this was mostly due to trying to get the VIBE versions working). What is the current status and where I should look for that?

As I understand, Win98 is the current recommended OS as it can be used as a launcher for DOS due to it's ability to have a per application configuration.

All the best,

Aaron