I asked beause one interesting future project (at least for me, personally), would be adapting something like this (but either dual OPL2 or OPL3) and make a little daughtercard for my future ARGUS xD. Plug it in, connect it to some AUX in of the card and, paired with an AWE64, suddenly you've got the ultimate DOS sound setup, sans external midi modules.

Yeah, that would work - feel free to share your outcomes later on. Maybe stuff like that will reach a point where another revision makes sense.

In the meantime, I've decided to add a 0Ohm resistor in series with the jumper for the -5V power supply. Makes it less prone to error/accidental misconfiguration.

shock__ wrote:

MONO_OUT just got very unlikely, as it would need it's own driver circuit (which could either be a single cheap transistor based one or a more sophisticated amplifier one - the first offering horrible quality audio, the second having such a big footprint i'd have to re-juggle the whole audio circuit once again).

In fact even adding a 4-pin header for the MONO_IN would require some extensive re-arranging - for (as hard as it may sound) a completely useless feature. I know there's some software that can make good use of the PC-Speaker - BUT would pretty much silence all beep codes on system startup or silence the beeper all together in case the GUS doesn't get initialized, which I consider not unimportant. If you want high quality beeper output, what about a speaker-header to 3.5mm jack adapter?

Oh, well... If that's difficult, then this feature can be omitted, of course.

hard1k wrote:

shock__ wrote:

MONO_OUT just got very unlikely, as it would need it's own driver circuit (which could either be a single cheap transistor based one or a more sophisticated amplifier one - the first offering horrible quality audio, the second having such a big footprint i'd have to re-juggle the whole audio circuit once again).

In fact even adding a 4-pin header for the MONO_IN would require some extensive re-arranging - for (as hard as it may sound) a completely useless feature. I know there's some software that can make good use of the PC-Speaker - BUT would pretty much silence all beep codes on system startup or silence the beeper all together in case the GUS doesn't get initialized, which I consider not unimportant. If you want high quality beeper output, what about a speaker-header to 3.5mm jack adapter?

Oh, well... If that's difficult, then this feature can be omitted, of course.

Well, MONO_IN is exposed on a pad (R609), if one really needs it.
But to be perfectly honest, I don't want to spend another 2-3 days on a feature that's extremely special, will most likely be used by 10% of all owners at max and last but not least only adds disadvantages in my book.

Being an AT2 fan, I will make a OPL3 daughterboard. It will take some time,but when finished I will share the design 😀

Yay for PCB art 😀
http://i.imgur.com/MXINJbA.png (think of the grey areas as exposed copper - Eagle3D sadly can't handle the awesomeness, so no "proper" preview).

Logo will be released along with the schematic and other resources - so in theory you could get yourself ARGUS keyrings or something.

shock__ wrote:

Yay for PCB art 😀
http://i.imgur.com/MXINJbA.png (think of the grey areas as exposed copper - Eagle3D sadly can't handle the awesomeness, so no "proper" preview).

Neat! 😀
what about pin headers for daughterboard mechanical support or audio in\out? (yes, I see some audio-ins but they seems to use angular connectors)

wbc wrote:

shock__ wrote:

Yay for PCB art 😀
http://i.imgur.com/MXINJbA.png (think of the grey areas as exposed copper - Eagle3D sadly can't handle the awesomeness, so no "proper" preview).

Neat! 😀
what about pin headers for daughterboard mechanical support or audio in\out? (yes, I see some audio-ins but they seems to use angular connectors)

No need to put the audio out on a header when the GUS does all the mixing, don't you think? If one, really, really wants to further process the audio out on a daughterboard the footprint of the jack is compatible with ordinary headers (2 pins, 1 left out, 2 more pins)
You can just solder straight connectors/headers for the audio in connectors - the silkscreen is just a recommendation, solder points are identical for both.

Mechanical support should be slightly better than on the original GUS daughterboards already due to the audio ins (see: http://cs10669.vk.me/u114000913/136978552/x_ef4eff35.jpg).
I can add some holes for that purpose tho (so one can use spacers as seen on some wavetable daughterboards), even tho I consider that a bit overkill and not really improving the visual design of the board. Actually - not going to happen, as there are no daughterboards yet. If you're worried about daughterboards flapping in the breeze use hot glue sticks as spacers - cheap, easily available, offers a tight fit that's not permanent 😀

By the way Shock, did you ever decide on a multimeter and LCR/ESR meter? If so, which ones?

Agilent U1272A with Fluke TL175 leads 😀

So my dear folks - a first prototype will be ordered in the next few days - the design itself is finished, but I need to adapt some minor tidbits causing the design to fail the DRC first. I don't think it will take longer than 3 days.

At this point, I'd like anyone who donated to report in (via PM) how many boards you'd like to order once prototyping has been completed - so I can better check for PCB plants.
You don't have to pay anything yet and if you decide to take 1 board more/less or cancel your order all together afterwards, that's still fine. This is just for getting a rough estimate on how many boards I'll have to order for a first batch and can call out on a price for the PCBs (currently the best case would be something around $7, with the worst being something around $35 per board - so there's quite a margin).

In case anyone still wants to hop on (remember this is a opt-in project), this is also your last chance. There were a few folks who said they'd donate either in the thread or via PM, but didn't disappeared after getting my account details. Unless I'll have to go for a second prototype run, I won't accept donations afterwards.

Seems that I will go for a second batch (yet I have some financial troubles, so I can't donate until July 🙁)

PM'd.

I still need to hone my soldering "skillz" to do this by myself, but I think in a month or so I'll have my soldering bench up and running and gone through a few practice boards i bought from China. I might not have much time though...my wife and I are expecting....expecting TRIPLETS. So life is going to get VERY busy soon.

If I don't feel confident with assembly by the time I get the first batch, anyone want to help (and I'll reimburse time/etc) with putting this boards together for me?

^ I can do that , see my signature 😉

keropi wrote:

^ I can do that , see my signature 😉

Saved 😎

I'm really hoping to be able to do it myself. But with the impending doom of triplets (its actually going to be a lot of fun...), i'm not sure I'll have the time. THANKS!

Even if it's a little early - congratulations anyways 😀

EDIT: Just as a small update - the project has reached it's 30th supporter ... unless I forgot someone, I'll upload a list later on, so anyone can recheck if I may have forgotten someone (I hate bookkeeping and someone may have slipped through the previous chaotic approach of documenting donors/supporters) 😀

I'm interested! Where do I sign? 😀

List of donors by 3rd of June 2015 -
Let me know in case I forgot you, got your initials wrong or used the wrong nickname to be included on the PCB.
No need to confirm your data in case everything is correct. I'd love to get the names filled out completely tho, as this would make distribution easier later on, so if bristlehog (I sadly only have your name in kyrillic letters, which I can only partially read) and hyperborean could report in with their full names and keropi with his last name - that would be awesome 😀 Oh ... and in case anyone wonders, "Überweisung" is German for "bank transfer" 😉

Once again - thanks to everyone who donated - documenting this properly it turned out I have recieved more €/$ than I had previously thought.
If there turns out to be any excess afterwards, that money will be donated (there are 2 really nice projects for homeless teens/young adults here in Berlin [actually possible future employers in a distant future for me] I'd donate the money to - I'll write some more about it once the project has reached that point) or refunded.

Since I got a bit of feedback/responses already, I think it's safe to assume the price of an empty PCB to be around 9,30€ in the best case and 16,20€ in the worst case.
That is WITHOUT V-groving - a feature I'd _really like to add_ to the cards as it greatly increases the longevity of the cards, allowing for more insertion/extraction-cycles inside an ISA slot. Sadly my PCB production plant doesn't quote that option in the online calculator, but usually increases the price by 50-100%

So unless there are major complaints against V-groving or masses of people withdrawing from the project. I think a target price somewhere around 12-20€ per board is safe to assume (sorry for all the fluctuation in the price currently - but PCBs vary massively with the amount ordered ... while a single prototype would be 165€ a small series of 70 cards would be 9€ per piece). That said, the mentioned price is just an early assumption, please keep that in mind, as it might still happen that the final boards will be 11€ or 23€ - it's just for a slightly better orientation.

(to the folks who wrote me PMs with questions, I'll get back to you soon-ish)

my vote is WITH v-groving. I had a handful of chinese-made ISA test cards that were very roughly made, and had those harsh corners and thick ISA connector. You could insert it, but took a lot of effort. One wrong push and you could crack your ISA slot!