Synoptic wrote:

I went through that, and don't remember it taking long. Will try again 😉

Now that your card is functional, run iwinit -v9 and make sure that it is finding the correct amount of memory.

EDIT: Also, make sure you are running the SETUP.EXE in \GRAVIS\ULTRASND, rather than the copy that went with your previous GUS installation.

keropi wrote:

I have tried a couple of 16MB SIMMs, all worked for me single or double-sided ones. I ended up using the single-sided one in the picture. The RAM test in the DOS SETUP gravis program took an ungodly ~37mins to test the 16MB RAM , this is normal right? 😁

That seems overly long to me. On my setup checking 16MB via setup.exe takes roughly 10 minutes.

Really? Maybe I need to test some more sticks then. I don't suppose the lack of ROM somehow slows things down waiting for a response or something like that, right?

Just rechecked with a stopwatch - 18:40 for a full 16MB check.
Might be highly dependant on the system used ... mine is a DX2-66, setting some waitstate and isa clock related stuff I've managed to get things noticeably faster, but also a lot more unstable.

ah OK then because I used a 386DX40 build

have mine almost ready, just missing rom.. my adapter for tl866cs arrived smashed from china...
So again waiting.

i also have 64Mb modules.. =) so i can give them a try.

Hello Keropi & 640K!enough, thank you for taking the time to run DOSMid on your boards. I'm glad that it worked. I am aware of the 'first note is mute' problem, and I already have working solutions for it, but I didn't want to invest time into this without knowing that it will actually work at all on real hardware. The official release won't have this problem. Thanks!

mateusz.viste wrote:

Hello Keropi & 640K!enough, thank you for taking the time to run DOSMid on your boards. I'm glad that it worked. I am aware of the 'first note is mute' problem, and I already have working solutions for it, but I didn't want to invest time into this without knowing that it will actually work at all on real hardware. The official release won't have this problem. Thanks!

One thing I forgot to mention is that better detection of UltraMID would be a good idea. I once neglected to load the TSR before running DOSMid, and while I was able to quit the software (with some difficulty), my system subsequently crashed.

640K!enough wrote:

Synoptic wrote:

I went through that, and don't remember it taking long. Will try again 😉

Now that your card is functional, run iwinit -v9 and make sure that it is finding the correct amount of memory.

EDIT: Also, make sure you are running the SETUP.EXE in \GRAVIS\ULTRASND, rather than the copy that went with your previous GUS installation.

Alright. The card only detects 4MB of this 8MB double Sided ram.

I also tested the joystick port : Works good. I plugged in my 2 gravis gamepads together and they both work correctly.

Synoptic wrote:

Alright. The card only detects 4MB of this 8MB double Sided ram.

That is expected. The card isn't really designed to be able to use true dual-rank SIMMs. Since you have one, check that neither the memory chips on the SIMM nor the ICs on the card are over-heating, as that is a possibility. Even with only 4 MiB found, does the memory test pass consistently?

Trying to run Mega-EM 3.11 from the PNP installation directory, I get a Cannot find Patch Bank File message.
However, running it from within my GUX MAX install directory, it works. What am I missing ?

MPU-401 emulation using Mega-EM 3.10 (from GUS MAX) works. My MT-32 plays SQ3 no problem.

640K!enough wrote:

Synoptic wrote:

Alright. The card only detects 4MB of this 8MB double Sided ram.

That is expected. The card isn't really designed to be able to use true dual-rank SIMMs. Since you have one, check that neither the memory chips on the SIMM nor the ICs on the card are over-heating, as that is a possibility. Even with only 4 MiB found, does the memory test pass consistently?

I made 1 memory test which took < 2 min on a P150 (430HX chipset)
It passed.

Spamming the forum : I get a EMM386 Unrecoverable Priviledge when running Space Quest V sith GUS Support Enabled No idea why.

Ok, ordering parts tonight.

Went through the shared project for mouser and changed out the backordered parts for ones that were in stock.

The one capacitor that the original shared project only needed 2 of the one type of thick film capacitors, but it is cheaper to order 10 than it is to order 1. So I put 10 in the project.

I also swapped out the electrolytic capacitors for thinner and taller ones that are also 105c rated as well and should have lower ripple according to the data sheet. They are about twice as much, but they will fit better and last longer than the ones in the other shared project.

Here is a link to my project.
https://www.mouser.com/ProjectManager/Project … ssID=a5f756278d

I ended up ordering enough parts to make 3 cards.
Went through every single part and found that some were cheaper to order the next quantity discount level worth of them and a couple were only a few cents more to order the next quantity discount level worth.

Ended up saving about $5 and will have a massive number of extra certain parts that I can use for other stuff.

Edit: Here is the link to the post with the original Mouser project.
ARGUS Project thread - Now with gerbers and documentation in initial post!

Working from shock__'s suggestion, I made a real Frankenstein out of one ROM module for testing purposes. The victim now has a number of wires soldered to it, that run to a mini-breadboard. The breadboard contains a de-multiplexer, which serves as "glue", making a dual-2-MiB module look like a single-bank 4 MiB ROM to the GUS.

With a little massaging of the ROM data, the split looks seamless to the InterWave, and preliminary testing shows some promise. Given that the glue adds to the propagation delay, I have some concerns about corruption. I will try dumping the contents and comparing to the source image repeatedly, when time permits. My first try produced a perfect result on comparison, but that doesn't eliminate the possibility of occasional corruption.

As you may have guessed, the purpose of this experiment is to further test Mega-Em and UltraMID. To that end, I have used only the original GUS patch set, converted to 8-bit. We'll see if it is better-behaved when no additional percussion banks are present, but I have my doubts.

More information to follow.

Pictures, please!!!

hard1k wrote:

Pictures, please!!!

You horny geek 🤣!

😁 yes, I am!

Details, pictures and samples (maybe) will have to wait until I have mostly completed my testing. I don't trust breadboaords much, and don't want to risk damaging the whole assembly while I still need it. Unless Mega-Em is suddenly exceptionally well-behaved, I don't think another revision (or two) of the GUS ROM module is justified, and it's a bit of a fragile kludge in its current state.