I am located in Aachen, near NL and BE. The Deutsche Post changed their rules 2019-01-01. Now they disallow goods in international letters. Only written documents are now allowed anymore. They want to shift more shipping to their DHL business. Letters are regulated by the Netzagentur, so postage is not arbitrary. But packages and parcels are not regulated like that.

root42 wrote:

I am located in Aachen, near NL and BE. The Deutsche Post changed their rules 2019-01-01. Now they disallow goods in international letters. Only written documents are now allowed anymore. They want to shift more shipping to their DHL business. Letters are regulated by the Netzagentur, so postage is not arbitrary. But packages and parcels are not regulated like that.

Well.. how much thicker is a pcb than a thick letter anyway? Worth a try? 😀

appiah4 wrote:

root42 wrote:

I am located in Aachen, near NL and BE. The Deutsche Post changed their rules 2019-01-01. Now they disallow goods in international letters. Only written documents are now allowed anymore. They want to shift more shipping to their DHL business. Letters are regulated by the Netzagentur, so postage is not arbitrary. But packages and parcels are not regulated like that.

Well.. how much thicker is a pcb than a thick letter anyway? Worth a try? 😀

I can surely try, if you are willing to take the risk. Worst case is that I get it back and we have to ship it again as a package. Anyway, this new rule stinks. It's simply a hidden price hike.

wow so much bs with the post... I wonder what they will think next
as a sidenote I still have not received the CMS card stuff, DHL's latest info is:

Sat, 12.01.2019 07:04 Feucht, Germany
The international shipment is being processed in the export parcel center.

so it's not like they handle things better 🤣 🤣 🤣

keropi wrote:

wow so much bs with the post... I wonder what they will think next as a sidenote I still have not received the CMS card stuff, D […]
Show full quote

wow so much bs with the post... I wonder what they will think next
as a sidenote I still have not received the CMS card stuff, DHL's latest info is:

Sat, 12.01.2019 07:04 Feucht, Germany
The international shipment is being processed in the export parcel center.

so it's not like they handle things better 🤣 🤣 🤣

Ah, that is unfortunate. Mine arrived within a few days.

got a reply on the 2.00 DSP , it seems to me we should wait for better stuff to come:

Various sources sell a CT1351V202 that actually seems to work. The HEX file is not from the original SB, it’s taken from a no-name Chinese clone of the SB 2.0. There are more efforts ongoing; details at a later date.

also this confirms the dsp code is from a clone , I guess this is related to the waiting 😀

What does that mean in layman's terms? If we wait for a dump of the DSP then the same card can be built as SB 2.0 compatible?

it means the dsp code is from a clone - it will work but no idea if the clone is 100% or 99% correct
I think they are working to either dump the original or provide something better than the clone code, we'll just have to wait

root42 wrote:

I am located in Aachen, near NL and BE. The Deutsche Post changed their rules 2019-01-01. Now they disallow goods in international letters. Only written documents are now allowed anymore. They want to shift more shipping to their DHL business. Letters are regulated by the Netzagentur, so postage is not arbitrary. But packages and parcels are not regulated like that.

They blame it on the International Postal Union, but I call BS on that. Haven't seen any other countries change their rules, and if you are a business with minimum 500 shipsments/year you can still ship whatever as "letter"

root42 wrote:

I am located in Aachen, near NL and BE. The Deutsche Post changed their rules 2019-01-01. Now they disallow goods in international letters. Only written documents are now allowed anymore. They want to shift more shipping to their DHL business. Letters are regulated by the Netzagentur, so postage is not arbitrary. But packages and parcels are not regulated like that.

Bastards...

Anyway, Aachen is both relatively close by and a nice place to visit with the children, and I have free 1st class public transport within NL (i.e. to within 5km of Aachen), so if I can find the time, I'll come pick up mine and Cyrix200+' cards.

Guess I'm just hosed.. 🤣

It never ceases to amaze me what wonderful retro projects people come up with in this forum. Splendid work, Stiletto "Tube Time"/schlae! 😀

However, I'm a bit weary about that firmware image in your repo. It's copyrighted and although it is more or less abandonware, I don't think it can just be distributed without approval of the owner(s).

Perhaps one of the many different former Sound Blaster clone manufacturers could be convinced to publish the source code of their Sound Blaster clone firmware (or at least officially release the firmware image as freeware) now that those cards aren't being sold anymore, provided of course that they wrote their own clean-room implementation without having pirated another firmware themselves.

It would be even more awesome to have a newly-developed-from-scratch open source firmware for the 80C51 that would provide (near) 100% compatibility with Sound Blaster 1.5 and/or 2.0 cards. Perhaps even a firmware that would be superior to the original Sound Blaster firmwares, avoiding the flaws of the original products while still providing 100% compatibility in games. That would be a nice separate GitHub project, the fruits of which could then be combined with the Snark Barker. And additionally, it could then perhaps also be used in other retro sound card projects and/or in emulators and such. 😀

digger wrote:

It never ceases to amaze me what wonderful retro projects people come up with in this forum. Splendid work, Stiletto! 😀

I've said it once already: I announced this on behalf of "Tube Time"/schlae, who if he has an account here is merely lurking. This is not my work.

Stiletto wrote:

digger wrote:

It never ceases to amaze me what wonderful retro projects people come up with in this forum. Splendid work, Stiletto! 😀

I've said it once already: I announced this on behalf of "Tube Time"/schlae, who if he has an account here is merely lurking. This is not my work.

Corrected. Thanks and sorry I missed your earlier correction while briefly glancing through the replies to your post. 😉

It seems the PCBs are awaiting pickup by carrier. So it will be a few days, but they should arrive rather sooner than later.

i also would take a pcb if there is one left.. 😀

I think not, sorry. 😒 Although I have two. One as a backup. If my card works, you can have the backup, ok?

No Problem, maybe we just trade then, if you still want a CMS Board then 😀

Good news everyone! The PCBs have arrived:

I have sent everyone an Email with details on how to proceed. I will try to forward the boards as quickly as possible. To the dutch people: we can try to arrange a handover, if you want to visit Aken, but if it does not work out, I can just ship it via DHL...

root42 wrote:

Good news everyone! The PCBs have arrived:

C4569834-9D3E-4975-AE4B-EE0244689047.jpeg

I have sent everyone an Email with details on how to proceed. I will try to forward the boards as quickly as possible. To the dutch people: we can try to arrange a handover, if you want to visit Aken, but if it does not work out, I can just ship it via DHL...

Argh, timing... I was literally 10 minutes' drive from Aachen yesterday afternoon 😜

But I'll discuss with Cyrix200+ and we'll arrange something.