scg wrote on 2023-08-21, 18:35:

I tested the midi port - it works.
I posted the archive with the KiСAD project and the archive with the scheme and gerbers in the first post of the thread.
Thanks to everyone who helped me.

awesome! thank you for your generosity!
I think I will build one to check out!!

I would like to build one as well, if someone can burn a ROM for me? And what else is required other than just standard through-hole soldering?
(Perhaps we can order a batch of PCBs and divide them?)

Scali wrote on 2023-08-21, 19:26:

I would like to build one as well, if someone can burn a ROM for me? And what else is required other than just standard through-hole soldering?
(Perhaps we can order a batch of PCBs and divide them?)

it looks like a 25C256 is needed - I can send you one it's not an issue
I will surely build this - but some time later as atm I am extremely busy and I cannot start another project else my brain will melt or something

If someone's ordering a load of PCBs I'm also up for building one. Have been extremely busy the past six months but in next two weeks things should settle down when my study/mancave is finished and a nice simple THT soldering project is just what I need to inaugurate it.

So that's 3 people already who'd like a PCB.
If there's more, perhaps we can set up some list somehwere, like a Google doc or whatever?

I am always interested in ANOTHER sound card... 😉

I'm interested as well.

Just finished ordering of all the stuff. Hope, China will survive this Spring Festival at least so AliExpress sellers could send me everything I need.

Some stuff is pretty rare. Like 3 pin capacitors - inductors or what are they called. Or these Kemet SBT-0240 coils - I had to hunt them all across the world and still not sure they will be sent to me. Crystal oscillator of that frequency is also hard to find. AliExpress has plenty of different stuff but if they don't do it - they don't do it. So you have million of proposals of 12MHz and none of 11.8MHz. And with their stupid search engine that turns into nightmare. I have to google half of the list because Google indexes Ali better than Ali itself.

This will probably be the most complex DIY construction kit I'm working on. Wish me good luck 😀

Boards and most of the components have arrived. I'm still waiting for Chip Tester from Back Bit to test the complex chips like CPUs and memory, but logic ICs seems ok - earlier I had problems even with them. So spent whole evening on testing everything with my TL48 😀

Will try OpApm mod (4556 with OPA2134 replacement like they suggest on original FB-01, so ordered SOIC8 to SIP8 adapter boards, will make them replaceable). Though I'll probably will start with Snark Barker soldering first - it looks quite less complex for start - I haven't soldered since Blasterboard Kit making.

I also ordered parts to build this. Only 11.8MHz crystal I found was on ebay but it’s a different package. Unless I find an alternative I will probably change the footprint before ordering PCBs.

florian3 wrote on 2024-03-11, 16:28:

I also ordered parts to build this. Only 11.8MHz crystal I found was on ebay but it’s a different package. Unless I find an alternative I will probably change the footprint before ordering PCBs.

Tronix claims it works without problems with 12MHz. He was quite deliberate with this board 😀 Replaced many of components with Russian equivalents for example, I suppose took original Z80 and so on. I am almost novice, so I spent lot of time searching for original components because it would be hard to troubleshoot.

I have 12MHz oscillators but ordered 11.8MHz on eBay as well. Received from Taiwan already, looks like original old quartz - need to check if it works for sure.

720 Ohm resistors also was a problem - Russia still produces them but I found none on Aliexpress. But it seems like 750Ohm will work there as well. Everything else is as close to SCGs schematics as possible and he was VERY precise from what I see.

I will order most of the standard parts from Mouser and they have 720 Ohm resistors. The Kemet 40uH coil is backorderd there with ETA June. Not sure if I will wait or maybe just use the 60uH part.
I ordered most of the NOS parts from utsource and some on ebay.

florian3 wrote on 2024-03-11, 22:23:

I will order most of the standard parts from Mouser and they have 720 Ohm resistors. The Kemet 40uH coil is backorderd there with ETA June. Not sure if I will wait or maybe just use the 60uH part.
I ordered most of the NOS parts from utsource and some on ebay.

Mouser is not only expensive, but their export control, especially to Ukraine is exhausting. If only they every IC that Russia puts in their damned missiles was checked so carefully.

As for Kemet coils - I found them in Australia, but took the last ones. I suppose any similar value will be enough, just want it to look authentic and avoid any troubleshooting.

The board is huge, full-size, just like early CGA. Idk, I have so much love for these types of cards. Like, they are totally fine to assemble manually or to repair and provide quite advanced functionality. I doubt I would easily assemble something like much more compact RTL8139 network card or simple ESS based one. That late 286 - early 486 era, something like 90 - 95 is a blessed period of technology development that will never return 🙁

I was surprised that all ICs from Ali looked pretty new and all logic chips passed tests. Got the final batch.

Now the only questionable things are YM synth/DAC - the heart of the synth and that SRAM chips.

rkurbatov wrote:

Now the only questionable things are YM synth/DAC - the heart of the synth and that SRAM chips.

I ordered the YM2164 from a supplier in China that has sold me some authentic Yamaha chips before. Fingers crossed…

florian3 wrote on 2024-03-12, 00:02:

I ordered the YM2164 from a supplier in China that has sold me some authentic Yamaha chips before. Fingers crossed…

The same thing. Lake Store or something like that. But that was YM3812 with strange label on them, though perfectly working.

rkurbatov wrote on 2024-03-12, 00:27:

florian3 wrote on 2024-03-12, 00:02:

I ordered the YM2164 from a supplier in China that has sold me some authentic Yamaha chips before. Fingers crossed…

The same thing. Lake Store or something like that. But that was YM3812 with strange label on them, though perfectly working.

I received YM2164 from two different sources (new and used).
I have not tested them, but they look ok (not that I have much experience identifying fake chips). Date code seems sane. The new ones are from AliExpress seller "InShop chip Store" and cost $8.40 per chip.

Posting mainly to follow this cool project. Good job btw,

But also a question, instead of cloning the original, what if you emulated it, like the pico gus project.

PicoGUS: ISA sound card emulator with Raspberry Pi Pico (Gravis Ultrasound, AdLib, MPU-401, Tandy, CMS)

Or is something like that not possible here?

Cloning it exactly as it was just to be like that is also good enough reason as well :p just asking 😀

PicoGUS is an interesting project, but everybody defines the level of emulation he wants.

On one hand, having the real THING, technically the exactly same thing as it was back then, and more of that, created by yourself from scratch (or at least soldered) - is a neat part of the new experience.
An another hand - Gotek, PicoGUS, LCD - so why not just DosBOX or even remastered versions of games.

As an example - why CGA Redux (it's already in my shortlist of "to solder" things) if any adapter is CGA compatible. And why 8088 build if literally any x86 compatible is 8088 compatible by d efinition.

I'm almost done with my build, missing a bracket and wire in matching colors for the ferrite core thing. Also just noticed that I soldered on the dip switches the wrong way, so it doesn't match the silk screen.

I can't get Compose and Playrec to run on my 486 DX33. With turbo enabled it complains about interrupt and without turbo it hangs a bit. I'll have to try on another system. Kings Quest IV however plays music with the card and sounds good.

Thanks a lot @SCG for sharing the project!

florian3 wrote on 2024-04-13, 01:09:

I can't get Compose and Playrec to run on my 486 DX33.

If i remember correctly i encountered a similar problem - the Playrec and Compose did not start on my 386 machine. As a result, it started only on a clone of the XT motherboard with a processor frequency of 4.7 MHz. I think this is a problem with delays based on loops in the software.