Thanks!

zsoltse84 wrote on 2024-11-16, 01:36:

Bondi wrote on 2024-11-14, 07:21:

zsoltse84 wrote on 2024-11-11, 10:57:

Hello all, I have a TDK DMC-9000 Digital Music Card. It has 4MB ROM + 2MB RAM (!!) with a special EMU8000 chipset. The 2MB RAM […]
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Hello all,
I have a TDK DMC-9000 Digital Music Card.
It has 4MB ROM + 2MB RAM (!!) with a special EMU8000 chipset.
The 2MB RAM can be used for uploading additional user soundfonts!

Also it's breakout dongle, the Mabox, has MIDI In-Out, Mic In, Analog In-Out and even a Digital out!
It's instruments are similarly sounding to the Roland SCP-55, but even better I think, because they sound more pronounced and cleaner.

If anyone is interested in details, test sounds or anymore testing or ideas, contact me in private!

Hey, zsoltse84 . Now that you suggested, I think a sample of E1M1 on TDK would be nice to have in this thread.
I have this card, but mine isn't functional most of the time due to dead/dying EMU8000 chip, I suspect.

First batch of orders are being served. Enjoy! 😁

Thank you for the recordings! Indeed they sound great. Did you use optical out? The tracks sound very clean.

Isn't the EMU8000 a Creative chip? How did TDK get it into this card with a Crystal branded chip? I think I recall reading at some point that Creative bought to the EMU8000 from another company. Is this accurate?

Kahenraz wrote on 2024-11-16, 16:04:

Isn't the EMU8000 a Creative chip? How did TDK get it into this card with a Crystal branded chip? I think I recall reading at some point that Creative bought to the EMU8000 from another company. Is this accurate?

From early drivers:

READFIRST.TXT File README file for EMU8710 Prototype * * Windows 95 * * (C) Copyright E-mu Systems, Inc. 1996 […]
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READFIRST.TXT File
README file for EMU8710 Prototype
* * Windows 95 * *
(C) Copyright E-mu Systems, Inc. 1996

**Welcome**
Welcome to the EMU8710 Audio PC Card prototype. The card
is manufactured by TDK -- the maker of high quality PCMCIA
modems -- and sold by them in Japan as the "TDK Music Card"
models MC8000 (Win 3.1) or MC8001 (Win 95). E-mu is
importing this card as a demonstration of the card for
portable audio applications.

EMU sold the cards under their brand too, named 8710 and 8710SP.

I found a mirror of the original Index of /win3xorg/devices/PCMCIA Sound Cards which is dead now.
https://mtrx.org/mirrors/nwserveur.no-ip.org/ … 0Sound%20Cards/
All files are available.
Slowly uploading them to archive.org in case this link also dies at some point.

The glue on the lid of my DMc9000 failed and it fell off, so here’s a pic.

Were there any metal tabs on the lid or was it just glue keeping it down?

Kahenraz wrote on 2024-12-13, 13:14:

Were there any metal tabs on the lid or was it just glue keeping it down?

Just glue, top just fell off when I took it out of the box.

Panasonic KXL-D20 on eBay, if anyone wants for collection, I think $100 is too expensive and seller rate not perfect. Box picture only from one side, looking to seller reviews my opinion item is not new as described.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/167173362369

MAZter wrote on 2024-12-16, 01:33:

Panasonic KXL-D20 on eBay, if anyone wants for collection, I think $100 is too expensive and seller rate not perfect. Box picture only from one side, looking to seller reviews my opinion item is not new as described.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/167173362369

Doesn't this card require the matching CD drive to function?

Kahenraz wrote on 2024-12-16, 01:41:

Doesn't this card require the matching CD drive to function?

Reading previous posts here I still didn't get answer to this question. And limited compatibility in DOS stops me from buying too. Matching CD cost additional some money, and place in storage.

Those were my same conclusions. I seem to recall reading somewhere that the audio circuitry is contained on a PCB inside the disc drive.

Kahenraz wrote on 2024-12-16, 01:41:

MAZter wrote on 2024-12-16, 01:33:

Panasonic KXL-D20 on eBay, if anyone wants for collection, I think $100 is too expensive and seller rate not perfect. Box picture only from one side, looking to seller reviews my opinion item is not new as described.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/167173362369

Doesn't this card require the matching CD drive to function?

No, it works without the CD unit. It comes with this dongle with a breakout box and a separate SCSI cable. Connecting the SCSI device is optional, sound still works.

I passed on this one. I don't need to add it would just go into a bin somewhere. I hope that someone here on VOGONS managed to snag it.

Thanks for the heads up, MAZter.

Recorded some music with I/O Magic Tempo card:

Lotus: The Ultimate Challenge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7yDNPRiNrs

4-D Boxing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMjhKUrlyIQ

I had this loose Ratoc card lying around, so I made a dongle for it of a spare cable for an IDE card I had. It's a Hirose 32 pin connector. In the original breakout box there are no passive or active components on the line out trace, so it's very straightforward to make.

Recorded some music with Roland SCP-55 sound card:

Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf (1994)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqpzAJGNMtM

Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf (1994) MT-32 mode
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xS0felhxkew

zsoltse84 wrote on 2024-11-14, 15:02:

Ah OK. But if it was working for one time on all three, it's still good news, there is a high chance for that it's serviceable. […]
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Bondi wrote on 2024-11-14, 12:12:

Thanks for sharing your experience, zsoltse84. As for my card, saying "most of the time" was not quite correct from my side. The […]
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zsoltse84 wrote on 2024-11-14, 10:16:

Hey Bondi. Sure and will also add the Suspense, which is one of my favourite. […]
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Hey Bondi.
Sure and will also add the Suspense, which is one of my favourite.

And by the way I think the problem is not with the EMU8000 ic in your card, it is either the PCMCIA (higher chance) or the cable connector for sure!
I have programmed 1000s of microcontrollers for an electrical company. One-by-one, manually on a small test programmer.
And "most of time" (thus not constantly) only happens if one of the communication line had an interruption during communication.
Even for a really short time which is unmeasurable without oscilloscope, like μs.
The EMU8000 (and of course all other ics) are soldered to the board and it's communication program memory is read-only.
Thus without physical or any other impact on the card it's chances of failure are close to zero.

Not like in the case of the connectors, which are under continous physical usage with each insertion and removal. And it's widely documented that how connectors fail over time.
The explanation for why it could work after a physical reinstallation is obvious.
But not so obvious that it could also work for some time after driver reinstallation.
Because when you reinstall the drivers and start to use the card it uses some of the address and some of the data lines.
And there are 68pins in a PCMCIA card of which are 25 address and 15 data lines or something like that. And not all are used always. Maybe some of them are used just only after some time, as the RAM addresses fill up.
An interruption happens on one of the failing connections, then it causes a bit error which leads to a checksum error and there you go it shuts off with an error message.

It also clearly explains why ISA cards which are fixed in place have nearly zero problems even after decades. Except for the electrolytic and tantalum capacitor problems of course... 😁
Sorry for the long explanation.

Samples will come later today.

Thanks for sharing your experience, zsoltse84.
As for my card, saying "most of the time" was not quite correct from my side. The card actually worked once. It wasn't working on all(three) different laptops, then one day it worked on all of them, and doesn't work since. It still can the the pcmcia connector on the card, though. Is there a way to cure it? Deoxit? (Which I don't have 😁)
You also mentioned cable connector. Do you mean the breakout box? Is it really needed to initialize the card?

Ah OK. But if it was working for one time on all three, it's still good news, there is a high chance for that it's serviceable.

As for what I would do with it:
First I would buy a new, soft toothbrush and an ethanol solution in a pharmacy (which has at least 90% ethanol part and distilled water for the remaining). And I would throughly clean the contact holes on the connector with it. Also would look inside the tiny holes with a strong lamp and magnifier if any of the pin receptacles are blocked by tiny plastic debris from the connector (which could come off when the pins touch it during insertion).

Although that Deoxit looks pretty good, but I wouldn't use it in this case. Because I think it can be conductive (unlike the solution above), and if it goes through the connector holes and does a short circuit inside, you can frame your card and hang it on the wall of your living room. 😁

The breakout box has nothing to do with initialization, except if the card connectors has some bent pins or something, but otherwise nothing.
If cleaning surely does not work it's harder and does require some advanced soldering + technician skills and experience. Because it would require opening it up and checking if the connector receptacles are conducting or not and checking for hairline cracks on all the small ceramic resistors and capacitors. It's really not easy.

I got another DMC9000, and it worked right away with already installed drivers. So no doubt the first card was bad 🙁
On the positive side - I have a spare dongle 😀

Guys, for some reason I can't get my Yamaha PCC10XG working on a Thinkpad 360CE(486DX50). I tried both W95 and 98. The card installs fine. And even the output to the MIDI port seems to work. But output to the MIDI Synth doesn't. It makes some noise and then the player crashes with an error - something about an illegal operation. I tried different players, different ports and IRQs, also turned off internal speakers output, same story. The card works on other laptops.
Any ideas on how to make it work?
Another question - if the MIDI OUT works, can I loop it back to MIDI IN on the breakout box? I don't have a cable on hand now. But wonder if it's safe to do before even trying.

I had problems with one of my cards in a 486 too. It turned out that the MIDI portion was actually a software synthesizer and the CPU was too slow to emulate it quickly enough for smooth playback.

Try putting it in a faster machine to see if that makes a difference.