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AOpen W32 wavetable card - help with more info?

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First post, by Lathe26

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I just picked up a new-to-me wavetable card and was wondering if folks knew anything more about it.

I'm currently calling it the "AOpen W32" but am not 100% sure that that is its real name.

The attachment AOpen ~ W32 ~ 1MB ~ 1.jpg is no longer available
The attachment AOpen ~ W32 ~ 1MB ~ 2.jpg is no longer available

Here's what I've either figured out or am guessing:

  • Not sure whether AOpen or Acer is the more appropriate name. I know the 2 company names are connected.
  • Tentatively calling it the "W32" since it appears in 2 places: PCB's silkscreen in upper left and on ROM chip U2's sticker.
  • Not much info available on the web. One of the few places is http://www.yjfy.com/museum/sound/MIDI_6.htm and the related http://www.yjfy.com/museum/sound/MIDI_6.htm. First link calls it AOpen while the latter lists it Acer in the left column.
  • At a glance, the 26 pin connector looks like a standard WaveBlaster connector.
  • The edge connector lines up nicely with an 8 or 16-bit ISA connector (presumably when the WaveBlaster connector is unused). If so, the gold contacts are powers, grounds, and reset (specifically, GND, RESET, +5V, -12V, +12V, GND).
  • Not sure what the 8-pin connector is but guessing is that it likely supports MIDI IN and Audio Out Left + Right plus other signals. Several of its traces connect to the WaveBlaster connector.
  • The numbers 48.16501.011 and 55.16501.021 look like typical AOpen part numbers, though I am unfamiliar with any pattern they may have.
  • No idea what the "B.D." or the "95421-1" on the PCB's upper left indicate.
  • The seller also listed it with the numbers "46421-1" and "MXB58" but I don't see these on the board.
  • Other than that, it looks like a bog-standard 1MB wavetable card using the Crystal/Dream CS9233 chip. Interestingly, the IBM S-W1/C has a layout that is strangely close but not identical to this board (ignoring the 2 extra connectors on this board).

I'll be testing out the board soon. Afterwards, I will pull out a multimeter and see if the edge connector and 8-pin connector are what is suspected.

Reply 1 of 2, by gerwin

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CS9233 / SAM9233 Midi Synthesizer directly on the ISA bus, without a controller chip in between.
Edit, no it only has six lines there, so the main interface is just the waveblaster connector.
And then the ISA-like connector for some additional interfacing, like the Terratec Wave XTable?

--> ISA Soundcard Overview // Doom MBF 2.04 // SetMul

Reply 2 of 2, by Lathe26

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Here's an update after playing around with the card and doing some reverse-engineering using a multimeter and an oscilloscope. I didn't think things would go this quickly.

The ISA connector has been confirmed. Measuring voltages while connected to a Seradaco CHiLL II and also performing continuity checks shows that the 6 gold contacts are as previously stated. From left to right they are: GND, RESET, +5V, -12V, +12V, GND.

The 8-pin connector has been worked out:

  +------------+
  | 2  4  6  8 |
  |            |
  | 1  3  5  7 |
======= PCB ======
  • Pin 1 = MIDI OUT TTL (also connected to WaveBlaster pin 2, cap to GND, and a 0 Ohm resistor to CS9223 pin 91)
  • Pin 2 = MIDI IN TTL
  • Pin 3 = DGND (has some +/- 20m 32MHz noise, likely from the neighboring 16MHz crystal)
  • Pin 4 = N.C.
  • Pin 5 = AGND (some +/- 100mV audio noise)
  • Pin 6 = Audio Out Right
  • Pin 7 = AGND (some +/- 100mV audio noise)
  • Pin 8 = Audio Out Left

Interesting observation: this wavetable card uses WaveBlaster pin 2 as MIDI OUT TTL instead of pin 8 as listed on Wikipedia. If I recall correctly, this is the 2nd such wavetable card I've seen use pin 2.

Correction: for the 2 URLs above, the 2nd URL was supposed to be http://www.yjfy.com/museum/sound/Wavetable.htm

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