@ahmadexp

Its not ready yet, still waiting on a board revision.

Duffman wrote on 2023-07-08, 09:15:

I didn't know there was a 304 pin module of the DX2, I do see there is one for the DX3 though and thats definitely PCIe and would likely also not work.

I've commissioned Nachtrave to assemble a board based on the SOM304RD-PI module, this has PCI instead of integrated VGA.
Should be nice to see 3D acceleration going once it's built.

They don't sell it separately. It comes with VDX2-6524-CF-512

Duffman wrote on 2023-07-08, 09:15:

I didn't know there was a 304 pin module of the DX2, I do see there is one for the DX3 though and thats definitely PCIe and would likely also not work.

I've commissioned Nachtrave to assemble a board based on the SOM304RD-PI module, this has PCI instead of integrated VGA.
Should be nice to see 3D acceleration going once it's built.

I'm doing something similar but for SOM EX2. How do you solve the problem with slow data transfer in Win98? This will be quite a problem with 3D games.

@Vridek

I chose to not use the inbuilt SD card adapter on the SOM and instead chose to use the more standard 44pin IDE interface.

rasteri wrote on 2023-06-26, 23:32:

Windows98_guy wrote on 2023-06-26, 17:24:

Yes. The number is: "200-FTSH13802FDV ". (The manufacturer number is: "FTSH-138-02-F-DV").
There are some other connectors available as well, but these are the only ones that at least have factory stock available.

Yeah that looks right. Expensive though!

I just wanna confirm that these Mouser connectors do work. However one small note in case somebody else decides to use these - the mounting legs are slightly bigger, you can still solder them, but i did it quite slowly, so the solder would definitely stick.

I do have 2 more questions:
1.) The processor module gets pretty hot. Is this normal? Should I add a fan on top it?
2.) What DirectX version did you use for running Windows 98 games? I tried installing the latest one available for Windows98 from 2006, but i get an error that this is not a Pentium-class or K6 CPU.

@Windows98_guy

I hacked the dxsetup32.dll file earlier so it won't bug you about incompatible CPU anymore.
You should be able to install DirectX 9.0c on the weecee using it.

Re: DirectX 9 setup - mod to skip CPU check?

@Windows98_guy

Can you keep your hand on the processor? I also thought DX1 had a high temperature but believe me DX3 is much worse.

Vridek wrote on 2023-07-20, 09:34:

@Windows98_guy

Can you keep your hand on the processor? I also thought DX1 had a high temperature but believe me DX3 is much worse.

Yes, but I didn't touch it for more than a few seconds. It's just that at first after a few minutes, it was only mildly warm, but after an hour or so it was as hot as a radiator. (I guess I'm just worried because I don't want it to die out of overheating.)

This really reminds of the Voodoo3 I have that got really warm after a while as well.

But since you said the other Vortex processor is even hotter, I guess that's just normal for these processor modules and it doesn't matter?

Windows98_guy wrote on 2023-07-26, 20:04:

Yes, but I didn't touch it for more than a few seconds. It's just that at first after a few minutes, it was only mildly warm, bu […]
Show full quote

Vridek wrote on 2023-07-20, 09:34:

@Windows98_guy

Can you keep your hand on the processor? I also thought DX1 had a high temperature but believe me DX3 is much worse.

Yes, but I didn't touch it for more than a few seconds. It's just that at first after a few minutes, it was only mildly warm, but after an hour or so it was as hot as a radiator. (I guess I'm just worried because I don't want it to die out of overheating.)

This really reminds of the Voodoo3 I have that got really warm after a while as well.

But since you said the other Vortex processor is even hotter, I guess that's just normal for these processor modules and it doesn't matter?

We have summer now so those processors will be hotter but I still wouldn't worry about it. We tested the Vortex86DX1 in a enclosed box and the temperature was absolutely fine.

Dunno if anyone ever bothered to get real field data on this but I held a hook probe manually to the F1 + side to inject 5.00 V directly into the weeCee to see how much current was drawn. If I want to do more tests, I'll have to solder a temp wire. Ofc the ground side can be clipped in a number of places.

Idle in MS-DOS 6.22 menu: 0.728 A
Running Descent 1: 0.850 A

Mu0n wrote on 2023-08-22, 20:46:

Dunno if anyone ever bothered to get real field data on this but I held a hook probe manually to the F1 + side to inject 5.00 V directly into the weeCee to see how much current was drawn. If I want to do more tests, I'll have to solder a temp wire. Ofc the ground side can be clipped in a number of places.

Idle in MS-DOS 6.22 menu: 0.728 A
Running Descent 1: 0.850 A

I did some current measurements of the various vortex chips here : Vortex86 series benchmarks

Is this still a thing? I mean, is there a way to buy a WeeCee system as of today, or is someone planning on selling populated boards?

@vanfanel

The design for the WeeCee is still up on circuitmaker.

So You can either solder it together yourself, or I think you can hire a place like PCBWay to assemble a board for you.

The CS4237 chip was hard to come by, so I found a replacement.

These are CS423X family chipsets.... Do you think it will work if I solder them in place of the CS4237?

The pinout of the chipsets seems to be the same, just looking for your advice.

(I bought a CS4237B fake remarked chipset from China last week and struggled with it.
I thought it was my soldering mistake and tortured the board.
I then soldered a CS4237 that I had removed from a sound card that was working fine and solved the problem.)

shimart wrote on 2023-09-21, 15:15:

These are CS423X family chipsets.... Do you think it will work if I solder them in place of the CS4237?

The pinout of the chipsets seems to be the same, just looking for your advice.

The datasheet for the CS4237B says it's register-compatible with the CS4236/CS4232/CS4231, and the CS4235 says it's register-compatible with the CS4237B, so I think they should all be relatively interchangeable?

Some of those have not so ok fm sound
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5YcICPfSNiY

CS4235 has buggy fm.

Crystal Audio Chips.. any fans?

RayeR wrote on 2023-03-05, 06:48:

I tested the PC/104 soundcard in another larger SBC (iEi Rocky with Pentium MMX) and there it works fine, CWDIAG.EXE passed all resources and games plays SFX and Adlib 😀. So it's proved that CS4236B is 100% compatible with soundcard design and DMA problem is on side of my SBC PC/104 520. Curently no idea what's wrong there and how to debug this 🙁

hello.

I read your wonderful information and I want to try to mount a CS4236 on a board from RASTERI.

May I ask your advice on how to program the 4236Bmod.asm?

resource /f=0x120 /r=cs4236bmod.asm /e

A quick google turned up these commands, so what do you think?

Investigating a static related behavior with my weeCee: sometimes, they'll get under a mode where no matter what, there's some heavy static glitch sound occuring over its lone audio out port. Doesn't matter if I send it to an independant set of roland speakers, or send it to a Pluguable usb mic in to my modern desktop for capturing. Typing on its keyboard will produce small glitches. Doing nothing will "discharge" a heavy glitch sound randomly. I'm not on my first wall wart tested for it. It requires 5 V and under testing, and I was using a 0.6A rated wall wart these days.

But I took matters in my own hands and destroyed a very old car usb cable I had and shoved stripped small pieces of wires into pins 1 and 5 of this usb A end, hooked it on my bench power supply to get some real time measurements and tested it under Win98SE (seems to draw more current than in DOS) and oops, requires currents that creep closer and closer to 1.0 A as time goes on.

But my assumption was this, I was going to set the current ceiling to 1.2 A to see if stability improved and if the static problem went away, but I still got sound glitches. It still hard resets sometimes when I ask win98se to shutdown (though that might be a win98se problem). I can "tough the sound glitches out" and they go away after 5 minutes, but I'd rather have something that avoids the problem. Any ideas as to what I can do?

I'll be able to test my 2nd unit through all that as well by the end of the week if I just bring it back from work.

Hey all,

Long time no see, but I wanted to share that I have one final v0.4 build (in black) of the weeCee up for sale now over on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/335088014203

The one that The 8-Bit Guy returned to me, SN13, a v0.3 variant (in silver) is up for sale here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/335091027801

Both are really great builds.

I also have an earlier v0.3 variant, SN3 (or 4 or 5, something very early), that I was also going to put up for sale, along with possibly one more silver one (undecided about that one though).

If anyone was in the market for one now would be the time to go looking. I also have an unfinished/non-populated v0.4 blank PCB, too, here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/335091080028

Hi!
I need help with my SD card not being recognised.

Unfortunately, I got two that had Nand Flash attached to them.
Fortunately, the information here said I only needed to remove one resistor, so I removed it.

But it doesn't recognize the SD card.

As you can see in the picture, it gets stuck on the boot screen for a while and eventually fails to recognize it.

I have two vortex86's and as a test, I removed the NAND flash from one of the boards.

But still the same, it wouldn't recognize the SD card.

One thing that changed when I removed the Nand Flash is that the IDE LEDs that used to blink hard on boot no longer blink.

Apart from this symptom, the rest of the symptoms are the same as those of the SD card not being recognised by other cards with a NAND flash.

I suspected it was a fault in the base motherboard, so I built another base motherboard and tested it.

I also tested the SD card, switching between 2GB, 4GB, 8GB and 16GB Samsung SanDisks.

However, I still have the same problem.

I'm looking for help from anyone who can give me a clue, even a small hint.

Thanks as always.