Hello there! as i wrote above i hae a weecee Pc and i am having trouble using (i can arrive till the "license code requested" screen on Win98 because still i need to find a usable WIN98 code) a ps2 mouse (optical) branded Perixx.
i tried to connect the mouse:
- by a splitter (green /purple)the mouse laser sensor is illumnated but the pointer does not move.if i connect the mouse in the ps2 port of the weecee the mouse pointer does not move
- directly othe mouse in the ps2 port of the weecee the mouse pointer does not move but it works like a keyboard (if i lift the mouse and i put down again it...it simulate like pushing "return" on the keyboard
- by connecting directly the mouse on the ps2 port i tried to put "enable" on the voice "ps2 mouse" in the bios (where i disabled the quick boot so i can see the post screen) where the mouse is recognized but still nothing
that means that the mouse sensor is illuminated but also no pointer on the screen.
- if i leave "auto" on the voice "ps2 mouse" the mouse is not recognized on the post screen but i can see the pointer.
-connecting the keyboard by the splitter or directly to the weecee ps2 port: no problem,the kayboard works flawlessly.

After this my questions: can be the mouse broken? or the mouse specs not recognized by windows or the Vortex? do you know any other trick on the bios?..any kind of help is great!
Thanks in advance!

I got an idea to try to fix the daemon tools CD Audio issue.

Someone mentioned that using a 2nd sound card does the job.
Re: Classic Games with CD Audio

So I'm gonna try one of those cheapo USB Audio devices on ebay and see if I can route the CD Audio through it to resolve the issue.

Duffman wrote on 2023-11-16, 05:53:

@Sudos […]
Show full quote

@Sudos

If you're using daemon tools to mount an ISO image, it's a known issue that CD audio won't work in DOS games.
Unless you use WDM drivers, then CD audio will work.

Using WDM drivers entirely defeats the purpose of using an ISA sound card though, as all WDM drivers use a crappy sbemul.sys file to emulate a sound blaster for DOS games and ignores your ISA hardware entirely.

ah, I guess I didn't get a chance to reply to this again. So the actual issue isn't with CD mounting and such, I have that working. This is under pure DOS 6.22, the utility I'm using to mount the ISO with is SHSUCDX: http://adoxa.altervista.org/shsucdx/
The problem isn't getting audio off it, that's easy. I'm trying to get information for sanity's sake, since I really do like the sound of the 4237B. With an SB16 or a Yamaha YMF719E I have no issues getting the talkie version of the game to run properly, but with either of my 4237B cards shoved into my box, no matter what settings I use, the game either hangs or locks up the system if voice tries to play, after moving the talking character's mouth for a bit.

I figured since there's a good chunk of people with a weeCee that have a 4237B installed that there's a way to test talkie BASS with it for the sake of verifying it's an incompatibility with the talkie version and not just a configuration error on my end. any relevant information on this game here on vogons leads me to 20 year old posts that just divert the OP to using Scummvm instead which is not a reasonable option in this case.

It'd be wise if someone could go and just do a test run on a bunch of scumm type games on the weeCee for sanity. I'm suspecting that it has something to do with some sort of DMA or address conflict regarding WSS that makes it incompatible... but again, this could also just be my own problem.

The logical solution is to use the floppy version of the game which doesn't have voices, but that just takes away from the experience. figured I'd get a couple people to give it a try to see if it's a me problem or a problem with the chip's compatibility.

I'm reviewing the schematics and BOM and searching through old forum posts. In general, it looks like a lot of 50V capacitors were used. Is such a relatively high value being used due to the potential for a +/-12V (24V difference) on the wavetable header? It doesn't look like those lines are even connected to anything?

It would seem like 10V or 16V parts would suffice as much of the circuit is 5V or 3.3V, right?

Or am I missing something entirely?

Also, C15 and C16 are 10uF. The datasheet for the CS4237B looks like it recommends a 1uF value. I am far from knowledgeable on audio filtering and the effects of changing those values.

I understand the voltage divider on each line (the 6.8K resistors) are used to halve the voltage output from the WAVETABLE.
Does the DreamBlaster S2 output +/- 2V (the datasheet for the chip seems to be down, so I wasn't able to verify).

I think (but am not sure) that the capacitor would remove the DC offset and center the AC signal about GND. But I do not know how the value affects the signal. I hazard a guess that a lower value would attenuate the signal less. Can anyone help explain?

All the best and thank you for any input!

ODINITE wrote on 2024-01-19, 07:10:

Does the DreamBlaster S2 output +/- 2V (the datasheet for the chip seems to be down, so I wasn't able to verify).

The datasheet was back up today when I checked.

I'm rusty on my audio electronics, but this is what I have so far...
It looks like the recommended LINE OUT (p10 of the SAM2695 datasheet) circuit contains 100ohm in line. R33 and R34 on the WeeCee board are 6.8K. So we have ~6.9K impedence on this line, right?

Calculating the impedance of the capacitor:
R = 1 / (2*pi*f*C)

With a target highpass rolloff at 10Hz. and for 6900 ohm resistance, we calculate a value of about 2.2uF

Does this seem right? or am I missing some resistance values?

Any help is appreciated.

All the best!

In general , ceramic caps lose its capacitance when dc voltage bias is applied, more high voltage-less capacity. So it's better use caps for higher voltage that woul.have less cap. drop at working voltage. And 100n/50V is veey common value so no reason use on lower voltage rating until we need to use smaller package. But using ceramic caps in audio circuirs is not good idea because of its non-linearity and orher unwanted effect. I prefer foil caps. In such use case like this probably never mind as the sound chip is not any high end audio too...

I purchased a weeCee from nachtrave, but no longer have time to use it. After second kid what little time I had left for hobbies is officially gone 😀

I listed it online. Works great and would love to see it go to someone that can enjoy it.

I have a problem with my weeCee.
I purchased it on eBay few months ago, and noticed random movement in games, like some keys are randomly being pressed on keyboard. I spoke with the seller, tried to troubleshoot, bought another keyboard, but the problem persisted.
I sent it back to seller for diagnostics, and she checked it under microscope, stress tested and said that everything is fine on their end.
After getting it back, right after turning it on I still have the same problem.

Seller suggested something is wrong with my hardware, so I tried 3 different ps2 keyboards, it is directly connected to ps2 port, no adapters, and this is what happens when I press for example arrow keys:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/R-fniUCJ8_s

Reseting device helps and I can play with no issues for few minutes and then again random keystrokes. Sometimes it starts glitching even right after booting, in dos menu.
It cost me a lot of money, I ran out of ideas, and I can't really enjoy it. Anyone who built one can tell me what's wrong with my unit? 🙁

Emerson Wagner wrote on 2024-02-08, 00:51:

Seller suggested something is wrong with my hardware, so I tried 3 different ps2 keyboards, it is directly connected to ps2 port, no adapters, and this is what happens when I press for example arrow keys:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/R-fniUCJ8_s

That lump on a fujitsu keyboard connector tells me it's an AT to PS/2 adapter, right?
AFAIK, WeeCee has a combo PS/2 port, which may have incompatibilities with old hardware, including pinout or power draw.

You could either try connecting your keyboard through a ps/2 splitter cable, or finding a cheapest modern ps/2 keyboard to check.

There's no adapter unless it's integrated.
But I tried with 3 different ps2 keyboards, Perixx ps2 from Amazon, Compaq ps2 from ebay, and that very old DI ps2 from ebay as well.
With and without two different splitters, one specifically recommended by seller. Always the same outcome.

Emerson Wagner wrote on 2024-02-09, 00:23:

There's no adapter unless it's integrated.
But I tried with 3 different ps2 keyboards, Perixx ps2 from Amazon, Compaq ps2 from ebay, and that very old DI ps2 from ebay as well.
With and without two different splitters, one specifically recommended by seller. Always the same outcome.

Have you tried a different monitor and power supply? I know it seems random, however, I might suspect electrical interference from another attached device that is connected when you're using it. I had an iPhone that the Touch ID sensor would go on the fritz whenever I used a specific USB power supply, and behaved normal with other power supplies. Swapping out all attached devices, one at a time, seems like a logical next step if you have not already tried that.

Hello, my name is ALEX and i am start to build vortex86 based gaming console. Based on Ebox thin client. CPU of my box is vortex86 MX@900mhz and 512 ram. (i586 compatible). I started this project a while ago and today i meet with this thread. In my plans create linux based machine with some gui shell, adding nes/sega/snes/ps1(if possible) emulators and, if possible to run Playstation 1 emu, attach a CD-ROM drive for using ps1 discs. Next i want to build case based on PS1 or segaCD. At this moment i am already installed debian 9 and meet the "cmov problem". I tried ubuntu 10 but she is pretty old. And my ebox even smaller than yours) Sorry for my engrish.

NRZX wrote on 2024-02-28, 06:09:

Hello, my name is ALEX and i am start to build vortex86 based gaming console. Based on Ebox thin client. CPU of my box is vortex86 MX@900mhz and 512 ram. (i586 compatible). I started this project a while ago and today i meet with this thread. In my plans create linux based machine with some gui shell, adding nes/sega/snes/ps1(if possible) emulators and, if possible to run Playstation 1 emu, attach a CD-ROM drive for using ps1 discs. Next i want to build case based on PS1 or segaCD. At this moment i am already installed debian 9 and meet the "cmov problem". I tried ubuntu 10 but she is pretty old. And my ebox even smaller than yours) Sorry for my engrish.

Yeah I had to run an ancient version of debian, possibly even older than 9 (I can't remember exactly).

To be honest the vortex86 isn't a good choice for an emulation box. Certainly you ain't gonna be emulating a playstation with it. Something based on a raspberry pi might be a better idea.

Mu0n wrote on 2021-06-07, 01:48:

Scope: at work only. I could go back this week. […]
Show full quote

Scope: at work only. I could go back this week.

Rev: the board I used and had made is an "early v0.3". You made several changes (but are still labeling it as v0.3 as of right now) after I cloned the project. Here's what circuitmaker detects as differences

And here's a screencap of the underside, no top overlay, no top 3d shown for visual clarity, MY VERSION

YOUR VERSION

Here are pics of my board (ignore the tape on the sdcard, it holds it together as the autoeject mechanism became insta borked on it, gotta remove the spring). When I freeze frame your video (linked in the first post), we see that you have R10 populated, but your schematics lists it as NP. I'm not 100% convinced which way it has to be by reading the datasheet on the crystal chip.

Here are close shots of the Cs4237B-KQ pins

Pins 1-25

Pins 25-50

Pins 51-75

Pins 76-100

Closest shot I can do, near pin 20:

I know I’m resurrecting an old post here but it saved my ass!

I began building my weeCee a couple weeks ago after collecting all the parts slowly for a month before that so needless to say, I was super excited.

I finally finished assembly a few days prior to this post and to my surprise it POSTed first try. Everything worked except the SD card and the PS/2 port. The keyboard would flash on when powered up but wouldn’t type. I took the SoM off the board and found that I missed soldering a whole row of pins. I went ahead and soldered them and the PS/2 keyboard worked but not the SD card. No biggie. I popped off the SoM again and found a bridged set of pins so I cleared that and rechecked all the pins on all the headers with my meter for continuity and found they were all bridge free!

I put everything back together and this time it saw the SD card so later that night I figured I’d flash the EEPROM and test the sound card. Well I ran the Orpheus EEPROM flash utility and immediately got an error. From there I found this thread and began following along. I ran the FIXRDP program which said there were no devices on the ISA bus. I figured since I had missed some pins on the SoM headers that maybe I did the same with the sound chip as it was the first thing I soldered on my very first SMD project. I did find some pins that were missed but unfortunately that didn’t solve the issue. I began checking the schematics for both the weeCee board itself as well as the CS4237 sound chip. Everything looked fine so I read further and found the pictures on this post.
The first thing I noticed was that the sound chip on your board was rotated 180 degrees from mine. I thought it was weird but chalked it up to a different board revision since some of the other components were located in different places but upon examining it more I noticed that I had soldered the chip in with the big dot facing pin 1 instead of the little dot on the other end by the notch! I didn’t think anything of it when I was installing it since it was the only dot I saw initially. Why would I think there would be others?

After a brief moment of panic I decided to try to swap it. I have other weeCee boards but moving all the components to a new board would likely be more risky than just trying to move the sound chip. I flooded all 4 sides of the chip with flux and got the solder braid out. I soaked up the solder on all 4 sides but the chip still wouldn’t budge and I was worried that if I tried to lift it I would damage the pads. This is actually something that happened when I installed and damaged the micro USB port ripping off 2 pads.
I added more flux and got out my hot air gun as I’ve seen other people on YouTube use them to remove SMD chips from boards with relative ease. I went around all 4 corners while applying light pressure to the corner of the chip with my tweezers. After about 20 seconds the chip popped off and luckily left all the pads intact. I cleaned up the board thoroughly and applied some new solder paste. Thankfully I have extra CS4237 chips since I don’t know if installing the original one the wrong way damaged it and I didn’t want to resolder the chip and have to repeat the process if it was in-fact damaged.
I got the chip soldered on and checked every leg for bridges. Found a few loose pins and fixed those then cleaned the board again, replaced a couple capacitors that got blown off the board and tested.
This time it worked perfectly! FIXRDP found the device on the ISA bus and I was able to flash the EEPROM successfully. I rebooted and loaded up Wolfenstein 3D. It detected sound blaster but no adlib. Idk if this is normal as I can’t remember but I did modify the .ini file to enable that when flashed. Either way I was happy to get it resolved!

TL:DR
installed the sound chip 180 degrees backwards because there’s a big dot on the corner of the CPU that DOESN’T denote pin 1 apparently.
This post saved me a ton of work tracing every line!

Also, if anyone knows if the CS4237 I installed the wrong way is still good let me know! I don’t want to risk using it if it’s not but I don’t know any other way to test it!

Thanks to all on this thread for providing information for noobs like myself to follow!

Hehe, sometimes it's tricky and some chips could have 2 "dots", I don't know why. In the past it also happened to me that I soldered a chip rotated, fortunately I got attention before power on when viewing some photos... It's good to carefully check the datesheet for package drawing if there are any doubts. Using solder braid has not much effect as there always remains some tiny amount of solder below the legs. You could just start with airgun. Also you could make some shielding around the chip from kapton tape to not blow off the surrounding components. But congrat to your success, you have learned something 😀

breakz wrote on 2023-12-14, 13:01:

Hello there! as i wrote above i hae a weecee Pc and i am having trouble using (i can arrive till the "license code requested" sc […]
Show full quote

Hello there! as i wrote above i hae a weecee Pc and i am having trouble using (i can arrive till the "license code requested" screen on Win98 because still i need to find a usable WIN98 code) a ps2 mouse (optical) branded Perixx.
i tried to connect the mouse:
- by a splitter (green /purple)the mouse laser sensor is illumnated but the pointer does not move.if i connect the mouse in the ps2 port of the weecee the mouse pointer does not move
- directly othe mouse in the ps2 port of the weecee the mouse pointer does not move but it works like a keyboard (if i lift the mouse and i put down again it...it simulate like pushing "return" on the keyboard
- by connecting directly the mouse on the ps2 port i tried to put "enable" on the voice "ps2 mouse" in the bios (where i disabled the quick boot so i can see the post screen) where the mouse is recognized but still nothing
that means that the mouse sensor is illuminated but also no pointer on the screen.
- if i leave "auto" on the voice "ps2 mouse" the mouse is not recognized on the post screen but i can see the pointer.
-connecting the keyboard by the splitter or directly to the weecee ps2 port: no problem,the kayboard works flawlessly.

After this my questions: can be the mouse broken? or the mouse specs not recognized by windows or the Vortex? do you know any other trick on the bios?..any kind of help is great!
Thanks in advance!

I’m also having this issue. Could this be a splitter issue or a BIOS issue maybe?

shimart wrote on 2023-11-04, 07:00:

Hi! I need help with my SD card not being recognised. […]
Show full quote

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

20231104_152445.jpg

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.

20231104_152515.jpg

But it doesn't recognize the SD card.

20231104_153007 copy.jpg

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

20231104_152830.jpg

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.

20231104_152503.jpg

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.

I am still struggling to resolve the issue of the microSD card not being recognized.

No matter how much I try this and that with my limited knowledge, the issue does not seem to be resolved.

Could it be that the SD card is not being recognized due to an issue with the board itself?

Is there anyone who can advise me on the SD card recognition issue, either from a hardware or software perspective?

Your small attention would be of great help to me.

To add to that, if I boot from a USB drive, the sound card and games run fine!

Thanks!

shimart wrote on 2024-04-12, 03:42:

I am still struggling to resolve the issue of the microSD card not being recognized. […]
Show full quote

shimart wrote on 2023-11-04, 07:00:

Hi! I need help with my SD card not being recognised. […]
Show full quote

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

20231104_152445.jpg

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.

20231104_152515.jpg

But it doesn't recognize the SD card.

20231104_153007 copy.jpg

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

20231104_152830.jpg

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.

20231104_152503.jpg

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.

I am still struggling to resolve the issue of the microSD card not being recognized.

No matter how much I try this and that with my limited knowledge, the issue does not seem to be resolved.

Could it be that the SD card is not being recognized due to an issue with the board itself?

Is there anyone who can advise me on the SD card recognition issue, either from a hardware or software perspective?

Your small attention would be of great help to me.

To add to that, if I boot from a USB drive, the sound card and games run fine!

Thanks!

Take a picture of the board from the front and the back and we can start there.

Vridek wrote on 2024-04-12, 10:59:

shimart wrote on 2024-04-12, 03:42:

I am still struggling to resolve the issue of the microSD card not being recognized. […]
Show full quote

shimart wrote on 2023-11-04, 07:00:

Hi! I need help with my SD card not being recognised. […]
Show full quote

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

20231104_152445.jpg

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.

20231104_152515.jpg

But it doesn't recognize the SD card.

20231104_153007 copy.jpg

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

20231104_152830.jpg

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.

20231104_152503.jpg

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.

I am still struggling to resolve the issue of the microSD card not being recognized.

No matter how much I try this and that with my limited knowledge, the issue does not seem to be resolved.

Could it be that the SD card is not being recognized due to an issue with the board itself?

Is there anyone who can advise me on the SD card recognition issue, either from a hardware or software perspective?

Your small attention would be of great help to me.

To add to that, if I boot from a USB drive, the sound card and games run fine!

Thanks!

Take a picture of the board from the front and the back and we can start there.

Re: Tiny Vortex86-based DOS gaming PC - weeCee

Here it is.
Thanks for your interest!

shimart wrote on 2024-04-12, 11:35:

Re: Tiny Vortex86-based DOS gaming PC - weeCee […]
Show full quote

Vridek wrote on 2024-04-12, 10:59:

shimart wrote on 2024-04-12, 03:42:

I am still struggling to resolve the issue of the microSD card not being recognized. […]
Show full quote

I am still struggling to resolve the issue of the microSD card not being recognized.

No matter how much I try this and that with my limited knowledge, the issue does not seem to be resolved.

Could it be that the SD card is not being recognized due to an issue with the board itself?

Is there anyone who can advise me on the SD card recognition issue, either from a hardware or software perspective?

Your small attention would be of great help to me.

To add to that, if I boot from a USB drive, the sound card and games run fine!

Thanks!

Take a picture of the board from the front and the back and we can start there.

Re: Tiny Vortex86-based DOS gaming PC - weeCee

Here it is.
Thanks for your interest!

Still no SOM304RD52VINE1? Please take a picture of your board from the back