Kekkula wrote on 2024-04-16, 18:21:

Ok thanks for the reply.
Here in Europe cards are hard to come by 😉

I have approx. 7 cards for sale (fully assembled with slotcover) and I'm located in Germany. Send me a PM if you're interested. Unfortunately the slotcovers will take another week but then the cards are available from me 😀

rasz_pl wrote on 2024-04-16, 19:48:

With SB and NE2000 now possible it makes more and more sense to plop one or two more rp2040 on the PCB and let them talk over fast serial bus.

Hi,

The PicoMEM can do RAM, ROM, USB Mouse, Joystick, Disk, Floppy, NE2000 and Adlib at the same time.
Then, have multiple fonction in the PicoGUS is just a matter of time and code, no need for multiple RP2040.

You are right that PicoMEM might not need additional compute power, but PicoGUS is already running overclocked and barely fits in performance constraints.

rasz_pl wrote on 2024-05-06, 14:15:

You are right that PicoMEM might not need additional compute power, but PicoGUS is already running overclocked and barely fits in performance constraints.

What block the PicoGUS to do more is that everything is in RAM. (To support the high overclocking)
This limit the number of audio core that can run at the same time.

Also, the audio buffer size is reduced to the minimum, to improve the accuracy.
The GUS emulation needs more CPU power to support DMA, where the PC Does the mixing than doing the actual mixing, because DMA Talk more rapidly to the ISA Bus.

Hopefully, Add MPU with audio is not needed with GUS but with Sound Blaster, that is really less CPU intensive than the GUS, this can allow the PicoGUS to do Both.

The question here was SB with ne2000.
ne200 is not CPU intensive as most of the job is done by the Wifi chip. It should not be a problem to add it with SB, even with GUS.

FYI I am starting to partner with "official" sellers of PicoGUS that I will link from the project homepage and my own Tindie page (my goal is to get out of selling them myself eventually). The first one I have partnered with is Joe's Computer Museum. He is US based but ships internationally, and he just put up his first batch of stock: https://jcm-1.com/product/picogus-v2/
I am also in talks with sellers in the UK and EU and hopefully they will be up and going soon. 🙂

I just ordered mine from Joe's Computer Museum after getting on the wait list back when DOS Storm made their video. I am excited to get my hands on it, mainly because I'd like to try out a GUS for myself. I always kind of wanted one, but by the time the Sound Blaster compatibility was solved or it didn't matter because we had moved to Windows 95/98, it just made more sense at the time to grab an AWE 64 and then a SB Live since I was big on multi-channel EAX. I'm also looking forward to using the MPU-401 emulation to use my X2GS with an AWE 64 without a Chill and Phil hanging off the back end!

MadMac_5 wrote on 2024-05-07, 21:46:

I just ordered mine from Joe's Computer Museum after getting on the wait list back when DOS Storm made their video. I am excited to get my hands on it, mainly because I'd like to try out a GUS for myself. I always kind of wanted one, but by the time the Sound Blaster compatibility was solved or it didn't matter because we had moved to Windows 95/98, it just made more sense at the time to grab an AWE 64 and then a SB Live since I was big on multi-channel EAX. I'm also looking forward to using the MPU-401 emulation to use my X2GS with an AWE 64 without a Chill and Phil hanging off the back end!

Just purchased mine, excited to get my hands on this as well 😀

Hey everyone,
Forgive me if this has been covered previously but I recently had 5 boards made for the PicoGus and have so far assembled 1.
I had a ton of problems getting it to work initially. It was of course because of my still-developing solder skills for SMD/SMT components. I did get it working eventually and it is being detected by pgusinit.exe however, when I run Jazz Jackrabbit, I hear music but the graphics are glitchy. after a minute it crashes to dos with an error.

I tested the game again with sound disabled in the Jazz setup utility and it worked fine without any graphical glitches so it's clearly something about the PicoGus it doesn't like.
I haven't tried any other games yet but I know Jazz is on the supported list of games so that's why I chose it for my first test.

I was also having some issues with the computer hanging at first when I initially installed it that went away when I switched over to a different DMA (7 in this case) but I switched it back to DMA 5 and now it works but I did have some solder issues on the logic gates that may have caused that.

if anyone can at least point me in the right direction I would appreciate it!

I am also in talks with sellers in the UK and EU and hopefully they will be up and going soon.

Awesome news, does this include the v2?

snipe3687 wrote on 2024-05-08, 12:50:

Hey everyone, Forgive me if this has been covered previously but I recently had 5 boards made for the PicoGus and have so far as […]
Show full quote

Hey everyone,
Forgive me if this has been covered previously but I recently had 5 boards made for the PicoGus and have so far assembled 1.
I had a ton of problems getting it to work initially. It was of course because of my still-developing solder skills for SMD/SMT components. I did get it working eventually and it is being detected by pgusinit.exe however, when I run Jazz Jackrabbit, I hear music but the graphics are glitchy. after a minute it crashes to dos with an error.

I tested the game again with sound disabled in the Jazz setup utility and it worked fine without any graphical glitches so it's clearly something about the PicoGus it doesn't like.
I haven't tried any other games yet but I know Jazz is on the supported list of games so that's why I chose it for my first test.

I was also having some issues with the computer hanging at first when I initially installed it that went away when I switched over to a different DMA (7 in this case) but I switched it back to DMA 5 and now it works but I did have some solder issues on the logic gates that may have caused that.

if anyone can at least point me in the right direction I would appreciate it!

Probably the only thing that can be recommended is to keep looking over solder joints and make sure there are no bridges. But it will also help if you tell us what revision of the board this is? If you don't have a microscope you can sometimes see better by zooming in with your phone camera to get a better view of the joints.

snipe3687 wrote on 2024-05-08, 12:50:

Hey everyone, Forgive me if this has been covered previously but I recently had 5 boards made for the PicoGus and have so far as […]
Show full quote

Hey everyone,
Forgive me if this has been covered previously but I recently had 5 boards made for the PicoGus and have so far assembled 1.
I had a ton of problems getting it to work initially. It was of course because of my still-developing solder skills for SMD/SMT components. I did get it working eventually and it is being detected by pgusinit.exe however, when I run Jazz Jackrabbit, I hear music but the graphics are glitchy. after a minute it crashes to dos with an error.

I tested the game again with sound disabled in the Jazz setup utility and it worked fine without any graphical glitches so it's clearly something about the PicoGus it doesn't like.
I haven't tried any other games yet but I know Jazz is on the supported list of games so that's why I chose it for my first test.

I was also having some issues with the computer hanging at first when I initially installed it that went away when I switched over to a different DMA (7 in this case) but I switched it back to DMA 5 and now it works but I did have some solder issues on the logic gates that may have caused that.

if anyone can at least point me in the right direction I would appreciate it!

In addition to the above tips about soldering, here are a few more questions whose answers may help point us in the right direction.

• What motherboard and CPU are in the PC?
• Aside from Jazz, have you tried other games or software with your PicoGUS, in GUS mode? how does that go?
• Can you try the Adlib firmware please (pg-adlib.uf2, from picogus-v1.1.0.zip
  at v1.1.0) ? How does that perform for you, with games?

Also, if you would like to show detailed photos of any of the soldering work, experienced eyes (much moreso than mine!) will happily critique it. 😀 I've had instances where that method identified and solved my issues rather quickly.

Delphius wrote on 2024-05-08, 19:20:

snipe3687 wrote on 2024-05-08, 12:50:

Hey everyone, Forgive me if this has been covered previously but I recently had 5 boards made for the PicoGus and have so far as […]
Show full quote

Hey everyone,
Forgive me if this has been covered previously but I recently had 5 boards made for the PicoGus and have so far assembled 1.
I had a ton of problems getting it to work initially. It was of course because of my still-developing solder skills for SMD/SMT components. I did get it working eventually and it is being detected by pgusinit.exe however, when I run Jazz Jackrabbit, I hear music but the graphics are glitchy. after a minute it crashes to dos with an error.

I tested the game again with sound disabled in the Jazz setup utility and it worked fine without any graphical glitches so it's clearly something about the PicoGus it doesn't like.
I haven't tried any other games yet but I know Jazz is on the supported list of games so that's why I chose it for my first test.

I was also having some issues with the computer hanging at first when I initially installed it that went away when I switched over to a different DMA (7 in this case) but I switched it back to DMA 5 and now it works but I did have some solder issues on the logic gates that may have caused that.

if anyone can at least point me in the right direction I would appreciate it!

Probably the only thing that can be recommended is to keep looking over solder joints and make sure there are no bridges. But it will also help if you tell us what revision of the board this is? If you don't have a microscope you can sometimes see better by zooming in with your phone camera to get a better view of the joints.

Ah good question. It's the "chipdown" version which I believe is 2.0. I assembled it with a microscope but I had to reflow the RP2040 a couple times since it's very difficult to know if they are making contact. I thought they were at first but I wasn't getting 1.1v on the DVDD pins which caused it to not be recognized as a USB device (DROVE ME CRAZY FOR A COUPLE DAYS!)
Same problem with the logic gates but I ended up removing them completely off the board, cleaning the pads and re-soldering them. everything was reflown (flowed?) with hot air.

Shreddoc wrote on 2024-05-08, 23:22:

In addition to the above tips about soldering, here are a few more questions whose answers may help point us in the right direct […]
Show full quote

snipe3687 wrote on 2024-05-08, 12:50:

Hey everyone, Forgive me if this has been covered previously but I recently had 5 boards made for the PicoGus and have so far as […]
Show full quote

Hey everyone,
Forgive me if this has been covered previously but I recently had 5 boards made for the PicoGus and have so far assembled 1.
I had a ton of problems getting it to work initially. It was of course because of my still-developing solder skills for SMD/SMT components. I did get it working eventually and it is being detected by pgusinit.exe however, when I run Jazz Jackrabbit, I hear music but the graphics are glitchy. after a minute it crashes to dos with an error.

I tested the game again with sound disabled in the Jazz setup utility and it worked fine without any graphical glitches so it's clearly something about the PicoGus it doesn't like.
I haven't tried any other games yet but I know Jazz is on the supported list of games so that's why I chose it for my first test.

I was also having some issues with the computer hanging at first when I initially installed it that went away when I switched over to a different DMA (7 in this case) but I switched it back to DMA 5 and now it works but I did have some solder issues on the logic gates that may have caused that.

if anyone can at least point me in the right direction I would appreciate it!

In addition to the above tips about soldering, here are a few more questions whose answers may help point us in the right direction.

• What motherboard and CPU are in the PC?
• Aside from Jazz, have you tried other games or software with your PicoGUS, in GUS mode? how does that go?
• Can you try the Adlib firmware please (pg-adlib.uf2, from picogus-v1.1.0.zip
  at v1.1.0) ? How does that perform for you, with games?

Also, if you would like to show detailed photos of any of the soldering work, experienced eyes (much moreso than mine!) will happily critique it. 😀 I've had instances where that method identified and solved my issues rather quickly.

Hi!
not entirely sure what brand or model the motherboard is but the CPU is an AMD K-5 running at 133MHz. Socket 7 and 32MB of SODIMM memory. It's using a Cirrus Logic video card, I'd have to pull it to get the model info.

The only other game I tried so far was the Duke 3D setup utility and I was able to get sound effects when tested. I didn't actually launch the game though so I can try that tonight.
I'll also flash the Adlib firmware and test it later.

I'll get some pictures shortly and post them when I can. Just don't judge me when you see that I ordered green PCBs instead of the classic red 🤣.

I just bought a PicoGUS 2.0 to try out on a few machines. I noticed the compatibility list on the GitHub appears to be out of date, specifically with regard to the IOCHRDY bug on 5150/5170 (and ostensibly 5155/5160/etc as well) that was supposedly fixed with firmware 1.0.2. I have a 5160 I plan to test mine on and submit a compatibility update for if it goes well.

Does anyone here have any experience with this on any of the 51xx series IBMs/compatibles who can LMK any quirks/issues/tricks?

Can I use GUS and Joystick functions at the same time on PicoGUS 2.0?

If not, can I install two PicoGUS 2.0 and then specify the functions of each PicoGUS 2.0 under DOS?

Silly question but can I put a Dreamblaster S2 on the wavetable header and use the card as General Midi for music and Soundblaster Emulation for digitised effects (eg in Doom) in pure DOS?

cywang23 wrote on 2024-05-10, 04:39:

Can I use GUS and Joystick functions at the same time on PicoGUS 2.0?

If not, can I install two PicoGUS 2.0 and then specify the functions of each PicoGUS 2.0 under DOS?

Yes you can! Just initiate (pgusinit) the card with "/J" at the end with any firmware loaded.

Omarkoman wrote on 2024-05-10, 05:15:

Silly question but can I put a Dreamblaster S2 on the wavetable header and use the card as General Midi for music and Soundblaster Emulation for digitised effects (eg in Doom) in pure DOS?

not at the moment since the mpu and sound blaster are in different firmwares.

any resellers in europe ?

I try to download Ultrasound installation files from github page and I am redirected to https://picog.us/. Is it possible to download this archive from somewhere else?