VOGONS


Reply 1860 of 3172, by shock__

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That's why I'm keeping myself fully out of the issue 😉
I'm ok with harvesting covers from other cards, if one isn't there's an engineering drawing of the connectors with full measurements - sharing your efforts with the community is very welcome.

Current Project: new GUS PnP compatible soundcard

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Reply 1861 of 3172, by hard1k

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shock__, but for the production batch is it possible to put the jacks in the Vibra order and add a mounting hole to the PCB? The most common Vibra seems to be the CT4170, and its order is like this (top-bottom): Line-In, Mic-In, Line-Out/Spk, Joystick. The mounting hole would also be fantastic for the sake of the card rigidness.

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Reply 1864 of 3172, by hard1k

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Of course it does, apart from the fact that the markings do not correspond to the functions. This is a "no go" for me, in the form-content dichotomy I'm for harmony to its possible maximum extent.

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Reply 1865 of 3172, by Beegle

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hard1k wrote:

This is a "no go" for me, in the form-content dichotomy I'm for harmony to its possible maximum extent.

I guess for full harmony, either we manufacture our own brackets, or accept that Creative does not conform to the Argus standard. 🤣

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Reply 1866 of 3172, by cyclone3d

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What about using the Creative brackets and then just have a sticker to put on the bracket that relabels the ports to be correct?
All you would nee to make the holes in the sticker would be a standard hand-held hole-punch.

I still think a made for the ARGUS bracket would be best, but the sticker idea would work.

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Reply 1867 of 3172, by hard1k

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Ok then, I am opting for a custom manufacturing of a bunch of brackets.
If anyone can assist with design, order and logistics (inbound and outbound to anyone interested), I'm ready to help with initial financing.

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Reply 1868 of 3172, by cyclone3d

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Pulled out my box of parts from Mouser, printed off the layout sheet and the parts list sheet and separated out all the small smd parts.

My plan is to at least solder all the small smd parts tomorrow night (resistors and capacitors).

It is really hard to find time to get this thing put together with 4 kids ages 7 and under. 😒

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Reply 1869 of 3172, by matze79

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yeah is pretty time consuming.. all these small parts 😀 i did need almost a week each day soldering a handful of components..
very anoying if you want get something running and you can only do small steps... each day..

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Reply 1870 of 3172, by shock__

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How long would you assume you needed overall (asking any beta tester)?
Personally I'm down to somewhere around 90 minutes for a full card, possibly a little more. What really helps is presoldering 1 pad of each 0805 component and soldering all parts with identical values in a row (you can dump the parts to a seperate container and just pick one when needed - rather than removing them individually from the reels/reel cutouts)

Current Project: new GUS PnP compatible soundcard

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Reply 1871 of 3172, by keropi

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I would say ~2hrs to make a neat job , maybe more if you really want everything as aligned as possible

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Reply 1872 of 3172, by Batyra

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I have to order soldering and it took quite long... but I think it was two evenings of real work.
But if anyone in the future (who doen't know anything of soldering) would like to order soldering - the part list and all documentation is fair enough for someone not i retro hardware to do it.

But still I know they read this post while soldering to check if everything is ok or someone didn't find some error etc.

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Reply 1873 of 3172, by vittek

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So I just joined a hardware engineering team at work, I have the resources at my disposal locally to make brackets for the Argus possible. I'm in Seattle and there's a local manufacturer with good tooling who can make a run of brackets. As far as engineering drawings are concerned, I've been looking through forum posts but I only see shock__'s post with the prototype 2 component map, but no board measurements. If anyone with a prototype board and a caliper could make some measurements, or point me to a drawing with basic dimensions, it would be greatly appreciated. Even just the dimensions of the card itself would help. If not I can work backwards as best as I can.

If the cost is not too prohibitive, I'd spring for the brackets along with hard1k as a donation to the project. Really guys Gompf brackets is local for me and I'd really like to help contribute to the project. I can CAD and deal with Gompf http://bracket.com/ and get the brackets shipped to the EU.

Here's an example of what they can do:
http://bracket.com/downloads/brackets/pdf/93590008.pdf

Let me know guys,
Vittek

Reply 1874 of 3172, by shock__

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I hope this one has all required measures. If you need any other dimensions let me know: https://i.imgur.com/8kibLyd.jpg
Units are mm

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Reply 1876 of 3172, by keropi

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Is there any interest for a Music Quest MPU Argus daughterboard?
It will be 1xOUT and 1xIN ports via the Argus DB15 port -> no idea about what kind of adapter you will need to also connect a joystick or if a gameport midi adapter will work , you only need straight connections from the MQ board to your midi synth so anything inside these gameport adapters could potentially interfere.
If there is a WT header then the whole card combo will occupy space for 2 cards.

Just gauging interest to determine how much time will be spent on this addon... I know hard1k is onboard 🤣

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Reply 1878 of 3172, by 640K!enough

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shock__ wrote:

How long would you assume you needed overall (asking any beta tester)?

I think the whole thing took me somewhere between two and four hours. I should point out that I was being extra careful, trying to do a somewhat neat job and also trying to remember where I wanted to deviate from your documents and why. I probably spent more time looking for the right footprints for the passives and trying to do a respectable job with the alignment than actually soldering.

I have been planning to write a detailed assembly guide that should make the process go more smoothly, but haven't had the time yet.

keropi wrote:

Is there any interest for a Music Quest MPU Argus daughterboard?

What does this give us that we can't already get by ordering your existing card? Will it not create a thick sandwich that occupies the neighbouring slot anyhow?

I don't have a cheap/expendable daughterboard to experiment with, but I think we can already kludge a Wave Blaster-like DB to work on the existing design with the current software. That obviously doesn't give us the hardware-based "intelligent mode" functionality that your card does, however.

In other news, I have finally completed a draft of the ROM-module-programming sections of my documentation, which is attached. I have also included an alpha-quality version of the programming software for anyone who wants to experiment with it. Obviously, this will primarily be of interest to those with the boards in their hands, though anyone who wants to try running it and reporting what it has to say (port detection, calibration results) would be welcome. Even though it's mentioned in the documentation, I should repeat that the programming software currently only works on Pentium or later processors; anything less will likely crash, or EMM386 (or equivalent) will throw an error at you.

Similarly, any constructive feedback about the documentation would be most welcome. Don't be afraid to tell me it's terrible, if that's your honest opinion, as long as you also tell me what makes it terrible.

Reply 1879 of 3172, by keropi

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640K!enough wrote:

[...]
What does this give us that we can't already get by ordering your existing card? Will it not create a thick sandwich that occupies the neighbouring slot anyhow?
[...]

If the wavetable header is not soldered then the sandwich will be almost the same as an isa soundcard with a daughterboard so it will only occupy 1 slot.
As to why there are 2 reasons I can think:
- have a cool addon 🤣
- save an ISA slot

It's still under consideration and just a thought at this moment 😀

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