TimWolf wrote:

😲 You rock!

I'm going to get one of these for my Tandy RLX HD. I'm not going to put the port on it. I'm going to mount it internally and pipe it through the Tandy sound board sharing the volume knob. Goal is to have a switch for the Tandy Sound / LPT port so that I can still use the printer and Tandy sound on one setting, and the Adlib on the other. "Think it'll work?" ~

Thanks !
Yes i think it will work.

Well would you look at this https://youtu.be/adhjvT4SeyQ 😀 Thanks sayjionix

SteveC wrote:

Well would you look at this https://youtu.be/adhjvT4SeyQ 😀 Thanks sayjionix

Nice! 😁 I'm glad it helped also for your PS/2!

Cheers,
sayjionix

To me, it sounds like it should be a revision to the board to include this resistor.

Paralel wrote:

To me, it sounds like it should be a revision to the board to include this resistor.

Agreed; at the very least, the design should be revised before another batch is ordered.

640K!enough wrote:

Paralel wrote:

To me, it sounds like it should be a revision to the board to include this resistor.

Agreed; at the very least, the design should be revised before another batch is ordered.

Yeah will do. I will also list the mod on my site, after some more testing.
I don't have a PS/2 system here, will pm sayjionix for some more tests.

sayjionix wrote:

today I made some analyses to find out what causes the OPL2LPT to output only distorted screechy sounds on some of my computers / IO-controllers. I think I came to an idea and an option to fix it, but not sure if this is the preferred way, so please let me know what you think.

Interesting...
I found a similar problem on my IBM 5160 and PCjr... I wrote my own VGM replayer for OPL2LPT, and initially tested it on my 286-20 and Celeron 1.5 GHz laptop. The code worked fine on both.
Then I tested on the 5160 and PCjr, and found that they only played garbage.

The way I solved it was by changing the order of the commands sent to the LPT.
Apparently the IBM printer interfaces were sensitive to this somehow. The changed code still worked fine on the other two machines.

I can build some test programs using both variations. I wonder if the issue I had was similar, and changing the commands around would somehow change something in the signals similar to the resistor you added.

Scali wrote:

I wonder if the issue I had was similar, and changing the commands around would somehow change something in the signals similar to the resistor you added.

That's interesting! As it can be seen on the comparison of the Adlipt TSR and the OPL2TEST program, a small timing difference of the command lines can have impact on the result (at least if the STROBE signal is not too washed out, as it is for example on my 486). So your command sequence may have provided enough time for STROBE to rise again, before RESET toggles. But that's just a guess...

@dreamblaster: got your pm and will do more tests tomorrow 😀 Unfortunately I can't pm you back right now, as new members on vogons apparently don't have rights for that. I already asked the admins if they can unlock me. If it's not working soon, I will contact you differently.

OPL2LPT easy mod : 1k pullup on strobe signal, for solving compatibility issues on PCJr and possibly other early computers
only needed if you experience problems (I could not test on my PC, as it always works, also without the mod)

If you have PCJr or similar, and this does not solve the problem, please report in this thread

I'll check out this little nice device soon. I have a FSC-C6-Desktop (D1026) with integreated Onboard-Sound.
I think I am able to deactivate the bad fm-synthesis and use this little device instead.

dreamblaster wrote:

OPL2LPT easy mod : 1k pullup on strobe signal, for solving compatibility issues on PCJr and possibly other early computers only […]
Show full quote

OPL2LPT easy mod : 1k pullup on strobe signal, for solving compatibility issues on PCJr and possibly other early computers
only needed if you experience problems (I could not test on my PC, as it always works, also without the mod)

OPL2LPTMOD.JPG

If you have PCJr or similar, and this does not solve the problem, please report in this thread

Does TSR program requires 386+ processor? Or it could run from 286? I have Toshiba T3100e/40. It would be cool if I can make it work with that computer! I don't have your device yet, just wondering!

The TSR provides ADLIB emulation and won't work in a 80286. It requires specific 386 CPU behaviour in order to intercept ADLIB target port instructions and route them to the LPT port.
But, existing software could be adapted to support this device natively without requiring the emulation TSR.

That would be awesome! Since I have portable with no ISA available for the sound card

obaltus wrote:

The TSR provides ADLIB emulation and won't work in a 80286. It requires specific 386 CPU behaviour in order to intercept ADLIB target port instructions and route them to the LPT port.
But, existing software could be adapted to support this device natively without requiring the emulation TSR.

What existing software is BTW?

Scali wrote:

Interesting... I found a similar problem on my IBM 5160 and PCjr... I wrote my own VGM replayer for OPL2LPT, and initially teste […]
Show full quote

sayjionix wrote:

today I made some analyses to find out what causes the OPL2LPT to output only distorted screechy sounds on some of my computers / IO-controllers. I think I came to an idea and an option to fix it, but not sure if this is the preferred way, so please let me know what you think.

Interesting...
I found a similar problem on my IBM 5160 and PCjr... I wrote my own VGM replayer for OPL2LPT, and initially tested it on my 286-20 and Celeron 1.5 GHz laptop. The code worked fine on both.
Then I tested on the 5160 and PCjr, and found that they only played garbage.

The way I solved it was by changing the order of the commands sent to the LPT.
Apparently the IBM printer interfaces were sensitive to this somehow. The changed code still worked fine on the other two machines.

I can build some test programs using both variations. I wonder if the issue I had was similar, and changing the commands around would somehow change something in the signals similar to the resistor you added.

My question was about 286. Is it only your player could work with 286?

kirikl wrote:

My question was about 286. Is it only your player could work with 286?

the adlipt TSR uses 386 features and will not work on 286.
a number of games can be patched using adpatch

Have a look at this release : https://github.com/pdewacht/adlipt/releases/tag/v0.8.0

Games that should work with the patcher :

Sierra Games using the "SCI" engine. Patch ADL.DRV.
id Software
The Commander Keen series
Wolfenstein 3D
DOOM (v1.9 tested)
DOOM II
Softdisk
Keen Dreams
Dangerous Dave's Risky Rescue
Dave Does Nutz
Apogee
Bio Menace

and now @codedwrench contributed patches for Wacky Wheels, Duke Nukem 3D and SCUMM games such as Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis,
as well.

full history of adlipt/adpatch releases can be seen here : https://github.com/pdewacht/adlipt/releases

Would this work on a modern windows 10 computer (so using a usb to parallel convertor and dosbox)?

zarkon wrote:

Would this work on a modern windows 10 computer (so using a usb to parallel convertor and dosbox)?

In theory, it could.
In practice, DOSBox has no support for parallel ports currently. Also, USB printer ports tend to buffer data before sending it, which messes up the timing of the music.
A 'real' onboard parallel port, or a PCI(e) one will work, with a modified version of DOSBox.

Scali wrote:

In theory, it could. In practice, DOSBox has no support for parallel ports currently. Also, USB printer ports tend to buffer dat […]
Show full quote

zarkon wrote:

Would this work on a modern windows 10 computer (so using a usb to parallel convertor and dosbox)?

In theory, it could.
In practice, DOSBox has no support for parallel ports currently. Also, USB printer ports tend to buffer data before sending it, which messes up the timing of the music.
A 'real' onboard parallel port, or a PCI(e) one will work, with a modified version of DOSBox.

I see, thanks for the info.