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Yamaha XG with S/PDIF out ?

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Reply 40 of 51, by retardware

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Interesting thread...
Regarding the AOpen card, the manual states that the driver and accompanied software detect the card type.
This thread is about upgrading the L type (that has no SPDIF installed) to the "normal" one.
So my question, did you already test the software, does it "recognize" the card as the version with SP/DIF, does it show the SP/DIF settings, can you confirm it is working?

Reply 41 of 51, by kodi

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retardware wrote:

the software, does it "recognize" the card as the version with SP/DIF, does it show the SP/DIF settings

Yamaha Driver Control Panel Always provides the S/PDIF settings, no matter if it's soldered or not on the board - there is no check - the attached svreenshot is from unmodified card.

Also, if there was a check and S/PDIF is disabled for particular boards in the driver, then we just use approach like "InpOut32" to directly "speak" to the chip and enabled it - similarly how OPL3 is enabled for CMI8738:

I've got the OPL3 synth from a CMI8738 working in Windows 7 x64

check the "tools" folder in "cmiopl.zip" and YMG744 datasheet is publicly available to see the exact settings. So, software is not a problem in every possible case.

To be honest the only and biggest issue with Cobra is what I mentioned in "P.S. #2", because I bet those "hiccups" will probably be present in the S/PDIF too, because it seems they are due to the power supply circuit of the board. Of course, most people won't have powerful electric heater to cause main power fluctuate and trigger the problem. I am also surprised that using different ATX power unit doesn't help at all. So, maybe it's the combination of Cobra power supply circuit and power supply circuit of the PCI slots on my motherboard. However, the fact is - I cannot find any other sound card that has such issue and believe me - I've tried many, including another Cobra card, which means Cobra is at fault. In any way, I hope to find a solution, because I think some capacitor in the power supply of the card is just underrated and they needed to use a better one.

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Reply 42 of 51, by retardware

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@kodi,
great thanks for your detailed info!
I was lucky and when I searched the bay again, I found a new offer, YMF724 card with SPDIF already installed, definitely non AOpen. Grabbed it instantly.
So I'll have a CMI 8338 ISA, a FM801 PCI and a XG PCI card for my DOS SPDIF experiments soon. 😀

Regarding the Cobra peculiarity, this is why I want SPDIF and no analog audio with my computers.
I don't know about your electric installation, but it sounds like that the voltage drops substantially, having the PSU clock itself up.
But you might also want to verify that the thermostat switch has no EMI problems due to arcing. (If it is bad, it could cause a fire, so verifying it probably won't do damage either)

I'd suggest you instead of replacing capacitors to add some directly over the XG chip, taking care that the leads are as short as possible.
Take non-SMD ceramics, .22 or .47uF, with normal (non-SMD) leads for that. It probably won't do damage to increase the other supply voltage buffer capacitances, too.

Reply 43 of 51, by kodi

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retardware wrote:

So I'll have a CMI 8338 ISA, a FM801 PCI and a XG PCI card for my DOS SPDIF experiments soon. 😀

I guess you meant to type CMI 8330, otherwise my collection is exactly the same plus PCI CMI 8738, chip revision 37 - that revision is the only one that can mix OPL3 via the Digital Output.

(It's off-topic here, but even game compatibility of CMI 8738 in pure DOS is not good some day I am planning to research it more and try to patch the official drivers, which should be the root cause of the problem - in case of success it will be great, because CMI8738rev37 has SBPro/SB16 and can mix them with MIDI and OPL3 via the Digital Output. Still CMI8738rev37 is great for OPL3 pass-through in Win 7/8/10).

retardware wrote:

....
Take non-SMD ceramics, .22 or .47uF, with normal (non-SMD) leads for that.
....

thanks for those suggestions, I will try some modifications, but I do recommend what you did - avoid Cobra and buy some XG PCI card with Digital Out - even noname one. My friend has noname XG PCI with S/PDIF and it doesn't have Cobra problem even in my environment. So, it's much greater than Cobra in any possible way.

Reply 44 of 51, by kodi

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So, I've just found out that Cobra generates noise not only when my electric heater is turned on and off by the digital thermostat, but even when I turn on and off the lights 2 rooms away - and yes I can hear that noise with my own ears when leave the doors of the rooms open - its volume is that high to travel from one side of the house to the other!!

That makes no sense to me - the computer and the heater, i.e. power outlets, are at least in the same circuit, but the lights are on another. I monitor with digital multimeter (the only measuring equipment I have) the voltage in the power outlet of the computer when the noise is generated and it's completely stable - no fluctuation when I turn on and off the lights in the other part of the house, yet Cobra generates noise every time I do that.

I still have the 2nd Cobra board and it's the same, i.e. it's general problem with all of them (at least in my setup). Further more as fast experiment I changed capacitor C23 on Cobra (that one is on +5V rail from the PCI slot) from 22uF to 470uF - no any change at all in the behavior! So, from my point of view there is definitely something not right with Cobra design, because no any other sound card I have and I have collection of more than a dozen has such problem in the same computer and in the same house (including my friend's noname YMF744 based card, i.e. another card with the exact same chipset as Cobra). At this point I am not sure - to waste more time on Cobra or just declare it the worst sound card I have ever used. Currently, I wonder how's that no one else observed and reported such problem - it's really hard to believe it's isolated case to my house and/or computer.

Reply 47 of 51, by Joseph_Joestar

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file.php?id=104919&mode=view

My Guillemot Maxi Sound Fortissimo (YMF744B-V) has optical out. It also has SPDIF in for digital CD audio.

If anyone's interested, I have uploaded some music samples recorded via optical out here and also here.

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Athlon64 3400+ / Asus K8V-MX / 5900XT / Audigy2
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 970 / X-Fi

Reply 48 of 51, by vutt

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As long time "normal" AW744 II (P/N 55.18610.631) user with added PC_PCI interface I decided to acquire Pro version (P/N 55.18610.631) with Digital I/O.

So few confirmations from real card holder. Basically confirming Kodi findings.
TOSLINK module is indeed TX178S. Aliexpress current pricing starts from 1.5 EUR
Measurements - all in circuit:
R64 - 1 kΩ (1000 ohm)
R58 - 0.05 Ω with 4-wire bench DMM
C101 - Cant get reliable reading with my DMM

About DOS:

PARUS wrote on 2018-10-28, 13:58:

YMF7x4 has SPDIF 48 kHz locked. Its activation must run via specific DSP register(s). DOS driver does NOT this. WIN driver does. And if you run Windows then restart in MS-DOS mode SPDIF will be active till the moment when you press "reset" or power button. But if you power on and start MS-DOS without Windows session the SPDIF shouldn't be active. If I'm wrong please correct me.

You are right. Well sort of. ..
Enabling Digital output in Win98 and then Start menu->Shutdown-> "restart to MSDOS mode" (Not hard restart). Then testing with setup setupds.exe Native 16-bit mode is working via TOSLINK, however SB emulation and FM digital out is silent. Only analog out is working.
I guess only DOS program known with native YMF744 support is setupds.exe 🤣

I have to admit I'm little bit buzzled what kind of DOS mode it is? Somehow SB emulation is working via D-DMA mode, but mem /c indicates that EMM386 is not loaded. I was under impression that D-DMA mode requires EMM386 to be loaded. Hm..
Back in days I always configured for myself dedicated 4dos.com or command.com .PIF file where I specified Config.sys and autoexec.bat content. This kind of custom PIF will always boot to MSDOS mode with cold restart.

Anyways I might try to convert my old card into Pro version. Probably the biggest challenge for me will be trimming bracket window nicely for TOSLINK module. I have only dremel so result will be not esthetically pleasing...

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Reply 51 of 51, by CodeFuApprentice

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I had wondered if this was possible to do, in my case, Outputting MIDI from a Sound Card with an attached Wavetable Daughterboard(DB50XG) through a TOSLINK port.
I'm not aware if any of my cards are capable of doing this (AWE-32 or Turtle Beach Santa Cruz). Ideally i'd love to see a card capable of doing this both in native MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows 98.
Are any of the legacy cards able to do this, or would it be better to look at something newer like the Orpheus, like LGR has previously covered?

AMD K6-3 400 | Gigabyte GA-5AX R4.1 | 256MB PC-100 | 20GB Quantum Fireball LMPlus | Windows 98 SE
*Alternating between: Geforce 2 MX AGP or 3DFX Voodoo 5 5500 AGP. *Sound Blaster AWE-32 CT2760 or Turtle Beach Santa Cruz w/ Yamaha DB50XG.