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Reply 220 of 495, by Thermalwrong

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I think I nearly broke that one on mine as well 😁

Here's the updated version without the cutout in the top of the bracket, that should make it stronger and a little easier to print.
This is version 3 of the bracket - I modified the area around the game port so that should have less of a gap and still print reliably:

Sound Blaster repro Snark Barker v3 render.jpg
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I've also made a new version of the volume wheel which reduces the design to 100 teeth with the exact same dimensions. It's more within the realms of what a standard FDM printer can manage in terms of detail, much more defined:

CT1320 bracket and wheel v3.jpg
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Reply 222 of 495, by ischeriad

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Looks like that there is not enough demand for a group order of metal brackets.
It will be too expensive for me alone so I'm abandoning the laser-cut approach. Sorry to the people you voiced interest.

Reply 223 of 495, by DNSDies

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Why not get a quote from a company that actually makes custom PC Card brackets?
https://www.keyelco.com/category.cfm/Brackets … -PC-Card/id/427

There's a minimum order of 500, but I'm sure it'd be cheaper than laser-cut if you could get 500 people...

That said, is there any way to just use a knob instead of a wheel?
Because getting DB15 punched brackets is easy:
https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/key … 200-3-ND/317285

Drilling holes for headphone jacks is also easy. Drilling a third hole for a knob is also very easy.
Cutting a square slot for a wheel is hard.

Reply 224 of 495, by hasnopants

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I would be surprised if there were 500 snark barkers in the world.

Current Systems:
DIP40|8088|640K|HERCULESGB102|PCSPKR
DIP40|V20|640K|VGA|ADLIB/TNDY/COVOX
S7|P233MMX|128M|S3ViRGEDX/DM3D|SB16
S370|P600MMX|256M|SIS630/DM3DIIX2|SBLIVE!5.1
S775|P43.4|2G|6800GS|SBAUDIGY

Reply 225 of 495, by Benedikt

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DNSDies wrote:
That said, is there any way to just use a knob instead of a wheel? Because getting DB15 punched brackets is easy: https://www.di […]
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That said, is there any way to just use a knob instead of a wheel?
Because getting DB15 punched brackets is easy:
https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/key … 200-3-ND/317285

Drilling holes for headphone jacks is also easy. Drilling a third hole for a knob is also very easy.
Cutting a square slot for a wheel is hard.

Well, if this one (Keystone 9204-1) fits, that would be even easier.
Has anyone who has a Snark Barker checked the datasheet?

Reply 227 of 495, by ischeriad

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Benedikt wrote:

Well, if this one (Keystone 9204-1) fits, that would be even easier.
Has anyone who has a Snark Barker checked the datasheet?

Well, from looking at the datasheet, the DB15 connector is several millimeters off (worse on the 9200-3). I would be surprised if this hadn't been checked before.

DNSDies wrote:

Why not get a quote from a company that actually makes custom PC Card brackets?
[...]
There's a minimum order of 500

There's your answer. Even if the price goes down to ~2,50€ like the brackets on digikey (which it probably only does for much larger quantities), I wouldn't be willing to sell these things for the rest of my days until all 500 are gone and I recouped the money.

Reply 228 of 495, by DNSDies

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What about these cheapo sound cards from china?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/4-Channel-8738-Chip- … 8wAAOSw2xRYWxIH

Looks like the DB15 port is lower than on the keystone ones, maybe the audio jacks will match up?

Reply 229 of 495, by 640K!enough

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DNSDies wrote:

Why not get a quote from a company that actually makes custom PC Card brackets?
https://www.keyelco.com/category.cfm/Brackets … -PC-Card/id/427

There's a minimum order of 500, but I'm sure it'd be cheaper than laser-cut if you could get 500 people...

There was a somewhat lengthy discussion about this in the ARGUS thread. I contacted exactly that company some time ago, and while the per-unit cost was relatively reasonable (and gets better as unit count increases), there is also the initial tooling cost, which was rather prohibitive for a small community project. This is especially so when you have no guarantee that everyone who buys a card will want one. The prospect of being stuck with hundreds of metal parts sitting around and never recovering your initial costs isn't particularly appealing.

There are some Chinese producers that can be found on the various marketplaces that don't charge tooling fees, will produce smaller batches and have lower per-unit prices. I haven't looked into that in detail yet, but it looks like an unbeatable option for smaller projects.

Reply 230 of 495, by fleedar

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Anyone have any tips on programming the 89s51? I've got everything soldered together and ready to go, but I've hit a roadblock trying to get the firmware on this thing. I ordered a Chinese usbasp from eBay, and I've spent the past two nights banging my head against multiple programs trying to flash the hex file with no luck. I have zero experience programming microcontrollers so I'm definitely in over my head.

Reply 231 of 495, by chartreuse

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fleedar wrote on 2020-01-08, 04:36:

Anyone have any tips on programming the 89s51? I've got everything soldered together and ready to go, but I've hit a roadblock trying to get the firmware on this thing. I ordered a Chinese usbasp from eBay, and I've spent the past two nights banging my head against multiple programs trying to flash the hex file with no luck. I have zero experience programming microcontrollers so I'm definitely in over my head.

For programming it, I just used a TL866 programmer. To program it with a in circuit programmer like the usbisp you're going to need to power it, as well as give it a crystal oscillator and capacitors for that.

There's a post here about programming one using an Arduino as the ISP, but it should be mostly similar to the usbisp just with a different programmer when it comes to avrdude. You'll still need a crystal/oscillator though to run the chip.

Reply 232 of 495, by fleedar

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chartreuse wrote on 2020-01-08, 07:58:

For programming it, I just used a TL866 programmer. To program it with a in circuit programmer like the usbisp you're going to need to power it, as well as give it a crystal oscillator and capacitors for that.

There's a post here about programming one using an Arduino as the ISP, but it should be mostly similar to the usbisp just with a different programmer when it comes to avrdude. You'll still need a crystal/oscillator though to run the chip.

Thanks! I’ve been using one of these guys which is powered over USB and has a crystal:

I’ve tried progisp and avrdude with someone’s custom config file for the 89s51 but it just refuses to connect to it. Spent a night rechecking connections, reinstalling drivers, updating the firmware with a second controller, trying different bit clock and jumper settings, and what felt like a thousand other things. I just ordered an Arduino so I’ll give that a shot.

Last edited by Stiletto on 2020-03-02, 06:25. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 233 of 495, by ischeriad

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fleedar wrote on 2020-01-08, 20:30:

Thanks! I’ve been using one of these guys which is powered over USB and has a crystal

I have one of those as well. They don't work with the 89S51, the crystal is in the wrong position if you compare with the data sheet.
Maybe you can still use it with jumper wires.

I should try to recreate my setup, took me a while to find one that worked.

Last edited by Stiletto on 2020-03-02, 06:25. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 234 of 495, by fleedar

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chartreuse wrote on 2020-01-08, 07:58:

There's a post here about programming one using an Arduino as the ISP, but it should be mostly similar to the usbisp just with a different programmer when it comes to avrdude. You'll still need a crystal/oscillator though to run the chip.

Thanks for the link! I grabbed an Arduino and managed to get it programmed. Wanting a lazy plug-and-play solution ended up costing me hours of wasted time in the end.

Thanks also to Thermalwrong for the card bracket.

odmIJPA.jpg

This was my very first soldering job, so my first couple dozen joints are a bit of a mess. After doing another 700+ though, I felt like I was getting a decent handle on things (flux became my best friend). In hindsight, I probably should have practiced on something a bit simpler first, but in the end I crossed my fingers, plugged it in, and it somehow worked perfectly. That was a lot of fun!

Reply 235 of 495, by root42

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Very cool! It feels nice when your first self assembled ISA card works, right? 😀

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Reply 236 of 495, by Tronix

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I recently started soldering a board. At first I soldered the digital part and, unfortunately, it did not work...

P1130749_измен.размер.JPG
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SBCHECK .EXE just hangup, so i wrote small DSP version detection utility in Turbo Pascal:

Uses CRT;
Begin
Port[$226] := 1;
Delay(3);
Port[$226] := 0;
while Port[$22e] and $80 = 0 do;
WriteLn(Port[$22a]);
while Port[$22c] and $80 <> 0 do writeln(Port[$22c]);
Port[$22C] := $e1;
while Port[$22e] and $80 = 0 do write(Port[$22e]);
WriteLn(Port[$22a]);
WriteLn(Port[$22a]);

End.

After DSP reset i read back 0xAA magic number from 0x226 port, and then forever loop waiting clean Status D7 bit from port 0x22c. I tried to check all the signals using the logic analyzer, but on a working system in "dynamics" it is not easy. So, i decided to make an ISA bus emulator that would allow me to step by step change any signals on the ISA bus, read/write ports, memory, and so on. Took the STM32 microcontroller as a basis:

photo_2020-01-28_16-25-05.jpg
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I used three 74LS374 latches for realize full 20-bit address bus, data bus connected directly to STM32 five volts tolerant pin with external pull-up 10kom resistors, other signals also connect directly to five volts tollerant STM32 pins. OSC clock generator made with help 7404 and 14,3 MHz crystal. After some time, I launched the stand and began to step by step study the behavior of the device:

P00131-120159-resize.jpg
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And voila! K555АП6 (analog 74LS245) buffer IC have two broken lines, i replace it to another and get DSP version 2.1 at my ISA-emulator. Then I installed the board in the computer and passed the test with the standard utility from the SB driver kit. Then I soldered the entire analog part, except for the variable resistor. First, I want to wash the circuit board from the flux in an ultrasonic bath, and only then I will install a variable resistor.

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Finally, I tested digital sound, FM music, CMS music - all ok. There are a few little things left near Joystick port (resistor networks and connector), but overall the sound card works and I am satisfied 😀

https://github.com/Tronix286/

Reply 237 of 495, by Cyrix200+

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I've been having sound issues with my Snark Barker 🙁 Adlib sounds horribly distorted. CMS is really soft but sounds okay. I've swapped the two Yamaha chips with known working ones and they're not the problem. I've tried to record a video:

https://youtu.be/LAKTmvur8fw

https://youtu.be/QCW3RdDJzm8

https://youtu.be/pt-4xE_Gw20

Next suspect for me is the TEA2025, but that's just a guess. I'd love to hear your opinions!

Edit: a ct1350b works fine in the same system

1982 to 2001

Reply 238 of 495, by root42

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Cyrix200+ wrote on 2020-02-02, 21:02:

Next suspect for me is the TEA2025, but that's just a guess. I'd love to hear your opinions!

I have had broken TEA2025s that would produce horribly distorted sounds.

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Reply 239 of 495, by Cyrix200+

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If time permits I will replace the TEA2025 tonight. I think I will socket it this time, the only spares I have are from the same dubious cheap eBay batch I ordered when I built my Snark Barker.

1982 to 2001