polpo wrote on 2024-01-22, 23:01:

These are some interesting chips but for example the SRC4192I costs more than all of the other chips on the PicoGUS put together […]
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Delphius wrote on 2024-01-22, 17:25:

I have been scrolling around aliexpress looking at different spdif / I2S converters options for various projects I have been pla […]
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I have been scrolling around aliexpress looking at different spdif / I2S converters options for various projects I have been playing around with. Thought I might share some interesting modules and chips that might be useful for PicoGUS.

This I2S sample converter, the SRC4192I might be useful to have for digital integrations. Maybe inline to the main DAC or something to help with those pesky multi sample rates? It seems to support a very broad range of input formats. Even 20-bit which seems quite rare to me.
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/32568055192472 … 7Cquery_from%3A
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/32568059552544 … 7Cquery_from%3A

Also the AK4113
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/32568043459636 … m%3A#nav-review
What stands out to me with this module is the ability to mix four different spdif signals into one I2S. I have been looking for ways to combine CD-ROM spdif conversion into the mix of all this, but I also wonder if it could be useful in combining several other sound sources like classic sound card would.

These are some interesting chips but for example the SRC4192I costs more than all of the other chips on the PicoGUS put together. I can imagine some kind of future "PicoGUS Gold" at a higher price point with SPDIF output, an audio codec with mixer, multiple RP2040 chips to perform each function, etc... (rasz_pl mentioned this idea a little while ago).

This project is open source – I welcome anyone who wants to make a "PicoGUS Gold" but for the moment I'd prefer to put my time into improving the firmware on the current board. There's a lot of stuff I want to do, in rough priority order:
- Improve compatibility (this is always at the top of list)
- SB 2.0 support
- Increase the repertoire of supported HID joysticks
- Conflict checking in pgusinit
- NE2000 support on Pico W
- Support multiple PicoGUS cards in the same system
- Tandy DAC support
- Optimize OPL3 support enough to run, opening up SBPro/SB16/WSS compatibility

I support that priority list 100%! Super excited about all of that!

Yes all of my suggestions above are just tossing ideas around. I have been looking for ways to modify and contribute these types of changes myself, or create certain modules separate and complimentary to the scope of the PicoGUS. I am excited for the progression of all of those options!

Hey polpo, do you think PAS emulation could be on the cards? That would actually be a lot more useful than SB 2.0 for me at least 😁

I'm not aware of anyone having written a software implementation of the PAS unfortunately. That would be great to see (hear).

If you’re talking about the original 8-bit PAS, it’s technically possible (emulating 2x OPL2 should be no problem for the RP2040). But from what Shreddoc is saying, if there’s no extant emulation of it, it’ll be a bit harder to do. I’m curious, what titles support it and its dual OPL2s?

polpo wrote on 2024-01-23, 14:31:

If you’re talking about the original 8-bit PAS, it’s technically possible (emulating 2x OPL2 should be no problem for the RP2040). But from what Shreddoc is saying, if there’s no extant emulation of it, it’ll be a bit harder to do. I’m curious, what titles support it and its dual OPL2s?

I tried to search but I didn't find any. Even titles that supports SB Pro dual OPL2 are very scarce and PAS dual OPL2 is not combatible with SBPro dual OPL2 (AFAIK, different second OPL2 address and some other differences with mixer setup). With little trickery Ultima Underworld I can output sound from both PAS OPL2:
Ultima Underworld - SB Pro 1 and Pro Audio Spectrum

Hard to think any practical reason for PAS emulation. Maybe that is reason why there is none. Is there any game that supports PAS dual OPL2 but not SB Pro dual OPL2?

Edit, found one game that supports directly PAS dual OPL2 (I didn't test but I believe that link):
Police Quest 3
http://www.amoretro.de/2012/03/mediavision-pr … -8-bit-isa.html

Edit2: Space Quest 4, Games with dual OPL2 support for stereo FM?
Edit3: Sierra Online's SCI1-based games, https://www.dosdays.co.uk/topics/Manufacturer … ion.php#PASPLUS
Edit4: I came up with one usecase: Mobygames lists over 600 PAS supported titles and because PAS is so rare card, emulator would help to find dual OPL2 games. But it would be more practical to get emulation first to Dosbox or some other software emulator. And most of those games supports MT-32 or OPL3 stereo, so quite edge case anyway.
Edit5: Re: Media Vision Pro Audio Spectrum and Pro Audio Spectrum 16?
"Referring to the Pro AudioSpectrum cards as "Sound Blaster clones" is a bit disingenuous, especially as far as the PCM and Mixer support is concerned. In any event, and despite being a pretty big Media Vision aficionado myself, I happen to agree with Great Hierophant in that there is simply no known reason to emulate the PAS/16. Other than one or two Dynamix titles, I'm not aware of any stereo FM support that can't be (or hasn't already been) extended to other, stereo-supporting sound cards at the driver level."
Edit6: Sidenote: PAS+ supposed to be backward compatible with PAS, but actually isn't. PAS+ has OPL3 and games with PAS dual OPL2 support doesn't work with PAS+ as PAS. But PAS+ has SB support so it is not big problem.

I just got my picogus v2 but have a silly embarassing question.

Where do i download all the dos software from?

The stuff that goes into ultrasnd folder? And the init files to load firmware?

Omarkoman wrote on 2024-01-24, 10:14:

I just got my picogus v2 but have a silly embarassing question.

Where do i download all the dos software from?

The stuff that goes into ultrasnd folder? And the init files to load firmware?

Start with the getting started guide: https://github.com/polpo/picogus/wiki/Getting … ith-PicoGUS-2.0
There’s links to download the ULTRASND software and pgusinit and firmware on the next step. Let me know if anything in the guide isn’t clear!

PicoGUS firmware v1.0.2 is released: https://github.com/polpo/picogus/releases/tag/v1.0.2

• New bus timing, fixes compatibility with IBM PC/AT 5170.
• Faster IOCHRDY timing to improve compatibility and spend less time on ISA bus.
• Less aggressive overclock and different startup timing to improve stability on reset.
• Added support for Xbox 360 wireless adapter dongle.

Next release will bring Sound Blaster 2.0 support 😀

Oooh, good stuff 😀

Thank you for your hard work on this. This project ticks so many boxes for me (emulates multiple sound cards, good price, MPU-401, joystick). I've been priced out of the used ISA sound card market and only recently found out about this project. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on one once they are available again!

polpo wrote on 2024-01-24, 14:40:

Start with the getting started guide: https://github.com/polpo/picogus/wiki/Getting … ith-PicoGUS-2.0
There’s links to download the ULTRASND software and pgusinit and firmware on the next step. Let me know if anything in the guide isn’t clear!

thank you !!!

polpo wrote on 2024-01-24, 17:19:

PicoGUS firmware v1.0.2 is released: https://github.com/polpo/picogus/releases/tag/v1.0.2 […]
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PicoGUS firmware v1.0.2 is released: https://github.com/polpo/picogus/releases/tag/v1.0.2

• New bus timing, fixes compatibility with IBM PC/AT 5170.
• Faster IOCHRDY timing to improve compatibility and spend less time on ISA bus.
• Less aggressive overclock and different startup timing to improve stability on reset.
• Added support for Xbox 360 wireless adapter dongle.

Next release will bring Sound Blaster 2.0 support 😀

And there was much rejoicing!

polpo wrote on 2024-01-24, 17:19:

• New bus timing, fixes compatibility with IBM PC/AT 5170.
• Faster IOCHRDY timing to improve compatibility and spend less time on ISA bus.

btw there is this guy doing his own thing with 188 single board computer, but it looks like he knows his way around the RP2040 PIOs and 8088 bus https://www.slador.uk/raspberry-pi-pico https://www.youtube.com/@SladorSoft/videos. Might be worth watching his videos and maybe even contacting him about ISA bus PIO programming collaboration.

polpo wrote on 2023-11-16, 19:18:

britelite wrote on 2023-11-16, 18:46:

Tried both the latest Adlib and GUS firmwares but no luck, so unfortunately it seems like the Vortex86-board is the culprit.

Oh no! I should try to find one of these Vortex86 boards and see what the problem is... they're very interesting. I'll add a note that they are not yet compatible to the compatibility wiki page.

A little follow up on this, it seems like the Vortex86-board doesn't like 8bit PC/104 cards. I got a the PC/104 soundcard by Rasteri made a while ago, and with that connected to the board also the PicoGUS got detected by pgusinit, but previously no luck getting anything to play.

But now with the 1.0.2 version of the software I actually got the PicoGUS to work! The card is detected fine, although I do for some reason have to initialize the other soundcard with Unisound first to get playback to work on the PicoGUS. There still seems to be some issues with DMA, at least Capamod has to be run with the /NDM switch or it gets stuck trying to upload the samples. But at least the few demos I tried run fine now.

I only found out about this a couple of weeks ago and joined the waiting list. I'm glad that I got in line before Phil's Computer Lab covered it:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oEHVB0FITqU

I'd expect the waiting list to get a big bump after that video was posted.

britelite wrote on 2024-01-26, 06:46:

polpo wrote on 2023-11-16, 19:18:

britelite wrote on 2023-11-16, 18:46:

Tried both the latest Adlib and GUS firmwares but no luck, so unfortunately it seems like the Vortex86-board is the culprit.

Oh no! I should try to find one of these Vortex86 boards and see what the problem is... they're very interesting. I'll add a note that they are not yet compatible to the compatibility wiki page.

A little follow up on this, it seems like the Vortex86-board doesn't like 8bit PC/104 cards. I got a the PC/104 soundcard by Rasteri made a while ago, and with that connected to the board also the PicoGUS got detected by pgusinit, but previously no luck getting anything to play.

But now with the 1.0.2 version of the software I actually got the PicoGUS to work! The card is detected fine, although I do for some reason have to initialize the other soundcard with Unisound first to get playback to work on the PicoGUS. There still seems to be some issues with DMA, at least Capamod has to be run with the /NDM switch or it gets stuck trying to upload the samples. But at least the few demos I tried run fine now.

I just got a Vortex86DX SBC board to play with... it seems to work pretty well (only failure I saw is SFX in Duke3d stops working after some time). I noticed that the ISA bus timing is very tweakable in the BIOS and it's very easy to get things out of spec so PicoGUS won't work. I can post some recommended settings later.

@polpo:
I am still experiencing issues with Crystal Dream II in combination with my 486 mainboard (SiS 85C471 Socket 3). Would you want me to include it in a compatibility report or do you have ideas to investigate further? It seems that only software from demo group Triton suffers from an incompatibility on that system.

digistorm wrote on 2024-01-27, 14:51:

@polpo:
I am still experiencing issues with Crystal Dream II in combination with my 486 mainboard (SiS 85C471 Socket 3). Would you want me to include it in a compatibility report or do you have ideas to investigate further? It seems that only software from demo group Triton suffers from an incompatibility on that system.

ill try this demo on my 486 opti chipset, can you describe the problems?

Maybe adding ISA bus logging to PicoGUS would help with debugging? a rolling buffer in rp2040 ram of ISA bus traffic targeted at picogus and a DOS TSR where user can click some button (for example rarely used F12) that would send command to PicoGUS to dump that buffer back to dos and to a file. With above functionality Users could just click F12 every time they hear something wrong happening. How feasible that sounds? How much rp2040 ram is left free fur such a buffer and is that size enough to catch anything interesting assuming user is able to click within ~one second of the bogus event?
Another idea, instead of click to dump have Pico continuously dump that rolling buffer using DMA to PC ram? Would PC ISA DMA be fast enough, I think it tops out at couple hundred KB/s. How bout logging directly to USB drive attached to PicoGUS USB port? That should sustain around 1MB/s.
With logging it would be obvious which commands/ISA bus transfers PicoGUS somehow missed/bugged out at

Pickle wrote on 2024-01-27, 17:23:

ill try this demo on my 486 opti chipset, can you describe the problems?

The demo's of Triton hang randomly in the way, that the playback routine seems to stall but the effects go on. If the demo code doesn't wait for a cue from the module and it loads a new song, it is fine. If it does wait for a cue it will eventually crash.
The Gravis Ultrasound Advertisement of Triton hangs in the first part, quite quickly, but picks up with the second part (with a new song). The parameter /d 8 seemed to help.
Crystal Dream II hangs after 5 minutes, sometimes a bit earlier, but often around the torus effect. With the parameters /d 2 /a 32 I managed to finish and exit the demo 2 times, but not always. That was a lot of testing 😬
It is not entirely deterministic unfortunately, but with the default initialisation it pretty much hangs in the same spot (it seems).

But this may also all be a weird bug of the chipset instead of the PicoGUS. I just have no idea how to figure it out. All other demo's and games work fine. Only Verses and Caero need the /a 8 parameter, and this chipset seems to be the only one that needs it so far (haven't read about others having this issue). Still a very minor set of demo's that has problems with this chipset.