Thanks, received today. It's installed, but I'm not clear how to configure it. I assume I want to remove the P330 from the SET BLASTER line in autoexec as I'll be using the port on the MIDI card. Do I need to use the SET MIDI command? Overall a bit confused, if anyone has any tips I'd be very grateful.

You must make sure your soundblaster mpu is not using port330 (which is the recommended port to be used by pcmidi).
Depending on your SB model you can either completely disable it's mpu or move it to port300.
If both pcmidi and SB use the same port then things will not work 100% correctly.
Just removing P330 from set blaster variable does not guarantee things, you have to make sure sb will use port300 or no port at all.

Thanks Keropi, that's what I'd missed, the SB16 in this computer was still using port 330. There was no MFBEN jumper on the SB16 so just moved the MSEL to port 300. Now everything works as it should.
So far I've successfully tested:
Doom - SC-88VL
KQ4 (intelligent mode) MT-32
Monkey Island MT-32

Everything seems great, thanks again!
J

awesome - enjoy the midi tunez!!!!!!!

Hi Keropi,

Thanks again for putting these awesome cards together! I seem to be having some weird problems with my card and was hoping you could help. It seemed to be working perfectly the first few times I used it, but I’d occasionally get no MIDI signal being received by my SC-55ST (no red flashing light). Rebooting would usually fix it at the beginning. I thought it may have just been a resource conflict with my PAS16 initially since disabling the MPU via software was a bit flaky at times.

Unfortunately, the issue has gotten worse and worse, and now I can’t get a MIDI signal even with everything removed from the system (just a VGA card and the MIDI card). I tried it in two early Pentium systems as well as a fast 486 and the same behaviour happens every time. I’ve disabled all serial/parallel ports in the BIOS, tried different IRQs and port 300, but none of that seems to help.

Launching MQDIAG.EXE *usually* detects the card just fine at the correct IRQ and port, but there have been a few times where it doesn’t detect it. It shows it on IRQ9 when IRQ2 is selected, but I suspect that’s normal since IRQ2 is a cascade interrupt.

I swapped MIDI cables just in case, but that didn’t help. I also tried to use the MPU-401 on a regular sound card to make sure it wasn’t my SC-55ST, but it works fine. The only other thing I can think of is that the orange 3.5mm jack has a problem. I was going to try to hack together a DB9 connector to try MIDI out that way. I will also try a much older 486 system just in case.

It feels like a hardware problem to me, but do you have any other suggestions of things that I could try?

Thanks in advance!

lemonlime wrote on 2022-01-24, 15:25:

[...]I was going to try to hack together a DB9 connector to try MIDI out that way.
[...]

Hi!
sorry to hear about your problems - please try the DB9 cable and if the same issues persist then please send me an email ( http://pcmidi.eu/contact.html ) so we can work this out directly 😀
You don't need a slow system for PCMIDI as it's not a speed-sensitive card - the ones you tried already with are fine as long as the assigned port/irq are free to use by the PCMIDI card.

keropi wrote on 2022-01-24, 17:00:

Hi!
sorry to hear about your problems - please try the DB9 cable and if the same issues persist then please send me an email ( http://pcmidi.eu/contact.html ) so we can work this out directly 😀
You don't need a slow system for PCMIDI as it's not a speed-sensitive card - the ones you tried already with are fine as long as the assigned port/irq are free to use by the PCMIDI card.

Thanks for the quick reply Keropi!

Good news - the DB9 output worked perfectly, so I took a closer look at the 3.5mm MIDI-out jack. Either the jack or the cable is off just a little bit. If I push the cable all the way in, there is no signal received. If I pull it out slightly, it begins working. Sometimes it is the simplest things!

I uploaded a video showing what I mean here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8XDpFC45Ww

I'll create a proper DB9 MIDI cable when I get a chance. That way I can avoid having to use a 3.5mm to MIDI adapter and have a more secure connection to the card.

oh yes , this is definitely a bad jack 😮
I can send you a replacement if you want
on the plus side at least this damage is not a crippling one... it sucks for sure but there is always the DB9 way - maybe even wire the 2xOUT ports so you make it the "ultimate" version
if I can help somehow please tell me!

keropi wrote on 2022-01-24, 18:11:

oh yes , this is definitely a bad jack :o I can send you a replacement if you want on the plus side at least this damage is not […]
Show full quote

oh yes , this is definitely a bad jack 😮
I can send you a replacement if you want
on the plus side at least this damage is not a crippling one... it sucks for sure but there is always the DB9 way - maybe even wire the 2xOUT ports so you make it the "ultimate" version
if I can help somehow please tell me!

No worries! I can easily work around the issue. I'm just really happy to finally figure out what the problem was and that the card is working fine.

Yes, I'll definitely wire up both outputs, maybe even the input as well 😀

Thanks again, Keropi!

glad all is sorted out - even if I did nothing really to help 😁
enjoy!

Hi, thought this would be an appropriate place to ask. Any updated news on the availability of PCMIDI card. Last update was January 15th.

Blackboat wrote on 2022-03-02, 08:25:

Hi, thought this would be an appropriate place to ask. Any updated news on the availability of PCMIDI card. Last update was January 15th.

package with more pcmidi boards is incoming , it is enough for everyone already waiting to get one

Thank you

I have the same issue with 3.5 jack connection. Hopefully if I push jack plug to the left it works.

Cadderlik wrote on 2024-02-08, 10:00:

I have the same issue with 3.5 jack connection. Hopefully if I push jack plug to the left it works.

I can send you some replacement jacks if needed - just let me know !