I tried some BB-70SI from an Ali-seller (item: 1005001464776457), which worked fine (at least on my version of the card).
I also ordered some 55BB (which might not work, according to some information in this thread, iirc), but didn't test them so far.

I also did order the 16.9344 crystals from there (since they were unavailable everywhere else back then), with item number: 32882087875

Not saying they're the cheapest, best, trustable, or anything else, but they did work out for me. So: caveat emptor.

Thank you very much MJay99 for sharing that with us. I ordered some with confidence now.

On a related topic it seem I wont be able to do that test socket thing. It do not really matter as I am not even sure if I will bother with the rom yet. I might as well solder the default rom and close the case. The thing is, the Yamaichi is sold out everywhere, there is that similar test socket that look like a drop-in replacement, but I'm not going to spend 35 Canacoins for the luxury to swap the rom when it's a cinch using ram. So unless I'm missing an cheaper alternative I think I'll let it go.

kdehl wrote on 2022-11-03, 11:52:

I'm terribly sorry, but apparently I might have missed some of you guys' email! :-( […]
Show full quote

I'm terribly sorry, but apparently I might have missed some of you guys' email! 🙁

I just checked my spam box, something which I rarely (if ever!) do, and for some reason some of you that have contacted me about boards had ended up there! Stupid Google!

I have contacted the two of you that I found, but if there is anyone else who has contacted me and has not received a reply, please send me another mail. They do get deleted automatically within 30 days or so, so your mail might have disappeared. 🙁

Really sorry about this.

My mail is:

david.e.larsson .. and the at sign... and then, Google's mail. Dot com. Boards are still $150 + $13 shipping. Note that I have switched out the SIMM connector. It's angled now so it doesn't take up as much space as the old one did.

David

It happens, I am glad we were able to keep in some contact along the way. I received the device last month, and it is working well. This huge thread has been a lot of help, along with the rest of Vogons, getting the software installed and going well. Thanks, David.

-William

I'm now also the happy owner of an Interwave clone. Installation-wise this feels like a totally different beast than a GF1. I did some initial testing without any memory installed and there are some things I want to verify:

- It installed with a SB compatible device showing on boot. I could play back MIDI with the 1MB ROM in Windows and through Play.exe. Disabling the SB through pnpcfg.exe however doesn't allow me anymore to use Play.exe. Windows also stops display the ROM bank in the config but still plays MIDI's fine? IW.* complains about no ROM settings found in ROM when trying the /MPU401 option.

- With the SB comp. mode on I can use the 1MB ROM throught MegaEM. The software doesn't like the NMI situation so I tried a non-protected mode game (Lost Vikings) but the music gets very stratchy and glitchy after a few seconds. MegaEM with the GF1 works perfectly. Has anybody tried the ROM option with Lost Vikings and MegaEM?

So I have finally built my Argus, but it's not detected by pnpmap on my 486 66mhz. I have installed the ICU dos driver from the discussion I have found here: Re: How do you install the GUS PnP drivers in a 486/DOS pc?, but pnpmap does not seem to like it. Do I have to try a different computer to program it or are there things I can still try?

You're supposed to run PNPMAP before any PnP initialization is done, because that utility is what actually programs the EEPROM on the card with the required PnP data. Only after that is done you can turn off and restart the PC and the card will be either detected during POST (if you have a PnP BIOS) or by any ICU that you run from DOS.

If PNPMAP does not detect the card at all you can start by checking the soldering on the little EEPROM chip that PNPMAP tries to program (U30 if I'm not mistaken). Try and follow the traces coming out of it to see if you can spot any issues. You can also post some pictures of your card so other people here can try to find if something's not right.

Yes, I have only been loading that ICU driver once nothing worked. There was no PNP initialization beforehand. The 486 doesn't have a PNP bios anyway. So I just switched my 486 with my Pentium-233Mhz MMX and this board could run pnpmap without any problems. After the cold start, the bios could see the ultrasound in POST as you describe. Impulse Tracker and a bunch of demos work fine and make perfect sound. So it seems I have managed to build it without much drama 😉 I just have to figure out how that GF1 compability mode works, some demos don't make sound.

Edit: it's all working, including demos etc. once I got my iw.ini and plug&play configuration correct. So happy to finally have a GUS again 😀

Nice job bnz99. I'm nearly done building mine too so I was shivering nervous just reading your post, I'm very glad it turned out well for you 😅 ! A place I can think of the guspnp behaving differently than a gus classic is at the epic megagames stuff like omf2097 and jazz jackrabbit, I think you need to run an utility like prepgame or some such. One of the nifty trick you can do, if just like me you have time to waste, is to use devwGUS and devwIW (respectively gus classic and guspnp) in openCubic player and compare them in this very good player. Although it will limit the ram to 1mb, I'm not sure the frequency will drop after 16 channels.

One of the reason I'm enthusiast about the argus is because it has the 16mb dram extender builtin. While looking at pictures of the windows drivers I suddenly wondered if the onboard rom is still addressable when using 16mb dram (I reckon it must fill the four 4096kb banks). I'm also quite eager to see how mod4win will display min. Memory here :

Hi all,

I'm hoping for a sanity check. I love the idea of making one of these, but I've never ordered PCBs before, or populated a bare board or anything like that. I'm fairly confident in my soldering ability with things like recapping, replacing SMDs and repairing lifted pins. That feels similar to what I'd need to do here, but just a whole lot of it.

So am I crazy for trying something like this? Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

No you are not crazy I did the same thing. Be prepared to spend couple of hours, don't let comments like "I finished it in 2 hours" let you down.
Follow the guide/zip file in the initial post for software and programming board.
Also be prepared to debug; use microscope or any other magnification to check solder job.
I am not sure if you anyone still offering PCB with Interwave chip soldered on it. As far as I know people who are now selling boards on this forum have drained the supply of Interwave for last two years.
Terry

danieljm wrote on 2023-02-27, 00:17:

Hi all, […]
Show full quote

Hi all,

I'm hoping for a sanity check. I love the idea of making one of these, but I've never ordered PCBs before, or populated a bare board or anything like that. I'm fairly confident in my soldering ability with things like recapping, replacing SMDs and repairing lifted pins. That feels similar to what I'd need to do here, but just a whole lot of it.

So am I crazy for trying something like this? Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

terryfi wrote on 2023-02-27, 00:57:

No you are not crazy I did the same thing. Be prepared to spend couple of hours, don't let comments like "I finished it in 2 ho […]
Show full quote

No you are not crazy I did the same thing. Be prepared to spend couple of hours, don't let comments like "I finished it in 2 hours" let you down.
Follow the guide/zip file in the initial post for software and programming board.
Also be prepared to debug; use microscope or any other magnification to check solder job.
I am not sure if you anyone still offering PCB with Interwave chip soldered on it. As far as I know people who are now selling boards on this forum have drained the supply of Interwave for last two years.
Terry

danieljm wrote on 2023-02-27, 00:17:

Hi all, […]
Show full quote

Hi all,

I'm hoping for a sanity check. I love the idea of making one of these, but I've never ordered PCBs before, or populated a bare board or anything like that. I'm fairly confident in my soldering ability with things like recapping, replacing SMDs and repairing lifted pins. That feels similar to what I'd need to do here, but just a whole lot of it.

So am I crazy for trying something like this? Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Interesting. I didn't even realize that ordering PCBs with chips pre-soldered was a thing. I just assumed I'd be doing it myself, so no loss there. 😀 But now I'm wondering what else I didn't know about ordering PCBs. Probably should do a bit more research before I pull the trigger.

Anyway, thanks for the advice/encouragement!

danieljm wrote on 2023-02-27, 00:17:

Hi all, […]
Show full quote

Hi all,

I'm hoping for a sanity check. I love the idea of making one of these, but I've never ordered PCBs before, or populated a bare board or anything like that. I'm fairly confident in my soldering ability with things like recapping, replacing SMDs and repairing lifted pins. That feels similar to what I'd need to do here, but just a whole lot of it.

So am I crazy for trying something like this? Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Yes, if you enjoy this sort of work, and have the soldering gear already, then it's worth doing for sure. For the sense of accomplishment, and the adding of skill to your arsenal. SMD work around the 1mm scale is quite doable for hobbyists with basic experience in the area.

Self sourcing components and building may not result in much financial savings (vs buying a built card) - sometimes, even the opposite - depending upon what options are available, and how the shipping costs can be distributed. For example, with some projects, you can end up paying 3 or 4 lots of shipping, if your components aren't all at the same storefront. God forbid you're in a distant country. Or perhaps the card maker is benefitting from economies-of-scale that you don't have. You'll often (i.e. JLC) be paying for a 5 PCB minimum order size, to start with, even if you only want one.

And don't make an ordering mistake and miss just one component, else that'll be (you guessed it) 1 x extra shipping cost added to your overall build bill. The old 'measure twice / cut once' rule. Double check the detail of component names too, because there are plenty of opportunities where 1 character of difference will see you end up with an entirely different-sized component (e.g. TSSOP vs TVSOP). Get a few spares of the tiny cheap passives like 0805 resistors and capacitors, as they can be relatively fragile if you give the odd one an accidental clumsy beating/burning.

Also, as mentioned, don't underestimate the amount of time it'll take. The soldering-on is one thing, but most big jobs, and especially your first cards, will look more like: finding everything, pre-organisation and setup, soldering on, re-doing a few bits you immediately don't like the look of, which as a beginner will involve much fudging around, then the post-work full washing and drying, full inspection under magnification (including for weirdness like a random dot of solder that might've mysteriously ended up in a strange place while you worked), re-doing any imperfections you find, wash and dry again, inspect again, test, [hope it works], if not, go back and do several previous steps again, and then when you're finally done, it's time to start on the bracket. And that's if it all goes well! So you won't want too much else planned, that day.

But if you're into this stuff, then it's a Good Time. The caveats are all part of the good, worthy challenge.

Great info here. Reminded me of how much time it took to source parts; some parts are obsolete and you need to find similar one with matching spec and footprint, some are only available in other grades or tolerances e.g. more expensive automotive grade. If you are motivated it is not bad and can be fun. If you plan to make a few of them for sale or friends, you save a lot otherwise as Shreddoc mentioned it won't be cheap. Knowing different subsystems of card helps a lot in solving issues for example which parts are for audio amplification, passives for I/O ports, ROM, difference between two regulators (one is for positive voltage the other negative). Finally make sure you understand the options, SIMM or soldered RAM, optional sample ROM and related jumper settings.

Terry

Shreddoc wrote on 2023-02-27, 03:14:

Yes, if you enjoy this sort of work, and have the soldering gear already, then it's worth doing for sure. For the sense of accom […]
Show full quote

danieljm wrote on 2023-02-27, 00:17:

Hi all, […]
Show full quote

Hi all,

I'm hoping for a sanity check. I love the idea of making one of these, but I've never ordered PCBs before, or populated a bare board or anything like that. I'm fairly confident in my soldering ability with things like recapping, replacing SMDs and repairing lifted pins. That feels similar to what I'd need to do here, but just a whole lot of it.

So am I crazy for trying something like this? Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Yes, if you enjoy this sort of work, and have the soldering gear already, then it's worth doing for sure. For the sense of accomplishment, and the adding of skill to your arsenal. SMD work around the 1mm scale is quite doable for hobbyists with basic experience in the area.

Self sourcing components and building may not result in much financial savings (vs buying a built card) - sometimes, even the opposite - depending upon what options are available, and how the shipping costs can be distributed. For example, with some projects, you can end up paying 3 or 4 lots of shipping, if your components aren't all at the same storefront. God forbid you're in a distant country. Or perhaps the card maker is benefitting from economies-of-scale that you don't have. You'll often (i.e. JLC) be paying for a 5 PCB minimum order size, to start with, even if you only want one.

And don't make an ordering mistake and miss just one component, else that'll be (you guessed it) 1 x extra shipping cost added to your overall build bill. The old 'measure twice / cut once' rule. Double check the detail of component names too, because there are plenty of opportunities where 1 character of difference will see you end up with an entirely different-sized component (e.g. TSSOP vs TVSOP). Get a few spares of the tiny cheap passives like 0805 resistors and capacitors, as they can be relatively fragile if you give the odd one an accidental beating.

Also, as mentioned, don't underestimate the amount of time it'll take. The soldering-on is one thing, but most big jobs, and especially your first cards, will look more like: finding everything, pre-organisation and setup, soldering on, re-doing a few bits you immediately don't like the look of, which will involve much fudging around, then the post-work full washing and drying, full inspection under magnification of all things, including for random dots of solder that might've mysteriously ended up in a weird place while you worked, re-doing imperfections you find, wash and dry again, inspect again, test, [hope it works], if not, go back and do several previous steps again, and then when you're finally done, it's time to start on the bracket... so you won't want too much else planned, that day.

But if you're into this stuff, then it's a Good Time. The caveats are all part of the good challenge.

Wonderful! Thanks guys. I really appreciate all the advice.

So I have flashed and soldered a ST M29F800FB-55 with the rom and put WE to high. unisound sees it, but the md5sum mismtaches. play.exe does seem to play midi files, I'm assuming that it is using the rom. Is that normal and are there any other dos midi players that can make use of the rom file? I have a couple of bigger mids where play.exe crashes with a not enough memory message.

I finished assembling my arGUS and using IWAVECFG.EXE I could copy it's pnp configuration from the GUSPnP and swap it back and forth to test it. The first thing I noticed is how noisy the GUSPnP was when it get initialized. So I though it was related to a mixer setting, the culprit on the GUSPnP is the "advanced/synth" fader of MIXER.EXE. Obviously the synth being the main event of any GUS, it's the last one you want to disable. So it's really the arGUS that got this right, I wonder from what magic this is being possible. I have a GUSPNP 3.0 so maybe there is some wiring problem on that version. I read before on the forum other users mentionning how clearer the arGUS is but I was assuming some placebo effect, now I reckon there is no misunderstanding !

I havent found if the onboard rom could be used when using a 16mb soundbank file, but I realize it's quite difficult to test for the gain of doing it. I'm now just glad I can listen to my video game music midi collection with the arGUS 16mb onboard using Utopia full stereo 16bit. Many would not load on the GUSPnP 8mb. Just this make it all worth while.

I also quickly checked out MOD4WIN memory configuration and it display 1638, which is probably a most significant padding of 16384.

I'm very grateful to everyone who posted good quality picture I could use for reference that I felt compeled to do a photography too. (I'm aware I use a 32mb stick, but since I have some of those and it work perfectly, I dont see a reason to buy a 16mb one)
http://junkskool.net/images/photos/Computer_s … f/PCB/argus.jpg

I did that project to initiate myself to SMD soldering, it was easyer than I expected and I found myself enjoying it. I now believe that beginners luck is a concept related to putting attention to every details. I also knew I would ever regret passing a chance to have a backup interwave soundcard, especially if it was the legendary arGUS. When I was a young teen I worked a whole summer to pay myself an GUS classic, I will never forget the day I launched Kyrandia 1 after swaping it from an SBPro. Next year I would buy an bass guitar at the pawnshop with no specifications, unlike my passive guitar it had active pickup. I learned about those the hard way when I plugged the bass in the mic in of the GUS for a jam session, frying the card by the way 😰 . Since then I carry that fear to break another of those fragile card. So now I have a GUSPnP in case something ever happen to my beloved arGUS 😄 .

Just picked this one up on eBay. What bracket do I need? Does anyone have them, or can I just take one off some other sound card?

Thanks in advance.
TW

TimWolf wrote on 2023-08-08, 19:12:

Just picked this one up on eBay. What bracket do I need? Does anyone have them, or can I just take one off some other sound card?

Thanks in advance.
TW

Hi TimberWolf 😝 On mine I used a vibra16 bracket, it's solely attached to db15 port and the case, I could bend the bracket screw socket to grip the pcboard but I haven't as it did not seem necessary to me. If you search this thread here or here you can find people using the vibra16, some discuss to drill a hole for the screw socket. To me it seem overboard unless you are careless when plugging your card. You could also try to find those phono jack socket that screw on :
Apparently also it seem someone on ebay sell argus clone specific bracket, but they are not cheap and I'm not so sure they fit the argus board.

Good luck with your build !

You could also try print the STL from this post ( or print and use it as a drilling template for a regular 9200-x keystone bracket):
Re: ARGUS Project thread - Now with gerbers and documentation in initial post!

It's been a very long time ago, but I think to remember there were some soundcards (ALS100 ?) that might have the same profile?

MJay99 wrote on 2023-08-11, 05:48:

You could also try print the STL from this post ( or print and use it as a drilling template for a regular 9200-x keystone bracket):
Re: ARGUS Project thread - Now with gerbers and documentation in initial post!

It's been a very long time ago, but I think to remember there were some soundcards (ALS100 ?) that might have the same profile?

I love the idea of the screw on jacks. I have to buy them anyway. Also pondering what sort of build to use it in. Seems fitting to use an AMD, maybe a 5x86 133 overclocker.