root42 wrote on 2023-07-24, 17:26:

MJay99 wrote on 2023-07-24, 16:57:

jcarvalho wrote on 2023-07-24, 14:28:

P.S. PLEASE IGNORE THIS ---> for some reason the old firmware also does not output sound... Maybe the card developed some fault but initialize correctly and passes the ram verification tool

I once had one of those I2C DACs with a lost channel - ended up simply being a bad soldering of the connector iirc - maybe worth redoing them (or the PCM5102 DAC).

Oh, and there is one common and easy to fall for mistake: make sure the cable is attached to the I2C DAC's connector and not the more prominent MIDI port - that happened to the best of us... 😉

Which incidentally also produces some kind of noise!

It is a shame but I have found the problem.... The speakers jack was pluged in the wrong connector.... Noticed that now... I pluged the speakers on the midi out. All is working 😁
I have opened an issue (#10) in the github, but it is not an issue, Ian, if you can please delete it...

One thing I want to remind people of: once you've upgraded, please use the version of pgusinit.exe that comes with the firmware!

Version v0.7.0 of the firmware has a much smaller default GUS audio buffer size of 4 samples, thanks to the higher RP2040 clock speed. If you run an older version of pgusinit.exe, it will set the buffer size to 16 samples, negating many of the improvements that this version brings for GUS emulation.

MJay99 wrote on 2023-07-24, 14:36:

It's working with sound on 2nd reality on mine, but there is a repeating sample echo right in the intro tune.
Still need to play around a bit and see if the older FW doesn't have that.

Edit: It's in 0.6.1 also, so nothing new. Still needs some investigation if it can be remedied (bootup without any TSR, etc. didn't change it).

Disregard that, at least on this current mainboard (or BIOS, etc.), it happens with a regular GUS PnP also. The s3m itself plays perfectly fine in MODM, but has a repeating sample when it runs in Second Reality.
So, it's actually a 100% correct reproduction of the original's sound on this platform, even though it sounds a bit wrong 😀 Maybe with a little more time sometimes I'll investigate a little more, but for now: nothing to report there.

@polpo I'm quite impressed with PicoGUS's compatibility with games that I tried so far. I've played quite a bit of Doom last night, and the thing simply delivers. FX AND Music.

polpo wrote on 2023-07-24, 22:52:

Version v0.7.0 of the firmware has a much smaller default GUS audio buffer size of 4 samples, thanks to the higher RP2040 clock speed. If you run an older version of pgusinit.exe, it will set the buffer size to 16 samples, negating many of the improvements that this version brings for GUS emulation.

Maybe you could implement a FW version checking via PC I/O ports...

polpo wrote on 2023-07-24, 00:53:

The project is still open source of course...

Are there plans to make it closed project I guess once it reaches some finished state?

georgel wrote on 2023-07-26, 06:30:

polpo wrote on 2023-07-24, 00:53:

The project is still open source of course...

Are there plans to make it closed project I guess once it reaches some finished state?

Sorry to ask but, what would be the benefit of being a closed project? Maybe charging for the FW? If this is the main thing, I dont think that Ian started this project for profit but only to provide the community with an affordable way to own a gravis sound card. The better thing to do in that case is support him by paypal or ko-fi

jcarvalho wrote on 2023-07-26, 10:19:

georgel wrote on 2023-07-26, 06:30:

polpo wrote on 2023-07-24, 00:53:

The project is still open source of course...

Are there plans to make it closed project I guess once it reaches some finished state?

Sorry to ask but, what would be the benefit of being a closed project? Maybe charging for the FW? If this is the main thing, I dont think that Ian started this project for profit but only to provide the community with an affordable way to own a gravis sound card. The better thing to do in that case is support him by paypal or ko-fi

I think what Ian meant was "it's still open source, so you can make your own cards if you want", as he was explaining right before how you can buy some boards off of his tindie or at VCF.

@polpo: I've been toying with a first completely differently routed PCB for the pico, then just for testing, I also simply copied most of your routing into that card. But, both versions somehow kept continously getting rebooted by the RUN pin (as shown on the UART) and all of that, even though I couldn't really see any drops or even much noise on the line. Still, In the end, I managed to stabilize it, simply by using a 100nF cap on the RUN pin. Since then, everything has been perfectly stable.

Just mentioning, because it looks like you ran into a similar issue on the Hand386.

Cool to see a new firmware, cheers Ian.

polpo wrote on 2023-07-24, 00:53:

Somehow I missed all the notifications for this thread, glad you discovered the rogue component @appiah4! […]
Show full quote

Somehow I missed all the notifications for this thread, glad you discovered the rogue component @appiah4!

Sorry for the confusion about C9/C10... it was a real mixup on my end and I had old versions of the Gerbers checked into the GitHub repo for a long time. As you saw in my photos, the boards I made for myself and sent to a few other people match the v1.1.1 gerbers. The actual KiCad project files have had the "correct" labels for C9/C10 all this time, it was just the v1.1 gerbers that were wrong.

rafpereira wrote on 2023-07-19, 10:47:

I noticed that PicoGUS has a narrow ISA Bus working frequency range while testing it in a UMC 386DX board.

The docs say that 8.33MHz or below is required for PicoGUS. However the next firmware release uses a much faster CPU clock on the RP2040, so I have a feeling higher ISA bus speeds will be possible. Watch for a release sometime in the next 24 hours...

In other news, I've released a video about the new miniaturized version of the PicoGUS that I've created for the new Hand386 and Book8088 retro PCs. In the video I go over some of the hardware differences between the two different versions of PicoGUS. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWUtMPxmKD8
PicoGUS Hand386 thumb.jpg

I'll be having a batch of them made and made available at Tindie sometime soon, and I'll be attending VCF Midwest in September and will have some to sell there. The project is still open source of course and I've just merged the design files for this new version and the ISA adapter into the main branch on GitHub. This new board is 100% firmware compatible with the "full size" PicoGUS, so both versions are fully supported. 😁

Amazing work! Just love it.

Yesterday, I reshuffled my main retro PC. I had an external MT32-Pi connected to my MK8330 - I replaced that with a WP32 McCake to free up the L/I. Now I have my PicoGUS in there as well, its L/O connected to MK8330's L/I. I am in love with this setup - I have an SB/Pro/16/WSS as well as a GS Synth, an MT-32 and a GUS inside a mini AT case - SO AMAZING. Many, many thanks to @polpo @keropi @dreamblaster who made this possible.

Just got me a picogus!
Haven't had the chance to try it yet but will soon.
Really looking forward to it, love what you are doing @polpo 😀

My MT32-PI it's connected with PICOGUS running in MPU 401 mode. THANKS POLPO 😀.
Now i can use MT32-PI in my 8088/8086/80286 builds!

Ignore my rustic "printed" front panel for MT32-PI 😀

Today Tests:
Picogus + MT32-PI seems to works fine (Tested mainly with Sierra Games, Monkey Island, Indianapolis 500 (this one requiers MPU W/intelligent mode).
Running on XT-286 10mhz.
-----
Picogus , Adlib Mode. Running on XT Juko clone. (Nec-V20 CPU) @ 12mhz.
Indianapolis 500 is unplayable, low fps using Adlib mode.
Prince of Persia, sound works. (Well, a lot less CPU intensive)
Police Quest 2, sound works.
As described in early posts, PICOGUS doesn't like high ISA BUS speeds. And XT runs ISA/CPU bus synced.

----
I'm going to make a 2nd PICOGUS, to continue test in old computers.
After all... Adlib/CMS/Tandy it's for early PC games 😀

root42 wrote on 2023-07-26, 11:50:

jcarvalho wrote on 2023-07-26, 10:19:

georgel wrote on 2023-07-26, 06:30:

Are there plans to make it closed project I guess once it reaches some finished state?

Sorry to ask but, what would be the benefit of being a closed project? Maybe charging for the FW? If this is the main thing, I dont think that Ian started this project for profit but only to provide the community with an affordable way to own a gravis sound card. The better thing to do in that case is support him by paypal or ko-fi

I think what Ian meant was "it's still open source, so you can make your own cards if you want", as he was explaining right before how you can buy some boards off of his tindie or at VCF.

root42's understanding is correct, this project will be forever open source. I will always make firmware, KiCad project, and gerbers freely available to use and to modify within the project licenses. In fact I am considering changing the firmware license from GPLv2 to BSD to make it less encumbered, if it is possible according to the licenses of the open source dependencies I have.

With this new "micro" PicoGUS for the Hand386, it is a much smaller board and uses more TSSOP parts, so it is harder (but not impossible) to hand-assemble, so I am using JLCPCB's PCB assembly service to create some runs. They will probably be on Tindie next week, but all production files are on my GitHub so everyone is free to have their own made. The only hurdle is that some parts like the PSRAM chip and mux/demux chips are not in stock at JLCPCB so they need to be pre-ordered.

edumoes wrote on 2023-07-31, 02:58:

My MT32-PI it's connected with PICOGUS running in MPU 401 mode. THANKS POLPO 😀.
Now i can use MT32-PI in my 8088/8086/80286 builds!

I'm happy to see it working well with MT32-Pi! And happy to see the sysex command to print "*** PicoGUS ***" on the MT-32 LCD also works on MT32-Pi! 😁 Thank you for showing this!

Hi!
Cannot seem to initialize the card with 0.7.0 firmware and pgusinit.exe from the same release.
Ran the DEBUG commands mentioned in this thread, in FF as output.

After flashing back to 0.6.1 firmware and old pgusinit, the card could be initialized.

Anyone else experienced this or know what might be the issue?
I’ll try and reflash to the 0.7.0 again and see what happens

You are using the PGUSINIT.EXE from the NEW release right? You need to update the .EXE when you flash the firmware..

appiah4 wrote on 2023-08-08, 14:18:

You are using the PGUSINIT.EXE from the NEW release right? You need to update the .EXE when you flash the firmware..

Yeah, used pgusinit.exe from the same release/package as the firmware files, 0.7.0.

I’ll make another try later this evening in case I messed up the first time.

I just figured out that my USB cable was glitchy. Changed cable and now I'm running 0.7.0 on my P3B-f rev. 1.04, 440BX chipset.
I can see that 440BX is not listed as working chipsets on the WIKI.
Haven't tried it more than a couple of hours now, but working good so far 😀