It was more that the lack of direct DMA made me hold off the v3 update. My ULTRASND variable is ULTRASND=220,1,1,5,5 so pretty standard. 2.2.0 only works if I explicitly specify the value with the command line options.

Edit: is maybe the step from 2.1.0 to 3.2.0 too big and do I need some sort of hard reset of the PicoGUS?

@Polpo FastDoom also supports SB direct DAC mode

NeoG_ wrote on 2025-08-08, 06:41:

copymaker wrote on 2025-08-05, 09:35:

Since PicoGUS emulates SB2.0, it’s probably free from the single-cycle DMA clicking bug. Does anyone know for sure?

Day of the Tentcale is notorious for single cycle DMA clicking on SB16s, I couldn't detect any pops or clicks using the PicoGUS, other than the typical hashiness of 8-bit low res samples.

Really appreciate you checking on that.

digistorm wrote on 2025-08-10, 17:01:

It was more that the lack of direct DMA made me hold off the v3 update. My ULTRASND variable is ULTRASND=220,1,1,5,5 so pretty standard. 2.2.0 only works if I explicitly specify the value with the command line options.

Edit: is maybe the step from 2.1.0 to 3.2.0 too big and do I need some sort of hard reset of the PicoGUS?

Up until now when you updated the firmware the ports would revert to their defatult which is 240 for GUS mode, it will complain about the ULTRASND variable unless you run /gusport 220 /save again. Since the IRQ and DMA are hardware jumpers it doesn't check for those.

I must have misremembered that it would always follow the ULTRASND variable if present. It has been a while since I swapped it between systems (my other DOS PC had the PicoGUS at 240).
But I was confused, because 2.1.0 defaults to 220, 2.2.0 defaults to 240 appearently, and 3.2.0 defaults to 220 again.

@Polpo
I retested firmware 2.1.0, 2.2.0 and 3.2.0 and on the current system it is in (Athlon 600 on AMD Irongate chipset) because I really messed up last time.
I got these results:

2.1.0
Scream Tracker 3 works
Impulse Tracker works with command IT s3
Crystal Dream works

2.2.0
Scream Tracker 3 works
Impulse Tracker works with command IT s3
Crystal Dream does not work (could not find output device) so this regresses possibly as early as 2.2.0

3.2.0
Scream Tracker 3 autodetects PicoGUS as Sound Blaster but on start of playback it hangs at the first row (with no sound). After this, the PicoGUS is no longer detected by PGUSINIT so something definitely goes wrong here. Reboot fixes it.
Impulse Tracker with command IT s3 works.
Crystal Dream does not work, same as 2.2.0.

Fast Doom in Direct DMA mode works on all firmwares (so this was a big red herring, sorry about that).

Hi guys need some advice, i have a picogus, PC 286, usb mode, only one cue/bin (megarace) in pendrive, load cdrom driver cdmke.sys OK, assign unit ok, if I run pgusinit.exe even say megarace.cue is loaded

But if i do cdlist or cdload i get a timeout

I tried different cue/bin and ISO images and pendrives, 512mb, 1GB, 4 and 8GB, multiple brands, all FAT32, same problem.

Im out of ideas! thanks for any help

digistorm wrote on 2025-08-15, 10:12:

But I was confused, because 2.1.0 defaults to 220, 2.2.0 defaults to 240 appearently, and 3.2.0 defaults to 220 again.

3.2.0 now keeps your defined ports during upgrade, so it retained the existing 220 setting if you upgraded directly from 2.1.0 to 3.2.0

digistorm wrote on 2025-08-15, 10:12:

Crystal Dream does not work (could not find output device) so this regresses possibly as early as 2.2.0

Crystal Dream is speed sensitive, it will show that error if the system is too fast and SB is selected. There may be a quirk in earlier firmware that allows it to work on faster systems but the later behaviour matches what you get on SB compatible hardware of the time. In my opinion the real solution is to slow down the system.

digistorm wrote on 2025-08-15, 10:12:

Scream Tracker 3 autodetects PicoGUS as Sound Blaster but on start of playback it hangs at the first row (with no sound). After this, the PicoGUS is no longer detected by PGUSINIT so something definitely goes wrong here. Reboot fixes it.

The autodetection routines can sometimes lead to incorrect settings used for the sound card. Try run it with hardcoded switches for the card address and type EG "ST3 -S1 -A220 -I5 -C1" (replace the Port (A), IRQ (I) and DMA (C) with your settings). I was able to use ScreamTracker 3 in both SB and GUS mode without issues.

NeoG_ wrote on 2025-08-16, 01:51:

3.2.0 now keeps your defined ports during upgrade, so it retained the existing 220 setting if you upgraded directly from 2.1.0 to 3.2.0

Okay, I didn't know that. Development is going quite fast at the moment so I have missed that.

NeoG_ wrote on 2025-08-16, 01:51:

Crystal Dream is speed sensitive, it will show that error if the system is too fast and SB is selected. There may be a quirk in earlier firmware that allows it to work on faster systems but the later behaviour matches what you get on SB compatible hardware of the time. In my opinion the real solution is to slow down the system.

Aha! So that is why I had a batch file in that directory to disable the L1 cache. 🤣 I did that right now and indeed it works.

NeoG_ wrote on 2025-08-16, 01:51:

The autodetection routines can sometimes lead to incorrect settings used for the sound card. Try run it with hardcoded switches for the card address and type EG "ST3 -S1 -A220 -I5 -C1" (replace the Port (A), IRQ (I) and DMA (C) with your settings). I was able to use ScreamTracker 3 in both SB and GUS mode without issues.

Autodetection works as expected, it detects the correct values without parameters. But with or without, it crashes as soon as I press F5 to start playback. I tried with or without L1 cache enables, with and without EMS. Previous generation firmware did work, as I described.
GUS works fine with ST3 though.

digistorm wrote on 2025-08-16, 08:07:

Autodetection works as expected, it detects the correct values without parameters. But with or without, it crashes as soon as I press F5 to start playback. I tried with or without L1 cache enables, with and without EMS. Previous generation firmware did work, as I described.
GUS works fine with ST3 though.

I was able to replicate this, it appears to be a regression from 3.1.0 -> 3.2.0 with the SB DSP rewrite

My system doesn't freeze so I can exit the program, but the PicoGUS locks up as soon as any audio is sent to the card and needs to be reset, which is the same as you observed

Can anyone link me to a pinout for the wavetable header? I can't seem to locate it, or any, to use as reference.

Built a Wavetable Pi, everything tested good prior, plugged it in to my 2.0 and it burned up the regulator on the LCD screen (no biggie, got more). Want to trace the 5V from the PicoGUS to Wavetable Pi, see if it's all good. Maybe it was a fluke, but don't want to damage anything else. 😀

According to the Wavetable Pi schematic, it's pin 10, I just want to verify.

StriderTR wrote on 2025-08-21, 21:54:

Can anyone link me to a pinout for the wavetable header? I can't seem to locate it, or any, to use as reference.

Built a Wavetable Pi, everything tested good prior, plugged it in to my 2.0 and it burned up the regulator on the LCD screen (no biggie, got more). Want to trace the 5V from the PicoGUS to Wavetable Pi, see if it's all good. Maybe it was a fluke, but don't want to damage anything else. 😀

According to the Wavetable Pi schematic, it's pin 10, I just want to verify.

Hope this helps.

Shreddoc wrote on 2025-08-21, 22:34:

StriderTR wrote on 2025-08-21, 21:54:

Can anyone link me to a pinout for the wavetable header? I can't seem to locate it, or any, to use as reference.

Built a Wavetable Pi, everything tested good prior, plugged it in to my 2.0 and it burned up the regulator on the LCD screen (no biggie, got more). Want to trace the 5V from the PicoGUS to Wavetable Pi, see if it's all good. Maybe it was a fluke, but don't want to damage anything else. 😀

According to the Wavetable Pi schematic, it's pin 10, I just want to verify.

The attachment pg2_wth.png is no longer available

Hope this helps.

That's perfect. Thanks!

I was able to verify everything on the WPi PCB is fine. No solder bridges on anything. The few passives on the board are good. Just need to check the header on the 2.0 itself. That screen may have just had a faulty regulator. =/

The 662K has a max input voltage of 6V, used to drop 5V to 3.3V on these screens.

EDIT: I have verified all connections are good. Voltage coming off the PicoGUS is 4.85V under load. So.... going to test it with a new LCD. Wish me luck! 😀

EDIT: Success! It's working. Must have been a faulty LCD.

StriderTR wrote on 2025-08-21, 23:57:

EDIT: Success! It's working. Must have been a faulty LCD.

Sounds like the screen had a short and burned up the regulator

theelf wrote on 2025-08-15, 23:49:

Hi guys need some advice, i have a picogus, PC 286, usb mode, only one cue/bin (megarace) in pendrive, load cdrom driver […]
Show full quote

Hi guys need some advice, i have a picogus, PC 286, usb mode, only one cue/bin (megarace) in pendrive, load cdrom driver cdmke.sys OK, assign unit ok, if I run pgusinit.exe even say megarace.cue is loaded

The attachment 1.jpg is no longer available

But if i do cdlist or cdload i get a timeout

The attachment 20250816_010154.jpg is no longer available

The attachment 20250816_010011.jpg is no longer available

I tried different cue/bin and ISO images and pendrives, 512mb, 1GB, 4 and 8GB, multiple brands, all FAT32, same problem.

Im out of ideas! thanks for any help

Any idea guys? i tested like 20 pendrives, SD>USB cards, CF>USB cards, whetever USB can be formated to FAT32 i have in home... all same

theelf wrote on 2025-08-22, 21:15:

theelf wrote on 2025-08-15, 23:49:

Hi guys need some advice, i have a picogus, PC 286, usb mode, only one cue/bin (megarace) in pendrive, load cdrom driver […]
Show full quote

Hi guys need some advice, i have a picogus, PC 286, usb mode, only one cue/bin (megarace) in pendrive, load cdrom driver cdmke.sys OK, assign unit ok, if I run pgusinit.exe even say megarace.cue is loaded

The attachment 1.jpg is no longer available

But if i do cdlist or cdload i get a timeout

The attachment 20250816_010154.jpg is no longer available

The attachment 20250816_010011.jpg is no longer available

I tried different cue/bin and ISO images and pendrives, 512mb, 1GB, 4 and 8GB, multiple brands, all FAT32, same problem.

Im out of ideas! thanks for any help

Any idea guys? i tested like 20 pendrives, SD>USB cards, CF>USB cards, whetever USB can be formated to FAT32 i have in home... all same

I had that issue show up for me too. Old usb2 sticks showed that but an SSD in a usb3 caddy is fine. Try updating picogus inside dos, initially I did it externally using usb cable. Secondly use the picogus solely in usb mode and not in sb mode, important. I have it paired with an ess 1868f + x2gs

I have a picogus and I wanted to use the cd emulation to do windows quickload. Unfortunately windows quickload uses linux 5.10.227 which doesn’t seem to have a panasonic cd rom driver. Has anyone built a linux driver for the panasonic interface that works with a picogus and the linux 5.10.227 kernel?

I assume I know the answers, but, I just want to confirm.

In GUS mode, everything works great, except Fasttracker 2, but I assume that's a RAM limitation on larger modules. Smaller ones work. FT2 shows 1023K available. Is that using some of the 2MB storage since a Pico only has 264KB of SRAM?

In Sound Blaster mode, can't get FT2 to work at all, not sure why, it just crashes when you play anything. DN3D needs 16-bit DMA and also wont work in this mode (no sound FX). Works great in GUS! Assume it's the lack of 16-bit DMA.

Beyond that, everything is working wonderfully! Even the Wavetable Pi. 😀

EDIT: OK, FT2 must be misreporting (assuming the PGUS is an upgraded GUS?), it's got to be using the available SRAM on the Pico. Pretty much any song over 200K has issues or crashes. That makes much more sense.

This is why I run a dual-card system. 🤣

gmaverick2k wrote on 2025-08-22, 21:39:

theelf wrote on 2025-08-22, 21:15:

theelf wrote on 2025-08-15, 23:49:

Hi guys need some advice, i have a picogus, PC 286, usb mode, only one cue/bin (megarace) in pendrive, load cdrom driver […]
Show full quote

Hi guys need some advice, i have a picogus, PC 286, usb mode, only one cue/bin (megarace) in pendrive, load cdrom driver cdmke.sys OK, assign unit ok, if I run pgusinit.exe even say megarace.cue is loaded

The attachment 1.jpg is no longer available

But if i do cdlist or cdload i get a timeout

The attachment 20250816_010154.jpg is no longer available

The attachment 20250816_010011.jpg is no longer available

I tried different cue/bin and ISO images and pendrives, 512mb, 1GB, 4 and 8GB, multiple brands, all FAT32, same problem.

Im out of ideas! thanks for any help

Any idea guys? i tested like 20 pendrives, SD>USB cards, CF>USB cards, whetever USB can be formated to FAT32 i have in home... all same

I had that issue show up for me too. Old usb2 sticks showed that but an SSD in a usb3 caddy is fine. Try updating picogus inside dos, initially I did it externally using usb cable. Secondly use the picogus solely in usb mode and not in sb mode, important. I have it paired with an ess 1868f + x2gs

Hi thanks for reply, sorry delay, i was woking outside home and I did not have my computer with picgus this days

I update picogus inside DOS, in fact never update from usb in a modern PC and use in USB mode only, but problem remain

I tried different SSD in USB case, i tried IDE HDD in USB case, i even tried a CF card in a USB reader, NOTHING, every single time give me the timeout

I tried firmware 3.0, 3.1, 3.2...

I believe was my 286, but i tested the picogus card in a 386, a cyrix 5x86 and a Pentium 200, same problem, exactly. Beside this, the card work in anything, GUS, tandy, MPU etc

But what i really need is CDROM emulation...

@theelf

The PicoGUS can't provide much power to the USB port, a USB stick should work fine.

Thanks guy! finally my picogus was defective, the guy i buy change to other card, and now most of pendrive works!

thanks