Just out of curiosity, would this offer any additional functionality over a Sound blaster 2.0 CT1350B with a working CMS upgrade?
Very cool project!
I have no idea. Maybe stereo output? Not sure though. I know almost nothing about the GameBlaster / CMS, which is why I want to do this project anyway. 😀
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80486DX@33 MHz, 16 MiB RAM, Tseng ET4000 1 MiB, SnarkBarker & GUSar Lite, PC MIDI Card+X2+SC55+MT32, OSSC
As soon as they come in, I will launch the Mouser order.
Do you have the parts numbers listed somewhere?
I'm especially interested in what parts you used for the jack and the volume knob.
The volume knob has very large spacing on the pins in the PCB design. I could not find a volume knob for that pin layout that was small enough to fit through the ISA slot at the back.
I ended up using one that dreamblaster sent me, which fit through the ISA slot, but had much smaller pin spacing, so I ended up just bending the pins flat and soldering them on top of the holes, not through them.
Scali wrote:Do you have the parts numbers listed somewhere?
I'm especially interested in what parts you used for the jack and the volume kno […] Show full quote
root42 wrote:
As soon as they come in, I will launch the Mouser order.
Do you have the parts numbers listed somewhere?
I'm especially interested in what parts you used for the jack and the volume knob.
The volume knob has very large spacing on the pins in the PCB design. I could not find a volume knob for that pin layout that was small enough to fit through the ISA slot at the back.
I ended up using one that dreamblaster sent me, which fit through the ISA slot, but had much smaller pin spacing, so I ended up just bending the pins flat and soldering them on top of the holes, not through them.
Disclaimer: As soon as I also checked the datasheets of the jack and the knob. 😉 Now that I have the PCB and since I still have a keystone bracket from the Adlib project, I can measure a bit.
What I would have liked was a 'wheel' type volume pot, like you find on early Sound Blasters. But I couldn't find any. Creative probably used them because they're much easier to get through an ISA slot than any shaft 😀
Mouser order has been placed. Let's see if it arrives this week... Anyway, apart from PCB and bracket only orders, I won't be able to do any shipping in December, I guess. I picked the Alps volume pot in the end, because it seems the most compact one and might fit best.
I will update when the Mouser order arrives.
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80486DX@33 MHz, 16 MiB RAM, Tseng ET4000 1 MiB, SnarkBarker & GUSar Lite, PC MIDI Card+X2+SC55+MT32, OSSC
Mouser stuff arrived. Most things are fine, BUT as feared the potentiometer fits, but is way too tall for the ISA slot. I also can't find any more low profile stereo potentiometer. I am pondering what else we can do here. I think I would rather put a little raster board with two trimmers on the card, since most people will route the sound through an amp anyway. What do you guys think?
Second, I ordered the wrong audio jacks. Sorry, will have to order them from somewhere again... I also have to say: Dear god, the design uses a very WEIRD footprint. I should have noticed that...
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80486DX@33 MHz, 16 MiB RAM, Tseng ET4000 1 MiB, SnarkBarker & GUSar Lite, PC MIDI Card+X2+SC55+MT32, OSSC
Mouser stuff arrived. Most things are fine, BUT as feared the potentiometer fits, but is way too tall for the ISA slot. I also can't find any more low profile stereo potentiometer. I am pondering what else we can do here. I think I would rather put a little raster board with two trimmers on the card, since most people will route the sound through an amp anyway. What do you guys think?
This is my solution:
The attachment GameBlaster Clone.jpg is no longer available
Would be nice to modify the PCB layout so that the pins fit through the holes for the next batch, but it's a working solution for now.
So it's a smaller pot, and the pins are bent out like this:
1\ | / 2- . -
Then the lower middle pin is soldered through the hole, all others are soldered on top of the pads.
For the tall pots you have, you could mount them 'in reverse', so the rod faces inward, not outward. Then it can effectively be used as a trimmer to set the volume once, then close the case.
