LABS wrote:

Just received some fresh OPL2s 😀

I still have a bunch + DACs. Would love to put them to use.

LABS wrote:

Just received some fresh OPL2s 😀

who else love the smell of fresh OPL2s in the morning? 🤣

This is awesome! Hows the development going? 😁

Ok, a production variant of a 2-layer PCB is ready in copper.
Now I need to drill a lot of <1mm holes to finish it.
As I don't have a drill press in my workshop - all holes for previous prototypes were 1mm and were drilled by hand. But now I need to replicate the production PCB and there are a lot of 0.5mm and 0.8mm holes, which need a drill press.
So during this week I made one using some plywood leftovers, but as you see it does not have a motor yet. I hope it will arrive very soon 😀
[attachment=-1]P1010622.jpg[/attachment]

WOW 😁. You´re workin fast! How great wouldnt a bugfree sound card be!! I have just been digging in the Sound Blaster jungle and I almost lost myselt in all the variations and buglists etc.. this couldnt come soon enough 😁

Please keep up the great work!

wow amazing work 😀

Congratulations, this looks really professional.

Looking forward to a kit or schematics! Whatever you are going to release.

Awesome project.
I hope kit will be available soon.

xSchlo wrote:

Awesome project.
I hope kit will be available soon.

I second that! 😀

Loving the progress on this! I have also bookmarked this thread 😁

Vaudane wrote:

Loving the progress on this! I have also bookmarked this thread 😁

Bookmarked and subscribed indeed!

LABS, very nice project!
Really looking forward for it.

New 8-bit ISA Sound Blaster replacement, presumably without glitches and bad sound quality of variety of original boards will be great.

I'd be interested in a kit too! This is a nice project!

Definitely interested too, thread bookmarked!

I'd love a SB 2.0 clone, since original ones are going for crazy prices 😵 Really looking forward to this!

Hello, there!

Finally had time to finish the prototype:

The digital part is on the left and analog part - a 4-channel mixer and amplifier - on the right. As seen it has 4 dedicated volume knobs for every sound source and one stereo output jack. The output has a delayed unmute circuit, so it doesn't pop on power up. As I already said in previous posts - the card has around -92dB noise level and does not catch internal computer noises as original 8-bit Sound Blaster cards did. After assembling everything on a single board the digital part runs super stable and smooth, BlasterBoard 2.0 is recognized as SoundBlaster 2.0 in all DOS games and demos I tried it on, autodetected as "Sound Blaster or compatible" by Windows versions prior to XP and runs nicely with Windows games - already tried Diablo, Hexen II, StarCraft and Half-Life.

After some minor layout fixes I will order first PCBs from manufacturer and make the firmware open for everyone.

LABS wrote:

After assembling everything on a single board the digital part runs super stable and smooth, BlasterBoard 2.0 is recognized as SoundBlaster 2.0 in all DOS games and demos I tried it on, autodetected as "Sound Blaster or compatible" by Windows versions prior to XP and runs nicely with Windows games - already tried Diablo, Hexen II, StarCraft and Half-Life.

Wow, that's great progress, really like the board! Fantastic work, LABS. 😳
I'd prefer it in SMD though. 😉

Looks good! Well done!

If I'm making it, through hole is easiest to assemble (with sockets and discrete components.

If it is being made in a factory, SMD is probably cheapest where possible.

But looks awesome either way. Need some artwork for the solder mask in the empty corner 😀

Fagear wrote:

Wow, that's great progress, really like the board! Fantastic work, LABS. 😳

Thanks, Max. Not as fast as I actually wanted it to happen, but anyway. I wish to go full-time...

Jo22 wrote:

Looks good! Well done!

Thank you!

canthearu wrote:

If I'm making it, through hole is easiest to assemble (with sockets and discrete components.

That is the exact reason for using THT.

canthearu wrote:

Need some artwork for the solder mask in the empty corner 😀

Yes, going to put tables with jumper settings there and project's name)

Looks superb !

Ok, just measured the output noise
Used RME Multiface for input @ 44100hz/32-bit float & WaveSpectra for Win

-94db RMS - not bad, right? With DSP, OPL2 and PC-speaker knobs set to max

But after connecting CD-audio and set its knob to max - I get this

Can hear silent, but audible constant high-pitched noise and variable noises from cd-rom motors 😠
Looks like a gnd loop.
Already tried messing around with gnd and R/L signals, connecting/disconnecting/buffering of cd-out on dedicated cd-gnd plane/checked solder quality/lp filtering - nothing works, the noise is in audible spectrum with peak @~8khz. If I connect cd-out via buffer to the power amp directly with a 3m cable - no noise at all, very clean signal, so there is a hope.

Unfortunately I do not have any hi-q cards with cd-in to check them out for possible solutions. Tried to trace hi-res photos of Aztec and Gravis cards and as I could see - nothing fancy here, just some filtering of inaudible freqs and gnds are connected, but maybe I just didn't notice something. How do their cd-ins behave by the way? Are they noiseless?
Anyone dealing with the same problem? Any suggestion will help. Thank you.