I've been waiting for this, since you teased the new features in a comment on your last video in the card. You did not disappoint! Personally, I would buy a card with this exact configuration happily, as I'm personally interested in Adlib and GM. The MT32 map is icing on the cake. Great work, and my PC/104 mini PC will happily give one of these a home, when you choose to release it.
Yeah sorry for the delay XD. I think I will release this yes. Then maybe a more expensive, crazy programmable version in the future. The only problem is that I am super busy especially in this period of my life.
Great project! Very useful for people, who want to use an industrial board. I actually have one, which I was thinking to use in a retro gaming build. May be I'll contact you about this sound card if I decide to use it that way. One question, where do you get ESS chips from? I have one broken ESS sound card, which I'd like to fix, but the chips are either out of stock, or very expensive.
Thnx :) You do many cool projects too. I think the only problem is that interstitial PCs are some times rare to find and a bit expensive. Cards are also very expensive. I think I need to make a good PC104 VGA too. In general I buy from China, I have now some good suppliers for mass production. In general it is not easy to order, especially 1pc. If I just want a few pieces I go maybe to taobao. Now this time I got 5pcs for this prototype. This seller did not had the best quality. The pins were a bit oxidized. Some of the chips also had an imbalance on left / right channel. 0.5dB, you can not hear this but it was there. I hope I do not have problems like that with the production. I have a few of these es1869F left. I can send you one for free if this is what you need. There is also the S version that is a square package.
@@atheatos "Cards are also very expensive. I think I need to make a good PC104 VGA too." Yes! New or used, PC104 VGA cards are stupidly expensive. Sergey Kiselev already has an ISA TVGA9000i based card. It's 8bit, but it shouldn't be too much trouble to route the other 8 bits for PC104.
@@atheatos Sorry for the late answer. Thank you very much for the offer, but I'm a tinkerer myself, I know how hard to get and expensive the parts are and wouldn't dare to take something for free. If I don't find a replacement, I'll come back to your offer, but not for free :) Still, thanks once again so far.
I think the results of your experimentation sound great! Maybe I'm not as picky, but as long as it doesn't have SoundBlaster levels of noise, it's all good. :)
Both the second and third filter for the PC speaker are fine. I personally liked the second one because the third sounded slightly muffled like there was something partially covering the speaker. But I think you could release it because it's very good anyway.
Super cool! May I make a suggestion. I am currently tinkering with a bunch of PC104 and industrial SBCs and I noticed that they all differ in the layout. Also, there's often some kind of connector protruding on the side of the PCB that might make it hard if not impossible to get the Game/Midi port impossible aligned in an enclosure. So, can you consider having a IDC cable header to have flexibility in enclosures and various Motherboards. Otherwise, awesome project, I can't wait to get my hands on one.
Thank you! I have many PC104 M/Bs myself. Yes everyone is different. Regarding the placement of the MIDI connector, in general it should not be a problem. Now I understand you point about wanting to put this in a case, and the problem there. I am not gone to make two versions of the PCB one with header and one with the PCB connector. However I will offer the option to get this without the PCB connector soldered and instead give... a ribbon cable DB15 connector. Someone will have then to cut and solder these 15 wires to the PCB. This should cover this use case without making my design worst (less compact).
nice job on the engineering. are you also sending the midi i/o through the gameport? which of course would need a line in for a midi module. so are there actually old stock for the ESS chip or is donated? im personally right now playing around with the mt32-pi, which gives perfect mt32 through munt and also uses fluidsynth for sound font support.
Well, the general idea here is to have the absolute compact PC/104 sound card solution that supports nearly everything. I did not add Midi I/O to the gameport. There is also no line-in. It is not impossible to connect to an external device, but mods are needed. Yet again in this case the external midi will be probably bigger than the PC and the sound card together. ESS chip = NOS always I want to try mt-32pi, to my understating this should be nearly 100% accurate MT-32. Should be very good! The only potential problem I see is probably some added latency there, this needs testing. Also it is to big to be integrated on a sound card or internally. I really like compact stuff! No plans to do anything with mt-32pi. But I will still get one for testing.
@@atheatos im surprised there are still NOS chips available. I havnt noticed any delay with my mt32-pi, but i wasnt looking for it either. Im using the rpi 3 A+ with a hat that has audio amp, rs232, and lcd screen. The project is described as using a bare metal kernel to maximize performance.
yeah, actually I have no idea on how it performs. In theory any software solution should have some delay, or small timings errors. These might be so small that is no problem. If I get one I will measure it to see how it is. I can measure with the oscilloscope the delay between the command and the output tone.
As a side note, the music you played in the Lotus game is actually the main soundtrack on "Zool" on the Atari ST/Amiga and also on the "Lotus III" on the same systems (as even better Soundtracker music). This was before the PC port of "Lotus III" simply called "Lotus" on the PC (as it was only 1 of the 3 on PC IIRC). It wasn't some case of 1 game ripping off another, but the same publisher using same music (more or less) more than once on very different games. Highly unusual practice even back then! ua-cam.com/video/Zz1fJy6aWVI/v-deo.html ua-cam.com/video/yb3qgnkks48/v-deo.html
The PC game is basically called "Lotus: The Ultimate Challenge" As for the same soundtrack with Zool, very very interesting. In the end this is not the main soundtrack of lotus and they put it in the stereo of the car.
I think there are variations on how each midi synth is changed to MT-32 compatibility mode. So a generic wavetable pass-through could be problematic. I also thought to release one specifically for Dreamblaster S2. But again the layout and spacing of something like that could be problematic. So I will release my own Wavetable synth with MT-32 compatibility. As for right now the mod is changed only through the jumper. I have plans for making this also possible with a special SysEx message. The jumper will still be there as the default setting. Now I need to get into programming so that I will be able to have a dos program for that. Programming is not my best skill, I have to research this.
@@atheatos yeah - I was preparing lunch while watching and completely missed that you were enabling a compatibility mode in the Dream chip. When I watched the part I missed, I edited my comment down. Awesome work nonetheless!
Root42 has a great channel with many videos on DOS programming, and he has just started a series on assembly programming for DOS apps with MASM that might interest you. It is probably closest to what you are used to with microcontrollers. ua-cam.com/video/4CyelFfuzqE/v-deo.html
Lastly (sorry for all the replies) - if you want to send a MIDI SysEx command through your microcontroller, there is a DOS command line utility called MIDIEX which can do this.
Thank you for the info, yeah in theory you can even just write the command to a midi file and just playback this. I will look thought for a pascal or turbo C solution. I want to have my own software, so I have a lot to research. In the end this should be easy. You only need to write to the 330 I/O port.
@@atheatos Ic, I was looking at the PI midi solutions and realized that that hat emulates these hardware midi devices. I think you can connect this midi device to a modern computer via an audio interface which connected to usb.
That is only midi not a full sound card and as you said software emulation. If you use a usb midi interface then this might be possible, I have no idea though.
It is definitely very good. We are lucky to have this. I use it all the time. I have not tried this 3dfx emulation or any 3D game. To my understanding DosBox does not handle 3D accelerated games that well. You can try PCem, however this needs a very strong machine.
Will for sure buy this when you get it out, keep it up! 😍
I've been waiting for this, since you teased the new features in a comment on your last video in the card. You did not disappoint!
Personally, I would buy a card with this exact configuration happily, as I'm personally interested in Adlib and GM. The MT32 map is icing on the cake.
Great work, and my PC/104 mini PC will happily give one of these a home, when you choose to release it.
Also, "your soundcard works perfectly" 😆
Yeah sorry for the delay XD. I think I will release this yes.
Then maybe a more expensive, crazy programmable version in the future.
The only problem is that I am super busy especially in this period of my life.
Great project! Very useful for people, who want to use an industrial board. I actually have one, which I was thinking to use in a retro gaming build. May be I'll contact you about this sound card if I decide to use it that way. One question, where do you get ESS chips from? I have one broken ESS sound card, which I'd like to fix, but the chips are either out of stock, or very expensive.
Thnx :) You do many cool projects too.
I think the only problem is that interstitial PCs are some times rare to find and a bit expensive.
Cards are also very expensive. I think I need to make a good PC104 VGA too.
In general I buy from China, I have now some good suppliers for mass production.
In general it is not easy to order, especially 1pc.
If I just want a few pieces I go maybe to taobao.
Now this time I got 5pcs for this prototype.
This seller did not had the best quality.
The pins were a bit oxidized.
Some of the chips also had an imbalance on left / right channel.
0.5dB, you can not hear this but it was there.
I hope I do not have problems like that with the production.
I have a few of these es1869F left.
I can send you one for free if this is what you need.
There is also the S version that is a square package.
@@atheatos "Cards are also very expensive. I think I need to make a good PC104 VGA too."
Yes! New or used, PC104 VGA cards are stupidly expensive. Sergey Kiselev already has an ISA TVGA9000i based card. It's 8bit, but it shouldn't be too much trouble to route the other 8 bits for PC104.
@@atheatos Sorry for the late answer. Thank you very much for the offer, but I'm a tinkerer myself, I know how hard to get and expensive the parts are and wouldn't dare to take something for free. If I don't find a replacement, I'll come back to your offer, but not for free :) Still, thanks once again so far.
This is fantastic work! Wow! I NEED one for my Geode GX1 SBC 🤤
Thank you :)
That's beautiful and just what I need.
I think the results of your experimentation sound great! Maybe I'm not as picky, but as long as it doesn't have SoundBlaster levels of noise, it's all good. :)
Thanx, As long as you use this with some speakers / headphones with volume control... it is nearly impossible to hear the noise.
Both the second and third filter for the PC speaker are fine. I personally liked the second one because the third sounded slightly muffled like there was something partially covering the speaker.
But I think you could release it because it's very good anyway.
Thank you for the feedback, I will have a jumper there for you to select what you like for sure.
Super cool! May I make a suggestion. I am currently tinkering with a bunch of PC104 and industrial SBCs and I noticed that they all differ in the layout. Also, there's often some kind of connector protruding on the side of the PCB that might make it hard if not impossible to get the Game/Midi port impossible aligned in an enclosure. So, can you consider having a IDC cable header to have flexibility in enclosures and various Motherboards. Otherwise, awesome project, I can't wait to get my hands on one.
Thank you!
I have many PC104 M/Bs myself. Yes everyone is different.
Regarding the placement of the MIDI connector, in general it should not be a problem.
Now I understand you point about wanting to put this in a case, and the problem there.
I am not gone to make two versions of the PCB one with header and one with the PCB connector.
However I will offer the option to get this without the PCB connector soldered and instead give...
a ribbon cable DB15 connector. Someone will have then to cut and solder these 15 wires to the PCB.
This should cover this use case without making my design worst (less compact).
I agree, there’s no point making two pcbs if the volume is not there. The port + ribbon will be a good solution.
nice job on the engineering.
are you also sending the midi i/o through the gameport? which of course would need a line in for a midi module.
so are there actually old stock for the ESS chip or is donated?
im personally right now playing around with the mt32-pi, which gives perfect mt32 through munt and also uses fluidsynth for sound font support.
Well, the general idea here is to have the absolute compact PC/104 sound card solution that supports nearly everything.
I did not add Midi I/O to the gameport. There is also no line-in.
It is not impossible to connect to an external device, but mods are needed.
Yet again in this case the external midi will be probably bigger than the PC and the sound card together.
ESS chip = NOS always
I want to try mt-32pi, to my understating this should be nearly 100% accurate MT-32.
Should be very good!
The only potential problem I see is probably some added latency there, this needs testing.
Also it is to big to be integrated on a sound card or internally.
I really like compact stuff!
No plans to do anything with mt-32pi. But I will still get one for testing.
@@atheatos im surprised there are still NOS chips available. I havnt noticed any delay with my mt32-pi, but i wasnt looking for it either. Im using the rpi 3 A+ with a hat that has audio amp, rs232, and lcd screen. The project is described as using a bare metal kernel to maximize performance.
yeah, actually I have no idea on how it performs. In theory any software solution should have some delay, or small timings errors.
These might be so small that is no problem. If I get one I will measure it to see how it is.
I can measure with the oscilloscope the delay between the command and the output tone.
@@atheatos if you do this test please let us know the results. I’m interested to know how much jitter the mt32pi introduces.
Yea Jitter is also very important (the variation in delay). This is harder to to measure but I will try to do so.
As a side note, the music you played in the Lotus game is actually the main soundtrack on "Zool" on the Atari ST/Amiga and also on the "Lotus III" on the same systems (as even better Soundtracker music). This was before the PC port of "Lotus III" simply called "Lotus" on the PC (as it was only 1 of the 3 on PC IIRC).
It wasn't some case of 1 game ripping off another, but the same publisher using same music (more or less) more than once on very different games. Highly unusual practice even back then!
ua-cam.com/video/Zz1fJy6aWVI/v-deo.html
ua-cam.com/video/yb3qgnkks48/v-deo.html
The PC game is basically called "Lotus: The Ultimate Challenge"
As for the same soundtrack with Zool, very very interesting.
In the end this is not the main soundtrack of lotus and they put it in the stereo of the car.
If you ever get the chance to sell these, I'm guaranteed to purchase one.
How are things going with this?
Very cool.
I think there are variations on how each midi synth is changed to MT-32 compatibility mode.
So a generic wavetable pass-through could be problematic.
I also thought to release one specifically for Dreamblaster S2.
But again the layout and spacing of something like that could be problematic.
So I will release my own Wavetable synth with MT-32 compatibility.
As for right now the mod is changed only through the jumper.
I have plans for making this also possible with a special SysEx message.
The jumper will still be there as the default setting.
Now I need to get into programming so that I will be able to have a dos program for that.
Programming is not my best skill, I have to research this.
@@atheatos yeah - I was preparing lunch while watching and completely missed that you were enabling a compatibility mode in the Dream chip. When I watched the part I missed, I edited my comment down. Awesome work nonetheless!
Root42 has a great channel with many videos on DOS programming, and he has just started a series on assembly programming for DOS apps with MASM that might interest you. It is probably closest to what you are used to with microcontrollers.
ua-cam.com/video/4CyelFfuzqE/v-deo.html
Lastly (sorry for all the replies) - if you want to send a MIDI SysEx command through your microcontroller, there is a DOS command line utility called MIDIEX which can do this.
Thank you for the info, yeah in theory you can even just write the command to a midi file and just playback this.
I will look thought for a pascal or turbo C solution.
I want to have my own software, so I have a lot to research.
In the end this should be easy. You only need to write to the 330 I/O port.
How do you connect this sound card to a modern pc that only has pci express card slots?
Yeah... impossible. That is why it makes sense to play old games on original hardware.
@@atheatos Ic, I was looking at the PI midi solutions and realized that that hat emulates these hardware midi devices. I think you can connect this midi device to a modern computer via an audio interface which connected to usb.
That is only midi not a full sound card and as you said software emulation.
If you use a usb midi interface then this might be possible, I have no idea though.
@@atheatos what do you think of dos box. It seems pretty cool that you can even emulate voodoo 3dfx graphic cards.
It is definitely very good. We are lucky to have this.
I use it all the time. I have not tried this 3dfx emulation or any 3D game.
To my understanding DosBox does not handle 3D accelerated games that well.
You can try PCem, however this needs a very strong machine.