And more importantly even: The SnarkBarker MCA is here!

https://github.com/schlae/snark-barker-mca

Tronix wrote on 2020-11-30, 06:35:

SB V2.02 DSP with detailed comments avalible on https://github.com/schlae/sb-firmware
Many thanks to TubeTimeUS for sharing...

They are assembler codes though.. Don't we need a binary HEX file to flash our DSPs? Has anyone compiled this?

root42 wrote on 2020-11-30, 09:07:

And more importantly even: The SnarkBarker MCA is here!

https://github.com/schlae/snark-barker-mca

When are we doing a round of PCB orders for this one? 😁

appiah4 wrote on 2020-11-30, 10:09:

They are assembler codes though.. Don't we need a binary HEX file to flash our DSPs? Has anyone compiled this?

Tronix wrote on 2020-11-30, 11:50:

appiah4 wrote on 2020-11-30, 10:09:

They are assembler codes though.. Don't we need a binary HEX file to flash our DSPs? Has anyone compiled this?

Anchor_modded vs sbb202 - the latter is the new one, and the former is?..

appiah4 wrote on 2020-11-30, 12:12:

Tronix wrote on 2020-11-30, 11:50:

appiah4 wrote on 2020-11-30, 10:09:

They are assembler codes though.. Don't we need a binary HEX file to flash our DSPs? Has anyone compiled this?

Anchor_modded vs sbb202 - the latter is the new one, and the former is?..

Anchor modded, duh!

For real though: it says in the Readme of the project:

anchor_modded.asm - Firmware from many Chinese clone sound cards (ZhuHai Anchor Electronics).

root42 wrote on 2020-11-30, 12:33:

For real though: it says in the Readme of the project:

anchor_modded.asm - Firmware from many Chinese clone sound cards (ZhuHai Anchor Electronics).

Apologies for coming across as dumb as I often am but this is the old HEX file we already have, no? Just confused because the filename was completely different in the original Snark Barker project (sb.hex).

EDIT: I just compared the two and they are one and the same. Just scratch that up to me being dumb as usual. I flashed the new HEX and will test it out later this week.

No worries. You're not dumb. I just wanted to make a snarky remark (pun intended).

But good that you tested the contents. I just assumed it was the other firmware, but didn't bother to check.

Folks who socketed your TEA2025Bs: how are they holding up? I’m thinking about socketing mine because the 2 I’ve used so far in my Snark Barker are both bad: one had distortion in the right channel and the other had no output at all.

Also both SAA1099s I got from China were extremely bad - basically producing pure static with just a hint of the sine wave produced by the SBDIAG program. The seller did refund me, which is good, but I don’t want to have to play the part lottery again.

Still doing fine for me not even too hot to touch really.

You could always add a small heatsink on top with thermal epoxy if you dont mind the ugly.

Not using too intensively, but zero problems so far. It just works, including the TEA2025B.

Following up on my own post:

polpo wrote on 2021-10-09, 15:13:

Folks who socketed your TEA2025Bs: how are they holding up? I’m thinking about socketing mine because the 2 I’ve used so far in my Snark Barker are both bad: one had distortion in the right channel and the other had no output at all.

I went ahead and socketed the new TEA (actually an NTE7201, which is still available new from reputable sellers here in the US) and it's working great. However...

polpo wrote on 2021-10-09, 15:13:

Also both SAA1099s I got from China were extremely bad - basically producing pure static with just a hint of the sine wave produced by the SBDIAG program. The seller did refund me, which is good, but I don’t want to have to play the part lottery again.

I got four more SAA1099s, two each from two different sellers, and they are all producing extremely static-y sound. I'm beginning to think it's my Snark Barker and not the SAA chips. What should I look into when trying to troubleshoot this? I have a scope so I'm going to start probing around on the SAA's pins and see if anything looks awry.

polpo wrote on 2022-01-06, 22:29:

I got four more SAA1099s, two each from two different sellers, and they are all producing extremely static-y sound. I'm beginning to think it's my Snark Barker and not the SAA chips. What should I look into when trying to troubleshoot this? I have a scope so I'm going to start probing around on the SAA's pins and see if anything looks awry.

I sent in a fix for SBDIAG just yesterday. The SAA chips can produce noise (for "drums") and sine waves. SBDIAG turned on the sine frequency generator, but forgot to turn off the noise generator. Try to download the current SBDIAG.EXE from github, and try again.

EDIT: The frequency generator isn't a sine wave generator.

mkarcher wrote on 2022-01-06, 22:48:

I sent in a fix for SBDIAG just yesterday. The SAA chips can produce noise (for "drums") and sine waves. SBDIAG turned on the sine generator, but forgot to turn off the noise generator. Try to download the current SBDIAG.EXE from github, and try again.

That did it! The sine waves sound perfectly fine now. And now I'm kicking myself for not actually trying it out on any games that support Game Blaster, which would have resulted in perfectly fine sound. I figured if it wasn't working in SBDIAG, it wouldn't work anywhere...

Thank you for the timely fix!

mkarcher wrote on 2022-01-06, 22:48:

polpo wrote on 2022-01-06, 22:29:

I got four more SAA1099s, two each from two different sellers, and they are all producing extremely static-y sound. I'm beginning to think it's my Snark Barker and not the SAA chips. What should I look into when trying to troubleshoot this? I have a scope so I'm going to start probing around on the SAA's pins and see if anything looks awry.

I sent in a fix for SBDIAG just yesterday. The SAA chips can produce noise (for "drums") and sine waves. SBDIAG turned on the sine generator, but forgot to turn off the noise generator. Try to download the current SBDIAG.EXE from github, and try again.

Are you sure you meant sine waves? Doesn't the SAA produce square waves? At least that's what I can recall. The datasheet only mentions that there are 2 noise generators and 6 frequency generators, but not which shape the frequency generators produce.

root42 wrote on 2022-01-07, 10:16:

mkarcher wrote on 2022-01-06, 22:48:

I sent in a fix for SBDIAG just yesterday. The SAA chips can produce noise (for "drums") and sine waves. SBDIAG turned on the sine generator, but forgot to turn off the noise generator. Try to download the current SBDIAG.EXE from github, and try again.

Are you sure you meant sine waves? Doesn't the SAA produce square waves? At least that's what I can recall. The datasheet only mentions that there are 2 noise generators and 6 frequency generators, but not which shape the frequency generators produce.

Not sure at all. I guess you are right. I blindly trusted the "generate sine wave" menu option name in SBDIAG. I don't have a SnarkBarker (or Game Blaster) myself, I just helped another guy troubleshooting the noisy output, so I didn't hear whether it is a square or a sine wave.

mkarcher wrote on 2022-01-07, 10:27:

root42 wrote on 2022-01-07, 10:16:

mkarcher wrote on 2022-01-06, 22:48:

I sent in a fix for SBDIAG just yesterday. The SAA chips can produce noise (for "drums") and sine waves. SBDIAG turned on the sine generator, but forgot to turn off the noise generator. Try to download the current SBDIAG.EXE from github, and try again.

Are you sure you meant sine waves? Doesn't the SAA produce square waves? At least that's what I can recall. The datasheet only mentions that there are 2 noise generators and 6 frequency generators, but not which shape the frequency generators produce.

Not sure at all. I guess you are right. I blindly trusted the "generate sine wave" menu option name in SBDIAG. I don't have a SnarkBarker (or Game Blaster) myself, I just helped another guy troubleshooting the noisy output, so I didn't hear whether it is a square or a sine wave.

Hmm, I checked the sbdiag source and Eric indeed writes "CMS sine wave". I have to check with a scope what the waveform is. Maybe I am mistaken. He is a pretty thorough person and rarely wrong, so I would rather doubt myself.

Will check when I get back home!

To get a sine out of SAA chips some PCM playback magic needs to be done. They only produce squarewaves and white noise in normal state.

I was thinking it was a pretty square-y sounding sine. Looking at the wave in my (admittedly bottom of the barrel) scope from my snark barker, it’s definitely squareish but not perfectly so. I wonder if that’s down to any filtering or flaws in the design in the analog section of the original Sound Blaster.

In any case, I suppose one should send a pull request to fix the “sine wave” text in SBDIAG!

SB has quite strong LPF at its output so it'll definitely round out those squarewaves.