Hello!

I haven't followed this thread for a while; I'm glad to see there has been some progress by others on this stuff!

I have just recently finished reverse-engineering the somewhat simplified GuSar board, without the DRAM chips and I have some questions.

Are there any other differences from the original ArGUS board but the lack of DRAM chips?

I did notice, as someone pointed out here earlier, that some of the address pins of the SIMM were reversed and I fixed that.

I understand that the EPROM is optional, so I might just skip it for the first revision. But for future reference, if I decide to just use a regular 29F800 instead of that now-unobtainable IW78C21M1, there must be some modification of the board if I understand it correctly. RA20 and RA21 are weakly pulled low, which makes no sense for the ROM chip. According to the datasheet for the AM78 they are used as inputs during reset and I assume this is why they are pulled low by default.

They are connected to ~RESET and ~WE on the ROM, which don't make muse sense either.

I have a vague feeling they are not used at all, but put there for future revisions of the AM78... that could use larger ROMs than the 1 MBytes that are addressable by a 20-bit address bus. But that is just my guess.

So my question is: if I just pull ~RESET and ~WE high at all times, a regular 29F800 ROM should work, shouldn't it?

Thanks for all the help!

Once I figure this out, I will order a test batch of five boards and keep maybe one or two for myself. Then I will sell the rest, as finished boards. If there is still demand for them, I plan on making more of these and sell to anyone who wants one.

As a side note, I should point out that I have made other sound cards before; I made my own Sound Blaster clones, heavily inspired by Snark Barker. I have a few ISA boards for sale on eBay and all the MCA boards have sold out before I manage to put them on eBay. 😀 Nowadays the CPLD I use for those (XC9572XL; same as Snark Barker) are nowhere to be found, so I can't really make any more for the next year or so.

Nitroraptor53 wrote on 2022-07-02, 17:33:

Hypothetically, could I use the toaster oven soldering method, or would that damage the Interwave?

If you use same temperature ramp up and down used to stick Interwave in the first place, I don't see any reason not to.
If you have experience with the same size boards and the same type of solder paste, things will be more predictable IMO.

Sunoo wrote on 2022-05-02, 16:06:

Thanks. For some of the ceramics I wasn’t really finding better than 10%, which seemed odd. I guess I’ll have to fiddle with my search parameters and try again.

I'm curious about that as well. Mouser seems to be low on stock on some of the capacitors with low tolerances. So I went for the 10% as well hoping that it will still work, but I still have a lot of time to order more fitting ones if they are really necessary.

Was there ever a game or some other DOS program (a tracker or demo perhaps?) that has native GUS PnP support and one does not have to mess with patching or other drivers?

keropi wrote on 2022-07-15, 10:14:

Was there ever a game or some other DOS program (a tracker or demo perhaps?) that has native GUS PnP support and one does not have to mess with patching or other drivers?

a quick google leads me to this... https://web.archive.org/web/19971009145535/ht … ative%20support

not very inspiring... 😒

edit : https://www.cubic.org/player/download.html for a tracker
edit2 : or this https://www.pouet.net/prod.php?which=69240

keropi wrote on 2022-07-15, 10:14:

Was there ever a game or some other DOS program (a tracker or demo perhaps?) that has native GUS PnP support and one does not have to mess with patching or other drivers?

Impulse Tracker;
XTC-Play;
The Fulcrum by Matrix;
MDK Interactive Demo (HMI SOS, Interwave option available, but might actually be WSS);
X-Men: Children of the Atom Demo(Miles Audio) ;

my player supports pnp out of the box with 16mb ram (but no sample can be larger/cross the bank size, which is max 4mb but depends on the ram sticks)

BloodyCactus wrote on 2022-07-15, 16:38:

my player supports pnp out of the box with 16mb ram (but no sample can be larger/cross the bank size, which is max 4mb but depends on the ram sticks)

Where might one find your player and what is it called ?

https://bloodycactus.com/files/aural.zip
https://bloodycactus.com/files/auraleh.zip

eh version supports my own tracker that wasnt spread outside the group back in the day. I linked it anyway.

16bit versions are compiled for 286+, 32bit is obviously... 386+

from memory, the awe32 driver is busted, gus drivers is fine 😀

I drew and cut out a bracket for mine 😀

NoodleDude wrote on 2022-07-15, 19:01:

I drew and cut out a bracket for mine 😀

oh, please kind sir, could you post the files for this bracket?

Nikita Lita wrote on 2022-07-15, 19:05:

NoodleDude wrote on 2022-07-15, 19:01:

I drew and cut out a bracket for mine 😀

oh, please kind sir, could you post the files for this bracket?

Only if the card itself is made open source 😉

Nikita Lita wrote on 2022-07-15, 19:05:

[oh, please kind sir, could you post the files for this bracket?

There are bracket drawings already in this megathread, search for it.

Is it possible to buy a bare PCB (already have a spare Interwave IC) from anybody? Will the Gerber's be open sourced soon?

Just got the news that all PCBs on offer have been sold. I will release the gerber files within the next few weeks.
I also still have 120 InterWaves left. Those are also for sale (in lots of at least 24).

Synoptic wrote on 2022-05-20, 13:50:

I just got the confirmation from the fab they have received the blank PCB..
I am still awaiting the delivery of the Interwave chips since April 29th. You can track the shipment here : CY561305075DE

hello, maybe I’m writing in the wrong place, I still don’t understand how to order a sound card (I don’t know the language well), what is its price ... is it possible to make a card with a pci or pcie connector for new computers? As an example of a name - pcigus or pciegus (translated from Google)

mr.gravis wrote on 2022-07-22, 08:10:

Synoptic wrote on 2022-05-20, 13:50:

I just got the confirmation from the fab they have received the blank PCB..
I am still awaiting the delivery of the Interwave chips since April 29th. You can track the shipment here : CY561305075DE

hello, maybe I’m writing in the wrong place, I still don’t understand how to order a sound card (I don’t know the language well), what is its price ... is it possible to make a card with a pci or pcie connector for new computers? As an example of a name - pcigus or pciegus (translated from Google)

You cannot make this soundcard with PCI or PCIe. You should read and unserstand what this soundcard is first. What is the ISA bus too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravis_Ultrasound
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industry_Standard_Architecture

and if you solder the contacts , or make an improvement ? Thanks for the answer anyway, for which ARGUS configuration? If the ISA is on the old computer, is it possible to install windows there? if so, which 95, 98, XP? How much RAM is the maximum? I understand you need an old motherboard. Is there a microphone output in ARGUS? For example , a guitar in windows on ARGUS can be recorded ? I read the first link, for the second I don't know the language so well, the built-in translators distort a lot (translated from Google)

IcySon55 wrote on 2022-05-04, 14:02:

So I took a look at the 72-pin connector I had on there, and it was #1 Out of stock and #2 tin pins.

That has been corrected to gold pins and just our luck, in (low) stock.

Edit: I see that many of the Panasonic resistors are not in stock as well. Any suggestions on replacements of the same or better quality?

In this BOM there is only one SN74F373DW.
Is it OK to install only one at U32 (or U33)?

shock__ wrote on 2022-07-21, 19:03:

Just got the news that all PCBs on offer have been sold. I will release the gerber files within the next few weeks.
I also still have 120 InterWaves left. Those are also for sale (in lots of at least 24).

That's awesome shock, been looking to build the ARGUS for awhile.