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SidPlayer+ – An standalone Psid player

July 19th, 2023 No comments
SidPlayer+ – An standalone Psid player.

Hi everyone,

I wanted to try this nice SID Player by Edu Arana with a very nice design.

Edu Arana used Bakisha opensource code for the SID (only Psid) player, the code also has my own little implementation for the Vu-Meter with three LEDs (thanks Edu for the note printed on the PCB).

I know the Bakisha SID Player fairly well, below you will find several Links of my blog where there are some experiments and implementations i did years ago.

I’m not going to dwell too much on the loyalty of this SID Player, which as i said i know well, all in all it works but we are far away light years from perfection, at least as i understand it, in fact i started another project that you all probably know: The Return of the Hybrid SID Player which in addition to an ‘almost’ perfect CPU emulation including Illegal Opcodes and uses the “Original” or “Clone” SIDs for playing music tracks and other nice and useful features.

The ‘plus’ version of the Edu SID Player differs from the previous one for the implementation of the bluetooth module which however is not supplied.

As you can see from the photos and video i have installed the BlueTooth module and the Battery to make it totally portable, the battery recharge is via USB like a mobile phone.

UPDATE:

I wrote this update because some things i wrote bothered someone.

With the phrase “I’m not going to dwell … it works well but …” i just wanted to say that the emulation of the SID, let’s talk about EMULATION, is not perfect, i’m a purist of SID songs, so for me a SID music plays perfectly only and only using the original chip, however for the price this player is sold it is perfect and also very nice!

Anyway you are always welcome to break my balls, i will always answer you.

Gallery:

Video:

Link:

Categories: Hardware, News & Rumors, Today

Digital Display Voltage Meter Bug

June 23rd, 2023 No comments
Digital Display Voltage Meter Rear

Observing these two displays at first glance there are no big differences are noticed.

Wrong! the Display where you reads V2.0 (updated version of the previous one), also works perfectly if inserted very close to the PCB of a Switching Power Supply, the other one instead at Random resets and displaying 888 just move it 10 CM away from the Switching Power Supply PCB and it works perfectly.

I wanted to share this news because i’m not the only one with this bizarre problem.

Gallery:

Music LED Spectrum Analyzer (Vu-Meter)

May 31st, 2023 No comments

I have also bought a LED spectrum analyzer, very nice and impressive but certainly not suitable for professional use, but who cares!

The technical features are many and not very intuitive to be changed with just two buttons on the back.

However, I’ll summarize them very briefly:

  • Automatic detection of Microphone or Audio Input (Jack 3.5).
  • Ability to disable the clock.
  • 12 display modes.
  • 7 color modes.
  • 84 display effects can be combined.
  • 8 brightness modes.
  • Clock adjustment.
  • 4 time display modes.
  • Alarm clock function.
  • Custom RGB colors.
  • USB 5v power supply.

Below are some photos of the inside.

The reset button is very curious can cannot be reached from the outside (missing the hole) and also a Micro USB connector unusable from the outside of the case.

I attach the datasheets of the integrated circuits that are used and the manual in English language that was sent to me via email, the one available by scanning the QR Code of the product is only Chinese :-D

Gallery:

Download:

source: aliexpress.com

Testing OSSC through the component Video of the TI-99/4A

May 11th, 2023 No comments
Testing OSSC through the component Video of the TI-99/4A

Testing OSSC through the component Video of the TI-99/4A

The ODV-II although it is placed above the OSSC is not used, i could not remove it because it is attached with bioadhesive :D

Gallery:

Below are my presets in binary format of the OSSC with firmware v0.90.

  • 0: Amiga RGB
  • 1: Amiga Overscan RGB
  • 2: Commodore 64 Svideo through ODV-II
  • 3: SupaBoy RGB
  • 4: TI-99 YPbPr
  • 5: Apple II+ Composite through ODV-II

Download: OSSC Binary Presets (177)

Greaseweazle V4 & Disc Disk Revolution 64 v0.99B3

Still in beta stage but interesting this software written by SLC that allows you to write and read C64 file formats (D64/G64) using a regular 360k Floppy Drive with the Greaseweazle interface.

To understand how this program works, you should first read the README found in the program archive.

I tried it personally and it works quite well, the only problem is the double sided management of Floppy Disks for Commodore 64, i don’t want to dwell too much on this question but in other words the Floppy Drive PCs do not allow you to turn the floppy disk to use also the other side of the Floppy Disk, the optical sensor is present only on the left side of the reader (the Floppy Drive of the Commodore 64 does not have this sensor).

There are MODs to get around this annoying problem, mods that are not exactly immediate and not for all Floppy Drive.

So let’s say it outspoken, if you want to read and write Floppy Disks for Commodore 64 what i recommend is the software OPENCBM + Hardware XUM (ZoomFloppy) or similar and a native Commodore 64 (1541/1541-II) drive. :-D … and everything is great.

Download: Disc Disk Revolution 64 v0.99B3

Testing Greaseweazle V4

April 30th, 2023 No comments
Testing Greaseweazle V4

The Greaseweazle USB device lets you to connect an old floppy disk drive to your modern computer to read/write floppy disks from any system with Shugart standard drives (Amiga, Atari, Commodore, Amstrad, Sinclair, PC, CNC machines, musical instruments, etc).

Greaseweazle allows versatile floppy drive control over USB. By extracting the raw flux transitions from a drive, any disk format can be captured and analysed – PC, Amiga, Amstrad, PDP-11, musical instruments, industrial equipment, and more.

The Greaseweazle also supports writing to floppy disks, from a range of image file formats including those commonly used for online preservation (ADF, IPF, DSK, IMG, HFE, …).

Gallery:

Greaseweazle GITHub Repository: https://github.com/keirf/greaseweazle
GreaseweazleGUI: https://desertsagesolutions.com/greaseweazlegui/
FluxMyFluffyFloppy: https://github.com/FrankieTheFluff/FluxMyFluffyFloppy

You can buy the Greaseweazle V4 from amigastore.eu

Categories: Hardware, News & Rumors, Today

ODV-II (CVBS-SVideo to YPbPr) + OSSC (Open Source Scan Converter)

April 19th, 2023 No comments
ODV-II (CVBS-SVideo to YPbPr) + OSSC (Open Source Scan Converter)

I also wanted to try the ODV-II converter to be able to use the OSSC also with CVBS and S-VIDEO inputs (OSSC does not natively support this type of video inputs).

I have chosed this product and not others for three reasons:

  • The cost.
  • Video quality, absolute perfection wasn’t important.
  • Signal output converted to YPbPr.

The result went above expectations, works well, the output of the ODV-II is in component (YPbPr) so the SCART-RGB and VGA inputs remain free on the OSSC, furthermore the ODV-II has a third YPbPr input.

The ODV-II also has the possibility of selecting some Video filters via a small button, filters which i find absolutely embarrassing in fact i have configured it in pass-through mode and another small button to select the video inputs.

Below are the photos of some tests with the Commodore 64 where i have used the S-Video output and also the photos of the PCB because i didn’t find them on the net, i also attach the datasheets of the integrated circuits that are used.

Gallery:

Download:

ODV-II PDF Datasheet (203)

The return of the Hybrid Sid Player Firmware update v1.22

February 24th, 2023 1 comment

The return of the Hybrid Sid Player by xAD/Nightfall & Gianluca Renzi (RetroBit Lab)

Based on the Project and Hardware Schematic by Markus Gritsch released in the years 2011-2015 on the forum dangerousprototypes. Thanks Markus.

Changelog:

v1.22 – 6/2/2023

Note:

  • From this release the new versions will be developed and tested on the v2 prototype PCB and no longer on the Breadboard prototype.

Added:

  • Software implementation of the new audio Switcher.
  • Added a new value (0: Nothing) to the DEFAULT_SID_SOCKET in the configuration file (config.ini).

  # Choose the default SID Socket on bootup (0: Nothing – 1:Socket #1 – 2:Socket #2) – default: 1
  DEFAULT_SID_SOCKET=1

  • Added control via MCU of the power-up led. It might come in handy for future implementations.

Updated:

  • Updated label on the oled display for the “sid switch” mode, now “sidSet” is written and not just “sid”
  • Updated boot screen with the text “sorting files…” if the folder contains too many files (max 800).

Fixed:

  • The encoder cannot be used for manual SID SWITCH mode in case the SID tune played is multitunes because the encoder is used to select the songs, so although the “sidset” option will be displayed on the display in this  specific case the selection of the sid socket will not working.
  • Logic for the switch of the Socket SID with which to play the song and the consequent LED.
  • Default SID Socket if nothing is specified in the config file (config.ini)
  • Manual “sid switch” mode, the SID that was played with this mode would stop after 2 minutes and start over.

The return of the Hybrid Sid Player Firmware update v1.21

September 29th, 2022 1 comment

The return of the Hybrid Sid Player by xAD/Nightfall & Gianluca Renzi (RetroBit Lab)

Based on the Project and Hardware Schematic by Markus Gritsch released in the years 2011-2015 on the forum dangerousprototypes. Thanks Markus.

Changelog:

v1.21 – 29/9/2022

Added:

  • A new MODE has been added and can be used with the MODE key while you are in TUNEINFO screen.

This mode allows to change the SID model in realtime while the music is playing.

Example:

If a SID music is played with the SID 8580 positioned on SOCKET #1 by choosing the ‘sid’ mode you can with the encoder turning it to the Right or Left choose the SOCKET #2 where for example where is installed a SID 6581. The led placed under the Socket will show the sid you have chosen.
 
An apparently useless option which, however, can be used to experiment the differences in reproduction of the piece of music with two different SID models or choose the most appropriate sid model if the SID not specified the SID to be used.
 
So in summary we have these choice with the mode key while you are in TUNEINFO screen.

- Single Play
- Sequential Play
- Random Play
- Intro Play
- Sid Switch

Updated:

  • Source code description.

Fixed:

  • Missing the default value of the startSong in the SID Header if this value is missing. The SidPlayer sets 255 and try to play it.

I only found one SID with this strange configuration : Hammer Down by Sean Connoly.  Fixed by setting it to the default value : 1.

  • The player freezes while browsing file system folders with many *.sid files.

This happens when the driver scan the file system and immediately after is done the bubble sort routine that takes about 700ms for 512 entries and more for the max entries (800) in one single directory and during this time the sid player freezes.
 
To avoid hearing the annoying last note played repeatedly for this amount of time, i have forced the player to pause and remove it as soon as the contents of the new directory will be displayed.
 
Obviously if you had chosen to pause the song voluntarily with the appropriate button, it will not resume playing after the new directory is displayed.

The return of the Hybrid Sid Player Firmware update v1.20

July 31st, 2022 No comments

The return of the Hybrid Sid Player by xAD/Nightfall & Gianluca Renzi (RetroBit Lab)

Based on the Project and Hardware Schematic by Markus Gritsch released in the years 2011-2015 on the forum dangerousprototypes. Thanks Markus.

Changelog:

v1.20 – 30/7/2022

Added:

  • Combo buttons to go up of one directory.

The new feature working when you are in FILE BROWSING display mode and by holding down the button MODE and at the same time press the button of the ENCODER you can go up of one directory.

This mode is very useful if you have a list of many files or directory and would like to easily go up of one directory, currently you should scroll at the beginning or at the end of the list and then click on the double dot to go back, really boring.

Updated:

  • Modified the way for the horizontal scroll of the sid filenames list.

I was not very convinced by the system that i have made for scroll the filenames horizontally, so i changed the mode, in my opinion much nicer.

By holding down the MODE key when you are in FILE BROWSING display mode you can move the entire screen with the filenames list left and right using the same encoder that is used to scroll the filenames list up and down.

Moreover the horizontal screen position is maintained also after the switching of the display mode or if you go up of one or more directory.

The return of the Hybrid Sid Player Firmware update v1.19

May 23rd, 2022 No comments

The return of the Hybrid Sid Player by xAD/Nightfall & Gianluca Renzi (RetroBit Lab)

Based on the Project and Hardware Schematic by Markus Gritsch released in the years 2011-2015 on the forum dangerousprototypes. Thanks Markus.

Changelog:

v1.19 – 22/5/2022

Added:

  • Added the horizontal scroll of the sid filenames list.
    • The maximum allowed length of the sid file including extension is 48 characters, the small oled can display a maximum of 20 characters, so this feature is useful with very long file names. The function is activated with the MODE key when you are in browsing files mode, once the 48 characters are reached, the scroll resets and repositions the display of the file from the beginning until the next pressing of the MODE key.

Updated:

  • Added a new parameter to the configuration file (config.ini).
    • Choose the default SID Socket on bootup. This configuration is not mandatory.

Below is an excerpt from the “config.ini” file.

# Choose the default SID Socket on bootup (1:Socket #1 – 2:Socket #2) – default: 1
DEFAULT_SID_SOCKET=1

Fixed:

  • Wrong emulation for the NOP opcode. %-)
    • I noticed this problem with a SID made by Hermit of Samar Productions, SIDRIP Alliance, Singular that uses a SID Player written by him. SID Tune: MSK Cover-XF End (https://csdb.dk/release/?id=214247)  This SID Player uses several illegal opcodes and i immediately thought of an emulation problem of these illegal opcodes, instead it was the NOP opcode that had problems. I point out that i listen at random 7XX favorite songs at least 1 hour a day and i never noticed any problems. :-D  Anyway, Fixed.
  • Max entries per directory.

The Return of the HybridSID Player PCB rev v2.0

February 18th, 2022 No comments

The Return of the HybridSID Player PCB rev v2.0 by Xad/Nightfall & Gianluca Renzi (RetroBit Lab). Based on the Project and Hardware Schematic by Markus Gritsch released in the years 2011-2015 on the forum dangerousprototypes. Thanks Markus.

After the first revision of the PCB we are realized that there were some design problems and consequently of a correct functioning.

Below is a brief description of the fixes and improvements that have been made for the new one version of the SID Player PCB.

PCB rev v2.0 St.Valentine’s day version:

  • OLED did not turn off when the power switch was off.
  • Wrong pinout of the ALPS switch and consequently the PCB could not be powered via the USB power supply/power bank.
  • Removed Zener diode.
  • Added two new jumpers to select (AB – BA) for the rotary encoder.
  • Rotary Encoder 20 steps, the previous one was wrong.
  • Removed circuit for the switch of the two LEDs to visualize what SID is used for playing the song.
  • Remapped the two SID LED switches on two MCU pins (RB15 – LED SOCKET # 1, RB12 – LED SOCKET # 2)
  • Removed the possibility of using OLED 0.96″
  • Aligned OLED 1.3 “on the line of the ZIF Socket.
  • Moved reset signal that was used by OLED 0.96 on free pins connector.
  • Fixed the holes for the OLED 1.3 “
  • Remapped the following pins (RD5 – SID_RW, RD6 – SID2_CS, RB9 – KEY_FFWD, RB10 – KEY_PAUSE) to free 5v tolerant pins.
  • Added two new pull-up resistors for PAUSE and FFWD key.
  • Redesigned the entire amplifier stage for the headphone output using TPA6111A2 and NE5532.
  • PCB tracks optimization.
  • Facilitated the CPU DEBUG by creating a “frame” where each PAD corresponds to a pin of the MCU.

The return of the Hybrid Sid Player Firmware update v1.18

January 31st, 2022 No comments

The return of the Hybrid Sid Player by xAD/Nightfall & Gianluca Renzi (RetroBit Lab)

Based on the Project and Hardware Schematic by Markus Gritsch released in the years 2011-2015 on the forum dangerousprototypes. Thanks Markus.

Changelog:

v1.18 – 28/1/2022

Fixed:

  • When you are in Manual mode of playing SID the timeout timer wrongly are also increased into a variable but this timer works only for the modes: auto/random/intro.
  • Wrong STATIC variable for the debug via serial. the serial debug don’t works correctly in some part of the code. %-)
  • Wrong variable for the Timeout check if the time is longer then 99 seconds. %-)

Updated:

  • Freed and remapped to another destination the MCU pins of PAUSE and FFWD buttons to use them with the CS for the SID #2 and R/W because we needed 2 MCU pins 5v tolerant and there aren’t many left :/
  • Described some parts of the source code.
  • Added new parameters to the configuration file (config.ini).
    • Playback timeout in seconds of the .SID files for AUTO/RANDOM and INTRO modes.
    • Configure the best baudrate for the debug via Serial.
    • Disable or Enable the visualization of the VU-METER for the 3 sid voices.

Below is an excerpt from the “config.ini” file.

# Serial Debug Baudrate – default: 115200
SERIAL_BAUDRATE=115200
# Set the Timeout in Seconds for the AUTO/RANDOM playing mode – default: 2 minutes
AUTORND_TIMEOUT=120
# Set the Timeout in Seconds for the INTRO playing mode – default: 15 seconds
INTRO_TIMEOUT=15
# Write 0 if you want to disable the visualization of the vu-meter for the 3 x sid voices.
# Default: 1
SID_VUMETER=1

The return of the Hybrid Sid Player Firmware update v1.17

January 5th, 2022 No comments

The return of the Hybrid Sid Player by xAD/Nightfall & Gianluca Renzi (RetroBit Lab)

Based on the Project and Hardware Schematic by Markus Gritsch released in the years 2011-2015 on the forum dangerousprototypes. Thanks Markus.

Changelog:

v1.17 – 31/12/2021

Added:

  • Change visualization status of the LED for Socket #1 and Socket #2 available on the Olimex Development Board and the SID Player PCB.
  • A configuration file (config.ini) for some important settings of the SID Player. The file will be loaded during the boot and must be present in the ROOT of the filesystem of the USB key.If the file is not found, the player will configure itself with the default values. Thanks to Gianluca Renzi (RetroBit Lab) for his lite INI file parser.

Below is an excerpt from the “config.ini” file.

# Select the Sid model for the Tune played by the SID Player on the Socket #1 or Socket #2.
# Specify the socket which you want to play the sid tunes (example for SID_8580_SOCKET write
# the number 2 if you want it to be played with the SID 8580 installed on socket #2)
# This configuration makes the use very dynamic for everyone. – default: socket #1,#1,#2,#2
TUNE_UNKNOWN_SOCKET=1
TUNE_6581_SOCKET=1
TUNE_8580_SOCKET=2
TUNE_BOTH_SOCKET=2
# Use Armsid with Auto Switching (0:Disabled – 1:Socket #1 – 2:Socket #2) – default: 0
# Note: When you use the auto detection and switching of the SID model with the ARMSID this can be
# used only in one of the two sockets, the other socket is completely ignored and can remain empty.
ARMSID_SOCKET=0
# Brightness of the OLED. (0 … 255) – default: 127
OLED_BRIGHTNESS=127
# Brightness of the OLED in IDLE mode. (0 … 255) – default: 10
OLED_BRIGHTNESS_IDLE=10
# Enable the serial DEBUG. (1 Enable | 0 Disabled) – default: 0
SERIAL_DEBUG=0

The return of the Hybrid Sid Player Firmware update v1.16

November 29th, 2021 No comments

The return of the Hybrid Sid Player by xAD/Nightfall & Gianluca Renzi (RetroBit Lab)

Based on the Project and Hardware Schematic by Markus Gritsch released in the years 2011-2015 on the forum dangerousprototypes. Thanks Markus.

Changelog:

v1.16 – 29/11/2021

Updated:

  • Illegal/undocumented opcodes to the CPU Emulator:
    • LAE (LAS/LAR) Combinations of STA/TXS and LDA/TSX.
    • ANE (XAA) Combination of an immediate and an implied command.
    • All 6502/6510 instructions have been implemented.
  • Increased the maximum number of files per directory from 512 max to 800 max.
  • Improved delay routine for read/write eeprom via I2c bitbang, it should now be compatible with all levels of the XC32 compiler code optimization.
  • Replaced and splitted the Splash Screen Logo during the boot. Thanks to Federico di dato for the Retrobit LAB logo.

Fixed:

  • The BRK opcode, opcode that will probably will never used in our case.
  • Missing +2 Machine Cycle Times for the opcodes: BPL,BMI,BVC,BVS,BCC,BCS,BNE,BEQ due to some previous performance improvment of the 6502/6510  emulator code, i was probably drunk, indeed, i’m sure. %-)
  • The clock “|CIA|” was displayed mistakenly when you choose to play a file in DMP format but this is wrong because the DMP file format doesn’t support the information of clock used (VBI/CIA) in the file header.
  • The previous and next button did not work if there are only two files (SID or DMP) available to play in the folder.
  • Incorrect Machine Cycle Times for the NOP opcode, four times instead of two. %-)
  • Sometimes the version number displayed during boot would pop outside from the right side of the oled screen.
  • Wrong Machine Cycle Times for the SLO, SRE(LSE), DCP, RLA, ISC(ISB) Illegal/undocumented opcodes with Indexed-indirect addressing of X,Y-Registers.