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Where do I buy YM****?

...and how do I connect it

Technical discussion which is not directly related to VGM files. Talk about Hardware and Software.

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  • tails_ Offline
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Where do I buy YM****?

Post by tails_ »

So, I want to play VGMs using real hardware, where can I buy chips with corresponding DAC? (Excluding YM2149) And what else will I need just to get chip working?

P.S. This also applies to OKI chips but I have no idea on how to connect RAM to these
Last edited by tails_ on 2013-05-26, 22:13:14, edited 1 time in total.
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  • dissident93 Offline
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Post by dissident93 »

You can find them on eBay, but as for how to install them to play back VGMs, I have no idea.
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  • neologix Offline
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Post by neologix »

Check SpritesMind forums and even byuu forums; a few ppl on SpritesMind have attempted (with varying degrees of success) such a thing (no DAC, tho), and D-- on byuu forums has succeeded in doing it with one of the PSG chips (either the SN or the AY). Almost all use an Arduino for it.
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Post by Knurek »

neologix wrote:Check SpritesMind forums and even byuu forums; a few ppl on SpritesMind have attempted (with varying degrees of success) such a thing (no DAC, tho), and D-- on byuu forums has succeeded in doing it with one of the PSG chips (either the SN or the AY). Almost all use an Arduino for it.
There's a japanese soundcard called GIMIC (http://gimic.jp/index.php?Getting%20Sta ... th%20GIMIC) that can play S98 logs using real hardware chips, you might check it out.
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Post by snakemeat »

Been looking into this a lot lately, since GIMIC is expensive. I'm currently exploring how to do it with an Arduino micro-controller and a YM2149F and POKEY. Been learning electronics and Arduino stuff about an hour a day for a month or two now.

Here's some links to similar projects:
http://sue.niko.to/ps98/
http://electronicfields.wordpress.com/2 ... switching/
http://blog.luis.net/search/label/vgm
http://little-scale.blogspot.com/search/label/pokey
http://www.hardchord.org/

There are a number of projects on YouTube with links to the schematics, etc... Even one of the GIMIC hardware guys had the YM2151 shield.

I also discovered this yesterday, which seems like it would be a very useful clock chip for VGM playback: http://www.linear.com/product/LTC6903

I'd love to see anything you put together.


Also, most chips can be found on eBay. Of course, I cannot vouch for their reliability until I build a circuit.
Last edited by snakemeat on 2013-05-30, 21:05:05, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by tails_ »

Thanks for links SM, I managed to get AY-3-8910 from my dead spectrum, so now I need to get 3.3v to 5v converter/buffer. As for clock source, could it be that I can use PWM for that? Cubieboard has one of these: http://linux-sunxi.org/A10/PIO#PB02
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Post by snakemeat »

I think you are right, but I'm still learning about this stuff too.
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  • MaliceX Offline
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Post by MaliceX »

I bought a YM2612 chip from eBay, but I misplaced it. For such a small thing, it wasn't cheap either. ;_;

Just when I've finally got the hang of using breadboards and programming microcontroller/processors on an eval board.
-dj.tuBIG/MaliceX
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