1570 Fair enough comment. As long as the user is aware of the swinSID limitations then it's their choice. They can be produced for around $3-$4 so you can at least get some sound back into a C64 with a broken SID at an affordable price.
The SIDkick pico is great but not commercially available at this point in time where I am.
Over the last couple of years I have had 80 swinsid nano boards built up using JLCPCB complete fab just had to solder on the pin headers. Order time period was between 8/03/2022 to 15/08/2023 for the 3 batches. Chips used were atmega88pa-au and are marked atmega88PA U TH and dated from 2021 to 2022 production. Of all those there was one board with a faulty atmega. I replaced it with one from Mouser ordered July 2023 and that was fine.
I have just ordered another small batch from JLC which will arrive next week or so and I will report back my findings whether those swinsids will be functional.
Manual is great! Could we please get an English translation if possible.
Regards
Here is an interesting one peeps. Just recently got my DAC board. Soldered up and connected to the sidkick pico. DAC board lit up but no sound. On closer inspection of the pcb one of the regulators has been soldered 90 degrees out of position! So just something to keep an eye out for when you are ordering cheap Chinese manufactured boards. Give them a look over before putting them into service.
Regarding the 4MB georam issue, I had similar problems and have logged it at the github discussions page. Frenetic said he found a bug and will include a fix soon.
are you using the latest firmware? (there was a little update for the PWM-only variant)
I checked the firmware and I was using the old release. Updated and all sorted now! Working no problems.
Thanks for your help.
Hi
I have just made up a board without any extra headers (DAC or A5, A8) just simple SID replacement in a 250425 C64. Using a raspberry pi pico and programmed the PWM led firmware. Can access the menu (sys54301) and make changes and settings appear to save. Then when entering basic and then trying to enter menu again I get a ready prompt. Powering off and on again and entering menu the default settings are there with no changes. Besides this issue the pico SID seems to be working ok with games and SID files. Anyone have any suggestions?
Regards
Hi
I have received stock of all parts for the build. Mouser managed to get the order delivered before Christmas which was great. Just waiting on arrival of PCB's which hopefully will be in the next few days/week or so. I am looking forward to the construction of this project over the break.
I had a quick look at it seems the intro of the two games writes to (normally non-existant SID registers) which might result in the SIDKick going to config mode. This mode is quit after a few thousand cycles, but I'd have to check whether some other writes keep it in this mode. But I won't be able to do this very soon.
No worries all good no rush. Hopefully you can come up with a fix as I am having problems with a lot of games. Demos and sids working great and I am enjoying that aspect.
All the best for Christmas and the year ahead.
Ok I have probed over all the 245 contacts and no issues. I have made up another sidkick/teensy build to test. Have carefully gone over all the soldering contacts and all looks in order. With the new build I am having exactly the same issues as I did with the first sidkick/teensy build. The menu works and test piece plays no problems. Ran a few demos (CSDB monumentum ok and a few others). I tried yie ar kung fu (c64.com d64 188 block version) and green beret (c64.com d64 199 block version) and the sound especially with green beret is out of sync and will freeze and continue at times. Have tried 250425 and a stock standard 250407 board and same issues on both. Checking board voltage to teensy 4.90V.
Ok no worries. I will probe over the 245's with the multimeter. The sound hang is reproducible. With yie ar kung fu.crt the sound will hang at around the 90 sec to 2min after game loads.
I have more boards and a couple of extra teensy so I am planning on making another setup to test in the next few days.
Yes I have tried the previous firmware 0.215 (just DAC and also with led and midi) and same result. I could post a picture of the build but I have gone over all the solder points with a 10x loupe and can see no issues.
All parts are from mouser (74LVC245APW-T, LM358DT, BSS138) with the PT8211-S (LCSC c5260468). Teensy 4.1 from local authorised outlet. I was using a C64 black brick serviceable type with 5V switching regulator but same issues with standard regulator power supply. When the freeze occurs it's just the sound and the game still works so not a complete C64 freeze/lockup.
Hi All
I have recently built up a 0.4 pcb version and programmed a teensy 4.1 with latest firmware (0.216). Flashed and ran the eprom eraser and then flashed the firmware (C64 DAC without extras). The flashing seems to be successful but checking the teensy loader 1.48 verbose it complains about a missing .elf file so not sure if that's normal?)
Anyway I have installed in a C64 250425 stock machine except for a neatPLA and an SKS kernal switcher module. I can enter the config menu no problems and the test sid plays fine. However, testing a few games I have noticed that the sound will freeze after a short time (after around 1min 30 seconds or so). I had problems with yie ar kung fu .crt from oneload64 collection running from a kung fu flash cart and also tapecart. Ran a few demos and they seemed ok.
Not sure where to go from here hope someone can help.
Cheers Brad
Hi, I have built up a couple of sidekick64's and they seem to be both working expected with most functions. However, I seem to have an issue with the georam. I am running latest build 0.51d. I have used a few test programs and georam passes so all ok there, but the problem is no matter what ram setting I have for georam 0.5-4MB in settings (I have tried all), it seems to be detected as 4MB with testing program (georam64.prg). The TFT display however does show correct ram setting which was set.
When testing the Hudson Hawk georam game it loads 1st time (but this time TFT will show 4MB no matter what ram I have set in settings), but once resetting or powering off the game it can not be loaded again and the file size of the game is changed from 512KB to 4MB. Changing the game file size back to 512KB will make it work for the 1st time once again. Thanks in advance I hope someone can offer some suggestions.
