A long time ago I obtained by ¡¡¡1 €!!! a SoundBlaster card that has an original chip OPL3 of Yamaha.

I have obtained a Brazilian scheme to how implementing it in a cartridge for the system. In addition there is a photo with a prototype that says works correctly, if there is somebody wants it, I can made it. I have not a picture of the printed circuit, if somebody has it I would be thankful lets it know and send me (does not seem very difficult).

This chip is considerably better than OPL (Music Module) and OPL2, since it has better characteristics of sound and the double of channels (18) in stereo mode. To implement it in the system would be, from my point of view, so that the old cards are out of day and therefore very cheap to obtain. The really difficult thing is to locate someone. In addition this chip is much more fast that the previous, the CPU had wait states even in the Z80 of MSX.

Are there somebody interested in this project?

To remember that he is 100% compatible one with Music Module (single FM nonPCM) and partially compatible with MoonSound, all selectionable with switch. In addition the ROM with support BASIC could be implemented in the cartridge, like FM-Pac and perhaps until PCM support.

This is probably for legacy ISA card types? A long time ago a i made a converter for an Adlib card, MSX to ISA, it indeed works with the Moonsound for MSX-Audio. In fact you can connect almost every card to MSX, but the main problem is the software i'm affraid. Someone has to make a tracker program or midi program for it, but if it is compatible maybe only some small modifications are needed... For the Adlib card i only had to invert and swap some addresslines to switch it to &HC0.

What is the number of the chip you are talking about? As for i remember there are small differences between Soundblaster, Soundblaster 2.0 and Soundblaster Pro. Because MSX has no 'drivers', everyone must have the same type of card (chipset) or the software must be able to access several different card types.

The chip is the YMF262 (OPL3). I think about to make new boards (cartridge), with OPL3 in. This chip is on the Soundblaster 2.0 and other manufacturers, reason why it would be relatively easy to find them in old PC cards.

What would it all-in cost do manufacture such a card? Keep in mind that a Moonsound is 172Euro @ Sunrise atm (at least that's what the website says). For that you get an opl4 and software in a nice case. While I'm not trying to stop your development, the mentioned software and support is quite important. Even if you'd be able to make a card with an OPL3 for a dime and a nickel, still it would be hard to make such a card a standard -as far as that was a possible intention-.

My intention is to make the possible cheapest card. I think that if somebody obtains free, or very cheap, one of these PC cards, most expensive would be the components. It is probable that it does not cost more of 15€. I think to commercialize finished cards or the printed circuit, to do them anybody in house.

My only intention is to make compatible cards with Music Module and MoonSound, with the advantage of being able to program in OPL3 native mode.

15€ sounds doable, if that's what it really cost.

Well. 15€ sounds exaggerated, but in any case I believe that it is probable that in no case it surpasses 25-30€ complete.

I assume that's a simple print plate with a minijack output, without casing..?

maybe helpful: I know of a site that does these midiboxes, the midibox sid is a famous one,
but they also provide info on an OPL3 device, and giving links...

http://www.ic-distributors.com/HTML_ICD_Y.shtml
and
http://www.ucapps.de/mbhp_opl3.html

the last one providing a list of all carts with OPL3 in it,
of which I just checked, the creative vibra cards being on sale for $6 or so on ebay.
Soundblaster 16 cards are on ebay for buy it now prices of around 2 dollars

and on that page you should be able to find some info
on making midi devices with this as well ( not that that's of any use but hey)

This seems an interesting project to me, the YMF262 can also be found in old laptops.

So at least the soundblaster seems compatible with the Moonsound in FM mode... (YMF262) If this is the same for every soundblaster, a simple converter board would be sufficient and the (very cheap) PC card can remain in original state. Ofcoarse the converter has to be cheap as well, but if only some inverters and gates are needed it will be a very easy to make PCB and maybe even more Soundblasters with different chipsets will work.

I just tried to find on which addresses the Soundblaster registers are located. Maybe the easiest way is to investigate such a card you have, with a known chip and try to find for which addresses the CS is active. If i understand this right:

http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article443.asp

I/O &H228 should be &HC0 and &H229=&HC1 for Moonsound, but we have YMF278 instead of YMF262. &H388=&HC0, &H389=&HC1 for MSX audio, this will probably work. There is also spoken about a mixer, i guess there should be executed a small program also to initialize this before hearing something... If i have some time (finishing MP3 player and another project) i would like to make a converter, íf this works, it can be very simple. Anyway if i find an old card i will buy it for an experiment.

A friend of mine (Arjan Arends) owns a early prototype of our beloved moonsound with an OPL3 chip on board instead of an OPL4. I think it was complete with scheme. I could ask him for information about this device. It works, but like Wolf stated, no software is available. And that's the most important thing. Remember the LPE Z380?

Just FYI before no one understands this anymore, I need to point to some Dunglish:

print plate -> (printed) circuit board (PCB)
scheme -> (circuit) diagram

By the way, there is software for the OPL3: MBFM

dung!

but hmm yeah, can these chips be obtained separately ? or does it mean buying old soundblaster or opl3 soundcarts,
and desoldering the chips ?