What may I ask contributes the most to the cost of the device? (Obviously I'm sure the labor involved in creating it is reason enough!)
Hmmm yeah good idea I'll have to think about this. But we have no good logo! So the badge would be kinda boring lol.It would be cute to make a little badge that fits in the front panel like the old contemporary accelerators did.
The costs break down like so:What may I ask contributes the most to the cost of the device? (Obviously I'm sure the labor involved in creating it is reason enough!)
Couldn't help myself...Here's a simple PDF export from MS Word, though I do like the inverted colors for alxlab's version.
We (Garrett’s Workshop) sell our products on eBay and Tindie, so you’ll be able to buy it on there as usual.I am really looking forward to this. What will be the process to order one of these when available?
Thanks for the info. I really like Tindie as an alternative to eBay.We (Garrett’s Workshop) sell our products on eBay and Tindie, so you’ll be able to buy it on there as usual.
Tindie is okay but we actually pay less fees on eBay than on Tindie. Since we sell a good bit, we’ve gotten whatever eBay subscription gets you the reduced fees. We also list our (new manufacture) gizmos in categories like “PC Hardware - RAM” instead of “Vintage Computers - Parts and Accessories.” New stuff categories typically have lower fees. Thus the fee rate ends up being slightly lower on eBay than on Tindie.Thanks for the info. I really like Tindie as an alternative to eBay.
A very kind soul donated an entire SE motherboard with RAM and a SuperMac SpeedCard installed (16MHz 68000 with 68881 FPU!), and I had a chance to test it this evening. Two points of interest...Regarding upclocked 68000s, here's some data of the Speedometer 3.2 performance increase from my FDHD SE's 16Mhz 68000 SuperMac Speedcard vs. stock...
Yes, I would like to implement this. One of my final changes to the WarpSE was to tap the /IPL2 interrupt line which connects to the programmers' switch. This was in pursuit of the goal of eliminating the need for the DIP switch. Therefore I would like to support selection of one of the following options using the two programmer's keys:1. The card can be disabled without opening the Mac
Yes, I think our hardware design addresses this. I wrote the following about the sound issue a few months ago:Sound is distorted when the SpeedCard is enabled
I just have to determine the appropriate speed-limiting factor once I get the accelerator working. The aim is to achieve some MB/sec speed limitation on the sound buffer but the way you set the Sound QoS is not by supplying a MB/sec figure; the speed limiter has a bit of a strange way of measuring bandwidth. The way the current WarpSE firmware does the speed limitation is idiosyncratic to the implementation of the sound QoS block as an extension of the RAM refresh system.We are also going to try and fix the sound issue in hardware... fingers crossed on this because I don't 100% understand it but I think I know enough to address the problem. What I know is that when using more intensive sound generation modes (i.e. four-voice mode), the Sound Manager of the Mac OS is programmed to update the sound buffer at a different point than in the simpler modes. Presumably in the four-voice mode, the point in the sound buffer where the rewriting begins is closer to the current sample being played, the idea being that the samples will take longer to generate and the current audio being played won't be overwritten. So I think what's happening is that with an accelerated CPU, the Sound Manager blasts through updating the sound buffer very quickly and starts overwriting the current samples being played, in essence suddenly "skipping" the playback a little bit. This happens 60 times per second since the Sound Manager updates the sound buffer every frame. So the sound you get is the audio you're supposed to hear but it keeps skipping around 60 times per second, and then because of the skipping around, the samples often line up so as to produce a 60 Hz sound. Of course the Mac's speaker has little bass so you only hear the harmonics of the 60 Hz fundamental frequency. That's what it sounds like to me--the right sound but all broken up and then some other tones superimposed on top. However, I have not really thoroughly analyzed it and I don't even have an accelerated Plus or SE myself. I'm just referring to YouTube videos on the sound issue that I've seen.
So if this is really true then the solution for the sound problem is to slow the CPU way down when writing to the sound buffer, enforcing a maximum MB/sec bandwidth on that area of memory such that the timing of existing sound drivers is the same as before. Unfortunately that basically means that whatever percentage of time is spent on updating the sound buffer will go unaccelerated, but that's okay. I will have to tune the bandwidth limit a bit but I think this is the right way to go. And of course the limit will just apply to the sound buffer RAM areas so as to avoid slowing down the other areas of RAM that are in use the rest of the time when the CPU is doing the program logic and GUI operations and whatnot.
I will try to make time to do that either tonight or tomorrow. I have a Sony D-100 Audio Recorder with a line level 1/8" input jack. It might work with the headphone output of the SE if I reduce the volume very low. I will experiment and see what happens. If the voltage level is low enough to make a recording on my D-100, I can record LPCM at up to 192kHz/24 bit....maybe @JDW you could capture both the correct and distorted audio directly from the Mac's 3.5mm jack. With that higher-quality sound capture, maybe the results of the spectral analysis would be more insightful.
Thanks! Oh also, no need to do the whole 192 kHz / 24 bit. The Mac is only 22 kHz / 8 bit so (according to the well-known Nyquist-Shannon theorem) CD-quality 44.1 kHz (or 48 kHz) / 16 bit will more than suffice. The distortion is a digital artifact after all, not some kind of analog issue where there could be some useful information outside the range of the Mac's sample rate and depth.I will try to make time to do that either tonight or tomorrow. I have a Sony D-100 Audio Recorder with a line level 1/8" input jack. It might work with the headphone output of the SE if I reduce the volume very low. I will experiment and see what happens. If the voltage level is low enough to make a recording on my D-100, I can record LPCM at up to 192kHz/24 bit.
Per your request, I will attempt to record a 48kHz, 16-bit WAV or AIFF (LCPM) file for you tonight or tomorrow using my D-100 recorder.Thanks! Oh also, no need to do the whole 192 kHz / 24 bit. The Mac is only 22 kHz / 8 bit so (according to the well-known Nyquist-Shannon theorem) CD-quality 44.1 kHz (or 48 kHz) / 16 bit will more than suffice. The distortion is a digital artifact after all, not some kind of analog issue where there could be some useful information outside the range of the Mac's sample rate and depth.
The cause of the problem on the "Mac I" series (i.e. 128, 512, Plus, SE) and on the "Mac II" series (II, SE/30, etc.) is at least slightly different because the machines' audio systems work differently.Per your request, I will attempt to record a 48kHz, 16-bit WAV or AIFF (LCPM) file for you tonight or tomorrow using my D-100 recorder.
If you are ultimately able to solve the distorted sound problem, it really would be magical. @Kay K.M.Mods has told me many times about his Carrera040 card with audio problems (Bolle's recreation), which mysteriously only has distorted audio in his SE/30 but not a IIci (if memory serves me correctly). Without good sound, an accelerator has diminished usefulness.
I don't own that Carrera040, so I cannot say for sure. I sent Kay a message, asking him to reply to your question here.Does the issue occur on the SE/30 with Carrera040 if you turn off the '040's caches in order to slow it down?