Re: [Openvortex-dev] Vortex 2 "SQ2500 Gold" Impressions. (SPDIF Hack Info Too)

[Manuel Jander]

Hi Zach,

Thats very useful. I can tell based on your info that the OEM Aureal
Vortex 2 (Digital Research ?), which has a 20pin header, has the pin 81
(SPDIF) located on the header pin 10. I couldn't find out where pin 70
goes on my OEM card.

SMD Capacitors only in very rare case have a value printed on them, but
labels like 103 are very common to resistors. 103 would be 10Kohm. A
rather high value for power supply (too low current). Does your
"special" card have a RCA SPDIF or a optical transmitter module ?

The AU8830 and AU8810 have direct SPDIF output. No encoding is
necessary, only some buffers (74HC04 or similar) to protect the Aureal
chip, and provide more current.

About the codec, do you get the SDAC Detected message on "dmesg" ? Are
you able to et playback on all 4 channels ?

Best Regards

Manuel


On Tue, 2003-10-28 at 21:48, Zach Borgerding wrote:
> I ordered this card from Computergeeks last week, and eagerly awaited its 
> arrival.
> 
> http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=AU883
> 
> Now, I'm not trying to do some normal "review" of a card.  There's something 
> special about this peice of junk.
> 
> First of all I'll get to some of the card's details...  Sound quality was 
> actually pretty good for a $7.00 USD card.  Build quality is pretty bad.  
> This is the cheapest peice of junk card I've ever had, aside from some ALS100 
> card that I got for free in '97.  The PCB is so thin and poorly built.  It's 
> mis-shapen in many ways.  It's not noticable to the human eye too much, but 
> the PCI slot can tell.  As a matter of fact, it was really difficult to get 
> the board seated in the PCI slot just right.  Once you had it set, you 
> couldn't move it much without it making the card fail.  Once I finally got 
> the card in the slot just right, I was able to get it to boot.  The AU8830 
> ALSA module worked just fine...  Until I touched the jack in the back of the 
> soundcard (which caused the card to move too much in the slot).
> 
> I was surprised to see that the mixer wasn't a SigmaTel chip like I've seen 
> on most Vortex 2 cards.  It's a TriTech TR28028.  It worked fine, and there 
> was rear channel support, but there was no "3D" capability in the mixer, so I 
> couldn't apply any effects like I can with the Montego II.
> 
> I had to pull the card because it was too unreliable.  My *real* SQ2500 
> arrives this week.  But there is something that is really special about this 
> card...
> 
> Its board is so sparse that I can literally trace each and every connecter 
> back to the AU8830.  Manuel asked if it was possible to trace the connections 
> back to the chip.  With this card, it is (but input will be tougher to track 
> down, but it is possible).  I've already traced SPDIF back to the chip, and 
> plan to test it this weekend.  It traces directly back to pin 81 on the image 
> below.  
> 
> http://zborgerd.freeshell.org/vortex_spdif.png
> 
> Also, it would seem that this SPDIF out connector draws +5V through pin 70.  
> It goes through a component as well (labeled "103".  I think it is a 0.01 uf 
> ceramic chip capacitor).  I'll test it and see what I come up with.
> 
> I'll try to pull SPDIF directly off of the chip this weekend.  I need to get 
> some SPDIF speakers first though.  Then, I'll try to track down SPDIF *input* 
> (assuming it exists).  So, I don't have input discovered yet, but I'll try to 
> find it.  At the very least, someone may be able to add SPDIF output to their 
> card with this information (if it is worth it).
> 
> If I have to, I'll buy one of those TB add-on boards for the Montego.  Unless 
> the Montego II daughterboard uses some other SPDIF decoding chips as well, we 
> may be in luck.
> 
> 
> Zach