VMW Raspberry Pi AY-3-8910 Chiptune FAQ

This is cool! Can I buy one?

Sadly, no. I did this as a personal project and I really don't have any desire to try to sell them. Especially the i2c cables, I have nightmares of trying to get that cable to crimp correctly, I can't imagine making more or them.

I do provide the plans, directions, and gerber files if you want to try to make one yourself. The PCBs are shared on OSH Park too.

You might be better off starting from scratch though, as I was designing for fun, not practicality. You could make something a lot smaller and cheaper than what I came up with.
How much did it cost?

Too much. Well not really. Including the cost of the Pi, around $300 or so on average.

That's the average cost if you were making 9 of them. If you just want to make one it's going to be a bit pricier, especially as I used some gratuitously large circuit boards (which add up at PCB fabs where you get 3 copies of each).
Why bother with actual hardware? Can't the Pi just emulate an AY-3-8910 in real time?

Yes, although the Pi is a bit limited in its sound output fidelity.

I started this project because I wanted to learn how to make AY-3-8910 music for the old Apple II Mockingboard card which also has dual AY-3-8910s. Having a Pi setup makes development/testing a bit easier. And anyway it's always more fun to do things with actual old hardware rather than emulation.
What's your favorite chiptune?

I've found a lot of good ones, but my favorite is still the one that I thought was cool enough to sit down and design this thing, which is ``INTRO2.YM'' by Aleksy Lutsenko.
Do you write your own chiptunes?

Sadly I'm not musical enough to write anything good.

I have written a custom tracker and I've been transcribing songs from sheet music which can be interesting.
Why is your PCB layout so ugly?

I don't have enough practice, though hopefully I'm improving.

I was trying out non-90° angles this time around, though not sure it bought me anything.

Also did a ground fill which did seem to work. The breadboard version had a lot of background hum, especially when the i2c displays were busy.
Why are your diagrams in the manual so awful?

Because I make them with xfig.

Even worse, I make them with xfig on a laptop, and to middle click to end lines I have to three-finger click the touchpad and that's nearly impossible.
Who's that angry looking fellow on the circuit board?

That's Talbot Fantasy Vince.
Why don't you credit the authors of all the chiptunes you play?

I'd like to. However a lot of them I found in a big zip file of ym5 files online and it's hard trying to map these back to the original author (the conversion utilities people use often seem to wipe the metadata).
Do you hand code your web-pages with a text editor?

Yes. I use nano. I've been making web pages this way since 1996 and see no reason to change now.

Back to Pi Chiptune Page