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- ADDING AN EXTRA SID 6581 CHIP
- by: Charlie Young
-
- Adding an extra SID chip adds 3 voices for a total of 6, and allows
- you to play stereo SIDs.
-
- Some of this information is from the author of Stereo SID Player,
- Mark A. Dickenson.
-
- I added a second chip to my C64c following Mark's instructions and a C64
- schematic. One of the chips that Mark referred to does not exist in my
- computer. This updated set of instructions should work for any C64,
- C64c, or C128 computer.
-
- This is not a project to be tackled by the squeamish or people who are
- afraid of opening their computer just to take a peek inside. [If you were
- one of them, you would buy the stereo cartridge from CMD]. However, the
- instructions are fairly simple. If you mess something up, it will probably
- be the sound chip. Hopefully the rest of the computer would not be
- affected.
-
- No liability is assumed with respect to the use of the following information.
- YOU DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!
-
- OVERVIEW
-
- You will piggyback a second SID chip to the original. All data, address, and
- power pins will be soldered to the original chip. Several other pins will
- not be soldered to the original, so pay attention to the instructions.
-
- You will build a simple audio amplifier on a small piece of perf board.
-
- Please read through the instruction before starting construction.
-
- PARTS
-
- 1 - 6581 SID chip
- 1 - 2N2222 transistor
- 2 - 2,200pf capacitors
- 2 - 1k ohm 1/4 watt resistors
- 1 - .001 uf capacitor
- 1 - 10k ohm 1/4 watt resistor
- 1 - 10 uf electrolytic capacitor
- 1 - small DPST switch
- - insulated hookup wire
- - shielded audio cable
- - silicon heat sink grease
- 2 - chassis mount female RCA plug (like you find on the back of your
- stereo).
-
- HOW TO DO IT
-
- Print these instructions, and check off each step as you do it.
-
- Disconnect the power supply. Take the computer case apart. Remove the
- keyboard. Take off the top shield. You do not have to remove the main
- board. If you connect the power supply to check voltages, disconnect it
- before doing any soldering.
-
- You should ground yourself with a static guard wristband (available at Radio
- Shack sells). Even though the chip is quite durable, just the right static
- discharge can ruin all or part of the SID chip.
-
- Page 1 Add 2nd SID
-
- Note which way the original SID chip is installed. The notch probably faces
- the back of the computer.
-
- Remove the original chip. Pull it straight up using a chip puller or pry
- with a small screwdriver at both ends. Put the second chip in the socket
- and try it out. You will have to reinstall the keyboard to do this,
- but you do not have to put the case back together. If you bought the
- chip from Grapevine, it may be bad -- especially if it has pins missing.
-
- If the second chip is good, then you are ready to begin piggybacking.
-
- Here is a short explanation of the way pins are numbered on an IC chip. On
- one end of the IC you should find a little notch. Looking at the chip with
- the notch at the top the numbering goes this way. The upper left corner of
- the chip is pin 1 and they are numbered consecutively, counter-clockwise
- around the chip. Some chips do not have a notch in one end, but instead a
- dot is placed in one of the chip corners to designate that pin 1 starts in
- that location.
-
- notch
- ----,,----
- 1-!. !-8
- 2-! dot !-7
- 3-! !-6
- 4-! !-5
- ----------
-
- First bend out pins 23, 24 and 26 and cut them off of the 6581 SID chip.
- These are for the two analog (paddles) and one audio input lines. They will
- cause problems if connected and since they will not be used it is best to
- remove them.
-
- Now bend out pins 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 27.
-
- If you want things to run cool, you can make a heat sink.
- Find a thin narrow strip of metal that is longer and narrower than
- the SID chip. Cover the top of the original chip with a thin layer of
- heat sink grease. Lay the strip on top of the original chip.
- You might fasten it with a small spot of glue to make sure
- that it does not move and short the pins later. Now smear the bottom of the
- second chip with a thin layer of heat sink grease. Make sure the notches
- face the same way, and make the sandwich. Bend the heat sink strip over the
- end and top of the top chip. You will want this strip to touch the top
- shield when you replace it.
-
- Prepare to solder. You will be soldering some pins of the top chip to the
- bottom chip.
-
- Solder one of the 2,200pf capacitors to pins 1 and 2 then solder the other
- 2,200pf capacitor to pins 3 and 4. The capacitors control the cut off
- frequencies of the SID chip. See the C64c filter note at the end
- of this file.
-
- Now solder the remaining pins (excluding the ones we have bent out and also
- removed 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 23, 24, 26 and 27) to the original SID chip. You may
- have to bend the top chip pins inward just a little for them to get a good
- grip on the bottom chip. Be very careful not leave the soldering iron on
- the chip TOO long as you could ruin BOTH SID chips.
-
- Now that you have the chips soldered together place the SID chips back in
- the socket.
-
- Page 2 Add 2nd SID
-
- DESELECT SWITCH
-
- Your second SID chip will work without this switch, but some of your
- cartridges may not. You can skip this section and install the switch
- later if needed.
-
- With the switch off, the second chip is invisible to the computer -- the chip
- select pin stays high all the time which keeps the chip from responding to
- any reads or writes. If you turn the switch off while chip 2 is generating
- sound, the sound will continue, but the chip will not respond to any further
- instructions until you turn the switch back on.
-
- Drill a hole and mount the DPST switch in the computer. I used the space
- between the RF modulator and the video/audio DIN connector. An original C64
- has more room above the RF connector, so that may be a good place.
-
- 5V
- Solder a piece of wire to pin 2 of the cassette connector. Looking at the
- back of the computer that is the second pin from the left. You could make
- sure you have the right pin by powering the computer on and checking that pin
- with a meter. Solder the other end to the top terminal of the switch.
-
- Chip Select
- Solder a piece of wire to pin 10 of the cartridge connector. With the
- computer facing you, the connector is at the back right. Pin 10 is the 10th
- pin from the left. You can wrap the wire around the pin that angles from the
- top of the connector to the board. Make sure the wire does not short to pin
- 9 or 11. Solder the other end of the wire to the bottom terminal of the
- switch.
-
- Solder a wire to pin 8 of the second SID chip. Solder the other end to the
- middle terminal of the switch.
-
- Alternative SPST
- You could probably use a SPST switch and a pullup resistor.
-
- Alternative address
- You could use pin 7 on the cartridge connector for address $DE00. You could
- actually have a total of 3 SID chips.
- Chip 2 - $DF00
- Chip 3 - $DE00
- Don't know of any player that addresses 3 chips though.
-
- AUDIO AMP
-
- Mount the two RCA connectors on the back of the computer.
-
- Here is a schematic of the audio output circuit. Construct this on a piece
- of perf board. I put this audio circuit under the keyboard.
-
-
- Page 3 Add 2nd SID
-
-
- Pin 27 on 12volts dc
- SID chip resistor !
- --. 10k ohm !collector
- 27!----.--/!/!/--.-----O 2n2222
- --' ! ! !emitter
- ! ! !
- <resistor ! !
- >1k ! ! +
- <ohm ! :--!]---to RCA
- ! ! ! 10 uf
- ! ! !electrol cap
- ! ! !
- ground--- ! !
- - ! <resistor
- ! >1k
- ! <ohm
- ! !
- ! !
- ! ---ground
- ! -
- !
- === .001 uf
- ! capacitor
- !
- ---ground
- -
-
-
- I ran the 12 VDC in shielded cable to reduce noise. You can get 12 VDC for
- the transistor from pin 28 of the SID chip. It is actually 9 volts in the
- C64c. Use the shield to connect ground from the computer to the perf board.
- Put some spaghetti (empty insulation) over the bare shield wire so that it
- will not short out anything it touches.
-
- Solder the ground wire from the RCA plugs to the main grounding strip
- between the serial and video ports.
-
- Use shielded audio cable to connect the right channel center wire from the
- center pin of the RCA connector to the negative side of the 10uf
- electrolytic capacitor on the perf board that you constructed.
-
- Connect the shield to the ground tab of the RCA connector. At the perf board
- end leave the shield disconnected. Cut the shield off close to the wire,
- and wrap tape around any bit of shield wire sticking out. This floating
- shield method keeps current from flowing through the shield and causing
- noise in the audio. (The shield of the wire carrying 12 volts must be
- connected on both ends).
-
- Connect the left channel center wire to pin 3 of the audio/video connector.
- If you mounted the RCA connector close to the audio/video connector, you do
- not have to use shielded cable for this connection.
-
- Here is how to identify pin 3 of the audio/video connector. Use an ohm
- meter to find the pin that connects to the negative side of the 10 uf
- capacitor that is close to the original sound amp (a transistor close
- to the SID chip).
-
- If you need any help constructing this circuit, check out any of the many
- books that have schematics on the C-64. This is an exact duplicate of the
- one already inside the C-64 with the exception that a slightly different
- transistor is used. The additional transistor has the traditional EBC
- configuration, whereas the transistor in the computer does not.
-
- Page 4 Add 2nd SID
-
- Bend the tab on the top shield so that it lays flat on top of the heat sink
- strip that you added. Reassemble the computer.
-
- Connect a stereo cable from the RCA connectors to unused inputs on your
- stereo, or connect to amplified speakers (amps in the speakers).
-
- TESTING BOTH CHIPS
-
- Find a basic program that uses the SID starting address as a variable.
-
- ADDRESS
-
- The address of the second chip is $DF00 hex 57088 decimal. The address of
- the original chip is $D500 hex 54528 decimal. Any basic program that uses
- the SID starting address as a variable, can be easily changed to access the
- second chip. Example:
-
- 10 s=54528
- Change to:
- 10 s=57088
-
- Try running the program with the variable set to the original value. You
- should hear sound from the left speaker and TV or monitor. Normally you will
- want to turn your TV volume down and listen just from the stereo since you
- get better sound that way.
-
- Then run the program with the variable set to the new value. You should
- hear the identical sound from the right speaker only.
-
- USING STEREO SID PLAYER 10.3
-
- Stereo SID Player does not check to see if you have a second SID chip. You
- have to go to the second menu and change NORMAL to STEREO. Also make sure
- that the address for the second chip is set to $DF00 (if you used pin
- 10 on the cartridge connector for chip select). Save the setup on disk.
- The next time you load Stereo SID, it should remember the change you
- made -- you do not have to change the menu every time you load Stereo
- SID Player.
-
- Enjoy the world of 6 voice stereo sound. :)
-
-
- C64c NOTE:
-
- Does this sound familiar? You had some neat games and SIDs that ran fine on
- your old C64, but when you upgraded to a C64c, you were missing some sounds
- or voices? You probably thought that there was something wrong with the SID
- chip in your C64c. Nope. Commodore built the C64c computers with 470pf
- capacitors in the SID filter circuits. This causes any voice with the high
- filter turned on to be inaudible. That is why certain games and SIDs sound
- fine on an old C64 or C128, but don't play on a C64c.
-
- While you have the computer open you could replace the original capacitors
- with the correct value. Alternatively use a SID edit program to turn off
- the filters on all voices that will play on the original SID chip.
-
-
- Page 5 END Add 2nd SID
-
-
-