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I contacted Steve as I had some other questions for him and I asked him about this while I was at it.
The following is what he mentioned regarding the noise when his supplied OLED display is swapped out for the larger one in the kit.
From my experience the audio speaker in the IIgs is sensitive to RF and similar interference. For example I can hear a slight background noise when the Floppy Emu is accessing the SD card. The jumbo OLED probably requires more current or causes larger voltage swings on the power supply lines, which somehow get coupled to the speaker inputs and create noise. Part of this is probably a design weakness of the IIgs speaker, if its audio amplifier power and signal inputs aren’t well isolated and filtered. You might see some improvement by using the the shortest practical disk cable, locating the Floppy Emu further away from the IIgs (which I know contradicts the short cable), or looping the disk cable several times through a ferrite ring magnet. It might also help to add an extra large-value capacitor between +5V and GND or +3.3V and GND on the Emu end of the cable, the Emu board, or the jumbo OLED PCB. It will probably need some experimentation. I’ll ask some people from my amateur radio club if they have any other suggestions, since this is a common sort of problem for radios too.
Might be worth trying the ferrite ring idea in the first instance. When I found the old apple ii it had a cable like that with it.
IMG_5265.jpeg
Its something to try anyway.
He was also fine with me posting the pixelshift firmware update here in the forum thread, so I will dig that out and post in this thread as well.
Cheers
Dave
Thanks for the detailed reply Dave. The ferrite ring idea is definitely one to try.I am also going to disconnect the internal speaker and test external speakers on the GS to see if the noise follows to the external speakers.
-- Bruce
The noise follows to the external speakers as well on the GS.
-- Bruce
Just a quick heads up....
Head on over to Big Mess O Wires for an awesome firmware update for the floppy emu.
https://www.bigmessowires.com/2022/11/22/floppy-emu-new-smartport-ui-and-settings-menu/
Steve has done an awesome update that has lots of UI improvements and is looking after all us Jumbo display folks with selectable display types as well.
This takes care of the 2 pixel shift evident on the larger displays. In the past he had made a special firmware to fix it, but now it is rolled into the same firmware.
Sensational !!!
Screen Shot 2022-11-23 at 8.45.17 pm.png
Dave
Also.... has anyone with the sound issue on the iiGS and the large display tried a ferrite ring or two yet?
Did it have any effect?
the new firmware is absolutely stunning! Steve did a great job.
i tried, but it had no effect on the sound issue.
Hi Dave,
Is there a trick to getting the new 2.4" display to work? i.e. Brightness etc. Mine doesn't seem to turn on. I put the old display back on the header and it worked, the new stays dark. I ordered another one off Amazon to try. It will be here Saturday. Everything else works perfectly and was very easy to solder.
I thought I was very careful installing it and soldering the header on it. Is there an easy way to test it outside of the unit?
Thanks,
Jay
Hi Jay,
Can't say I've had that problem. Off the top of my head here are some things to try.
1. Is the cable reversed. plugged in 180 degrees around wrong way?
2. Are you able to check the 7 wire harness with a multimeter. Does each strand have continuity?
3. Do you have an arduino? I Can point you to or send you an arduino sketch to check it.
I'll have a bit more of a think as to what else can be tried.
If it still fails PM me and we can try get it sorted.
Cheers
Dave
Nope the plug is good gnd->gnd etc
I put the old screen on the 7 pin harness and it worked so I am assuming it has continuity.
I do have an arduino. -- several different models.
Thanks,
Jay
After using the emu hack setup long enough to confirm I could select and load disk images and booth them using the Apple Disk ][ controller. I set it aside.
After seeing the new emu firmware update excitement, I decided to download and install it. But during the installation procedure I noticed the Select button was sticking when pushed. As a result I cannot reliably navigate through the emu menus.
Upon investigating the pb sticking problem I found that the bottom push buttons center pretty well in their panel holes but the top ones are slightly off, the Select pb being the worst since it scrapes against the hole in the 10'oclock position. All pb's are perfectly flat against the circuit board, no tilting at all. I haven't seen anyone else mention this so it must be unique to me.
I did state in an earlier post that I thought the hole tolerances in general were way to tight. If I slightly loosen the 4-40 nuts (or whatever they are) holding the switch pcb, the Select button works better but still rubs. When these nuts are snug, the rubbing gets worse.
Had the push button pcb board mounting holes been slight oversized, allowing the pcb to be adjusted for optimal location of the push button caps in their holes this could have been easily resolved.
20221201_150009s.jpg
20221201_150302s.jpg
I am using the green display and after the latest firmware update I see vertical lines on the first two rows of text, shown here. And I should mention that I switched to using the Apple I/O Controller (aka 5.25" Disk Controller) just druing this firmware change. Haven't figured out how to navigate the menus to allow me to designate one disk image for Drive 1 and another for Drive 2. That's the whole reason I changed to the newer controller.
20221201_145028s.jpg
Any suggestions?
Thanks
I dismounted the PB pcb and used a rat-tail file to auger the 4 holes a bit larger (barely perceptable). Then I measured the I.D.'s of the pcb's mounting holes...they were all .105", so I used a .106" drill and augered out the pcb mounting holes by .001". Remounted everything and now all is well, no sticking buttons.
I found the Emu manual and set the display type to 2.4" and the Disk mode to 5.25" Dual Disk and all is well!
I love the emu...but the CFFA is so much easier to use, but I will be using both, together.
Hello,
today I installed a floppy controller from my other Apple II into the IIgs and connected the floppy emu.
Unfortunately, I still have these noise problems. As mentioned above a ferrite core on the floppy cable didn't help either. Due to this interference, it is unfortunately impossible to use the modded floppy emu for a longer period of time without going crazy.
It would be great if someone had an idea of how to solve this problem on the IIgs.
regards clockchip
@clockchip and @bruce1000
Still trying to think of what can be done with the IIGS noise.
I did find similar problems in a thread over at Vintage Computer Federation forums. Not sure what rules are for posting links to other forums.
But googling IIGS noise will bring it up in the first couple of search results. In there is talk about ROM03 being better for noise than Rom01.
I know nothing about the IIGS so I'm not sure what that means. Not solving it but helpful background info.
@Lasermaster
Yeah I did go pretty tight on the clearances with the buttons. I wanted to not be able to see a gap between button and panel. I had assembled and disassembled several times while making it and once a rubbing squeak had developped on one of the buttons. For me taking it apart and putting it back together did the trick but I agree with what you are saying. Another 0.1mm of clearance may not of been a bad idea. Mine is currently working fine with no rubbing or sticking without modding, but your solution is a good one if anyone else gets the same issue.
Edit - I just saw you got the menu stuff sorted, but I already typed it out and will leave it for anyone else. I really need to read things better :)
As far as getting the display to fix the 2mm pixel shift just need to do the following.
Hit select immediately after startup to get settings menu.
Go down to 4th option "Display Type"
Select Jumbo 2.4"(SSD1309)
To get dual disk mode its a similar deal
Hit select immediately after startup to get settings menu.
Go down to 2nd option "Disk Emulation Mode"
Select Apple II Dual 5.25
Restart computer
@JWG1962
An extra thing to check....I was wondering if you can get a photo of the back of the display, particularly R3 R4 and R5.
Those resistors are for configuring between I2c and SPI. Maybe it came from factory incorrectly configured.
I think this is incredibly unlikely and that the display is actually faulty and we can sort that out, but would be good to check. Have PM'd you as well.
Cheers
Dave
I'm sure your push button panel hole sizes could stay as they are if you just enlarged the push button pcb mounting hole diameters by .10mm, maybe a bit less but enough to shift the pcb aroung a bit and get all four buttons to be centered on their holes during tightening of the nuts on the pcb standoffs.
@JWG1962
An extra thing to check....I was wondering if you can get a photo of the back of the display, particularly R3 R4 and R5.
Those resistors are for configuring between I2c and SPI. Maybe it came from factory incorrectly configured.
Hi Dave,
Here is the pic of the back. Note there is a dimple in the plastic on the ribbon cable, but I looked under a microscope and it is superfical. I just put that in there taking it back out of the device.
It looks right. i.e. Only R4 is installed for SPI.
Thanks,
Jay
2.4screen.jpg
Thank you Dave. I was toying with the idea of purchasing a different larger oled, to see if that makes a difference, but I don't think that it will, especially if it uses the same chipset
I read about the Rom03's having much better sound protection circuitry than the Rom0's and Rom01's. The problem for me is that I am using this with a Stealth IIGS, so I need to the keyboard connector to be able to connect the IIe keyboard to the IIGS motherboard.
For now, I just use the standard floppy emu without the Disk II enclosure / larger screen, due to the noise.
Really looking forward to find a way to fix this noise too.
Thanks!
-- Bruce
Stickers? What stickers?
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/925798264/apple-logo-sticker-apple-logo-stickers?ref=sim_items_grid_ad-3&plkey=ee7135ce23db794184cb5c3b98a9a8ecaadd7682%3A925798264
Just sayin'
(5 minutes later... There's dozens of them! Curses on these intertubes!)
I have a whacky suggestion to attemp to isolate the "noise" source. Has anyone created a small "Faraday Cage" out of tin foil and placed it over the disk II enclosure to see if that is the source or the ribbon cable is where the leak is coming from. If it is the Disk II case, you may be able to line it with laminated tin foil to block the RF. Like I said, pretty whacky. :-) LOL!
Might be related, might not be. When I had my Phasor clone in my ROM3, it picked up all kinds of noise from a stock floppy emu. Any time there was drive access, I could hear some noise in the speakers hooked up to the phasor. It may just be the IIgs bus picks up noise easily. Granted nothing from the IIgs speaker that I noticed. Just the Phasor card picked up the access noise. Can't say I've noticed the same with the Phasor in my IIe now.
Thanks Dave - This Kit is freakin' awesome. I finally got it assembled. The only issue I had was the bad display. The ones from Amazon worked perfectly. I posted a picture on them. The only MOD I did was replaced the RED and GREEN LEDs with Blue and Gold ones. I work at the University of Pittsburgh in the IT department and Blue and Gold are the school colors. They are high intensity LEDs that one could most likely see from orbit, but I am not messing with them any more. Everything works as advertised. Thanks to Retro Bill for printing the 3D parts.
I love it and will be hauling it to KansasFest this year. Thanks again.
Well, I guess you can;t see the blue and gold in the picture, so you will just have to take my word for it. Ha Ha :-)
Thanks,
Jay
IMG_4263.JPG
Looks awesome! I need to assemble mine soon. I'll be using a modified Disk 2 faceplate but the results will look much the same.
Nice work.
Thats brilliant Jay. Glad you like it and it all came together in the end with a new display. :)
Blue leds against black background always looks good. Be very cool to see it make an outing at Kansasfest too.
Which reminds me, I need to keep looking at what went on there this year.
Thanks for the kind words on the kit.
Cheers
Dave
Is anyone using a Disk Knocker with their setup? in order to make the drive seem more authentic?
Noisy_Disk.jpg
If only I had some free time to go with those plans ;)
Cheers
Dave
Let me know your findings, Once I added the Noisy Disk Knocker my FEMU goes into a reboot loop. I tried it on another iie and it works fine. Seems that the 2.4" display + the Noisy Disk results in too much power draw for some PSUs. It could also be controller related, I havent tested that yet. If I pull out the 2.4" display and put back the 1.3" display it works fine.
Did someone say what does it look like in a clear case? I added a blue led from a tee off the power line.
IMG_6083.jpg
IMG_6111.jpg
IMG_6091.jpg
That looks pretty wild. :)
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