YM2149 Sound Card for RC2014 Retro Computer

Name: YM2149 Sound Card for RC2014 Retro Computer
SKU: 13659
Price: 19.82 USD
Availability: InStock
Rating: 4.83 (13 reviews)

(13 Reviews)

Add 3 channel 8 bit sound to your Z80 based retro computer

Sold By RFC2795 Ltd

YM2149 Sound Card for RC2014 Retro Computer 1

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YM2149 Sound Card for RC2014 Retro Computer 5

2020-08-01T16:14:04.292Z-AY8912 Adapter.jpg

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Add 3 channel 8 bit sound to your Z80 based retro computer

What is RC2014? RC2014 is a simple 8 bit Z80 based modular computer. It is inspired by the home built computers of the late 70s and computer revolution of the early 80s. It is not a clone of anything…

What is RC2014?

RC2014 is a simple 8 bit Z80 based modular computer. It is inspired by the home built computers of the late 70s and computer revolution of the early 80s. It is not a clone of anything specific, but there are suggestions of the ZX81, UK101, S100, Superboard II and Apple I in here. It nominally has 8K ROM, 32K RAM, runs at 7.3728MHz and communicates over serial at 115,200 baud.

As a bare minimum, you will need a CPU, ROM, RAM, Clock and Input/Output module. The RC2014 is designed in such a way that you can build your own modules to expand it. As such, if you have access to similar components, or have specific needs, you might not need all the items I have on offer.

What is this module?

This module allows you to add 8 bit chip tunes to your RC2014. It is based around the YM2149 / AY-3-8910 3 channel sound chip as used in the ZX Spectrum 128, Atari ST, MSX and other classic computers and consoles.

Stereo Line out, with golden ratio mixer. If you only want mono, jumpers can be used in place of the mixing resistors.
Header for the 2 8-bit I/O ports. These could be used for reading from joysticks, additional serial ports, LED indicators etc.
Either YM2149F and AY-3-8910 ICs may be used
Jumperable to the same IO port as the ZX Spectrum AY, making it easier to play ripped Spectrum music.
Compatible with all RC2014 models
Divides the RC2014 clock by 2 or 4 using flip flops to bring it under the 2Mhz max clock speed of the AY.
Additionally supports enabling the YM2149F's internal clock divider. This means that bus speeds up to 16Mhz could be supported without overclocking the chip. (AY does not have this feature)
Simple to program from BASIC, or assembly code. PT3 player available for CP/M and as an option within RomWBW.

Note the the YM and AY chips are both end of life. eBay often has these available, which are either pulled from old hardware or Chinese clones. Because of this, I will only supply this module without the YM/AY chip, and you will have to source this yourself. This article is useful when looking for a chip to go in this module

Is this compatible with the Minstrel 4th from Tynemouth Software?

Yes, this will plug in to the RC2014 Expansion header on the Minstrel 4th. George Beckett has details of the settings you need and a sample FORTH program on GitHub.

Where have I seen this before?

This product was designed by Ed Brindley and was previously available on Tindie here; https://www.tindie.com/products/edbrindley/ymay-sound-card-pcb-for-the-rc2014-computer/ Whilst Ed is no longer able to supply this board himself, I am pleased to be able to offer it for sale alongside the other RC2014 products with a small payment going to Ed for each board sold.

Optional AY-3-8912 Adapter.

The AY-3-8912 is a cost reduced version of the AY-3-8910 which only features one 8 bit I/O port. If you have one of these and no AY-3-8910 or YM2149F, then an adapter is available here, or can be ordered as an option in place of the 40 pin socket.

What do I get?

Standard Kit This includes all the components to build the YM2149 Module, including PCB, all sockets, headers, passive components and all chips excluding YM2149/AY-3-8910
8912 Option Kit This includes all the components to included in the Standard Kit, but has the AY-3-8912 adapter PCB and 28 pin socket supplied in place of the 40 pin socket. excludes AY-3-8912
PCB Only Just the bare PCB

RC2014 is a trademark of RFC2795 Ltd.

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Products are normally shipped next working day, however during busy periods this may extend slightly.

Tracked or Tracked & Signed options are available to most locations. This may not get your kit to you any quicker, but it adds peace of mind that you know where it has got to.

It is your responsibility to pay any import duty or other taxes where appropriate.

Important note for European Union customers Tindie is unable to comply with new EU tax regulations, so unfortunately I am no longer shipping to the EU via Tindie, but do sell them through a website which is does handle the VAT and tax payments.

Review Breakdown

Average Ratings

Product: (5.00)

Documentation: (4.54)

Shipping: (4.92)

Communication: (4.85)

Pearson | May 15, 2024

Great sound card for rc2014/rcbus

Tested and works great with both:
- rc2014 Mini with CP/M upgrade
- Small Computer SC791

Would definitely recommend! Works great with tons of PT2/3 and MYM files!

Lee | April 29, 2023

Love this card

Can't beat sound on a micro. Lovely looking card and great audio. Used on both my Rc2014 Pro and sc126 z180.

Ricky | April 5, 2023

Great quality sound card!

This sound card was easy to assemble, and the YM2149 was easy to obtain. The ROMWBW images come with a tune player (tune.com), and some sample tunes to get you started.

Pavel | Sept. 27, 2021

Very good product.

Card is using in my SC126 CP/M computer with only one change - as clock I use 7.3728 MHz from ACIA 68B50 via unused USER1 pin of RC2014. Building a using of this kit without any problem!

Aleksandr Vladimirovich | July 24, 2021

Nice set.

Fast shipping. Simple assembly. I ordered the YM2149 chip on Aliexpress. I set the jumper as in the screenshot.
TUNE.COM and music files upload to RC2014 through XM.COM and minicom.

David | May 12, 2021

YM2149 Sound - Brilliant

I built my RC2014 Pro kit and went on to upgraded it to the RomWBW V3.1 to develop my skills further. There has been some great development work done on the original RC2014 design by other developers that pushes the kit to new levels. You can add further boards such as the Real Time Clock, Sound card, 8bit Input & Output etc all available on Spencer's store.
I decided that I wanted to try and do my own ROM using a TL866II Pro eprom programmer. If successful, move on to start building my own ROM files using the Small Computer Workshop, although that may be a little way off just yet but the ROM I programmed worked first time. All those extra additions worked perfectly, giving me an excellent Z80 RomWBW system which displays the date, time etc and plays .PT3 sound files just like the ZX Spectrum.
You do however need to be prepared to do some research as to how these things work which at the end of the day is what this kit is all about. All the kits came with high quality PCB's making soldering a breeze. I have really enjoyed building these kits

George | Jan. 5, 2021

Easy-to-build and fun beginners project

The YM2149 Sound Card lets you boost the sound capabilities of your RC2014 or compatible home-brew computer, to 1980s arcade/ console standards. Build is easy (even for a soldering beginner like me) and instructions walk you through step by step. You can type in a simple test code to make sure everything is in order and then set up a player for a wide range of sound/ music samples available on the Internet. However, if you want to make your own music/ sound effects, then you'll need to do a bit of coding (BASIC/ FORTH/ machine code). I built mine for my Minstrel 4th micro and it works a treat, (once I enabled the sharing of the clock signal on the RC2014 bus).

Alexander | Oct. 13, 2020

Very Nice Kit

I love the quality of these add-on boards for the RC2014. Easy to build and if I had the appropriate sound chip its probably a useful little board.

Ettore | Sept. 30, 2020

Sufficente

Produzione ottima qualità peccato per la mancanza sia del chip più importante ma sopratutto una consegna di 3 card sonore invece di una sola oltre penalizzare il conto penalizza anche la spedizione restituzione e rimborso.

Jean-Michel | Aug. 14, 2020

Excellent

Good way to remind the good old time. Great communication with the seller, great services, great products. Feel free to buy with confidence.

Neil | Aug. 11, 2020

Saved me a lot of work and time.

I was about to start wire-wrapping a prototype board when I learned of the existence of the sound card. I'm using this card with a rather elderly AY3-8910 programmable sound generator chip.

The board is plugged into a backplane extender on a Minstrel 4th RC2014 machine and I've written some simple drivers in Forth to implement "PING" , "EXPLOSION" and "GUNSHOT". Getting the Minstrel to handshake with the GI chip was difficult at first until I realised I'd confused the register-select and data I/O addresses. It's a very satisfying feeling when the sounds appear.

The AY3-8910 chip and the card also provide some extra digital I/Os ( 2 x 8-bit ports ) so this card is very good value. I now have proper, authentic 1980s sound effects rather than just the standard "BEEP" function. The sound generator is semi-autonomous, so it can be generating some repetitive sounds while the host machine is going about its usual business.

I've fed the audio-out from this card to one channel of a stereo speaker, with a speech-synth driving the other channel.

Please note that there a multiple revisions of this board so refer to the appropriate revision of the schematics for jumper settings etc.

Gerald | April 7, 2020

Love this card!

No retro machine of the 'back in the day' is complete without the ability to generate sounds. The kit offers you an option as to which sound generator sub-processor you can use - the Yamaha YM2149 chip is the one I prefer and I get the impression that it's the one that was the primary design target for this card.

If you're reasonably proficient with a soldering iron, it's a very quick and easy build - The documentation is a little 'confused' regarding the version of the board that's being described (jumper references are a little skewed) so don't just follow the schematic - work with the documentation as well; I found some images of completed board that was at the same [latest] build state as the one I'd bought.

I've had an enjoyable 'play' with this card driven by my RC2014 Pro running RomWBW-based CP/M 2.2 and using mbasic to drive the card with appropriate IO commands.

It's possible, especially in concert with the TMS9918 video card, to put your RC2014 into a configuration with direct colour video and sound support for a number of 'retro game' platforms like colecovision, msx and their games (not tried myself - YET!!!)

Ged

Charles | Feb. 4, 2019

Excellent!

My daughter recently built an RC2014 Pro (with a little help from me) and I thought the addition of a bit of audio might be fun. I'm somewhat familiar with AY/YM based cards having designed / produced a Mockingboard clone for the Apple II...

...the kit arrived today (sooner than expected) so I thought I'd solder it up and get it working as a surprise. The well laid out and labeled board made it very easy to assemble - I only had to refer to the docs on github for resistor and IC positioning, and jumpers. The github page is also very well done and usage instructions + links to software well very welcome - it's nice to be able to start playing with the minimum of hassle. I'm also happy to report the card itself functions perfectly with very good sound quality.

Yes, my daughter was very pleased and has spent a good deal of time today downloading and playing .pt3 files between sessions of Zork.

Most certainly a worthwhile purchase for anyone who has a RC2014 and ears. :-)

Many thanks,

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