AY38910 controlled by Arduino

Basic connections

The whole idea of this project, is to make a mini synth based on this chip, the following is the schematics of all the connections. I used a TTL Crystal Oscillator of 2Mhz to provide the needed clock of the chip, and a 595 to reduce the number of the DATA pins needed for the registry address and data input to generate sounds/envelopes/noise etc.

READ THE UPDATES at the bottom, the BC2 must be connected to 5V instead of arduino pin, since it must be always HIGH.

Please note that the direction of each component, the 595 is fliped for a more easy connection between the AY38910 databuse an its shifted data outs!

Here some code to test that works, it has a a song played thru an array, then a "loop" with some arps like sounds, and finally some noise sounds.

//YM38910

////Pin connected to Data in (DS) of 74HC595
const int dataPin = 5;
//Pin connected to latch pin (ST_CP) of 74HC595
const int latchPin = 6;
//Pin connected to clock pin (SH_CP) of 74HC595
const int clockPin = 7;

const int pinBC1 =  10;     
const int pinBCDIR =  12;

int tp[] = {//Frequencies related to MIDI note numbers
  15289, 14431, 13621, 12856, 12135, 11454, 10811, 10204,//0-o7
  9631, 9091, 8581, 8099, 7645, 7215, 6810, 6428,//8-15
  6067, 5727, 5405, 5102, 4816, 4545, 4290, 4050,//16-23
  3822, 3608, 3405, 3214, 3034, 2863, 2703, 2551,//24-31
  2408, 2273, 2145, 2025, 1911, 1804, 1703, 1607,//32-39
  1517, 1432, 1351, 1276, 1204, 1136, 1073, 1012,//40-47
  956, 902, 851, 804, 758, 716, 676, 638,//48-55
  602, 568, 536, 506, 478, 451, 426, 402,//56-63
  379, 358, 338, 319, 301, 284, 268, 253,//64-71
  239, 225, 213, 201, 190, 179, 169, 159,//72-79
  150, 142, 134, 127, 119, 113, 106, 100,//80-87
  95, 89, 84, 80, 75, 71, 67, 63,//88-95
  60, 56, 53, 50, 47, 45, 42, 40,//96-103
  38, 36, 34, 32, 30, 28, 27, 25,//104-111
  24, 22, 21, 20, 19, 18, 17, 16,//112-119
  15, 14, 13, 13, 12, 11, 11, 10,//120-127
  0//off
};

int song[][2] ={
{60,500},
{62,500},
{64,500},
{65,500},
{64,500},
{62,500},
{60,500},
{128,500},
{64,500},
{65,500},
{67,500},
{69,500},
{67,500},
{65,500},
{64,500},
{128,500},  
{60,500},
{128,500},
{60,500},
{128,500},
{60,500},
{128,500},
{60,500},
{128,500},  
{60,128},
{128,128},
{60,128},
{128,128},
{62,128},
{128,128},
{62,128},
{128,128},
{64,128},
{128,128},
{64,128},
{128,128},
{65,128},
{128,128},
{65,128},
{128,128},
{64,250},
{128,250},
{62,250},
{128,250},
{60,250},
{128,1000}  
};


void setup(){

    //init pins
    pinMode(latchPin, OUTPUT);
    pinMode(dataPin, OUTPUT);  
    pinMode(clockPin, OUTPUT);
    pinMode(pinBC1, OUTPUT);
    pinMode(pinBCDIR, OUTPUT);        


    // Initialize the mixer of the AY

    write_data(0x06, 0x00);
    write_data(0x07, 0x3e);
    write_data(0x08, 0x0f);
}

void set_chA(int i)
{
  write_data(0x00, tp[i]&0xff);
  write_data(0x01, (tp[i] >> 8)&0x0f);    
}

void set_chB(int i)
{
  write_data(0x02, tp[i]&0xff);
  write_data(0x03, (tp[i] >> 8)&0x0f);
}

void mode_latch(){
    digitalWrite(pinBC1, HIGH);
    digitalWrite(pinBCDIR, HIGH);
}

void mode_write(){
    digitalWrite(pinBC1, LOW);
    digitalWrite(pinBCDIR, HIGH);
}

void mode_inactive(){
    digitalWrite(pinBC1, LOW);
    digitalWrite(pinBCDIR, LOW);    
}

void write_data(unsigned char address, unsigned char data)
{  
  //we "clean" all previous sent data
  mode_inactive();  

  //indicates will start a new transmission
  digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);

  // send the ADDRESS bits of the AY register
  shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, address);  

  //take the latch pin high so the data is written.
  digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);

  //and finish the write
  mode_latch();  

  //we latch off, to indicate to AY that the ADDRESS transmission is over
  mode_inactive();


  //write data
  mode_write();  

 // we start the data transmission
  digitalWrite(latchPin, LOW);

  // shift out the DATA bits:
  shiftOut(dataPin, clockPin, MSBFIRST, data);  

  //take the latch pin high so the DATA is written into the register
  digitalWrite(latchPin, HIGH);

  //we latch off, to indicate to AY that the data transmission is over
  mode_inactive();  
}

void loop() {

  //This is test song converted to array, thanks to Alan!

  for(int i=0;i< 47;i++){
     set_chA(song[i][0]);
     delay(song[i][1]);   
  }

 /* 
  //Another tune

  for(int i=0;i<8;i++){
   set_chA(48);
   delay(100);
   set_chA(60);   
   delay(100);
  }  

  for(int i=0;i<4;i++){
   set_chA(53);
   delay(100);
   set_chA(65);
   delay(100);
  }

  for(int i=0;i<4;i++){
   set_chA(55);
   delay(100);
   set_chA(67);
   delay(100);
  }

  //Gunshot like sound KICK 
  write_data(0x06, 0x11);
  write_data(0x07, 0x07);
  write_data(0x08, 0x10);
  write_data(0x09, 0x10);
  write_data(0x0a, 0x10);
  write_data(0x0c, 0x10);
  write_data(0x0d, 0x00);
  delay(500);  

  write_data(0x06, 0x00);
  write_data(0x07, 0x07);
  write_data(0x08, 0x10);
  write_data(0x09, 0x10);
  write_data(0x0a, 0x10);
  write_data(0x0c, 0x38);
  write_data(0x0d, 0x00);
  delay(500);  
*/

}

Some tone channel testing on chanA + Noise testing. Here are some videos of me, playing with this kickstart setup and code:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7U9uktXF3s

Envelope testing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0l6tAst5tqk

Test with pots buttons and LEDS (very important the leds :P) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHx3vPoWzMQ

Credits

Most of the code came, from the example locate here: http://kalshagar.wikispaces.com/Arduino+and+a+YMZ294

Thanks a lot Alan!!

UPDATE 08/2013 thanks to cmpenoob I optimized the code a bit, and removed the BC2 from the code, but IT MUST BE CONNECTED TO 5V in the circuit instead.