Hi Jon or whomever, I was at my local mens shed and spied a megadrive/genesis that had been hanging around and had the idea of removing the sound chip and trying to make it work and even making it into a synthesizer. Basically I'm asking, how, while im sitting here with the chip in front of me on a breadboard, do i get the thing to work?
Thanks
Tom
I've discovered there is a section on integrated circuits in Electronics All-In-One for Dummies, 2nd Edition
Thanks, I am "not" experienced unfortunately. I've decided to attempt to control it through the arduino and im learning to use one, luckily i can read C language already and am attending a mens shed which has an electronics department so I can get advice, learn electronics and use their equipment. It would be cool to eventually use a more primitive microcontroller once ive made a program that works on the arduino as well and turn it into a stand alone synthesizer.
I found this document but it doesn't mention voltages, maybe because it assumes programming it through the sega? http://www.smspower.org/maxim/Documents/YM2612.
Then theres this page about finding a manual for it which is in Japanese http://gendev.spritesmind.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=386, So its probably not the easiest chip as a first project but i'll persevere.
Is there any books or writing about programming/operating arbitrary chips in general you could recommend that might make it easier for me to understand the documentation?
I'd suggest looking for documentation for the chip. You would need to know what each of the pins are for and what voltage the chip expects. At least these would be the steps I would take for any arbitrary chip. Some of the pins probably need resistors or capacitors. How experienced are you with electronics?