Sidpod building

[n2hyo]

Hello there, i have build a sidpod on a breadboard and it seems to work but i am not getting any audio output
when i select a song and the click on it, it goes paused another press goes out of pause, i never get any indication
that the song is actually playing and by the way i am using the prebuild image. Does a pal/ntsc sid have any bearing
on ability to be played?

Thank You,
Mike Russell

[Neril]

@n2hyo

I'm not an author / contributor to this project but coincidentally this week I successfully managed to get SIDPod working on my own breadboard. Given your issue was reported last week, maybe I can help.

Just a random punt, but if you're getting a play indication next to your SID files and/or wave forms being shown in the visualiser, I think the issue must lie with your amp / amp wiring, or downstream of that.

Feel free to post a picture / video of your board and tag me and if I see it then I'll compare it to mine while I still have it assembled.

[n2hyo]

Hello Neril, no i never get the wave forms in thew visualizer, i know it will only play psid files which i think i have but may be the problem. I have attached the file i am trying to play maybe you can try it and maybe send me back a sid file you know works on yours.

Thanks Mike
Ashes_to_Ashes.zip

[Neril]

The ashes to ashes entry doesn't show up in the SIDPod list for me after I add the file. I think this is likely because the SIDPod code recognises it as something it can't play. I'm not immediately sure why - it has the PSID header (first 4 bytes), but there's a long and storied history around SID files and versioning I've only scratched the surface of, so it may be a variant of the format it doesn't recognise / can't handle.

I've been getting my .sid files out of HVSC_81-all-of-them.7z from https://www.hvsc.c64.org/downloads
I notice it contains Ashes_to_Ashes.sid under MUSICIANS/L/Linus, and it looks the same as the version you attached (i.e. same file size). A_mouse_me_kitty.sid from the same directory worked for me, though. I've personally been testing with Wizball.sid (Gallway_Martin) and most of Rob Hubbard's work (e.g. The Master of Magic) which work well besides a few volume issues.

It's a long shot, but I initially had problems getting playback to start initially. I tracked it down and wrote a long ramble about it here #9

[n2hyo]

So i loaded that song you mentioned and when i plug the pico into usb port the

sidpod.mp4

screen does this, is this supposed to be playing?

[Neril]

Those lines are what SIDPod displays when it has noticed it is plugged into a PC, so it's emulating a USB flash drive and ready to accept SID files. What you are seeing is the "flashing bars" described at https://github.com/henrikenblom/SIDPod?tab=readme-ov-file#adding-music - reminiscent of a game C64 loading screen.

To get SIDPod into a mode where it will play tunes it needs to be not connected to a PC. This is most easily achieved by taking your USB cable out of your PC and putting it into a spare phone charger or USB battery. The SIDPod will boot up, showing the SIDPod logo like before, but then showing the list of songs you've stored on the device instead of the flashing bars. Playing music is achieved via steps documented at https://github.com/henrikenblom/SIDPod?tab=readme-ov-file#playback

TBH, I thought you'd got this far from your original comment above.