A while back, the Mockingboard design was duplicated so that new boards
could be made. A couple of different PDFs of the schematic are on the ReactiveMicro wiki.
If I had to guess, they were most likely done with EAGLE...it's hard to tell for certain as only the gerbers and PDF schematic were posted AFAICT. I figured it'd be a good idea to liberate the contents within by bringing them into an open-source ECAD system, so I'm redoing the work in KiCad:
https://gitlab.com/salfter/mockingboard
So far, the schematic is complete. The PCB is a work-in-progress. I
believe the schematic is an accurate recreation of the original, though with some different choices made. In particular, the buses that connect components in the original are replaced with global labels, and I've tried
to arrange things so that signals mostly flow from left to right. In particular, I believe the analog circuitry is easier to grok in my version...but maybe that's just me. I also made sure the post-production changes recommended in the videos linked at the ReactiveMicro wiki are in place (specifically, the changes related to mixing in the Apple II speaker audio and enabling one speech-synth chip to drive both channels).
It's possible I've made some mistakes. If anybody would care to take a look at the schematic and see if it looks reasonable, I'd appreciate it. I anticipate this effort might make possible new remixes of the Mockingboard, or at least it'll make an editable version of the design available.
Scott, there is an annoying flaw in the original design: RESET doesn’t reset the Mockingboard
I published a 1-page article on this mod in Call-A.P.P.L.E. In the 12/1983 issue.
Scott, there is an annoying flaw in the original design: RESET doesn’t reset the Mockingboard—if it’s making a sound and you reset the Apple, it continues making an unchanging, and quickly annoying, sound. The coping mechanism is to cycle power, but it’s much better to simply obey the machine reset.
Michael J. Mahon <mjmahon@aol.com> wrote:
Scott, there is an annoying flaw in the original design: RESET doesn’t
reset the Mockingboard—if it’s making a sound and you reset the Apple, it
continues making an unchanging, and quickly annoying, sound. The coping
mechanism is to cycle power, but it’s much better to simply obey the
machine reset.
That was addressed in the version produced by ReactiveMicro, and is present here as well...look up D1 and D2 in the schematic. /RESET from the Apple II bus is connected through the diodes to the /RESET pins on the AY-3-8913s.
I've added a PDF of the schematic to the repository for the benefit of those who might not have KiCad installed:
https://gitlab.com/salfter/mockingboard/-/raw/master/Mockingboard.pdf
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