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Programming the Disney Sound Source

The Disney sound source is very similar to a standard DAC on a parallel port but it requires extra programming effort to send DAC bytes to.

The Disney DAC cannot be reliably auto-detected. Ask the user which LPT port they have it attached to and then look up the BASE_PORT for that LPT port from the BIOS data area (0040:0008..). For a majority of PC's 0x378 is LPT1.

The Disney sound source runs from batteries. To save battery drain you must always turn the sound source on before you use it, and off when you have finished with it.

Turning it on

  1. Send the value 0x04 to BASE_PORT+2

Turning it off

  1. Send the value 0x0C to BASE_PORT+2

Sending a value to the DAC

  1. Send the unsigned DAC value to the BASE_PORT as normal.
  2. Send the value 0x0C to BASE_PORT+2
  3. Send the value 0x04 to BASE_PORT+2

Created: 01 Feb 1995

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