Tadaaaaa ♪

volume is low, you can see me in reflection ... I know ... hope you like it anyway.
See also how to generate tunes from MIDI files at MIDI, CSharp and Yamaha chips.

Documentation

Suggested wiring hint here under. The bold pins are the difference between the YMZ294 and the YMZ284. You can wire it otherwise, but if you wire like that my samples will work directly :

"Left side"	"Right side"
/WR : Arduino pin 10 /CS : Arduino pin 11 A0 : Arduino pin 12 VDD : %205v SO : SOund output, to the HP or amp GND : ground M : to the oscillator 4/8 : High is 4MHz, Low is 8 MHz. Mine is connected to Vcc (4Mhz crystal) /IC : can leave floating or connect to VCC	D0 : Arduino pin 2 D1 : Arduino pin 3 ... ... ... ... ... D7 : Arduino pin 9 /TEST : floating or VCC

Things to know

• Beware of short-circuits : the oscillator I got had its case connected to the ground, and one Vcc wire too long was short-circuiting because touching it.
• You need 11 pins to drive it : 8 for data bus, 3 for control (WR, CS, A0)
• Port TEST should be left un-connected
• Port IC (reset) can also be left unconnected (it seems at least)

Note about the oscillator

Since many people asked me, you must use here an oscillator, and not a crystal. Reason is that you must feed your chip with a square signal on just one pin, so no crystal here (unlike what you would have next to your Atmel MCU). Anything that makes a square signal will do the trick, but must be in range 1MHz to 8Mhz.

Documentation

Datasheets

NONE on the net, not even on Yamaha website.
So, by reading the japanese documentation provided by Akizuki, I got it is the same as a YMZ284 (YMZ294 has 2 extra pins, one for test mode and the other one for choosing the crystal frequency 4/8 MHz). Wiring is the same as YMZ284 therefore.
And to me it looks like also its friend the YM2149. So I put these documentations here :

• ymz284.pdf <- you want this one (in english)
• ym2149.pdf <- FYI (in english)
• ymz294.pdf <- original documentation from Akizukidenshi (in Japanese)

Websites and tutorials

• Wikipedia : no datasheet but you've got an idea of what it does : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Instrument_AY-3-8910

Looks like everything is in japanese...

• YMZ294で楽しむPSG音源 http://hijiri3.s65.xrea.com/sorekore/develop/pic/PIC04_YMZ.htm (cabling details)
• http://homepage2.nifty.com/sampodo/craft/psg.html
• Arduino%20YMZ294で音をならしてみる http://d.hatena.ne.jp/kazuya_a/20090625/1245926938 (sample code working 100% fine!)
• http://web.mac.com/kuwatay/morecat_lab./USB-PSG.html
• This guy is a genius http://www.linusakesson.net/hardware/chiptune.php
• Wow a PSG shield ! Nice! http://shield.io/psg
• Hey some guy used my stuff : happy (^。^)v http://blog.goo.ne.jp/jj1wkn/e/9b90832d25e8c5651572dd3ebbcceea8

Midi music

• Final Fantasy
  • http://www.thefinalfantasy.com/downloads/midi/
  • http://www.midishack.net/ffmidi.htm
• Super mario
  • http://www.mariopiano.com/

Code

• My "library", just a .h file with all you need to pilot it, and a sample program on my GitHub.
  • Wire it and you get Final Fantasy IV music !
• Other inspirations and precious help : YMZ294_Test.pde Directly taken from the link here above , no change at all and worked just fine.

See also how to generate tunes from MIDI files at MIDI, CSharp and Yamaha chips.

Shopping

• ヤマハ音源ＩＣ（ＹＭＺ２９４）(includes a 4MHz oscillator) for 500 ¥ http://akizukidenshi.com/catalog/g/gI-00181/