Sidekick64 + Sidkick Pico on Commodore 64

[retroshire]

My C64 has a Sidkick Pico installed. Works great. I also have a Sidekick64 works also great. Problem: the two of them won't work together.

I connected the Sid CS wire on the Sidekick64 to the external Sid CS pin on the Sidkick Pico. But Sidekick64 keeps telling me there is no wire connected. I selected in the Sidkick Pro setup menu the adres External CS for sid #2, but it does not work. Is there a conflict between the two?

How to connect it correctly, so I can play 2SID files via SKTP network/Sidekick64 and the Sidekick64 wil recognize the Sidkick Pico?

[hpingel]

If the SIDKick Pico is supposed to take over the playback of the 2sid music (audio output comes out of the SIDKick pico) then it is not required to enable SID emulation in Sidekick64 (where the sound would come out of the Raspberry Pi). As a consequence the wire between Sidekick64 and the SID socket is also not mandatory.

Only the config tool of the SIDKick Pico should be used to activate the 2nd SID at the desired address.

[retroshire]

Is the other way around possible: let the Sidkick Pico only produce the primary SID (2nd Sid: none) and the Sidekick64 produce the Sid#2 at the given adres? Then the Sid CS is needed?

What is the most common configuration with these two devices?

[hpingel]

The described setup sounds very academic as both SID emulatuions offer dual SID support and from a convenience perspective you can listen to 2sid tunes either with SIDKick Pico or with Sidekick64 SID emulation. Having said that, you could probably achieve what you described (one SID each) but it will be a hassle to configure and you have to mix the audio signals (if you don't want double mono). And you need the wire from SK64 to the SID socket.

If you are looking for a way to team the two devices up to give you more value I would say:

Sidekick64 can't emulate cartridges while its SID emulation is active. So if you have dual SID content on a cartridge (file) and want Sidekick64 to emulate the cartridge, the job of sound output has to be with the SKPico.

Sidekick64 has an 8SID emulation mode to play back Tuneful 8 music demo which can't be played via SIDkick Pico.