Coleco Adam Help - Half Working

[Dreamstate]

Hi, all.  I have an Adam I am working on and the Colecovision side is working fine.  I can put in a cartridge and get it right up to play.  However, I can't get the Adam side to boot.  It just make a noise with a black screen and even after resetting, it stays that way.  I have to Data Drives, but neither try to do anything.  I am thinking maybe the boot rom on that side is bad since it should at least boot into that typewriter program, right?

 

Any advice would be helpful.  I have pulled and reseated all of the possible chips that are in sockets and I don't see any obvious signs of corrosion.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Captain Cozmos]

1 hour ago, Dreamstate said:

Hi, all.  I have an Adam I am working on and the Colecovision side is working fine.  I can put in a cartridge and get it right up to play.  However, I can't get the Adam side to boot.  It just make a noise with a black screen and even after resetting, it stays that way.  I have to Data Drives, but neither try to do anything.  I am thinking maybe the boot rom on that side is bad since it should at least boot into that typewriter program, right?

 

Any advice would be helpful.  I have pulled and reseated all of the possible chips that are in sockets and I don't see any obvious signs of corrosion.

 

Thanks in advance.

Try unplugging the data drives and see if the system boots.
If so then plug in one drive at a time.
 

If it does not boot then disconnect all devices on the ADAM net.
Disconnect the F-Cable that supplies power to the system then plug it back in.

 

Does the printer go all the way to the left and reset.

If you have the nerve and all else fails then take it apart.
Take pictures with your phone where everything goes.
Disconnect the Coleco board from the ADAM main, use an eraser on the contacts.
Press on all the socketed chips.  Of they click a bit you might have some corrosion.
Some use dioxit, I use an eraser taking care not to bend the chips then put them back in.

No doubt someone will come along and offer to fix it if you can't get it working.

But, what I am gathering is that it does get power, it does play on the Coleco side so it does work but ADAM Net is not cycling or it can even be your power switch needs cleaning.
 

The great thing about the ADAM is that it is one of the most simplest Z80 computers on the planet compared to others but I have been exposed to it for a few years now.

If you have any soldering and understanding some pinout you can make your own power supply for around $25

The best one out there to use is a Mean Well RQ-50-B.  I picked up several when they were $17
They are cheap, they supply the necessary voltages and no doubt so one will come out of the woodwork and try to sell you an ADAM power supply made with one of these for around $150 + shipping + tax.

One individual who made a howto video on youtube for an internal power supply tried to make the claim I stole his idea when I used it in my ADAM.  Actually, all you have to do is google power supplies with the proper voltages and I guess Mean Well stole his idea when they designed the thing.
 

 

Edited December 4, 2022 by Captain Cozmos

[NIAD]

Ouch! The Black Screen with Buzzing sound... I hate that one. Always a good sign that the CV side is working.

 

It's definitely an issue with the ADAM Logic Board in the Memory Console and BITD when we had plenty of replacements, we would just replace the board. Since we don't have that luxury anymore, take the Memory Console apart and clean the heck out of everything using 90%+ isoprophyl alcohol, deoxit, eraser, etc. the SmartWriter and EOS Proms should be removed and reseated in their sockets. Check to make sure that the Silver Ground Band that is part of the video and audio wiring that runs to the back ports in not touching anything. Clean the heck out of the big connector that joins the ADAM and CV boards.

 

There are some of the Coleco ADAM Facebook Group that could offer further help or possibly even repairs.

 

[Dreamstate]

Thanks both of you for the advice.  I have it apart so I'll give it a really good clean with isopropyl.  Are the Proms the one with the heatsinks on them or are they the ones that are four in a line?  I just bought some detoxit and I applied it to the Colecovision slot and some of my carts and that works well to make the port more consistant.  I'll try it on all of the pins since I have it available.  I get a bit nervous using detoxit on the board itself so I'll just use the isopropyl for that.

 

On another note, I already built a new power supply and I have tested all of the inputs both from the power supply and from the wires coming into the system and they look right, so at least power should be good.

 

Also, I did try each of the data drive separately, but they don't do anything.  I still think it is because the system is not really getting to the boot section on the Adam.  Both drives could be bad, but I'd bet if I can get it to boot to Smartwriter, they will start working.

 

Thanks all!

[Captain Cozmos]

44 minutes ago, Dreamstate said:

Thanks both of you for the advice.  I have it apart so I'll give it a really good clean with isopropyl.  Are the Proms the one with the heatsinks on them or are they the ones that are four in a line?  I just bought some detoxit and I applied it to the Colecovision slot and some of my carts and that works well to make the port more consistant.  I'll try it on all of the pins since I have it available.  I get a bit nervous using detoxit on the board itself so I'll just use the isopropyl for that.

 

On another note, I already built a new power supply and I have tested all of the inputs both from the power supply and from the wires coming into the system and they look right, so at least power should be good.

 

Also, I did try each of the data drive separately, but they don't do anything.  I still think it is because the system is not really getting to the boot section on the Adam.  Both drives could be bad, but I'd bet if I can get it to boot to Smartwriter, they will start working.

 

Thanks all!

Proms are in the upper right hand corner facing front to back of the ADAM board.
Chips with Heat sinks on the ADAM board, as far as I can remember, are the 6801's.

Heat Sink on the Colecovsion board was the TMS9928 graphics chip.

Been awhile since I opened my system.

 

 

These are pictures from the ADAM Archive and are not my work.
Credit goes to whomever took them.

 

 

 

Edited December 5, 2022 by Captain Cozmos

[Captain Cozmos]

As a side note, I love my ADAM.  I used my Christmas money and my mother paid the difference back in 1982 to get the Colecovision and Smurf.

I say that so you do not get the wrong impression.
Now knowing the history of this thing you can obviously see why it failed.
In order to cut costs they basically slapped a Colecovision board on top of their expansion module.
Sure they retooled the schematics a bit but essentially that's all it is instead of coming up with a more powerful and integrated design for the ADAM.
Don't get me wrong, you can do a lot with this guy as long as you put in the programing effort but it has way too many quirks to compete with machines that have the same exact specks.

Seriously, Composite out but no sound out?  Then you have a special MIDI connector that does have the sound line.  Now you have two video outs and an RF out.  Neither available on the expansion module without a hack.

Too many issues but you love your kids anyway am I right?

Edited December 5, 2022 by Captain Cozmos

[NIAD]

The U## sockets at the upper right of the ADAM Board are the SmartWRITER and Elementary Operating System (EOS)... in front of the large ribbon connector that connects to the CV board. In older systems, there are 3 SmartWriter PROMS and 1 EOS, but in newer systems there are only 2 SmartWriter PROMS and one open socket. The open socket can be used for a Dallas SmartWatch PROM that will give the ADAM a clock/date stamping when used with the software driver on the www.adamarchive.org... but these clock chips are scarce and even scarcer to find NOS.

 

In the pic above, the silver heatsinks are on the Data Drive 6801 and the MIOC chips.

 

Good Luck!

 

[else]

21 hours ago, NIAD said:

In older systems, there are 3 SmartWriter PROMS and 1 EOS, but in newer systems there are only 2 SmartWriter PROMS and one open socket.

 

 

And this partially shows why the Adam failed.  Instead of working on squashing all the bugs in the word processor asap, Coleco's priority was to cost-reduce it like they did with the Colecovision's Donkey Kong cartridge.

 

On 12/5/2022 at 10:48 AM, Captain Cozmos said:

Seriously, Composite out but no sound out?  Then you have a special MIDI connector that does have the sound line.  Now you have two video outs and an RF out.  Neither available on the expansion module without a hack.

Too many issues but you love your kids anyway am I right?

 

Yep.  And they named both the printer and the word processor SmartWriter -- confusing.  What really bother's me is that the printer's case doesn't match the rest of the components at all.  The printer has all sharp corners, while the console and keyboard are all nicely rounded.  Pretty obvious they were designed on different sides of the pond (from what I understand).  I guess the two design teams didn't talk to each other as much as they should have.

Edited December 6, 2022 by else
remove extra word.

[Captain Cozmos]

"The printer has all sharp corners, while the console and keyboard are all nicely rounded"

 

WOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH  Dude, you are like AMAZING at observation.

 

My mind just collapsed into itself like Facebook....I never made that connection.
 

Edited December 6, 2022 by Captain Cozmos

[Dreamstate]

21 hours ago, NIAD said:

The U## sockets at the upper right of the ADAM Board are the SmartWRITER and Elementary Operating System (EOS)... in front of the large ribbon connector that connects to the CV board. In older systems, there are 3 SmartWriter PROMS and 1 EOS, but in newer systems there are only 2 SmartWriter PROMS and one open socket. The open socket can be used for a Dallas SmartWatch PROM that will give the ADAM a clock/date stamping when used with the software driver on the www.adamarchive.org... but these clock chips are scarce and even scarcer to find NOS.

 

In the pic above, the silver heatsinks are on the Data Drive 6801 and the MIOC chips.

 

Good Luck!

 

Thanks a bunch.  It is hard to find this information clearly defined.  I know those sockets have those thin, brown piece under them (or at least two of them).  Anyone know what those actually do and if they are required under just the Smartwriter chips or are they under them all?  

[Captain Cozmos]

25 minutes ago, Dreamstate said:

Thanks a bunch.  It is hard to find this information clearly defined.  I know those sockets have those thin, brown piece under them (or at least two of them).  Anyone know what those actually do and if they are required under just the Smartwriter chips or are they under them all?  

I am not 100% sure but that mat be a conversion kit so you can use a different type of rom that came after the unit was made.

Anyone else can chime in.  I don't want to mislead.

Edited December 6, 2022 by Captain Cozmos

[NIAD]

1 hour ago, Dreamstate said:

Thanks a bunch.  It is hard to find this information clearly defined.  I know those sockets have those thin, brown piece under them (or at least two of them).  Anyone know what those actually do and if they are required under just the Smartwriter chips or are they under them all?  

Quite a number of years ago, someone on here explained what they were and their purpose, but it has slipped my mind.

 

[adamcon]

36 minutes ago, NIAD said:

Quite a number of years ago, someone on here explained what they were and their purpose, but it has slipped my mind.

 

when ya'll figure it out, let us know NIAD.  I have seen those also and wondered what and why they are there.  I just assumed they altered the or added resistance to some pins they touched.  What do i know?

[Tekman]

19 minutes ago, adamcon said:

when ya'll figure it out, let us know NIAD.  I have seen those also and wondered what and why they are there.  I just assumed they altered the or added resistance to some pins they touched.  What do i know?

They are decoupling capacitors. Coleco obviously need to add some additional capacitance for some reason. Maybe it was to pass some sort of testing early one and then eventually dropped. They can be safely removed and not used.

 

These read .07uF on my tester and my curve tracer definitely shows that it’s a capacitor for sure. I also found a data sheet for a similar version.

 

https://www.farnell.com/datasheets/22715.pdf

[Dreamstate]

Nice.  I am going to try to get everything pulled and cleaned tonight.  I'll leave those off on the first test.  Heck, maybe they are causing an issue.

[Tekman]

1 hour ago, Dreamstate said:

Nice.  I am going to try to get everything pulled and cleaned tonight.  I'll leave those off on the first test.  Heck, maybe they are causing an issue.

Coleco also used cheap single-wipe IC sockets and they're known for intermittent/bad connections with age. The best choice is to always use a dual-wipe socket for everything socketed. Clean off any oxidation from socketed IC pins and inspect the sockets for any loose and/or oxidized pins. Although I don’t use it, but some people use DeoxIT on pins and it seems to help, but not sure if it’s a long term solution. I'd especially look at the four corner pins of the sockets that had the decoupling capacitor sandwiched under them as the additional thickness can spread out the single-wipe socket pins and make for a loose connection. In this case, the power connections, which seem like it could cause what you're experiencing. Good luck!

[NIAD]

18 hours ago, else said:

 

And this partially shows why the Adam failed.  Instead of working on squashing all the bugs in the word processor asap, Coleco's priority was to cost-reduce it like they did with the Colecovision's Donkey Kong cartridge.

 

…….. I guess the two design teams didn't talk to each other as much as they should have.

Undoubtedly Coleco management always looked for ways to cut costs, which is good business practice for any business, so I don’t see that as a serious issue as much as simple common sense. If there is a way to get to the same end point and save some time and money along the way, it would have been dumb not to do it. The problem as we all know now is management’s rush to get the ADAM onto retail shelves in time for the Christmas gift buying season.

 

It’s not like new and improved Revisions of hardware and software weren’t constantly being developed, it’s simply a matter financially that Coleco never recovered from that ‘83 season. By Dec. ‘83, they were delivering a reliable system and numerous further improvements to SmartWriter (3 different prototypes have been found and available to try out) and SmartBasic (version 2.0) were being worked on or nearly complete. However, by the beginning of 1984 it didn’t matter anymore seeing as management was ready to pull the plug on the ADAM, but couldn’t state that as they had too much invested to let that be known until the end of 1984.

 

Basically put, Coleco management had way too much to learn about bringing a computer to market and properly supporting it. They eventually started to as can be seen by some of the things they did early in 1984 like contracting with Honeywell, but this was only a bandaid seeing as all the major software and hardware houses that supported other computers of the time made up there minds that the ADAM was not a financially feasible system to develop for… so basically Coleco was on an island all by themselves in supporting the system with new products.

 

Communication? Yeah, that’s definitely something Coleco management didn’t do well enough with the R&D and Electronics departments. They should have tried to pilfer away knowledgeable management personal from the likes of HP, Apple and Commodore to head up the whole ADAM endeavor.

 

if you really take a step back and consider things, it’s 40 years out and there are still thousands of working ADAM systems being used and enjoyed today… even with working Digital Data Drives. Who would have or could have ever thought that possible?