Adam tape drive

[endor16]

I was able to score a Coleco Adam recently.  Just about everything works with the exception of the tape drive.  I get the wonderful just endless going back and forth with nothing on screen.  I pulled apart to inspect the encoder wheel, actually very clean however i cleaned anyway.  rubber was very well intact.  its looks barley used, no rubber on the encoder or in fact anywhere.  any suggestions?  possible board issue?  I try in and test on tape drive 2 where i had an open slot but yielded the same result.

 

1. fully cleaned encoder wheel (looks fantastic)

2. Buck rogers game works on another Adam (just spins to one end and then high speeds back again) rinse repeat

[adamcon]

56 minutes ago, endor16 said:

I was able to score a Coleco Adam recently.  Just about everything works with the exception of the tape drive.  I get the wonderful just endless going back and forth with nothing on screen.  I pulled apart to inspect the encoder wheel, actually very clean however i cleaned anyway.  rubber was very well intact.  its looks barley used, no rubber on the encoder or in fact anywhere.  any suggestions?  possible board issue?  I try in and test on tape drive 2 where i had an open slot but yielded the same result.

 

1. fully cleaned encoder wheel (looks fantastic)

2. Buck rogers game works on another Adam (just spins to one end and then high speeds back again) rinse repeat

Rubbing alcohol and soft cotton cloth, vigerously rub back and forth on the read/write head to clean any gook off it so it is clean.

[endor16]

its spotless, no gook or corrosion that i can see anywhere.  i used rubbing alcohol to clean everything

[NIAD]

6 hours ago, endor16 said:

its spotless, no gook or corrosion that i can see anywhere.  i used rubbing alcohol to clean everything

Seeing as the encoder wheel is good, the read/write head is clean, you have a verified working Buck Rogers DDP and I can assume that you have the Data Drive connected properly seeing as you are familiar with the ADAM, the next thing to try is using Coleco's Speed Check v1.0 or v2.0 in case the speed adjustment is completely out of whack. I have attached a zip file with instructions and the Coleco software programs that you will need to copy to a digital data pack. If you need someone to copy the software to data pack, send adamcon a PM on here or check with 8 Bit Milli Games Home page. Also...

 

- Did you try this faulty Data Drive in your other ADAM system since you know this other system and the Data Drive installed in it are working?

 

I'm thinking that the issue is one of the controller boards in the Data Drive, but hopefully this isn't the issue. At worst, you could see if 8 Bit Milli could take a look at it for you since he has a lot of experience disassembling and repairing them.

Data Drive Speed Adjustment.zip

[endor16]

great ideas and will see if i can do this.  Too be honest i dont have another adam.  the local retro games sore had one and i asked them to desk the game to see if it worked.  anything other than that they will start charging me to test or worst say no so that i may have to purchase their adam.  i may look on ebay to see if there is a coleco speed check data pack out there.  frustrating for sure but with such limited stock, prices keep going on on spare parts.