Pinout for the powerconnector on Adam, help.

[zippiz]

Hi

 

I'm trying to make a psu for a Adam Computer that I bought from US a few weeks ago but need to know the pinout for the powerconnector on Adam. Could anybody help me out with this?

 

Please let me know if you are refering to male or female connector.

 

[zippiz]

This is the info I did find...

 

Pin 1 = 12V BROWN
Pin 2 = 12V RED
Pin 3 = 5V ORANGE
Pin 4 = -5V YELLOW
Pin 5 = Ground GREEN
Pin 6, 7, 8 = Serial Data Clock, Serial Data, Signal Ground?
Pin 9 = No Connection

 

 

BUT, when I compare this to the inside cables in my Adam its

 

1 = Orange

2 = Yellow

3= Red

4= Blue

5= Green x 2 (two green cables)

6= Black

7= Brown

 

 

Plese, anybody I really want to try my Adam out and do not want to risk burning it.

[NIAD]

Send rey_1178 a PM seeing as he makes an Adam Power Supply and would be the best person to get the right info from on this forum.

 

When I get home tonight, i'll see if I got any diagrams as well.

[Rey]

Hey Fredrik,

 

The pin out at the ADAM which is the male side is the following,

 

Pin 1 +12v

Pin 2 +12v

Pin 3 +5v

Pin 4 -5v

Pin 5 Ground

 

No need to worry about pins 6-9

 

So when making you're female db9 plug to go into the ADAM, I'm guessing you know Pin 5 is at the left all the way to Pin 1 at the right.

 

 

 

 

 

PM SENT

Edited February 9, 2015 by rey_1178

[NIAD]

Pins 6 and 7 are used for communication with the Adam Printer if I recall correctly, so seeing as there's no printer... no need for these to be wired.

[TripHammer]

Exactly what I needed also. So double thanks from me too!

 

Hey Fredrik,

 

The pin out at the ADAM which is the male side is the following,

 

Pin 1 +12v

Pin 2 +12v

Pin 3 +5v

Pin 4 -5v

Pin 5 Ground

 

No need to worry about pins 6-9

 

So when making you're female db9 plug to go into the ADAM, I'm guessing you know Pin 5 is at the left all the way to Pin 1 at the right.

[zippiz]

Hey Fredrik,

 

The pin out at the ADAM which is the male side is the following,

 

Pin 1 +12v

Pin 2 +12v

Pin 3 +5v

Pin 4 -5v

Pin 5 Ground

 

No need to worry about pins 6-9

 

So when making you're female db9 plug to go into the ADAM, I'm guessing you know Pin 5 is at the left all the way to Pin 1 at the right.

 

 

 

 

 

PM SENT

 

 

Thank you, my Adam is now working!

Well, almost at least the Colecovision section of it is, the Adam was dead when I bought it. Was hoping for it to start up, since I was opening up the other day and lifted the IC a little bit. Might try to take it apart again and remove and attach them fully this time. Other than that I have no idea what to try.

 

Well, anyhow many thanks for the info!

 

 

BTW, does anybody know if switching to Adam with the reset button counts as turning the Colecovision of, so that I could switch cartridge in the Adam-mode then switch back to Colecovision?

 

 

 

 

Send rey_1178 a PM seeing as he makes an Adam Power Supply and would be the best person to get the right info from on this forum.

 

When I get home tonight, i'll see if I got any diagrams as well.

 

 

Thank you, that was a great tip, and woked out pretty great!

[NIAD]

Great to hear that things worked out re. the power supply and that at least you have the ColecoVision portion of the ADAM working.

 

What exactly is the issue you are experiencing with the ADAM side of things? If you have one of Team Pixelboy's Adam Super Game conversions to cartridge (Zaxxon, Subroc, etc.), you can use it to test if at least the extra RAM provided on the Adam Logic Board if functional.

 

Once you turn on the Adam, power is supplied to the entire system (Adam Logic Board and CV Delta Board) until you turn off the system. The two boards work together at all times no matter what reset switch is pressed. So... always turn off you system when swapping carts or plugging controllers into the DB9 ports and never leave a DDP in the drive during power on/off.

[CrazyBoss]

I always thought that the psu was inside the printer and the printer had to be connected for the adam to work?

[zippiz]

Great to hear that things worked out re. the power supply and that at least you have the ColecoVision portion of the ADAM working.

 

What exactly is the issue you are experiencing with the ADAM side of things? If you have one of Team Pixelboy's Adam Super Game conversions to cartridge (Zaxxon, Subroc, etc.), you can use it to test if at least the extra RAM provided on the Adam Logic Board if functional.

 

Once you turn on the Adam, power is supplied to the entire system (Adam Logic Board and CV Delta Board) until you turn off the system. The two boards work together at all times no matter what reset switch is pressed. So... always turn off you system when swapping carts or plugging controllers into the DB9 ports and never leave a DDP in the drive during power on/off.

 

Yes I do have Zaxxon here somewere, I bought a lot of games (50) but have just tried one or two so far. Need to try it out a lot more, so if Zaxxon works the extra ram from the Adam is working as well?

 

Ok, good to know I belived the power to the Colecovision was of when switching to Adam. I need to build a switch, not entirely sure that I dare to use just the power switch on the PSU.

Did not know I have to turn power of to plug in conttrollers, or/and the DDP. Might never get a chance to use the DDP, but still hoping!

 

Also have a broken Colecovision that I need to try to fix. My first time with a Colecovision, I always belived the Colecovision was how the Intellivision looked in US.

[zippiz]

I always thought that the psu was inside the printer and the printer had to be connected for the adam to work?

 

I made an extrnal PSU from a ATX-psu since I do not have the printer.

[NIAD]

I always thought that the psu was inside the printer and the printer had to be connected for the adam to work?

The power supply for the Adam (either model Stand-Alone or EM#3 Memory Console) is indeed contained inside the Printer. With that said, the Printer is not required for the Adam to function... you can open up the Printer and remove all the connectors that join the power supply to the printer logic board therefore completely isolating the psu... people did this a lot when their printers malfunctioned.

 

For instance, if your printer is malfunctioning due to the printer logic board or the print head position contact switch is bad, when you turn on the Adam, the system will display the Electronic Typewriter screen, but then it will lock-up in most cases because communication with between the Memory Console and Printer can not be achieved. Solution is to fix the problem with the printer or remove the connections between the PSU and the Printer. Basically the Electronic Typewriter/Smartwriter Word Processor tests communication with the Printer on power-up or system reset and if bad, the system wil usually lock-up. If communication is not detected, the system assumes no printer is attached... maybe it errors out but probably not since Coleco had plans/prototypes of a Universal interface (Adamnet Serial and Parallel) that attached to the Memory Console power/Adamnet port for connecting other printers and would have made a separate power supply eventually for the entire system.

 

So, to make a long story short, the printer is not required and a separate power supply only uses Pins 1-5 as detailed above... Pins 6-8 are used for Adamnet communication between the printer and memory console.

[NIAD]

Yes zippiz, if the Team Pixelboy release on cartridge of Zaxxon Super Game works on your Adam, then part of the Adam Logic Board (the extra RAM that it provides) is functional.

 

Always safest to have the power off when plugging in a controller to one of the DB9 ports... more so on a real ColecoVision than Adam, but best to play it safe so as not to damage the Controller ICs on the PCB.

 

Digital Data Packs should only be inserted in the Data Drive after power is already on to the system AND always remove the data pack/tape before powering off the system. Also, don't leave a Data Pack in the drive for long periods of inactivity when the system is poweredon because the Drive will constantly be working to keep the tension on the DDP/tape which adds a lot of wear and tear and can cause the controller chip on the Adam Logic Board to overheat... they don't all have heatsinks on them as I have found.

[zippiz]

Yes zippiz, if the Team Pixelboy release on cartridge of Zaxxon Super Game works on your Adam, then part of the Adam Logic Board (the extra RAM that it provides) is functional.

 

Always safest to have the power off when plugging in a controller to one of the DB9 ports... more so on a real ColecoVision than Adam, but best to play it safe so as not to damage the Controller ICs on the PCB.

 

Digital Data Packs should only be inserted in the Data Drive after power is already on to the system AND always remove the data pack/tape before powering off the system. Also, don't leave a Data Pack in the drive for long periods of inactivity when the system is poweredon because the Drive will constantly be working to keep the tension on the DDP/tape which adds a lot of wear and tear and can cause the controller chip on the Adam Logic Board to overheat... they don't all have heatsinks on them as I have found.

 

 

Ok, I did not get that it was the a special version of Zaxxon, so I guees no I do not have any way to try out if the black screen is faulty memory or anything else.

Thanks a lot for letting me know about turning the system of if switching controllers etc, coming from Commodore and Atari I have never done that before, good to know.

 

I will try again to open up my Adam, and this time remove the all the IC that I can and hope for my Adam to boot up. Would be so cool to get it in working state again.

[NIAD]

Thanks a lot for letting me know about turning the system of if switching controllers etc, coming from Commodore and Atari I have never done that before, good to know.

 

I will try again to open up my Adam, and this time remove the all the IC that I can and hope for my Adam to boot up. Would be so cool to get it in working state again.

Hot-swapping controllers was always a habit of mine back in the day on the CV and the ADAM, but with over 30 year old hardware, it is best to play it safe and just turn off the system before swapping controllers. For some reason, the ADAM isn't as susceptible as the CV console is to possibly damaging the Controller ICs by hot-swapping controllers.

 

I would venture a guess that your ADAM Logic Board is indeed dead if all you get is a black screen after turning on the ADAM. With that said, it is still best to give the ADAM Logic Board a thorough cleaning with good quality Isoprophyl Alcohol and Deoxit as well as lifting and reseating all the socketed chips on the board. Also, give the card-edge connector that joins the two boards in the ADAM and very good cleaning as well. Since you are getting power through the ADAM Logic Board to the CV Delta Board, the issues could be bad RAM chips or SmartWRITER / EOS chips on the ADAM Logioc Board.