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Using SD cards is better then disk drives (Faster, more storage, and more reliable). The advantage of having two Coleco ADAM microSD Floppy Emulator’s, is that it saves time on media swaps when copying or accessing the media. Just like it’s nice to have two Disk Drives or two Digital Data Drives, it is also nice to have two SD drives. You can always start out with buying one Coleco ADAM microSD Floppy Emulator, and then in the future you can purchase a second one as long as they are still being made years down the road. In the rare case that one were to break 10 years from now, having a second one is ideal as a spare to read the SD and microSD cards on the ADAM computer. Coleco never used any copy protection technology on the ADAM or ColecoVision, which allowed consumers to make a fair use backup copy of any Coleco program purchased at the store. Other companies like Walter Software used copy protection for the ADAM computer in the later years. However some (actually many) Coleco supergames were designed to only run from Digital Data Pack. For example try making a backup copy of Buck Rodgers the Superagame from DDP to another right hand directly DDP, and the backup copy well work perfectly as long as Digital Data Drive #1 is used. However try copying that Buck Rodgers the Supergame to a Disk Drive or SD card and even though a perfect backup copy is made, the program well not run since it was designed to only run from a Digital Data Drive #1. Walter’s Software was able to modify all the Coleco supergames so that they would run from disk back in the mid 80’s. In late 1984 the latest Coleco games coming out for the ADAM were offered on Digital Data Pack and Disk, and Coleco started to make games so that they would run in any drive including Digital Data Drive #2 and Disk Drive #2 without any modification needed. It was mainly those first 1983 ADAM supergames that only ran from Digital Data Drive #1 since the game programmer never considered the game being ran in Digital Data Drive #2 or a Disk Drive until sometime in 1984.

Walter’s Software SpellingAid special edition on a 3.5 inch disk with a large dictionary of words uses around 512K of the memory expander (256K is not enough for that program). Walter Software also has some EOS ram disk software that well allow users to use the entire 1MB memory expander for several different Coleco EOS programs and third party programs that well boot from the 1MB memory expander when its used as a solid state ram disk drive for the ADAM. Turning off the ADAM of course loses all the data in the memory expander. I like using the 1MB or larger memory expanders with File Manager as a copy buffer. With a 1.44MB 3.5 inch disk or 1.44MB disk image from SD card, one needs a minimum of a 2MB memory expander to make one read and write pass when copying media. A 1MB memory expander is not large enough and the 1.44MB SD media has to be swapped twice when copying the program. Having two disk drives or two SD drives connected at once speeds up the copy process. To this day I still wish I would have purchased that 2MB Micro Innovations memory expander for the ADAM computer, since I would have used it as a big ram disk and also as a 2MB copy buffer. If someone were to develop a 64GB SDXC card slot on a ADAM memory expander, then large hard drives full of data could be copied into the memory expander with one read pass and one write pass.

Thanks for the info, its good to know that the BIOS on the Digital Data Drives determine the size of the drive that is reported over ADAMNET. I guess the reason why they did not use the same ADAMNET connector as the Disk Drives is because it would not provide the needed +12 and +5 volts at the amps needed to power the Digital Data Drive. ADAMNET is very neat on the ADAM computer because ADAMNET can be accessed by many different size connectors and at different locations on the memory console. The side expansion module interface is also is able to access ADAMNET and most likely the internal expansion module interfaces can access ADAMNET also.

The ColecoPlug retail box pictures in this thread and the pictures of the ColecoPlug in this thread do not have the CE and FCC logo, and that is why I mentioned the logo does not appear in the specs or pictures. Now if I order the actual finished product and it has the CE and FCC logo then that is real cool. I am just use to looking at pictures of adapters on Amazon and other websites that have those official safety logos on the product.

It was mentioned earlier that the ColecoPlug is not UL listed which is an optional safety certification for the USA. However in this thread it has been mentioned that the ColecoPlug is CE safety approved for Europe and FCC approved. If that is true then why is the CE and FCC logo not appearing on the product specs on the official website and also why not list the CE and FCC logo on the retail box and/or plastic case of the ColecoPlug? That is a selling advantage to advertise the product as CE and FCC approved. Also all external DC adapters that get CE and FCC approval have the symbol placed somewhere on the product.

Perhaps the specs for USB-C chargers changed again. I have seen some high-end models with all the fancy worldwide safety certifications only output zero voltage unless the connected device requests 5 volts DC or higher. This might have something to do with the DOE mandated energy efficiency level VI requirement in the United States on all external power adapters manufactured or imported into the United States starting in February of 2016. Outputting zero voltage when the product is not being used is much more efficient then outputting 5 volts or higher 24 x 7.

Is this product now shipping?

So the latest ColecoPlug being released well convert any DC voltage between 4 -20 to 5 volts DC. That is amazing. I guess you did that in case a USB-C charger malfunctions and outputs 20 volts DC instead of 5 volts DC.

So in your experience the ones that do not work, it must be because they are not offering 5 volts, and instead sending 0 voltage. It makes since that some of these adapters would output zero voltage if no connection is detected. Why else would they not work? It has to be becuase the voltage is dropped from 5 to zero. The plug is the same size.

But the reason why some chargers with 5 different voltages do not work, is because the charger outputs 0 volts until the connected device requests a voltage level. There are advantages to having a charger that outputs 5 volts, 9 volts, 12 volts, 15 volts and 20 volts. One charger could be used for several different computers. And then the adapter on the USB-C cable for one computer system could request 12 volts, 9 volts for a different computer system, etc.

However a USB-C charger needs to stop charging a battery when the battery on a electronic device is fully charged. If there are some USB-C chargers/adapters that 100% of the time output 5 volts DC and never receive a data signal to go to zero voltage, then the connected device would need to automacally disconnect the electrical circuit when the battery is fully charged. Then it sounds like only USB-C chargers that offer only 5 volts DC well work since they are always on. Most multi-voltage USB-C chargers will not work with your ColecoPlug since the ColecoPlug well never tell the adapter to go from zero voltage to 5 volts DC.

USB-C devices are more complicated for engineers when compared to standard power supplies that do not have handshaking communications issues. For example, I like the specs on this 65 watt USB-C power supply that has both Energy Efficiency Level VI and is also UL listed for $16.99 with free shipping. This 65 watt USB-C power adapter can output 0 volts, 5 volts, 9 volts, 12 volts, 15 volts, and 20 volts at up to 3.25amps. That is 5 different voltages that can be outputted over USB-C by the adapter (only one voltage requested can be sent at a time). The connected USB-C device over the data lines on the USB-C cable tells the power adapter to send either 5 volts DC, 9 volts DC, 12 volts DC, 15 volts DC, or 20 volts DC over the cable. Zero voltage is sent over the cable by the USB-C charger if the device does not request a voltage. Now this ColecoPlug adapter that people are pre-ordering must have been designed to always request 5 volts DC from the USB-C power supply/charger when handshaking. Technically it’s possible to make USB-C cables with a miniature circuit board in the cable that requests what voltage is needed, however so far it’s always been the USB-C device that is connected to the cable that requests the proper DC voltage that the device needs and not the cable itself. So the ColecoPlug adapter instead of requesting 12 volts DC from the USB-C power supply and then down converting the voltage to 5 volts DC and -5 volts DC for the other pins, is instead requesting 5 volts DC from the USB-C power supply and then up converting with capacitors the 12 volts DC that is needed. I realize older models of USB-C power supply/chargers do not offer 5 different voltages and only send 5 volts DC, so that must be the reason why 5 volts DC was used on the ColecoPlug instead of 12 volts DC.

Brief Coleco ADAM Memory Expander history For the 1983 ColecoVision ADAM Family Computer System, Coleco in 1984 released a 64K memory expander to increase the computer’s memory from 80K to 144K. After Coleco stopped making videogame and computer systems in January 1985, soon after third party companies started making 64K and larger Coleco ADAM compatible memory expanders. 256k, then 512K, then 1MB, and then 2MB Coleco ADAM memory expanders started to appear on the market. Many different third party hardware developers had between 64K to 1MB memory expanders for the Coleco ADAM computer including E and T and Micro Innovations. As far as I am aware only Micro Innovations offered a 2MB memory expander for the Coleco ADAM in the late 80’s or early 90’s. In addition, 2MB expanders was the largest memory expander that was offered for the Coleco ADAM. However, 1MB and lower was more common to own. I never had the opportunity to own a 2MB memory expander, since I think those 2MB memory expanders were only offered for around a year. By the time I was ready to purchase one I found out from Micro Innovations that the 2MB memory expanders for the ADAM had been discontinued. I was told that certain ADAM computers had problems with 2MB memory expanders, and it is my understanding that the Coleco ADAM printer power supply on some peoples systems had problems powering all 8 SIPP chip modules when a system is already loaded with many expansion cards already. Back in the 80’s and early 90’s it was very rare to own a third party power supply for the Coleco ADAM computer system. Those that did own a third party 230 watt PC style power supply for the ADAM computer had plenty of power for a 2MB or larger memory expander. The following is a picture of a 1MB E and T Memory expander that was upgraded to a 64MB memory expander that uses 4 X 16 SIMM modules (However the problem is it well not physically fit in a ADAM computer unless the memory card is made from scratch) I had a 1MB E and T Memory Expander lying around that uses 4 SIPP modules. Since 30 pin SIMM modules are 100% electrically compatible, higher capacity, and cheaper in price. I installed 4 SIMM sockets on a E and T Memory Expander and then placed a total of 64MB of memory on the expander (4 x 16MB =64MB). However, I soon discovered that the modified card would not fit in the ADAM computer because of height and longer length issues of the SIMM sockets. I was able to remove 3 SIMM sockets from the expander and just barely was able to fit the modified expander in my ADAM computer with a very tight fit and the one 16MB SIMM module was registering when running software that accessed the memory expander. But the problem is I had to unplug everything and could not test the full capacity of the 16MB module since everything was too tight. The only way to get SIMM modules to work correctly on the ADAM is to make a memory expander from scratch, then there would not be a space issue since the printed circuit board could be made longer. The E and T memory expander was never designed for the SIMM modules and sockets, but if a memory expander was designed from scratch one could fit 64MB or more memory in their ADAM. In fact one could design a brand new ADAM memory expander that uses a SDXC cards and SDXC cards are much faster than the ADAM computer. Plus with 32GB to 2TB SDXC cards one could turn off their ADAM computer and the data would still be on the SDXC card. The following are before and after pictures of a modified E and T style memory expander with 64MB of memory installed (This is a example of a project that did not work out because of not enough physical space in the ADAM to fit all 4 SIMM sockets in the ADAM computer, one would have to design the memory expander from scratch to make it fit correctly).

A microSD card has no moving parts, the SD card has a lock switch to write protect data and yes sometimes that lock switch can wear out or go bad. However both microSD and SD cards are solid state devices and they have no moving parts to read and write data. So under ideal conditions they can last longer then 10 years. QUOTE "An SD card is a solid-state device. This means it has no moving parts in order to function. This is a big improvement over older portable storage devices." https://computer.howstuffworks.com/secure-digital-memory-cards4.htm QUOTE "Data in an SD card is stored on a series of electronic components called NAND chips. These chips allow data to be written and stored on the SD card. As the chips have no moving parts, data can be transferred from the cards quickly, far exceeding the speeds available to CD or hard-drive media." https://www.techwalla.com/articles/sd-card-work

The problem with using the ADAMNET internal Digital Data Drive connectors is that you would be limited to 256K Digital Data Pack images only. If one were to change the operating system inside the ADAM then one could patch the internal DDP ADAMNET connectors to use 1.44MB or up to 32GB size images. Correct me if I am wrong, but I always thought the ADAM Memory Console operating system using ADAMNET assigned 256K of storage to the Digital Data Drives. If the Digital Data Drives had the capability to communicate with ADAMNET and assign 320K or 1.44MB then the big question is why did Coleco not make the Digital Data Drives with the same ADAMNET cord that is used on the Coleco Disk Drives?

Since 2016 people have been purchasing the MicroFox Coleco ADAM microSD floppy emulator that emulates ADAMNET disk drives up to 1.44MB. This is better then any Disk Drive every made for the ADAM computer and since there is no moveable parts on SD it has the potential to last a decade or more. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/276315-coleco-adam-microsd-floppy-emulator-user-review/

Thanks for the info, I was not aware of the Sega compatible game controller adapter. Its pretty sad when one has to use a game controller designed for another videogame system with a adapter on the Genesis because no third party controller matches the quality of the original Sega Genesis controller. For now I well just use the original Sega brand game controller and perhaps in the future I may try a Sega compatible game controller adapter with a Playstation video game controller. I have never owned any generation of Sony's playstation. It sounds like the original Sony controller is good quality and as long as it works with all the Sega Genesis games that would be a perfect solution. I wish there was more game controller adapters on the market. It would be ideal to find a high quality game controller and have the ability to use that game controller on many systems like ColecoVision, ATARI 2600, ATARI 5200, etc. Just buy the adapter one needs and stick with the same game controller that one is interested in.

Neat looking professional box. I hope this ColecoVision power supply is a success once it is released.

Your right about it had nothing to do about the NES being a slightly better videogame system. Both the ColecoVision and ADAM computer went out of production in January 1985. Coleco decided to exit the home computer and videogame business in January of 1985. The NES was not even released in North America until October 18th 1985, therefore that is proof that it had nothing to do with it. However Nintendo was smart, with Coleco out of the videogame business, then Nintendo stepped in to fill the void for high end videogame systems at the end of 1985.

Spectravideo North America 120 volt power supply (Blue Chip model number 108-138) I just purchased a Spectravideo USA/North America power supply (Blue Chip model number 108-138). This UL listed power supply was made for the Spectravideo SV-318 and SV-328. The only real difference between the Spectravideo European model number 318-201, is that the European model has a input of 220 volts at 50Hz (35 watts) and the USA/North American Spectravideo Blue Chip model number 108-138, has a input of 120 volts at 60Hz (36 watts). Both the USA/North America and European power supply outputs 16 volts AC at 0.8 amps and 9 volts AC at 1.5 amps. Therefore the only difference on the output of the adapters is that the European model outputs 50Hz and the USA/North America model outputs 60Hz. However since internally the Spectravideo computers convert the AC voltage to DC, the 50/60Hz issue is a non-issue and does not matter when it comes to the main computer itself. This means someone that purchased a Spectravideo computer in Europe can use the computer in North America if they buy the correct 120 volts 60Hz AC power supply, or a NTSC North America computer can be used in Europe if they buy the correct 220 volts 50Hz power supply. The following is a picture of what the UL listed Spectravideo USA/North America power supply (Blue Chip model number 108-138) looks like. Both the European and USA/North America Spectravideo power supplies are unregulated power supplies. For example with no load on the circuit, the power supply was outputting around 18.24 volts AC and around 10.55 volts AC. However, this Spectravideo unregulated power supply puts out around 16 volts and 9 volts when under a load from the Spectravideo computer system. A combination of a special 4 pin power connector with dual AC output makes this power supply the most difficult or one of the most difficult power supplies to replace when it comes to classic 80’s computers.

Yes I did try and hold the mode button down at the start of the game to switch the third party controller into 3 button mode and for some reason I ended up having the same problem in Ms. Pacman using the 8 direction control pad. Some games also use the mode button during the game itself as a button function.

In the following thread, I mentioned that the 6 button Hyperkin Sega Genesis compatible controller does not work correctly with the Ms. Pacman game. “…when playing Ms. Pacman, especially during the start of the game, the controller eight directional pad would not respond to up or down actions. In addition, the original Sega controller worked perfectly fine during Ms. Pacman but so far I have not found a third party controller that works ok with Ms. Pacman.” So I guess I have to either use the original 6 button Sega Genesis controller or original 3 button Sega Genesis controller with Ms. Pacman. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/285916-poor-quality-third-party-sega-genesis-controllers-on-the-market/?p=4175113

The following thread has a list of Sega Genesis games that use all 6 buttons or more than 3 buttons. What is interesting is that people are mentioning that with certain brands of 3rd party Sega Genesis controllers that certain games like Ms Pacman well not work correctly if it has 6 buttons. This is also what I experienced on the Hyperkin GN6 Sega Genesis controller with Ms Pacman. If there is a problem with many 6 button 3rd party Sega Genesis compatible controllers with game playability, then does anyone make a third party Sega Genesis compatible controller with 3 buttons instead of 6 buttons? All I see is the original Sega Genesis controller with 3 button option. http://atariage.com/forums/topic/216133-6-button-games/ For some reasons I am very good at finding problems and bugs in products without even trying. Which results in hours and days of testing and researching to try and solve the issue. Everything is so time consuming anymore.

Thanks everyone for all the useful information. At this time I have decided to only use the original new and used Sega Genesis controllers plus the spare Pioneer Laseractive Sega controllers that I own. It is my understanding that certain games use more then 3 buttons and require a 6 button Sega controller. So I might only purchase 6 button controllers in the future.

I do not need a wireless Sega Genesis controller and prefer wired. However that is real cool that a wireless Sega Genesis controller is being released in white and black for $24.99 next year. If it ends up working good it should be a popular product. https://www.amazon.com/8Bitdo-Wireless-Gamepad-Original-Genesis-Drive/dp/B07HB1XFQW?th=1