NIAD
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Posts posted by NIAD
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I'm with MilliV on this one...
We already have a good and available IDE interface available from MicroFox/Adamcon and what is most needed is the MIB/80 column interface that you have been working on especially seeing as Serial interfaces are very scarce and 80 column units are insanely scarce.
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Ideally such a board would need driver software to make best use of it, but at a pinch could be driven with a few peeks and pokes. So if there's interest, especially if someone wants to write a driver for such a device do let me know.Looks like you would need to get into contact with William Hicks, Jim Walters or Eric Pearson. Sorry to say that you'll have to contact them thru the Coleco ADAM Facebook page.
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This is a database file probably created by one of the Coleco 'Filer programs and probably SmartFiler. It's possible that the file was created by another 3rd Party database program, but hard to know for sure.
Anyway, 99.999% sure it's nothing relevant and you can just INIT the data pack in SmartBasic to write a fresh directory to it.
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If there is indeed a bug in AIM, you could continue to use it with DDP images and then convert this image with Steve Pitman's Virtual ADAM to a Disk image which in turn adds the proper disk interleaving.
I'm not sure if Eric is a member here, but he is on the Coleco ADAM Facebook page.
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Seems like #4 1987-88 would be appropriate according to everything that you have discussed as far as what the next evolution of the CV or CV 2 would have been. Well, at least for the immediate future of the SGM2/Omni and then when they are established and programmers start pushing the capabilities of the SGM2/Omni, things will naturally progress.
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Me too, which makes two!
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Nice setup! What are the 2 boxes on the right side of the main console? Also it looks like you have CP/M running simultaneously with EOS???
Sony made the best CRT monitors and they are still stupidly expensive even today.
As for patching CP/M for the F18A, it should be doable with guidance from Matt Haggerty.
The larger box on the bottom is the Orphanware 80 Column Unit that is powered by a CV power supply and the video cable is connected to the 27" CRT TV... not the best for clarity and that is why I switched to the LCD when I was testing out the unit. I used the small portable LCD when I was testing EOS programs and left it connected to the Auxillary DIN Port. Once the 80 column version of CP/M is booted, all video output is thru the 80 column unit. When switched to the Sony LCD, I had all kinds of composite video connections and just had to switch what input was being used. I probably should have just kept everything, but I don't like to hoard if there is someone that really wants to put it to use.
The smaller box on top of the above is the EVE SP-1 Serial/Parallel Interface.
Both are connected to the side expansion interface using a Multi-Unit Adapter cable.
The EVE VD-MB 80 Column Unit is pictured below....
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Re. the F18A, someone would have to patch CP/M 2.2 in order to access it's 80 column output abilities much the same way that Eve Electronics and Orphanware individually patched CP/M 2.2 for their 80 Column Video Units that were sold in the mid-80s. Pics of the Orphanware unit that I once owned.... video output on my Sony 28" LCD was really nice.
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If a third party company every started making 2MB memory expanders for the ADAM computer for resale, I would be interested in buying one. Of course, it most likely would need to be FCC certified since all electronics in the USA now have FCC certification. Even full size and micro SDHC and SDXC cards have FCC certification and CE safety certification for Europe. Of course the ADAM computer was only offered in North America as a native NTSC computer system and was UL certified. However, UL is an optional certification for the United States and is not required.
Really? Why? To add more expense to what is a Homebrew project.
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So, I disconnected A13 & A14 from each RAM chip, ran some kynar from those to the B2 & B3 pins on the LS175 and ran RAM test 2.0 and...-16 banks of 64k (1024k) detected and all are working! Hurrah!
-ADAMCalc still shows 64k - good, I didn't want that to stop working
-A CP/M RAM test shows 4 banks of expansion RAM... is that right?
-PowerPAINT made me jump, again! Reports 256k... is that right?
-> I note these last two report the same thing so it's my hope that that's just the max supported RAM in CP/M on the ADAM and PowerPAINT
-File Manager 3.0 reports a buffer size of 342k... which seems like a bit of a funny number to me
So...
That's certainly progress: RAMTest 2.0 reports the whole 1024k and the other proggies report a good chunk more than 64k... I just don't know if I still have a problem or those are expected results for that software
Thoughts?
Congrats on figuring things out and getting the full 1,024K of Expansion RAM recognized. I looked back and saw how you are handling the memory addressing, so sorry about bringing up a Slot #2 Interface Card solution.
- ADAMCalc... the Expansion RAM only functions as a print buffer, so the 64K icon displayed on bootup is the only means to know it was recognized and available.
- CP/M... hmm, it should only recognize 64K of Expansion RAM which will give you a Drive M: ramdrive of 55K even if you have a larger Memory Expander. Are you using T-DOS or perhaps have a patched version of CP/M that was put together by Orphanware/Ron Collins.
- PowerPAINT.... IIRC there was a bug in the detection of larger Memory Expanders and 256K was the most that would be reported and or accessible. Digital Express released a SmartBasic patch program to address the issue and I think it is listed in their newsletter (PDFs available on Joe Blenkle's website), but I think the most that it will report or can use is up to 512K of Expansion RAM. I tested in ADAMem with expansion RAM set to 1,024K and a 512K icon was displayed as well as the RamDrive size set to 394K with the rest of expansion RAM up to 512K used for the workspace. So to make a long story short, 512K of Expansion RAM is the most that is accessible with PowerPAINT. However, I need to test out the heavily patched version that was released by Rich Drushel to see if he addressed this issue.
- File Manager... that one is odd. FM settings allows for Ignoring, using 1 Bank or using All of Expansion RAM.
Did you let Eric's RAMtest program test all 65,535 bits of each of the 16 64K banks and if so, were there any issues reported?
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All the Coleco based software that recognizes Expansion RAM only supports 64K. So no matter what size Memory Expander you have installed, AdamCalc will only show the 64K icon during loading.
File Manager should show a much larger copy buffer.
I would guess this is due to no Memory Addressor via a Slot #2 card?
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VDE comes to mind as a popular editor program. I don't recall if it's available as a separate disk image but numerous versions were made available in the 60 or so volumes of NIAD CNDV public domain disk images. You can fund them in the Adam Archive or on Joe Blenkle's website linked in my footer. Also, Doug Rosenvinge was the librarian bitd and provided listings of all volumes in the NIAD Newsletter... PDFs available on Joe's site.
It should work with T-DOS.
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You coukd try using an RCA Video cable in the Monitor Port and then your DIN cable for sound only Yes, the video output for the DIN port is tapped from the Monitor Port, but on my system the video output is slightly better.
Might also want to open up your system and look at the condition of the wiring to the Auxillary DIN and Monitor as well as the condition of the solder were the wires connect to the DIN connector. Coleco didn't spare any expense with the guage of the wire used.
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Concerning the Adam, Facebook is a necessary evil and another big benefit is that Howard E. Is a frequent poster... he played a large part in the development of the Adam while working at Coleco.
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Hello all, yet another progress update:
So having given a replacement 4048 the correct power my ADAM boots without complaint. In theory that's 1Mb of RAM, but how to test it?
Since you piggyback an extra 64K of Expansion RAM directly on the ADAM Logic Board, I am thinking that there may be conflicts with any Memory Expander that you install in Slot #3. I seem to recall that up to 128K of Expansion RAM does not need the additional Memory Addressor option provided by a Slot #2 card.
Unless you found a work around to the Memory Addressing issue, any size Expansion RAM card that you install in Slot #3 will only be recognized as a 64K M.E, so that is all you will be able to test. There are Expansion RAM test utilities available on the ADAM Archive: www.adamarchive.org
You could also load ADAMCalc (printer buffer) and CP/M (ramdisk drive M), but that will pickup your piggybacked expansion RAM.
If you have the Memory Addressing issue resolved, then yes, a program like File Manager v3.0 can be used to see if things are working properly as HDTV1080 stated.
Eric Pearson wrote an Expansion RAM test utility...
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Hate to say it, but I can't recall for the life of me. I used 22Disk v1.40 by Sydex a lot BITD to transfer CP/M files and for earlier versions one would choose another computer disk format that was 100% compatible and then IIRC later versions added ADAM CP/M support as a choice for disk format.
You should try ADAM Image Maker by Eric Pearson. He released it a year ago and should handle all your needs.
I've also included ADAM Connection, which is an ADAM EOS specific version of 22Disk.
Also, I would recommend joining the Coleco ADAM Facebook page seeing as William Hicks and Eric Pearson are frequent posters on there compared to AtariAge.
22Disk v1.40 (1993) (Sydex).zip
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No ColecoVision cartridge game broke the 32K barrier until CollectorVision released Mario Bros. using the MegaCart PCB. I think this was around 2008.Reading Coleco Nation #9 interview with Paul Jaquays states that Destructor was released at 54K yet the only versions I find are 32k.
Where is the disconnect?
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All the Adam Parallel Interface cards use the same Port, so the info that is available for the Micro Innovations lineup of interface cards with a Parallel Port should provude the necessary info or the public domain SmartBasic listing of the Parallel Interface driver.
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Will the Phoenix be a product that continues to be available for purchase for the foreseeable future or do you have a set number that will be or already are manufactured and once sold out, that will be it.
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Thanks for the info. I'm also debating on whether to add an IDE drive versus a second VDD. The latter is a more natural option in my view.
By the way, can an external power supply be used to power the Adam without the printer?
The IDE 100Mb CF Adapter package is the perfect compliment to the VDD, however there are numerous incompatibilities with EOS software (ie: the Super Games) and CP/M (loading CP/M overwrites the IDE drivers). So you will have to go with T-DOS when using the IDE package and it is FAST and you have 4 large partitions at your disposal that you can switch between like changing hard drive partitions on a PC.
I have attached my updated instructions for the IDE 100Mb CF Adapter package that I put together a couple years ago when I shared my CF Card image files. Hope it helps you understand it better.
BTW, you can try out the IDE setup thru ADAMem SDL v1.81 by Geoff Oltmans. It includes the IDE boot driver and HD image files but I don't recall if they are the ones I made... I can upload them if you need. I use this version of ADAMem the most along with Marcel de Kogel ADAMem Manager frontend.
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I have a T-DOS drivers disk for the MIB2 by Micro Innovations. Aside from that, I never used this expansion board and, hate to admit it, am lacking in knowledge re T-DOS and CP/M... I know the basics, but never really delved too much into these alternate OSes for the ADAM.
As long as your board is compatible with the MIB2, the T-DOS install program should provide all the necessary setup options. It will probably be best to discuss matters with AtariAge member MilliV (William Hicks on the Coleco ADAM Facebook page). Try sending him a PM here.
On the EOS side, there aren't many programs setup to access the Serial Ports. Two that come to mind are ADAMLink V by Tom Clary/Rich Drushel and SmartBASIC 1.x Rev. 20 by Rich Drushel. There were a few others on the EOS side like SwiftBASIC 80, but they were setup for use with the EVE and Orphanware 80 Column Units.
Micro Innovations M.I.B. 2 T-DOS Utilities (199x) (Micro Innovations).dsk
ADAMLink V (1992) (Tom Clary Software - Rich Drushel Software).dsk
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Rich Drushel (Dr. D) might have the source code to T-DOS. Worth a shot to send him a PM.
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Congrats on the acquisition! As far as your observations....
- Back in 1983, I didn't notice any quirks seeing as it was my first computer and I had nothing to compare it to.
- Surprised to hear your feelings re the "spongy" keys. The ADAM Keyboard has always been highly praised throughout the years and an ADAM Keyboard ADAMnet-to-USB adapter was even made in a small production run so as to be able to use the keyboard on a PC.
- Big disappointment that Coleco didn't release their planned Tractor Feed attachment, but Data Backup did release one... only problem is that I have only seen 2 of them on eBay over the last 10 years and they were both included in a large collection of ADAM gear. I had pretty good success using tractor feed paper sans a tractor feed before I switched to a DMP when Parallel Interface were finally released.
- Saving grace re the Data Drive is that it functions just like a Disk Drive as far as I/O operations unlike tape decks used by other computers of the time, albeit slower as you mentioned.
- The 7-pin DIN Auxillary port outputs both Composite Video and Audio. The RCA Monitor port only outputs Composite Video. Only 5 of the 7 pins are actually used... see the schematic attached.
- SmartBASIC is sluggish and buggy. There are lots of patches and improvements available in the software archive that MilliV has made available as well as on Joe Blenkle's ADAM Computer website. Also, lots of great info in the newsletter PDFs on Joe's website. I got a feeling that you would be best served using SmartBasic 1.x Rev. 20 by Rich Drushel or SuperBasic+ 3.0 by TCR Software. Also checkout the "Hacker's Guide" and "ADAM Survival Guide" PDFs.
A 64K Memory Expander is really a necessity to run some of the better 3rd Party programs such as PowerPAINT, the ADAM Bomb games, etc. Check with ANN as I think the 256K ME they sell can be bought as a 64K ME and then upgraded at a later date to 256K. Note that a 256K ME will require a Parallel Interface/Memory Addressor installed in Slot #2 and ANN sells these as well.
Thankfully we have emulators at our disposal, so you can test out all the available software and then make decisions re hardware upgrades that you may want.
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Thanks for making this archive available for everyone!
BTW, the ADAM's Desktop disk image will have to be replaced seeing as Jim Walters recently up'ed a fixed version on the Coleco ADAM Facebook page.
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Looking for Turbo Pascal 3 disks
in ColecoVision / Adam
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Should send Pongbeat (think that's right) a PM seeing as he picked up a couple truck loads of ADAMs a couple years ago. IIRC, he is in France.