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ADAM'S Desktop?


coleconut

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I have owned several memory expanders of various sizes for the ADAM over the years but not seen one like this before. Picked it up off ebay, listing was for a very ratty-looking consolebut one pic captured my interest and that was showing some expansion cards in the slots.

Booted it up for the first time today and rather than going to SmartWriter, it boots to something called ADAM's Desktop, from which you configure a dot matrix printer and/or ramdisk.

Seems to be one of Mark Gordon's creations from Micro Innovations. Anyone seen one before?

Kinda cool but a little annoying to go thru the desktop and a bunch of keypresses before you can actually run any programs.

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I have owned several memory expanders of various sizes for the ADAM over the years but not seen one like this before. Picked it up off ebay, listing was for a very ratty-looking consolebut one pic captured my interest and that was showing some expansion cards in the slots.

Booted it up for the first time today and rather than going to SmartWriter, it boots to something called ADAM's Desktop, from which you configure a dot matrix printer and/or ramdisk.

Seems to be one of Mark Gordon's creations from Micro Innovations. Anyone seen one before?

Kinda cool but a little annoying to go thru the desktop and a bunch of keypresses before you can actually run any programs.

 

That was an excellent price you paid on EBAY. The Micro Innovations MIB3 card was a dual serial card and 1 parallel card that allowed the connection of a external 2400, 9600, or 19200 baud modem. Also a 80 column video terminal could be connected at 19200 baud. Plus a Laser printer or dot matrix printer could be connected.

 

So a ADAM owner could run a fast external modem, 80 column video terminal, and a Laser printer all at the same time with a MIB3 card. There were also older designs of the Micro innovations cards also.

 

Now ADAM Desktop was software that was created by Walters Software. Adam's Desktop was one of Walters best EOS software programs he made. ADAM Desktop program was available in 4 different formats for the ADAM. Adam's Desktop came on floppy disk, digital data pack, cartridge, and a eprom that plugged directly into MIB3 card.

 

The best versions of Adam Desktop were the cartridge version and the version you have on EPROM. There is a jumper setting you can change on the MIB3 card to disable the eprom from booting up everytime the reset button is pulled or the computer is turned on. I prefer Adam Desktop on a cartridge instead of a eprom just in case one does not want to use Adam Desktop. The cartridge image only uses Adam desktop when the Colecovision reset button is pushed.

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Looking at the EBAY pictures of the ADAM you bought. Slot one has the Coleco AdamLink modem. Slot two appears to have a MIB3 card or another type of Micro innovations card that contained a eprom socket. Slot number 3 appears to be a Micro innovations or other brand memory expander. Micro Innovations memory expanders were sold in sizes as low as 64K and as high as 2MB. The one in the picture is a minimum of 256K memory expander. Any memory expander larger then 64K required a electrical connection jumper type cable between the memory expander and slot 2 in the ADAM. You might be able to resell those items for around $100 on EBAY. A 1MB memory expander for the ADAM is worth around $200+.

Edited by HDTV1080P
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Additional info:

 

Looking at the EBAY pictures of the ADAM you bought. Slot one has the Coleco AdamLink modem. Slot two appears to have a MIB3 card or another type of Micro innovations card that contained a eprom socket. Slot number 3 appears to be a Micro innovations or other brand memory expander. Micro Innovations memory expanders were sold in sizes as low as 64K and as high as 2MB. The one in the picture is a minimum of 256K memory expander. Any memory expander larger then 64K required a electrical connection jumper type cable between the memory expander and slot 2 in the ADAM. You might be able to resell those items for around $100 on EBAY. A 1MB memory expander for the ADAM is worth around $200+.

 

I just bought an MIB3 card from a dealer for $90 and a 256K card for $70 so you got a very good deal. I wouldn't mind if you'd be bable to take some closer pics of the connections between the two cards as the documentation is a bit sparse on that. I have the manual that came with the MIB3 card in pdf format if you'd like a copy, in exchange for your assistance of course ;-)

Edited by snume
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Additional info:

 

Looking at the EBAY pictures of the ADAM you bought. Slot one has the Coleco AdamLink modem. Slot two appears to have a MIB3 card or another type of Micro innovations card that contained a eprom socket. Slot number 3 appears to be a Micro innovations or other brand memory expander. Micro Innovations memory expanders were sold in sizes as low as 64K and as high as 2MB. The one in the picture is a minimum of 256K memory expander. Any memory expander larger then 64K required a electrical connection jumper type cable between the memory expander and slot 2 in the ADAM. You might be able to resell those items for around $100 on EBAY. A 1MB memory expander for the ADAM is worth around $200+.

 

I just bought an MIB3 card from a dealer for $90 and a 256K card for $70 so you got a very good deal. I wouldn't mind if you'd be bable to take some closer pics of the connections between the two cards as the documentation is a bit sparse on that. I have the manual that came with the MIB3 card in pdf format if you'd like a copy, in exchange for your assistance of course icon_winking.gif

 

Coleconut is the person that purchased the items on EBAY, I think you were trying to communicate with the Coleconut who started this thread. A MIB3 card for around $90 and a 256K memory card for around $70 sounds about right. Prices might go up more as the third party hardware items become more rare. I own a MIB3 card and a 1MB memory expander. My ADAM items are currently in storage and I cannot take pictures right now. I also have the original printed version of the MIB3 manual but not PDF.

 

The 256K, 512K, 1MB and 2MB Micro Innovations memory expanders will only offer 64K memory expansion if you do not connect the jumper wire between the memory expander and the MIB3 card. On the MIB3 card there is a J5 pin 1 connection where the wire to the memory expander goes. See page 3 of the Micro Innovation MIB3 manual, it goes into details on how to connect the wire from the memory expander. The Micro Innovations MIB3 card is compatible with all brands of memory expanders between 64K-2MB. I use to have a Micro Innovations 1MB memory expander but I think I am now using a 1MB E and T brand memory expander. The later versions of the memory expanders from Micro innovations shipped with a clip on wire attached to the memory expander. So if you have a memory expander with the wire clip already installed on the memory expander then all you need to do is clip the wire to pin 1 at the J5 connection on the MIB3 card(see page 3 in the MIB3 manual).

 

If the brand and model of the 256K memory expander you own does not have a wire clip soldered to the printed circuit board then it will only function as a 64K memory expander until you find the documentation for the memory expander that shows where the jumper wire needs to be attached. Also some dealers sold a 64K memory expander that could be upgraded to 256K if one plugs in additional memory. If the memory expander you own has empty sockets then it most likely is only a 64K memory expander and you would need to purchase memory chips to bring it up to the full 256K.

 

I wish I would have been able to purchase the 2MB memory expander from Micro innovations. The 2MB memory expanders had a very limited run back in the late 1980's and they were discontinued since some Adam computers would have technical issues when using them. I do not remember the exact details but it might have been the original Coleco power supply could not produce enough watts to power it when there was several other items connected. I have a 1MB memory expander and use a third party custom made PC style power supply that provides plenty of watts for the Adam computer. It would have been nice to have owned a 2MB memory expander when copying 1.44MB 3.5 inch disks from one drive to the other. A 2MB memory expander and all other memory expanders acts as a copy buffer when using File Manager 3.1. Also ADAM Desktop from Walters software and other third party software can use large 1MB and 2MB memory expanders. Now all original Coleco software can only use up to 64K memory expanders since Coleco only made a 64K memory expander back around 1984 that sold for a list price of $99.99.

 

Edited by HDTV1080P
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Additional info:

 

Looking at the EBAY pictures of the ADAM you bought. Slot one has the Coleco AdamLink modem. Slot two appears to have a MIB3 card or another type of Micro innovations card that contained a eprom socket. Slot number 3 appears to be a Micro innovations or other brand memory expander. Micro Innovations memory expanders were sold in sizes as low as 64K and as high as 2MB. The one in the picture is a minimum of 256K memory expander. Any memory expander larger then 64K required a electrical connection jumper type cable between the memory expander and slot 2 in the ADAM. You might be able to resell those items for around $100 on EBAY. A 1MB memory expander for the ADAM is worth around $200+.

 

I just bought an MIB3 card from a dealer for $90 and a 256K card for $70 so you got a very good deal. I wouldn't mind if you'd be bable to take some closer pics of the connections between the two cards as the documentation is a bit sparse on that. I have the manual that came with the MIB3 card in pdf format if you'd like a copy, in exchange for your assistance of course ;-)

 

I have a couple of Walters carts, one for ramdisk and one to boot the powermate hard drive but not the one for Desktop.

Yes I'd love to see the docs on this baby. I can take some pics as best I can of the cards. Seems to me that it is 8 pcs of 64x4 ram chips so this should translate to 128K I believe.

The utility only seems to recognize 64K so perhaps I should have a look at the connections myself, I would expect it to be 128K

 

I should also post a picture of my Powermate. One of the early models but I DONT have the corresponding card for it so it sits unused.

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That was an excellent price you paid on EBAY.

 

It was just the console by the way. The original listing had a start price of $15 for everything pictured but the shipping was so astronomical, no one bid. I mean there was a complete printer, plus a power supply taken from a printer, a kb, the console, some books, everything looked like crap and shipping was ridiculous, especially cross-border to me.

Once the original auction closed, I told the guy to re-list just the console for $15 BIN, charge shipping at cost and I would take it. Thinking that I was taking a chance on the cards being toast. But a couple days later, they did just that and I jumped.

 

By the way, Ive tried to use a laser printer with a centronics interface with the ADAM to no avail. It was via an Eve Electronics card not one of these Microinnovations ones. But now I dont own any printer with a parallel interface, they are all USB or network these days it seems.

Although I do see some of the old Okidata 24-pin printers showing up at the local electronics place, they were real workhorses.

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That was an excellent price you paid on EBAY.

 

It was just the console by the way. The original listing had a start price of $15 for everything pictured but the shipping was so astronomical, no one bid. I mean there was a complete printer, plus a power supply taken from a printer, a kb, the console, some books, everything looked like crap and shipping was ridiculous, especially cross-border to me.

Once the original auction closed, I told the guy to re-list just the console for $15 BIN, charge shipping at cost and I would take it. Thinking that I was taking a chance on the cards being toast. But a couple days later, they did just that and I jumped.

 

By the way, Ive tried to use a laser printer with a centronics interface with the ADAM to no avail. It was via an Eve Electronics card not one of these Microinnovations ones. But now I dont own any printer with a parallel interface, they are all USB or network these days it seems.

Although I do see some of the old Okidata 24-pin printers showing up at the local electronics place, they were real workhorses.

 

There was only certain third party Adam software that supported the use of some brands and models of Laser printers. It has to be the right software patch and printer model. Dot matrix printers were cheaper and more common. Yes the centronic interfaces have been removed from all the new model priinters. Perhaps a USB to parallel adapter might work with a special software written for the ADAM.

 

At AdamCon one in Orlando Florida I met this one Coleco employee that owned a unreleased serial/parallel Coleco external printer interface that connected over Adam Net. It was a working unreleased Coleco Adam hardware device. The device allowed all existing Adam software to use a dot matrix or Laser printer without any software patches at all. This Coleco employee was using it with his ADAM. I tried to arrange a business meeting with the Coleco employee and Mark Gordon of Micro Innovations. The goal of the meeting was to allow Micro innovations to borrow the unrelased Coleco AdamNet hardware device so that it could be released to the Adam community. The Coleco employee did not want to have anyone borrow the device since he was afraid it might get broken or not returned.

 

It is too bad Coleco never released any of the extenal Adam Net printer interface cards. There was no need for software patches to the Coleco software with a Adam net printer device.

Edited by HDTV1080P
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That was an excellent price you paid on EBAY.

 

It was just the console by the way. The original listing had a start price of $15 for everything pictured but the shipping was so astronomical, no one bid. I mean there was a complete printer, plus a power supply taken from a printer, a kb, the console, some books, everything looked like crap and shipping was ridiculous, especially cross-border to me.

Once the original auction closed, I told the guy to re-list just the console for $15 BIN, charge shipping at cost and I would take it. Thinking that I was taking a chance on the cards being toast. But a couple days later, they did just that and I jumped.

 

By the way, Ive tried to use a laser printer with a centronics interface with the ADAM to no avail. It was via an Eve Electronics card not one of these Microinnovations ones. But now I dont own any printer with a parallel interface, they are all USB or network these days it seems.

Although I do see some of the old Okidata 24-pin printers showing up at the local electronics place, they were real workhorses.

 

I'm pretty sure the EVE SP-1 or SP-1P were the only Parallel Interface for the ADAM that experienced problems with Parallel Laser Printers. I used Orphanware's PIA-2 and E&T's Centronics Parallel Interface with Panasonic Laser Printer (think it was the KX-P4450... does that sound right?) for years without one single hick-up.

 

You can also check the NIAD newsletters that are PDF'ed on Joe Blenkle's site for pictures of all the Micro Innovations' products. Mark Gordon was very good about supplying as much info to the dealers with pics and I always used those press releases in the newsletters. I don't have the exact issues so you'll have to search through them probably starting in late 1989. All the hard drives are pictured as well as his other interface boards.

 

http://www.sacnews.net/adamcomputer/index.html

Edited by NIAD
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Coleconut is the person that purchased the items on EBAY, I think you were trying to communicate with the Coleconut who started this thread.

 

You are right, I was replying to Coleconut, just I was quoting your response. I should have worded my post more clearly. Sorry about that.

 

I have received some info from bob Slopsema in regards to the interconnection between the 2 cards and I've attached it. My 2 cards each have 1 pin and one empty via next to it, I am going to inspect them a little closer soon to confirm the exact pins and attach a 2-wire interconnect via the info from Bob.

 

Thanks for the reply and additional info HDTV1080P and Coleconut.

 

On a side note, do either of you have an IDE card in your ADAM's as well? And if so, do you have an IDE drive or other IDE device such as Compact Flash or Zip drive attached to it? I have these now and am just starting to delve into the world of ADAM that I only dreamed about back in the 80's when I first got my ADAM. Oh how I wish I had bought this stuff back then.

post-19129-12742201475_thumb.gif

Edited by snume
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Coleconut is the person that purchased the items on EBAY, I think you were trying to communicate with the Coleconut who started this thread.

 

You are right, I was replying to Coleconut, just I was quoting your response. I should have worded my post more clearly. Sorry about that.

 

I have received some info from bob Slopsema in regards to the interconnection between the 2 cards and I've attached it. My 2 cards each have 1 pin and one empty via next to it, I am going to inspect them a little closer soon to confirm the exact pins and attach a 2-wire interconnect via the info from Bob.

 

Thanks for the reply and additional info HDTV1080P and Coleconut.

 

On a side note, do either of you have an IDE card in your ADAM's as well? And if so, do you have an IDE drive or other IDE device such as Compact Flash or Zip drive attached to it? I have these now and am just starting to delve into the world of ADAM that I only dreamed about back in the 80's when I first got my ADAM. Oh how I wish I had bought this stuff back then.

 

As far as the IDE Card, the only one who still has them is Terry Fowler of eColeco. Bob Slopsema has stated that Terry has the boards but is missing the eprom that contains the drivers so they are useless. If you go to the ADAMcon site and watch the videos from ADAMcon 21, you'll see Bob's systems with a Compact Flash drive as well as a 100Mb ZIP Drive (of course attached to the ADAM via an IDE card).

 

Probably your best beat it to get an ADAMnet SD drive from "Else" when he makes them available... since it works through the ADAMnet, there will be no software issues that you'll experience with an IDE Interface and Drive.

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You can also check the NIAD newsletters that are PDF'ed on Joe Blenkle's site for pictures of all the Micro Innovations' products. Mark Gordon was very good about supplying as much info to the dealers with pics and I always used those press releases in the newsletters. I don't have the exact issues so you'll have to search through them probably starting in late 1989. All the hard drives are pictured as well as his other interface boards.

 

http://www.sacnews.net/adamcomputer/index.html

 

I had a look at the back issues one by one, and thanks, and whereas there are some pics in there of some of the hard drives and there are references I think to this unit, I didnt see this unit specifically described nor pictured - but since it has no model number on it, I am not sure which one it is.

I note there seems to be about 3 missing issues in that time frame, just my luck if one of them showed this unit. If my assumption is correct, this unit may have listed for $1100.00 originally. :!:

Well here it is in all its glory:

post-18191-127423998392_thumb.jpgpost-18191-127423993177_thumb.jpgpost-18191-127423995634_thumb.jpg

 

I opened it once upon a time, seems to me those are 2x 5.25" hard drives (?? Megs each) (MFM/RLL?)

2 floppies, not sure what those connectors are for on the back, maybe for a printer, serial, maybe one to interface with the card in the ADAM - which of course I dont have.

I think I will bring it to ADAMCon to show the folks. If nothing else, maybe we can prop the door to the convention room open with it....

Edited by coleconut
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As far as the IDE Card, the only one who still has them is Terry Fowler of eColeco. Bob Slopsema has stated that Terry has the boards but is missing the eprom that contains the drivers so they are useless. If you go to the ADAMcon site and watch the videos from ADAMcon 21, you'll see Bob's systems with a Compact Flash drive as well as a 100Mb ZIP Drive (of course attached to the ADAM via an IDE card).

 

Should it not then be possible to take a working card complete with Eprom and then dump it and then burn some copies?

gosh i remember from last ADAMCon Bob S. talking about this but I was tied up taking some pictures of other stuff and didnt catch the entire conversation.

Seems to me Bob said they were GALs that maybe were not too easily copied or something along that line.

 

Paid my dues, shoulda paid more attention :!:

Edited by coleconut
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Coleconut is the person that purchased the items on EBAY, I think you were trying to communicate with the Coleconut who started this thread.

 

You are right, I was replying to Coleconut, just I was quoting your response. I should have worded my post more clearly. Sorry about that.

 

I have received some info from bob Slopsema in regards to the interconnection between the 2 cards and I've attached it. My 2 cards each have 1 pin and one empty via next to it, I am going to inspect them a little closer soon to confirm the exact pins and attach a 2-wire interconnect via the info from Bob.

 

Thanks for the reply and additional info HDTV1080P and Coleconut.

 

On a side note, do either of you have an IDE card in your ADAM's as well? And if so, do you have an IDE drive or other IDE device such as Compact Flash or Zip drive attached to it? I have these now and am just starting to delve into the world of ADAM that I only dreamed about back in the 80's when I first got my ADAM. Oh how I wish I had bought this stuff back then.

 

As far as the IDE Card, the only one who still has them is Terry Fowler of eColeco. Bob Slopsema has stated that Terry has the boards but is missing the eprom that contains the drivers so they are useless. If you go to the ADAMcon site and watch the videos from ADAMcon 21, you'll see Bob's systems with a Compact Flash drive as well as a 100Mb ZIP Drive (of course attached to the ADAM via an IDE card).

 

Probably your best beat it to get an ADAMnet SD drive from "Else" when he makes them available... since it works through the ADAMnet, there will be no software issues that you'll experience with an IDE Interface and Drive.

 

If all that is missing is the eprom then a simple eprom programmer can be used to make a perfect copy of the software. Now if the software is still copywrited then of course a copy should not be made. Maybe someone could contact the original programmer that made the driver to see if they could get permission to copy the eprom.

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As far as the IDE Card, the only one who still has them is Terry Fowler of eColeco. Bob Slopsema has stated that Terry has the boards but is missing the eprom that contains the drivers so they are useless. If you go to the ADAMcon site and watch the videos from ADAMcon 21, you'll see Bob's systems with a Compact Flash drive as well as a 100Mb ZIP Drive (of course attached to the ADAM via an IDE card).

 

Should it not then be possible to take a working card complete with Eprom and then dump it and then burn some copies?

gosh i remember from last ADAMCon Bob S. talking about this but I was tied up taking some pictures of other stuff and didnt catch the entire conversation.

Seems to me Bob said they were GALs that maybe were not too easily copied or something along that line.

 

Paid my dues, shoulda paid more attention icon_exclaim.gif

 

 

GAL programmers can be expensive. Some professional programmers run between $1,000-$5,000+.

 

http://www.advin.com...-programmer.htm

 

The cheapest good quality GAL programmer I have seen is $585 that uses a USB connection to a PC. I have used Batronix programmers before, they are really easy to use with excellent software updates for their products. They now have a new 64 bit Windows 7 driver for their products. They use to only support 32 bit Windows but now finally also support 64 bit Windows operating systems like Windows 7, Visita, and XP.

 

The $585 Batronix BX48 will program GALs.

They also have eprom programmers for $152.00 for 32 bit and 64 bit Windows systems.

 

Here is a link to a Batronix GAL programmer

 

http://www.progshop....BX48/index.html

Edited by HDTV1080P
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Should it not then be possible to take a working card complete with Eprom and then dump it and then burn some copies?

gosh i remember from last ADAMCon Bob S. talking about this but I was tied up taking some pictures of other stuff and didnt catch the entire conversation.

Seems to me Bob said they were GALs that maybe were not too easily copied or something along that line.

 

Paid my dues, shoulda paid more attention icon_exclaim.gif

 

 

GAL programmers can be expensive. Some professional programmers run between $1,000-$5,000+.

 

http://www.advin.com...-programmer.htm

 

The cheapest good quality GAL programmer I have seen is $585 that uses a USB connection to a PC. I have used Batronix programmers before, they are really easy to use with excellent software updates for their products. They now have a new 64 bit Windows 7 driver for their products. They use to only support 32 bit Windows but now finally also support 64 bit Windows operating systems like Windows 7, Visita, and XP.

 

The $585 Batronix BX48 will program GALs.

They also have eprom programmers for $152.00 for 32 bit and 64 bit Windows systems.

 

Here is a link to a Batronix GAL programmer

 

http://www.progshop....BX48/index.html

 

I was only wonderig if any of you guys had an IDE card, not necessarily looking to buy, though if the powermate was available ... ;-)

 

I actually got a working IDE card from Bob S and know all about the faulty GAL chips. The problem is they are not simply EPROMs. They are Generic Array Logic chips which means each logic array (these ones are GAL22V10's) can be programmed to replace one of a number of logic gates and you need the ged program file to program them or the original ladder logic program, neither of which can currently be found.

 

There is a possibility of reading the program off one of the working GAL's if it hasn't been write protected, we're not sure if it has. We're not sure that there isn't a chance of screwing up the program on the working GAL if something goes wrong while we're trying to read it. And there is a very limited supply of them, ie NO SPARES. I've talked to both Dale Wick and Jon Guidry (the latter of the TI-99/4A multi cart) about it and they both have programmers that will work, but we're not in any real rush with ADAM CON and summer coming up. People have lives that this stuff can get in the way of real quick.

 

I've briefly been in contact with Scott Gordon (his dad Mark Gordon WAS Micro Innovations) and he doesn't know if he has the program or not, I won't badger him for it as I'd rather he got interested in the ADAM again and became a driving force again. I plan to ask him if he wouldn't mind asking his dad just for the bit of info about copy protection because that would at least let us know whether or not we could carry forward with reading a GAL and replicating them.

 

I wouldn't mind actually reverse engineering the card and making some new ones - would even pay a licence fee to the Gordon's. It may be obsolete tech, but it is their hard work and they supported the ADAM long after almost all other companies did.

 

Sorry for the ramble. You should join in on the ADAM chat tonight if you want to discuss it further. I know Jim (NIAD) has been on regularly and I'll be on as Steve.

Edited by snume
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Should it not then be possible to take a working card complete with Eprom and then dump it and then burn some copies?

gosh i remember from last ADAMCon Bob S. talking about this but I was tied up taking some pictures of other stuff and didnt catch the entire conversation.

Seems to me Bob said they were GALs that maybe were not too easily copied or something along that line.

 

Paid my dues, shoulda paid more attention icon_exclaim.gif

 

 

GAL programmers can be expensive. Some professional programmers run between $1,000-$5,000+.

 

http://www.advin.com...-programmer.htm

 

The cheapest good quality GAL programmer I have seen is $585 that uses a USB connection to a PC. I have used Batronix programmers before, they are really easy to use with excellent software updates for their products. They now have a new 64 bit Windows 7 driver for their products. They use to only support 32 bit Windows but now finally also support 64 bit Windows operating systems like Windows 7, Visita, and XP.

 

The $585 Batronix BX48 will program GALs.

They also have eprom programmers for $152.00 for 32 bit and 64 bit Windows systems.

 

Here is a link to a Batronix GAL programmer

 

http://www.progshop....BX48/index.html

 

I was only wonderig if any of you guys had an IDE card, not necessarily looking to buy, though if the powermate was available ... icon_winking.gif

 

I actually got a working IDE card from Bob S and know all about the faulty GAL chips. The problem is they are not simply EPROMs. They are Generic Array Logic chips which means each logic array (these ones are GAL22V10's) can be programmed to replace one of a number of logic gates and you need the ged program file to program them or the original ladder logic program, neither of which can currently be found.

 

There is a possibility of reading the program off one of the working GAL's if it hasn't been write protected, we're not sure if it has. We're not sure that there isn't a chance of screwing up the program on the working GAL if something goes wrong while we're trying to read it. And there is a very limited supply of them, ie NO SPARES. I've talked to both Dale Wick and Jon Guidry (the latter of the TI-99/4A multi cart) about it and they both have programmers that will work, but we're not in any real rush with ADAM CON and summer coming up. People have lives that this stuff can get in the way of real quick.

 

I've briefly been in contact with Scott Gordon (his dad Mark Gordon WAS Micro Innovations) and he doesn't know if he has the program or not, I won't badger him for it as I'd rather he got interested in the ADAM again and became a driving force again. I plan to ask him if he wouldn't mind asking his dad just for the bit of info about copy protection because that would at least let us know whether or not we could carry forward with reading a GAL and replicating them.

 

I wouldn't mind actually reverse engineering the card and making some new ones - would even pay a licence fee to the Gordon's. It may be obsolete tech, but it is their hard work and they supported the ADAM long after almost all other companies did.

 

Sorry for the ramble. You should join in on the ADAM chat tonight if you want to discuss it further. I know Jim (NIAD) has been on regularly and I'll be on as Steve.

 

According to page 118 of the BX48 programmer chip support manual the device can read and write the folloing versions of 22V10's:

 

"GAL22V10D

 

(DIP 24)

 

Adapter: No adapter required

 

Manufacturer: Lattice

 

Chip Variants: GAL22V10D-10LP, GAL22V10D-10LPI, GAL22V10D-10QP,

 

GAL22V10D-15LP, GAL22V10D-15LPI, GAL22V10D-15QP, GAL22V10D-20LPI,

 

GAL22V10D-25LP, GAL22V10D-25LPI, GAL22V10D-25QP, GAL22V10D-7LP,

 

GAL22V10D-7LPI"

 

http://www.progshop....8DeviceList.pdf

 

Micro Innovations used some copy protection for some of their hardware products if my memory is correct. It should be fairly easy to read GAL's from the original chips onto a PC file and then copied. Of course one should get permission from Micro innovations. I would like to get in contact with Mark Gordon again. I had some questions to ask about the 1.44MB Adam Net 3.5 inch floppy drives they created in the late 80's. If any one had contact information for Mark Gordon it would be appreciated (email, phone, etc).

Edited by HDTV1080P
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According to page 118 of the BX48 programmer chip support manual the device can read and write the folloing versions of 22V10's:

 

"GAL22V10D

 

(DIP 24)

 

Adapter: No adapter required

 

Manufacturer: Lattice

 

Chip Variants: GAL22V10D-10LP, GAL22V10D-10LPI, GAL22V10D-10QP,

 

GAL22V10D-15LP, GAL22V10D-15LPI, GAL22V10D-15QP, GAL22V10D-20LPI,

 

GAL22V10D-25LP, GAL22V10D-25LPI, GAL22V10D-25QP, GAL22V10D-7LP,

 

GAL22V10D-7LPI"

 

http://www.progshop....8DeviceList.pdf

 

Micro Innovations used some copy protection for some of their hardware products if my memory is correct. It should be fairly easy to read GAL's from the original chips onto a PC file and then copied. Of course one should get permission from Micro innovations. I would like to get in contact with Mark Gordon again. I had some questions to ask about the 1.44MB Adam Net 3.5 inch floppy drives they created in the late 80's. If any one had contact information for Mark Gordon it would be appreciated (email, phone, etc).

 

The problem really isn't IF we can find a programmer that works, but IF they set the write-protect resistor on the GAL, it CAN'T be read and then re-written onto another GAL. Simple as that. If they didn't, then we can read it and there should be little problem reprogramming the ones that were zapped by static electricity (which Bob says is what he believes happened to the ones that eColeco has that are bad).

 

Best bet to try to contact Mark Gordon is to try to get ahold of Scott and see if he can pass your info along to Mark. I went too Scott's writing home page and contacted him through there. SEGordon.com

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Information on what happen to Micro Innovations

This most likely is common knowledge for some people. I am posting the information to save some people time.

 

Mark Gordon the owner of Micro Innovations was the best third party hardware developer for the ADAM back in the late 80's until around 1996. They made 3.5 inch 1.44MB Adam floppy drives, hard drives, memory expanders, and all kinds of neat high quality ADAM hardware devices in the late 80's and early 90's. Mark Gordon over the years kept improving the features and quality of his products with new versions.

 

Mark Gordon and I exchanged a few emails today. Sometime around the year 1996 Micro Innovations sold all the parts to Terry Fowler at EColeco. Mark Gordon the owner of Micro Innovations no longer owns an ADAM computer and no longer has parts to repair or make new ADAM hardware products. So anyone that wants to own any Micro innovations products will need to contact EColeco. Last time I spoke with Terry Fowler at EColeco they were out of stock on most of the products from Micro innovations and they would never be able to get anymore since of course Micro innovations no longer manufactories Adam products. The best option to find Micro Innovations products for the ADAM that ECOLECO no longer has is to search EBAY. Once every year or so rare Micro Innovations products are auctioned on EBAY.

http://coleco.freeservers.com/proddes.htm

 

So EColeco around 1996 purchased all the remaining inventory from Micro Innovations. Mark Gordon of Micro Innovations informed me that he still owned the rights to all the Micro Innovations products. The problem is it appears that the rights to his products cannot be purchased since Mark has moved twice since he lived in Virginia and he does not know where all the source code (data is now). So any company or individual interested in making new hardware products for the ADAM will need to design their own hardware from scratch since it appears that the rights to purchase the design from Micro Innovations is not an option.

 

Also some of those Micro Innovations designs are around 20 years old or older. Many electronic chips used in those designs are out of production now and technology has greatly improved in the last 20 years. With modern technology and small surface mount designs a company could make new and improved ADAM hardware products that would be better then the 20 year old Mirco Innovations products. 20 years ago Micro Innovations products were state of the art products for the ADAM. I still have Micro Innovations disk drives and other products that are still working after 20+ years.

Edited by HDTV1080P
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  • 8 years later...

Those are one of the rare Walters Software cartridges he made. I have ADAM’s Desktop on a disk and/or MIB3 eprom format, but in later years I always wanted to own the cartridge version but could never find it.

 

Just recently in the last 2 months I have been in contact with Jim Walters at Walters Software company. I was surprised that he has the exact same landline and mailing address that is located in the late 80’s instruction manuals for the ADAM software that he created for his company. To make a long story short I have some rare special additions of Spelling AID with large custom dictionary and Formatter 3 on 3.5 inch disk. I have gotten permission from Jim Waters to release all of his software and manuals into public domain. I realize a lot of Walters Software products are already online, but I have gotten a official email from him stating I can upload anything I want online into public domain. When I get some time I plan on uploading the special edition of Spelling AID and Formatter 3 on 3.5 insh disk with instruction manual. I am working with Walter on how to defeat the copy protection on the 3.5 inch disks that he created for the ADAM. That is another thing that is holding me back. Some of Walters Software on 3.5 inch disk has techniques that check for bad blocks on the disk or the program well not load. Without removing the copy protection I cannot copy it to a SD card. When I get some free time I plan on uploading Walters manuals and software to public domain (or at least the items that are not on the Internet already).

 

Klasko54 could I borrow or purchase that ADAM’s Desktop cartridge from you? I want to borrow it and use ATARIMAX’s ColecoVision/ADAM cartridge backup utility to copy (dump) the rom image. Since I got permission from Walter’s Software to release their items into public domain, I would then upload the rom image and scanned PDF manual of ADAM’s Desktop so that people could use it with the ATARIMAX SD cartridge and ATARIMAX USB cartridge. I looked online and I was not able to find a working cartridge rom image of any of Walters’s Software cartridges he created. Walters Software released Adam’s Desktop, SmartBasic, Smartwriter Elite, and few others like Project Name by Line on cartridge (I already have Project Name by line rom image). Plus there is a Smartwriter cartridge rom images for the unreleased versions of Smartwriter that Walters Software worked on. If I could get my hands on the original Walters Software cartridges, I have the authorization to upload them online and make them available for the ADAM community.

 

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Shon.. this is great news that you have talked to Jim Walters and he has agreed to make all his warez PD fir all to experience and enjoy. Most of his software titles have been available for years, but there are a handful that where copy protected as you mentioned and it would be nice to see these finally made available as disk images and rom images in the case of cartridge versions.

 

I haven't talked to Jim in some six or more years, so the next time you talk to him, could you ask him about technical / developmental tools that he may have developed for his own use, disassemblies of Coleco warez, etc., etc. Basically everything and anything that he could share with the community in order to finally preserve this stuff and make it available for people that can put it all to good use and possible new releases.

 

I will look thru my collection to see what is missing and post a list here.

 

I can also dump any carts if that will help you with spreading the work load.

 

I do not have an (E)prom dumper, hence never got my Adam's Desktop prom dumped to share.

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Here's ROM dumps of my Walter's Software carts. I've got a PDF of the ADAM's Desktop manual but I'm having trouble getting it added to this post.

 

 

ADAMs_Desktop_version11_1991(ADAM)(Walters Software) .bin

Defender (ADAM)(Walters Software) .bin

SmartDSK_1989_ (ADAM) (Walters Software).bin

 

post-13580-0-72117800-1527454065.jpg

Edited by ed1475
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Thanks for posting the rom dumps. I had forgotten that you had already made dumps available some four years ago. Attach below is the SmartBASIC v1.1 rom dump. So the only cartridge release that we are missing from Walters Software is the SmartMATE cartridge that he released for use with the Micro Innovations line of Hard Drives.

 

So as far as Disk and/or Data Pack software that we are missing from Walters Software Co. due to the copy protection (bad block check) implemented by Jim W. after rampant piracy of his programs or other reasons:

 

- The Vase of Turr

- Decimal Disassembler

- E.O.S. Programming Kit

- Formatter II

- Formatter III

- Graphics Converter

- Media Aid

- Media Aid Plus

- Media Aid Plus 2 for SmartBASIC 2.0

- PrBoot

- RamDISK 2 for SmartBASIC 2.0

- RamDISK 256K

- Screen Saver

- SmartDSK II for Device #2

- The Label Works (Disk version)

- SpellingAID

- SpellingAID Dictionary Packs

 

SmartBASIC v1.1 (1989) (Walters Software Co.).rom

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