Universal Serial & Parallel ADAMnet Interface
by Jim Notini/N.I.A.D.

I had the good fortune recently to get back in touch with a former Coleco employee and old friend from the Users Group days. In our talks he informed/reminded me that he is still in possession of 1 of the only 2 prototype ADAM Universal Serial & Parallel Interfaces ever made. Suffice it to say, I asked if he was thinking of selling the unit and just like 25 years ago the response was "NO"... maybe in another 25 years I'll have better luck. Thankfully, however, he was willing to take a large number of pictures of the unit as well as provide a little description of how it works and attaches to the ADAM. So here you are:


From Phil K. (former Coleco employee)

The Interface is installed between the ADAM Printer and Memory Console (either the Stand-Alone or Exp. Mod. #3) and is powered by the power supply in the ADAM Printer. The ADAM Printer power/data cable that usually plugs into the Memory Console now plugs into one of the 9-Pin connectors on the Interface and then a new cable plugs into the second 9-Pin connector on the Interface and then plugs into the Memory Console. There is a 3-way switch on the front of the Interface that allows the user to select which of up to three printers (ADAM Printer, Serial Printer or Parallel Printer) will be used for output (he states, "one way for the ADAM Printer, one way for a Parallel Printer and the other way for another printer... not sure what type of connector it is"). The final two connectors you will notice in the pictures are a 25-Pin Serial and a Parallel connector.

As far as using the Interface, again the toggle switch selects which printer output will be sent to, but the unique part of this Interface is that Parallel or Serial driver software is not required like all 3rd-Party/Homebrew Interface cards required that installed internally in Slot#1 or Slot #2 or externally in the Expansion Bus. Now that would have been very convenient to have back in the day instead of always having to load driver software/patches to the Operating System to gain access to alternative printers.

I hope I got that all right.


Again, there are only two of these units known to exist. Thanks to P.K. for providing the pictures and information.



From Howard E. (former Coleco employee)

Coleco also did the universal serial/parallel interface unit which connected to ADAMNet and offered a parallel port that could be the system printer and a serial port that could be switched between being the printer, a comm port (ADAMLink software would have had to be modified to use it) and an alternative keyboard port. In fact, i did the first version of this as a way of testing whether or not the word processor could really take in a 96K document. With the adapter pretending it was the keyboard, I could set an IBM PC or something else next to the ADAM and upload long documents via the keyboard port. The ADAMs word processor simply thought it was someone typing *really* fast. That remained a hidden feature in the production version of the universal interface unit. Im sorry I dont have any mockups or photos of the finished units. I only have a handmade prototype in an aluminum box.

I always thought a useful addition for the printer would be a set of color-matched hearing protectors
