KEEP YOUR ADAM RUNNING.

BY JOHN BURNS.

ADAM REPLACEMENT RIBBONS-CHEAP.

New, original, Coleco ADAM ribbons run about $13.00. MTAG can 
provide ribbons at about $6.00. But you can make a very good 
replacement cheaper, at about $3.50 and a little work. The 
secret is to use QUME 1 (#183-3220-0 QUME 1, Black) ribbons by 
KO-REC-TYPE. (Maker - Barouh Eaton (Canada) Ltd, 6291 Ordan 
Drive, Mississauga, Ont, L5T 1G9), and insert them into your 
original ADAM cartridge. 
NOTE. IBM and most similar ribbons are 5/16th inch wide and 
will not work. ADAM must have 1/4 inch ribbons.

ADVANTAGES:

This replacement requires drilling an extra hole to prepare the 
original Coleco cartridge, but once done, you can use them for 
a long time. It also makes rewinding a lot easier since you 
have a longer stud and do not have to disassemble the Coleco 
cartridge and use the old pen tip trick to crank the FEED REEL 
around to rewind. You will also be able to easily drop in 
ribbon replacements as yours wear out. (You should get anywhere 
from 3 to 6 rewinds from the QUME replacement) The basic idea 
is to simply discard the QUME cartridge casing and transfer the 
1/4 inch ribbon to your ADAM cartridge. Here are a couple of 
tricks that might help you.

Trick #1, THE HARD WAY:

Yes, you can do a transfer from the QUME 1 FEED REEL to your 
original ADAM FEED REEL without drilling the hole. The hollow 
cavity on the base of the QUME ribbon will fit over the stud on 
the ADAM cassette but the blue shaft, sticking up from the QUME 
FEED REEL won't let you close the casing. To transfer to ADAM's 
FEED REEL you have first to run the new ribbon on to ADAM's 
TAKE-UP REEL, then rewind it back onto the FEED REEL. To do it, 
open both cartridge casings, discard the old ADAM ribbon and 
drop the new ribbon into the original, Left Side, ADAM TAKE-UP 
POSITION. CAREFUL!. READ ALL of this and the next section, 
first, if you haven't opened an ADAM cartridge before. Once the 
QUME ribbon is in place, string the ribbon as normal up through 
the horns and down to the ADAM's TAKE-UP REEL which you have 
positioned on the FEED REEL STUD, on the Right Side of the ADAM 
cartridge casing. The problem is, the QUME has the adhesive 
tape on the wrong side of the leader. Cut it off and use fresh 
tape to attach the ribbon to the ADAM TAKE-UP REEL,   with the 
shiny side of the ribbon facing inside the casing. Watch out 
for the ribbon when rewinding.  

It will frequently twist, get off the winding track or you will 
tape the wrong side of the leader to the TAKE-UP REEL. (ADAM's 
goes clockwise, while the QUME goes counter-clockwise.) Once 
you have the leader taped to ADAM's TAKE-UP REEL, then you 
start turning. It will take a long time. When you get to the 
end of the QUME feed, tear the ribbon loose from the QUME FEED 
REEL, discard the QUME REEL, and tape the end onto your 
original ADAM FEED REEL, transfer the ADAM TAKE-UP REEL to it's 
own side and mount the ADAM FEED REEL on it's own stud. To reel 
the ribbon back onto the ADAM FEED REEL, you have to turn the 
reel COUNTER-clockwise. Frankly, this system is a lot of 
work.

Trick #2. THE EASY WAY.

Instead of rewinding the whole ribbon twice, just drill the 
hole and drop the entire QUME FEED REEL assembly into the ADAM 
cartridge case.

HOW TO DO IT: Equipment Needed:

Drill, power or hand.
1/4 inch twist drill bit.
Scissors.
Scotch Tape.

1.From the ADAM cartridge, remove the Drive Elastic.
2.Remove the cartridge casing upper cover. Use a broad, pointed 
knife blade and GENTLY! pry up the cover from the casing body. 
WATCH OUT FOR THOSE FRAGILE PLASTIC PINS!!!. Start at the 3 
o'clock position and work you way around until all SIX pins and 
sockets are separated.
3.With the cover removed, lift out the empty FEED REEL (right 
side). Discard the reel but DO NOT LOSE the pronged keyhole 
shaped tension spring. It makes a spare if the new QUME one is 
too tight.
4.Lift out the loaded TAKE-UP REEL, (left side).
5.Strip off the used ribbon. Easiest way is to hold the 
shaft-top in your fingers, over a waste basket and let the 
ribbon's own weight strip itself off in a downward spriral. 
(Takes a couple of minutes).
6.In the main ADAM cartridge body, lift out the white, splined, 
plastic DRIVE SHAFT. It sits in a hole slightly under the white 
pronged plastic TENSION TRIGGER. You may have to lift the 
TENSION TRIGGER slightly to remove the DRIVE SHAFT. Now set the 
main cartridge body aside, with TENSION TRIGGER in place.
7.Prepare ADAM cartridge cover to use QUME 1 FEED REEL. With 
1/4 inch drill bit, (or fractionally larger), drill a hole 
through the cover, in the centre of the FEED REEL recess.
To Do: Lay the cover upside down with the plastic pins facing 
upwards. You need to drill a hole in the centre of the 
impressed circles which mark the FEED RECESS.
Just establish the centre and drill the hole. It 
doesn't have to be perfect. Blow out the plastic drillings. 
CAREFUL OF THE PLASTIC PINS!.
8.Extract the QUME ribbon from the casing.
How to: With the same knife you used to open the ADAM cartridge 
case, attack the upper right seam of the QUME cartridge case, 
at the point where the ribbon feeds out. The seam looks 
heat-sealed but is not. Simply pop the cover off. The casing 
will be discarded.
9.Inside the QUME casing, notice the ribbon has a blue leader 
and is threaded from the spring loaded FEED REEL (right side) 
across and around two blue plastic shafts (left side). Separate 
the ribbon from the TAKE-UP POST end. Discard the shafts and 
the TENSION TRIGGER.
10.Lift out the loaded FEED REEL and SPRING. (It fits in the 
groove on the FEED REEL shaft under the ribbon). Transfer the 
whole assembly (New Ribbon, New FEED REEL and Spring) directly 
into the ADAM cartridge casing. Notice the hollow in the bottom 
of the QUME FEED REEL slides directly over the ADAM FEED REEL 
mounting stud.
11.Make sure the straight end of the FEED REEL TENSION SPRING, 
goes into the the vertical slot on the extreme right side of 
the ADAM cartridge casing.
12.Mount the ADAM TAKE-UP REEL in it's hole.
13. Feed the ribbon, up from the FEED REEL, behind the TENSION 
SPRING, up through the horns and down to the TAKE-UP REEL. Pull 
through enough ribbon to ensure you have the shiny side facing 
in. Dull side is the printing side.
14.The QUME blue leader is too long so it must be cut shorter. 
Leave about 1 inch of the leader.
15.Cut a small piece of adhesive tape and attach to the leader 
on the shiny side of the ribbon. Attach the other end to the 
TAKE-UP REEL so it will retrieve in a clockwise direction. ADAM 
TAKE-UP RELL retrieves CLOCKWISE whereas QUME retrieves 
COUNTER-CLOCKWISE. Turn TAKE-UP REEL several times to take up 
the slack in the ribbon.
16.Now, adjust the ribbon so it runs between the plastic 
pronged TENSION TRIGGER and the splined DRIVE SHAFT. To do 
this, lift the TENSION TRIGGER with a knife point so it slides 
up on it's pin about 1/8th inch. With the ribbon against the 
TENSION TRIGGER, drop the splined DRIVE SHAFT into it's hole 
with the lower flange of the splined portion under the TENSION 
TRIGGER. Press TENSION TRIGGER down to lock the DRIVE SHAFT in 
place. You should now have the new ribbon trapped between the 
DRIVE SHAFT and the TENSION TRIGGER, with the shiny side 
inwards. 
17.Carefully replace the cartridge cover into place, ensuring 
all six pins enter their respective holes. The blue shaft of 
the new TAKE-UP REEL should stick up through the newly drilled 
hole in the cover.
18.Replace the drive elastic.
19.Insert the cartridge into your printer and test. You will 
need to run at least a page of text to determine if the new 
TENSION SPRING is too strong or too weak. Too strong will 
result in faint print from the printwheel impacting on one 
place in the ribbon without advancing. The TENSION SPRING is 
probably too tight on the FEED REEL HUB. Not enough tension is 
illustrated by fluttering of the ribbon under the printing 
impact. This may allow the ribbon to jump out from behind the 
printwheel and give erratic printing.
20.To cure the TENSION SPRING problems, you will have to remove 
the cartridge cover once again, and either SLIGHTLY OPEN up the 
loop on the TENSION SPRING to reduce tension, or SLIGHTLY CRIMP 
it shut to increase tensioin. (Careful. This is spring steel 
wire and will jump out of your fingers and hide itself in the 
most Godawful places.) If you have real problems getting even 
ribbon feed (Most usually it is TOO MUCH DRAG with not enough 
feed), you may wish to replace the QUME spring with your 
original ADAM one with the little plastic roller on the bent 
end.
The next time you need to rewind the ribbon, just take your 
reversing electric drill, snug the chuck down onto the blue 
finger shaft, hit reversing direction on your drill, medium 
speed and steady (or it'll jam) and wind up you ribbon for a 
fresh start. Works great!.


CLEANLINESS IS NEXT TO GOD OR GREMLINS.
When was the last time you gave your ADAM a real house 
cleaning?. If you haven't done it in the last three months, you 
are running a real risk of all kinds of little gremlins in your 
equipment.

ADAM GOES WEIRD.

Just recently I had an experience where my tapes wouldn't 
record and the screen would suddenly go crazy, with all kinds 
of queer symbols showing up in the documents. It just about 
drove me nuts trying to figure it out. The answer?. Static 
charged dust particles that got into the connectors between the 
tape drive and the CPU. I have also discovered that dust was 
blocking the heat vents and dramatically reducing reliability 
because of overheating. It doesn't take much.

THE SOLUTION.

Take your hose type vacuum cleaner with the narrow wand 
attached and really go over the following:
1.Tape drive: Vacuum inside the doors and clean the tape heads 
with 99% Isopropal alcohol. There are several good kits 
available with both cleaner and lubricant. Coleco recommends 
AGAINST using abrasive cassette scrubbers for the tape drive.
2.Inside CPU: Pop the top cover off your CPU and really vacuum 
inside. Do the tape drive vents. They generate a lot of heat 
and attract dust. Get right down into the connectors, into the 
side, bottom and rear vents and the internal slots.
3. Printer: Wipe off the print rails with the silicone cloth. 
(Don't use oil. It accelerates dust collection.) Vacuum inside 
the printer, especially the printhead area and the metal heat 
sinks.
4. Keyboard: turn it over, and shake it out, then vacuum it 
out. You'll be surprised at the garbage that collects in the 
keyboard.
5. Disk Drive: Really suck the dust out of the drive area. Take 
the two side plates off at least twice a year to allow you to 
clean more thoroughly.

CAUTION.

A word of caution. Don't get over-enthusiastic on the circuit 
boards. Too powerful a suction could pull something loose.

COOLING FANS.

Clean air flowing will dramatically increase the life of your 
equipment. Heat kills electronics. I use a pair of FRESHAIRE 
filter fans by Charlescraft. The advantage is they have a 
botton-mounted, reusable and replaceable charcoal filter so 
they actually suck dust in, trap it, and expel clean, cool air. 
They're sold at Canadian Tire for about $18.00 each. I got my 
pair at a yard sale for $7.00. You can vacuum out the filters 
several times but replacements are available at Can Tire for 
about $4.00. I have one blowing on the back of my CPU, Disk 
Drive and Power Supply, and the second blowing into the rear of 
my printer.

Remember to disassemble the fans once a year and clean out the 
garbage. You'll really find out how dusty your residence is 
when you do that. The inside of the fans get filthy. FANTASTIC 
liquid cleaner does a great job.

COVERS.

Keeping your ADAM under a custom plastic cover is very wise. 
They cost about $20.00 and are worth it. If you keep your ADAM 
vacuumed out and clean as a whistle, you'll add years of 
reliable life.

Good ADAMing until next time.

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