Thomas Buckler has a request; can someone tell him how to connect a Coleco ADAM keyboard to a PC or a Mac? I’m sure he isn’t the only one that wants to know how this is done.
Notice I didn’t say “if it can be done”. There are many talented people on this planet and the World Wide Web brings us all together. There are guys like Ben Heckendorn who has created amazing conversions of classic game consoles and computers. If you know how to connect ADAM’s keyboard (which uses the ADAMNet protocol to communicate) to a modern day PC, please leave a comment below or respond to Thomas Buckler on YouTube. Thanks!
Oh, I am sure it can be done . Now, just to find someone to do it and why. I have a pc keyboard that was converted to an ADAM, but the inside of that sucker is a wiring mess. I don’tknow of anyone nor would I even attempt. My question is WHY does he want to do this thing????
Hey Bob! Howdy. No offense, but did you watch the video..? He explains why he wants to do it. To him & I, the keyboard sounds and to me, feels good as an input device. Hey, maybe someone will see this and have it on display at the next ADAMCon
The ADAM keyboard was one of the best developed back in the 80′s and numerous people asked the same question as to converting it to be used with other systems. I heard, but never saw one, of people successfully converting them and it would seem there was a demand for the ADAM Keyboard seeing as the likes of Radio Shack stocked and sold them in quantity back in the 80′s. They did not include the plastic case, just the guts. Beyond that bit of history, there are many very talented people in the retro scene and I’m sure numerous people who have the skills to perform this mod, but the desire may not be there.
Jim! Thanks for that bit of info! Never knew about the Radio Shack bit, but I did read that the Coleco ADAM keyboard received positive reviews when it hit the market. Wish we could find someone that could do this, because now I really want to hook this up to my PC!
I’ve been talking with Justin after he told me people were asking about this. It’s not even a mod really, but a rather simple adapter that would take some engineering to put together but then not very expensive to produce. As you guys said, is there enough interest to bother?
If there’s a plan to go ahead and make an adapter, you’ll probably hear about it here first.
I’d put a Hundo toward the project.
Count me in as interested, would love to use my old Adam keyboard on my desktop system!
Howard said it can be done, but since so few people want it, it would be expensive.
This is the thing – it’s time consuming. Hardware-wise it’s a processor and a couple of connectors. The processor will have USB hardware and appropriate firmware to tell the world it’s a USB keyboard. The other end is a serial port that speaks 62.5kbps serial and pretends it’s an ADAM. I have to look up the protocols for the second part since it’s been 30 years (yikes, that long??) but I have that documentation sitting around. What it comes down to is whether I want to spend a bunch of time putting this together to sell 2 or 3 of them. I’d probably use one too, so I guess that’s 4.
Would you be able to “guesstimate” a price per keyboard? Would it include the actual keyboard or should we ship you a keyboard? Now it’s getting serious!
It has nothing really to do with the keyboard. It will end up being a plastic box with a USB cord hanging out one end and a phone jack on the other that will take the ADAM keyboard cord. There will be about $10 worth of parts (or less) inside. The problem is whether I have time and decide to spend days writing the code and designing a board. If someone said “Hey, I’ve got 2 or 3K I’d give you to do it”, that would make it interesting. No one is going to say that though, and the two or three of you aren’t going to pony up $1000 each.
What would happen if I put it up as a Kickstarter thing?
Not a bad idea, the worst that can happen is you don’t reach the monetary goal. No one loses anything.
I’d suggest a posting at AtariAge as it seems to be the best hub for ColecoVision and Adam activity on the home brew front.
Not to OVER shoot the scope of the project, but if you’re going to write code for it, how hard would it be to make it a AdamNET to USB converter that would accept other AdamNET peripherals assuming one made the proper connecting cables? I think it would be kinda cool to be able to wire up a DDP or Disc Drive to a PC.
Just daydreaming, I guess….
i am verrry happy to see the most recent comments!