ADAM X-10 Home Automation Package with Serial Interface

The Coleco’s ADAM X-10 Home Automation Package with Serial Interface by ADAMLink of Utah was an advanced smart-home setup developed in the late 1980s. It bridged the 8-bit Coleco ADAM computer with the industry-standard X-10 home automation system, allowing users to program and automate physical household electronics directly from their game console.

The X-10 Core Technology

The X-10 protocol was the grandfather of modern smart-home ecosystems. It worked by sending high-frequency digital control signals directly through a house's existing AC electrical wiring.

By plugging an electronic device (like a lamp, appliance, or heater) into a specialized X-10 wall module, a central controller could turn that device on, off, or dim it remotely without requiring any custom internet or wireless cabling.

The ADAMLink of Utah Package:

While X-10 manufactured standalone physical timer blocks, ADAMLink of Utah engineered a hardware and software kit to give the Coleco ADAM total control over the environment:

• The Serial Interface: The kit included a custom serial cable and interface adapter that connected to the ADAM’s internal expansion chassis or serial port card (typically an RS-232 interface). This linked the computer directly to a physical X-10 CP290 Home Control Interface module.
• The Scheduling Software: Distributed on a High-Speed Digital Data Pack tape or a 5.25-inch disk, the software provided a graphical menu interface. Users could assign specific "House Codes" and "Unit Codes" to various rooms.
• Autonomous Operation: The killer feature of the package was its schedule-dumping capability. A user could build a complex, week-long automation schedule on the ADAM screen (e.g., dimming living room lights at 8:00 PM, turning on a coffee maker at 6:30 AM). Once completed, the ADAM uploaded the data package into the X-10 CP290 module's internal battery-backed memory. The user could then turn off or unplug the Coleco ADAM entirely, and the house would continue to automate itself independently.

Historical Rarity

This package is considered an incredibly rare, niche artifact of 1980s retro-computing history. It was sold in low quantities to early home automation hobbyists through mail-order user-group catalogs. Today, collectors value it as a testament to how user groups like ADAMLink of Utah aggressively pushed a discontinued 8-bit video game platform into the realm of practical, futuristic utilities