SCSI Scanners.

[Rilescat]

Are there any SCSI scanners still in production? I have some SCSI equipment and would like to put it to use rather than going USB.

 

[HardTech]

I don't know if there are still any, but I have a SCSI scanner that I ordered over a year ago that I haven't even opened from the shipping box yet. I bought it for something like $30 shipped and will let it go for $20 shipped

I can't remember what brand name it was or how good of a scanner it is, but it's probably not something professional if it was only $30 a year ago.

 

[Peter]

Ah yes, SCSI scanners are still made, at the top end of the product scale.

When connecting an old, rather average SCSI scanner to a current system, remember that the SCSI host adapter card, cable and terminator easily exceed what a new and possibly better USB based scanner would cost. (Those scanners mostly came with ISA SCSI cards that are useless today.)

This only makes sense if you manage to snatch a really neat higher grade scanner from someone who thinks SCSI is obsolete. Like me, that's how I got that huge old UMAX with transparency adapter and all 😉

 

[skyking]

nice find, Peter. I need to find a spare lumisys 20 scanner for x-ray films, have any ideas? It is basically a pass through scanner with a wide format, and dates from '97 or earlier.

 

[beaver]

Peter,

I have an old scsi scanner UMAX1220S. Its scsi card is an ISA 25-pin scsi adaptor. Is it possible to replace/upgrade it with a PCI 25-pin scsi adaptor? My motherboard won't support ISA card any more. But the scanner is in good shape. scsi card I can find is PCI 50-pin adaptor ($5~$10 on ebay). I believe it's not compatible.

Thanks.

beaver

 

[Peter]

That's not how it's done (because 25-pin SCSI is rather bad). You need a well supported PCI SCSI adapter, like LSI's 20860, a 50-pin cable to go with that (HD plug for the card, old fashioned Centronics style for the scanner end), and a 25-pin active terminator to go onto the other connector on the scanner.
If you want to go the cheap route, get a Tekram 305U SCSI card (it's advertized as Mac-only, but nevermind). That one has external 25-pin. You'll then reuse the original cable, but you'll still need a terminator, a 50-pin Centronics this time. But that'll screw up signal integrity badly enough that you won't be able to have anything else on the same SCSI chain.

As I said already, getting those old scanners connected to newer systems might prove expensive. And then there's the software support issue - the 1220S will run well in Linux, but is completely unsupported in recent Windows flavors.

 

[manly]

I know it isn't the most cost-effective, but wouldn't an Adaptec 2906 card work for most cases?

 

[Peter]

Yes. But it's twice as much as those I recommended, and half as fast. Typical Adaptec ripoff.

 

[beaver]

I will re-think the re-use of the SCSI scanner. Possibly I will get SCSI card recommended by Peter and manly on ebay.

Thanks.