LaserSoft Imaging

[Adolphe]

I have get canoscan 2700 (from 1999) and silverfast (from 2003) ; all together they work very fine! (thousand slides are scanned with excellent quality)

Recently I have change my computer (old and out of service) for a laptop with only USB port !!

So I have bought a usb2Xchange adaptator from adaptec because canoscan work with scsi. All devices are recognized by XP but silverfast dont work (software from canon no more) : for these software there are not scanners pluged.

I have contacted Adaptec ; they say usb channel is not the same that scsi channel, and it is necessary for a scanner to do an adaptation of the software.

I think you have understood me.

What staff from Silverfast can do ? I think i am not the only one with this probl?me.


Adolphe

[LSI_Heidorn]

Dear Adolphe,
sadly Adaptec is right in what they are sayingt:
If you use a SCSI2USB or SCSI2Firewire Adapter the former SCSI device looks like a USB or Firewire device to the Computer.
And the Software ( original or SilverFast ) is looking on SCSI for the scanner, not on USB or Firewire.

Some Users reported success in using a Ratoc SCSI2Firewire Adapter, as this Adapter has a mode where it "simulates" a SCSI device.

Some SilverFast Versions just simply work with Raotc SCSI2Firewire Adapter even without the ( unstable ) SCSI Simulation, as SilveFast often also looks for scanners on the Firewire bus ( for example if there is a newer version of the SCSI Scanner with Firewire Interface ).

I also ported SilverFast to work via Ratoc SCSI2Firewire on Heidelberger Scanners...

We did not do any special things for the Canon 2700 as it is no current model anymore and existing Hardware works fine ( as you reported ).

Sooooo, that means:
I see a slight chance to make your Configuration work with a Firewire Card for your Notebook and a Ratoc SCSI2Firewire Adapter, but:

-In no way i would guarantee that this works
-It is somehow expensive just for trying out :-(

Maybe the safest way ist just to use your old PC for scanning OR to buy a new film scanner ?!?!


Greetings:

Nils Heidorn, R & D, LaserSoft Imaging AG

[JohnIGoodwin]

Hello Adolphe,

The CanoScan 2700E does work with the Ratoc USB/Firewire to SCSI adaptor under Vista! This despite what Canon, Adapted, and other nerds may say! I use it regularly with v**s**n, but it will most definitely not work with the Canon driver.

The scanner will not work with the CanoScan driver, because the thieves at Microsoft chose not to bother with the support of the ASPI layer in Vista, so Adaptec that wrote the ASPI driver for their SCSI boards didn't persue the matter. It's dreadful getting any information out of the likes of Adaptec, since they have withdrawn all support and haven't the wit or the curtesy to post any information about it. They take our money to buy all these gadgets, then arbitrarily withdraw all support just when the fancy takes them! This means that the Adaptec SCSI board supplied with the Canon equipment - and Adaptec 1460-type PCMCIA cards will no longer work for scanners, because both rely on the ASPI layer - and that no longer works despite what is published about the 'Frog' version of the ASPI driver (well it didn't for me, but perhaps this relates just to the scanner usage). The really confusing thing, is that despite Adaptec claiming that the boards are no longer supported, Vista does have drivers to support these boards, but these will then work only for disks - but not scanners; there are no diagnostic messages from the rotten piece of software - the things just do nothing! How I hate cretins that don't know how to code!

You need to install the driver supplied with each RATOC device, connected by the appropriate USB/Firewire cable, then connect from the adaptor to the SCSI port on he scanner using a SCSI adaptor. One of the two adaptors has a piece of software supplied supposedly for ASPI - but it didn't work for me (again, this may be just a scanner issue as opposed to disk devices). You will need to set the scanner SCSI termination on - so as to supply power to the adaptor! Once installed - it's plug and play, but never used to be under the 'old' set-up. Did you set the termination correctly? Without that, the adaptor won't work unless you paid extra to get it's own power supply unit and used that instead.

One other possible catch if you use the USB adaptor, is that if you plug an old USB 1.1 device into your machine, it will throw-back the bus to USB 1.1 only, and it's just possible that the connection won't work at all under USB 1.1.

I have NOT used SilverFast with this set-up. I would guess that it should work, because although there are rip-off versions for each scanner instead of one common version plus plug-ins for everything, I guess that this is just a marketing scam and that the software is essentially the same for all scanners - as it is in v**s**n. However, if SilverFast tries to use the ASPI layer for this specific scanner, it clearly wouldn't work as this layer no longer exists.

Hope this helps. My Canon 2700E still lives! Oh - in v**s**n you have to call it an FS2700, or is it FS2710.

John

[JohnIGoodwin]

Me again Adolphe,

What I wrote was a bit too specific to Vista; I forgot to specifically mention that my solution also works in XP using the Ratoc adaptors as already said, but it's not the only way because in XP all the APSI features are still enabled - but your problem there in XP was primarily you not having a SCSI port. The latter can of course be overcome if you have an Adaptec 1460 series PCMCIA card to support SCSI - such as those supplied as 'extras' by Iomega for use with their SCSI Zip, Jaz, and Bernouli disk drives (cards are attributed to Iomega and marked 'Zip' or 'Jaz' - but they're actually re-badged Adaptec 1460D's), but of course you have to download the latest version of the ASPI drivers from Adaptec, and these include a separate 'fix' for the XP Registry to be run as a self executing file; not worth actually buying any of these bits now if you don't already have such, unless you really want to use the CanoScan software, as the Ratoc adaptors work on XP but of course you'll need SilverFast or Vu*Sc*n to run with. (Beware of one of the Iomega adaptors that may be knocking about, as one SCSI-looking adaptor may actually be a parallel adaptor - and musn't be used). (The CanoScan software can be a pig to load, as it still thinks that you'll be using a Floppy Disk drive). For trial purposes, you can get a working version of Vu*c*n Pro via Torrent (the on-site demo version doesn't work!) I won't mention the obvious corollary.

There's potentially a further problem regarding the use of a SCSI card to be conquered on a notebook of recent production, if it has an ExpressCard slot as opposed to a PCMCIA card slot. This can be overcome by using an appropriate adaptor - but the consequent assembly hanging out of the side of the PC is rather cumbersome, and just inviting accidental damage to the motherboard if handled roughly.

John