LaserSoft Imaging

When I click on the prescan, I get an error message, ""an error occured at the start of the scanning process, cannot measure the exposure values", or the comupter crashes. I have made several support requests of the USA office dating back to December, but the issue has not been resolved. I spoke with someone in Florida who said that you were "working on it". The scanner works fine with v**s**n, and unlike Silverfast Ai, v**s**n works with Digital Ice. However, I much prefer working with Silverfast because of the superior results.

I am working with a Mac, 10.4.9, one gig ram, Silverfast 6.4.4r something (whatever the last version of 6.4 was). I tried using the 6.5 demo, but it the computer still crashes. I have installed all the latest firmware and drivers for the scanner and the Adaptec SCSI card. I have tried using several differrent scsi channels, but that has made no difference.

How close are you to resolving this issue?

Regards,

Peter Calvin

Dear Peter Calvin,

unfortunately, Adaptec and Panther/Tiger do not go very well together. Adaptec has even canceled support for all Mac OS.
While Adaptec chose to remove their knowledgebase entry Answer ID ( http://tinyurl.com/542qy ), here's how it originally read:
http://tinyurl.com/j6bhf

SilverFast testing center experienced severe SCSI detection problems with OS X 10.3.0 and 10.3.1.

The update to 10.3.2 made Panther somewhat more compatible with some SCSI controllers, however, still not smooth as things have been in Jaguar 10.2.8 (cf.: IOSCSIDeviceInterface not supported under Panther -
http://tinyurl.com/9peu8 ).

Apple explicitely changed things that caused SCSI problems in 10.3.3 that should be rectified with an update to 10.3.4 ( http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107914 ).
There is no notion concerning SCSI in the 10.3.5 release notes and beyond including 10.4.9.

We found SCSI controller cards by Acard
( http://www.acard.com.tw/english/home.jsp ) to be very compliant with a wide range of SCSI scanners, especially the 6712TUM and 67160M /67162M (for G5) models.

Alternatively, you might be interested in SCSI-to-Firewire converters like the Ratoc FR1SX ( http://tinyurl.com/2g6oa ) or the Belkin F5S451U. We had positive testing experience with both converters, too.

Also, there's a kind of "hacker's guide" to reactivate the lost SCSI API from Jaguar in Panther and Tiger, if you'd like to try this at home: http://tinyurl.com/cw7nx

Best regards
Martin

Thanks for the explanation and links.

If I were to use one of the SCSI to Firewire adapters, would there be any change and the software I would use? That is, does Silverfast still see the scanner as a SCSIdevice or a Firewire device? I am thinking of Digitai Ice in OSX in particular, would it work if I run the scanner through the converter?

Thanks,

Peter

Hi. Do you think this can be coaxed into working with Silverfast? SF_Launcher (SilverFast E-6.5.0r8a (iSE)) lists LS-2000 as a supported scanner, but doesn't find anything on the SCSI bus. The Apple System Profiler shows a Firewire device:


It's curious it doesn't show any Nikon identifiers.

Any suggestions besides move back to a PC?

Dear Stephen,

this is the typical output for *any* device connected to a Ratoc FR1SX Adapter.

This won't work until we specifically invest work to adapt it, like we have for some Highend Scanners ( Tango, Topaz, NexScan, ... ).

As the LS 2000 is a bit outdated now, we probably won't have the time to do the same for the LS-2000, sorry.

Or could people post that have the same demand ?

Greetings,

Nils

Hi. Eventually I got it to work.

Set ASYNC mode in the FR1 Utility.

SCSI Termination is OFF on the device.

After changing settings, you must DISABLE the FR1 Utility and reboot.

FR1 Utility is an odd, clunky piece of software. I don't know any other tools that force rebooting Mac OS X this way.

Does Digital Ice work with your LS 2000 and the Firewire adapter?

Thanks.

Dear Stephen,

GREAT, so you are lucky that the SCSI Simulation mode works for you ( for most it is unstable / buggy ).

Congratulations and always good scans :-)


Nils Heidorn