LaserSoft Imaging

Hi,

I have a question. I've just picked up a Ratoc FR1SX SCSI to Firewire Converter. I downloaded the current Silverfast and have run it in demo mode to see if the converter works.

I can drive the scanner, with limitations. I can do scans up to ~2000 dpi, but when I try to run 4000, or interpolate to 8000, the scanner hangs sometime during scan preparation.

I'm trying this on an old Mac G4 400MHz machine, but intend to eventually run it off a more current powerbook or a new macbookpro that will only have firewire capability.

I've set the converter parameters to the suggested settings for the Polaroid 4000 as follows:
Delay time between power on and SCSI bus reset: 0 ---> 40 [s]
Delay time between SCSI bus reset and SCSI command: 1 (No change)
Delay time until 1394 transaction: 4 ---> 41 [s] (Total of delay times )

Has anyone else had problems like this? Is this by chance a limitation of the Demo mode of Silverfast? Does anyone have any advice on getting full resolution scans?

Help appreciated,
Jeff

Dear schuhjm,

while we do not support this configuration, this might be a problem we know from our customers:

Some Firewire host chipsets do not "like" long transfer blocks as they occur when stepping up the resolution. Amongst those are some of the internal chipsets used in the G4 Macs.

You could try (on your own risk) to get a cheap PCI Firewire Card with a NEC or TI chipset and try out that Firewire connection! You can find those cards starting from 10 Euros.

Best regards
Martin

Hi,

As it turns out, I now have it working as of this weekend. I think the first time I was stepping up in resolution, something must have been corrupted when I attempted high res scans

I was able to get one 4000 dpi scan through a powerbook, but could not get a second scan after multiple resets, and reboots.

I reconnected the scanner through SCSI and rescanned to confirm functionality and maximum resolution capability.

I then reattempted the Firewire connections, and have been able to scan at full resolution consistantly, and repeatably.

Seems like the problem has self corrected.

Thanks.

Jeff

Dear schuhjm,

nice to hear ...

Best regards
Martin

I have been doing little with my Polaroid Sprint Scan 4000 for some time, but now life is turning around and I have started up attacking decades of ancestral film (negatives, slides, etc.) I 4000 is a real workhorse plugging along, however for some things the multiple scan of one image capability of the 4000 Plus is really tempting. So I have a couple of issues.

1. Currently I am doing all my scans on a Sony Pentium mid-tower running Windows 7 and of course the 4000 has SCSI interface. I am using the latest version of silverfast listed as suitable for my scanner, and I see a note which says silverfast 6.6 will not recognize a firewire connection for windows. Is that constraint still live? Is there some firmware update I am missing?

Would life improve if I moved to a newer computer with newer faster processor, windows 8 pro installed, 16MB memory installed and fast graphics and at the same time moved to the SprintScan Plus?

The reason I ask is that the SprintScan Plus does not have a SCSI interface, only usb and two firewire connections. USB I have found slow and problematic. With higher speed and more capable PC as described I was wondering if the caution that firewire support of Silverfast is lacking in Windows, remains for true for a system with three times as much processing power and far more recent manufacturing date.

All thoughts are welcome.

Dear customer,

Unfortunately the manufacturer has cancelled support for this device quite some time ago.
It is unlikely that new drivers will become available that would solve your difficulties.

Kind regards,
Arne Ketelhohn.