New iMac Setup Help

willwright said:
I just installed a new mac mini with yosemite. I have 2 epson printers and immediately installed new driver for them that work perfectly. I also have a nikon coolscan V and it's working well with vuescan. I had serious compatibility issues with my old Leopard material...still working on some of that
Click to expand...

... it's only the wi-fi bit that is a problem. Everything is fine even the old minolta 5400 if it's plugged in via USB ... I'm just a bit OCD with stuff like that and want to keep it in the scanner cupboard and connect it via wi-fi
 
No need to use the Mini as a scanner server at all.

KISS!

Just plug the scanner to either of the two computers and scan on that one. Then, share the harddisk of that computer over the network and pick up any file easily.

That's how I get the huge scans 50MP from my Imacon Photo (the older SCSI type) to the current Mac Mini.

The Imacon and a Canon 8800f are connected to an old Mac G4 with SCSI card and USB. The G4's harddrive is shared on the network.
The Mini runs Lightroom 5 and Photoshop CS3 and after picking files up through the (wired) network, I can edit them on the Mac Mini without any hassle.
 
Plug your scanner into an USB Hub pig tailed to the compuer.

Or -- plug the scanner directly into the USB port in the Computer.

There will be no communication issue at all - I'm running a 2012 Mac Mini with a recently aquired Minolta 5400 I series.

I also have a cat - she's my scanning assistant - once I tried to scan her paw, but it's too big for the feed tray - so that really didn't work very well.

a>
 
... direct connection is fine, it worked straight out of the box ... I'm using it like that at the moment when I need to, but long term a wireless connection would be much more convenient, I just took the top off the mac-mini and it's crammed full of dust and fibres, so cleaning that out will improve its performance no end I expect.

The problem is my wanting to keep it in a cupboard remote from the computers to avoid having leads running across the floor where people walk and to keep it dust free. The minolta will make a 210mp file from a 35mm neg so a running it on a dedicated machine is probably a good idea anyway.
 
I'm using it with Viewscan, so yes all the drivers are in place ... the Minolta software was obsolete years ago, I don't think it ever ran on Mountain-Lion

I have full function on USB2 with Viewscan, it is the wifi communication that I'm trying to find a way to set up.
 
willie_901 said:
Stewart,

This, or a similar product, might solve your problem.
Click to expand...

That won't take care of the fact that the scanner driver is not equipped to receive scanner commands nor send its scans across a wireless network, so no that won't help either.



Attaching it to the Mac Mini and using VueScan on that is the best bet. From there, you can share the Mini's harddrive wirelessly on the network, to whatever computer you want.

Sharing the Mini's harddisk is easy: read here

Then on the receiving Mac, in Finder press Command-K and fill in afp://DRIVENAME.local to establish a connection to the Mini's harddrive.

Navigating it will be like navigating any other external harddrive.


Easy as pie ;)
 
I guess I misunderstood. I considered drivers to be irrelevant.

The scanner now works with a USB cable.

This device is a essentially wireless USB cable.
 
willie_901 said:
I guess I misunderstood. I considered drivers to be irrelevant.

The scanner now works with a USB cable.

This device is a essentially wireless USB cable.
Click to expand...

Drivers are what connect actual hardware to the protocols of software for use. No matter what device you have, you can't talk to it without some notion of a driver between it and whatever communications protocol you want to use to operate it. They're never irrelevant.. Whatever device you connect to this device, it has to have a driver on board to recognize, select, and talk to the device.

This device *is* an interesting idea. The description says "USB external hard drive, USB flash drive, USB memory card reader, USB speaker, or USB multi-function printer (MFP)" ... So it contains the USB Mass Storage and USB Audio drivers that enable it to attach to those peripherals and serve them to clients through the USB interface.

Most MFP have print/fax/scan capabilities, so there's a bit of hope there. BUT not all scanners can be operated by the same driver. The Minolta 5400 is a dedicated negative scanner—there's no guarantee that its control interface is even similar to an MFP scanning device's interface. It won't advertise itself when connected to a USB provider as an MFP. So it might or might not work (although, I expect not). Only way to find out for sure is to spend $100 and try it.

G
 
... I think the viewscan will need to be installed on whatever the scanner plugged into I've discovered from playing with it so far, I'm not sure it provides any handshakes that anything else can understand

I'm still looking for the old mini's monitor lead ... I've got everything else

Oh and I found the Minolta's 24v power-supply is only making 21 and looks to have a bit of AC ripple ... which I need to sort out, it can't be improving the scan quality
 
... well finely everything is going properly with no unwanted wires. I refurbished an old mac-mini I bought for my daughter years ago, took the lid off cleaned out all the dust and fluff and polished up the plugs and sockets, reloaded the OS X 10.5 and its going like a train

The scanners connect to the Mini via USB and the Mini's screen and controls are shared on the iMac, the bits of old software that won't run on Yosemite run on the mini ... I just need to make a small script to automate it from a icon on the iMac's Dock ... oh! and even my old wireless is connected via the mini's headphone socket

So thanks for the help and advice chaps
 
Sparrow said:
... I can get on to the colour management now ... oh joy
Click to expand...

That should be easy ... just install an Xrite i1 Display Pro and run a calibration and profile, right? I use 110 cdm^2 illumination, 1.8 gamma, and 5600K white point*targets. Seems to give me a near perfect fidelity print out on my usual papers with a color-managed printing workflow.

G
 
Godfrey said:
That should be easy ... just install an Xrite i1 Display Pro and run a calibration and profile, right? I use 110 cdm^2 illumination, 1.8 gamma, and 5600K white point*targets. Seems to give me a near perfect fidelity print out on my usual papers with a color-managed printing workflow.

G
Click to expand...

I just popped out and bought a colour-monkey ... the old spider's is a bit dated and I sold the analyser I'd been using along with the business ... it only dawned on me a few weeks ago the photoshop I was using at home I had also sold in 2011 to someone else in a business deal
 
Sparrow said:
I just popped out and bought a colour-monkey ... the old spider's is a bit dated and I sold the analyser I'd been using along with the business ... it only dawned on me a few weeks ago the photoshop I was using at home I had also sold in 2011 to someone else in a business deal
Click to expand...

Color-Munki is about the same as the i2 Display Pro, uses the same software I think. Both good units ... the Munki has some other capabilities that I don't need so I stuck with the Pro. It was a recent upgrade from my Eye One Display 2, purchased in 2004. I think I got my money's worth out of that one ... :)

Most recent PS I have is PS CS5.1. I use it so little nowadays that I doubt I'll upgrade unless something truly compelling comes forward or it flat out stops working. Most of my image processing is easily handled in Lightroom and/or Flare 2—I'm learning how to make the in-camera JPEG engine do most of the work for me, most of the time, although most of my photos are still processed from raw capture.

G
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom