ScanMate drum scanner DIY maintenance, troubleshooting, mods

Netsoft2k said:
I have to come here to publicly thank Jack (jzagaja) for his continuous help over the last few days to help me get my scanner ready. I just performed the calibration steps he has been walking me through and this is my first scan that doesn't suffer from green channel polarization.

Jack - I owe you a beer + more for everything you did for me. This scan is so beautiful straight out of the scanner and I don't even know half of the process yet. I can't believe my eyes!

Full Scan Link (4x5 @ 700 DPI)

Scanmate Scan (downsampled to 850px)



My original Epson V700 scan that I spent several hours on

V700%20Version%20-%20Black%20Hill%20HP5%20Oct%205%2014%20Velvia%20-%20001.jpg


Notes on my process:

-> Had to clean the entire optical path
-> Cleaned bulb pins and bulb itself
-> Cleaned fiber optic cables
-> Cleaned 2 sets of mirrors
-> Cleaned the aperture plate

-> Bought adapters and cables (from local Microcenter store) to be able to run the monitor program
-> RJ45 to Serial adapter for $6
-> RJ45 Cat5 Cable $4
-> USB to Serial adapter $18

-> Had to use Putty software (Windows Hyper Terminal did not work)
-> Used same settings posted by Jack earlier
-> Performed the aperture calibration

Thank you again everyone and thank you JACK!

Pali
Click to expand...

Looks great, amazing colors.

I'd love to see more links to high-resolution samples, the images really shine when this large, especially on a 4K monitor (IBM T221).

Maybe I'll be the next ScanMate convert... I don't mind a tough challenge, if I can get amazing results like this 🙂
 
I did make a 2000DPI scan but because this was a dry mount, the scan suffered from very significant newton rings. Still waiting for the wet mounting fluid to arrive so I can make a proper scan soon.

However, I made a scan from another MF slide at 4000DPI that you might want to look at. This one is shot on velvia also so the colors are very saturated.



Pali
 
Phil - that is gorgeous! Just out of curiosity, what DPI is the original scan? I have been scanning 4x5 and MF (6x9) and 4000 DPI is the max I have pushed the scanner to yet.

Also, it just maybe me but it looks like the guy is not wearing any climbing gear?

Pali
 
It's at 5000 dpi. You can go higher of course, but that is enough to get the usable image info off 35mm. It's 100 MB, past about 150 MB there isn't much to be gained.

You are correct, the shot is one I took of John Bachar back in my Yosemite climbing days in the 80's. He was well known for free soloing, climbing with no equipment. He was in very little danger as he was considered by many to be the finest climber in the world, or at least amongst the very best.
 
For some reason I knew you were going to tell me this was someone who was featured in a discovery show I saw a while ago. Very impressive image and a nice story to go with it.

So I got my wet mounting fluid this weekend and after many failed attempts, I made a scan at 5000 DPI of a 4x5 slide. I think the image is not sharp enough to really need 5000 DPI but I was very happy with the scan which has zero newton rings. I uploaded it to gigpan if anyone is curious what it looks like.

http://www.gigapan.com/gigapans/65f877be0635a40f5771ce8e339af882

Pali
 
My Scanmate 5000 stopped working. I'm a bit puzzled, it goes into the ready-mode when i power my computer. And also does the ready-mode thing when windows loads up.

But ColorQuartet just says it does not find a scanner.

The scanner does show up in the Device Manager, as does the SCSI board. And i tried out 2 different SCSI cables.

It was working fine so far, i think something happened during me moving to a new apartment. Just don't know what, as it does everything it's supposed to do.. but CQ just doesn't recognise it anymore.

device.jpg
 
monkeyfist said:
My Scanmate 5000 stopped working. I'm a bit puzzled, it goes into the ready-mode when i power my computer. And also does the ready-mode thing when windows loads up.

But ColorQuartet just says it does not find a scanner.

The scanner does show up in the Device Manager, as does the SCSI board. And i tried out 2 different SCSI cables.

It was working fine so far, i think something happened during me moving to a new apartment. Just don't know what, as it does everything it's supposed to do.. but CQ just doesn't recognise it anymore.
Click to expand...

Did the SCSI selector (wheel button) change by accident in the move? Have you tried running CQScan and CQ in Administrator Mode (right-click "run as Administrator")?

Pali
 
Netsoft2k said:
Did the SCSI selector (wheel button) change by accident in the move? Have you tried running CQScan and CQ in Administrator Mode (right-click "run as Administrator")?

Pali
Click to expand...

Scanmate 5000 has dip switches, not a wheel. So they do not move so easily. And i did check them, also tested changing the SCSI id. And windows did try to install it again, when i did it. And in system manager it shows it's now ID 2. Before it was ID 1.

I think i'm running everything as administrator, and as i have not changed anything on my windows setup. I don't think it's the problem.

I have no clue of what has happened, can't understand why windows would see the scanner but QC not.

Maybe i would need to check all the connections of the mainboards, that is the only thing that could have happened during the move. Vibration. Maybe test if it runs as it runs now, without some of these boards that can be disconnected.

I'm in deep **** with this, i really need my scanner... it's like my right hand would have fallen off.
 
Netsoft2k said:
Did the SCSI selector (wheel button) change by accident in the move? Have you tried running CQScan and CQ in Administrator Mode (right-click "run as Administrator")?

Pali
Click to expand...

Hello

Thanks man! 😎

I disregarded the "run as administrator" tip. But luckily was not arrogant enough to not try it. It works!

I don't know what has happened to cause this change. As i have UAC disabled, and everything should be running as administrator.

All the black clouds and suicidal thoughts just vanished.

Also, i noticed you wish to run you scanner on PC. I'm running QC 5.2.2 on win7x64. And it works fine. So no need to run this scanner on old systems necessarily.

And on PC, you can use the "run as date" software so you can run the QC 5.2.2 indefinitely.
 
monkeyfist said:
Hello

Thanks man! 😎

I disregarded the "run as administrator" tip. But luckily was not arrogant enough to not try it. It works!

I don't know what has happened to cause this change. As i have UAC disabled, and everything should be running as administrator.

All the black clouds and suicidal thoughts just vanished.

Also, i noticed you wish to run you scanner on PC. I'm running QC 5.2.2 on win7x64. And it works fine. So no need to run this scanner on old systems necessarily.

And on PC, you can use the "run as date" software so you can run the QC 5.2.2 indefinitely.
Click to expand...

Awesome news! Happy to hear that you got it working. I too got mine to work on Win7 64Bit but that machine is something I need regularly. Given the length of the SCSI cable, I have dedicated a XP laptop to it that is on the same network so copying files just takes 1-2 minutes. Plus, I never have to have heart attacks if UAC randomly gets disabled 🙂

Pali
 





Dry mount 2000DPI Scan of 4x5 Velvia 100. Velvia’s colors are almost too much stimulation for the eye so I created a BW version as well.

Pali
 
Nice scan of the flowers, I like the BW version. Notice that the reds are clipping in the color scan, this is not something you are doing wrong however. Velvia is capable of rendering reds and magentas that lie outside of the ScanMate's colorspace. It's not a problem for me as they wouldn't be printable on an inkjet printer anyways, and besides, I always thought that aspect of Velvia was way over the top. Others may disagree...
 
philbard said:
Nice scan of the flowers, I like the BW version. Notice that the reds are clipping in the color scan, this is not something you are doing wrong however. Velvia is capable of rendering reds and magentas that lie outside of the ScanMate's colorspace. It's not a problem for me as they wouldn't be printable on an inkjet printer anyways, and besides, I always thought that aspect of Velvia was way over the top. Others may disagree...
Click to expand...

You're absolutely correct Phil and the slides do indeed look a different orange/red on the lightbox. Velvia does seem to push the boundaries which only works for some photos. I have mixed feelings about this image because I like it but then if I look at it long enough, it does overwhelm me. That's why I made a BW as well.

I like the challenge of working with this film to see exactly when it shines.

Pali
 
Hey guys, the bulb went out and I need to order a replacement. For now, I just switched the reflective with transmission but want to have a backup.

Does anyone know what bulb is ideal for this?
 
Scanmate Plus

Scanmate Plus

Hi, I 'm new to this forum, which I found after I did a lot of googling in the web about the scanmate.
I read the whole thread an it contains a lot of information for the scanmates I do not own 🙂

My scanmate is, as pointed out in the title, a scanmate plus.
I 've got no information whatsoever about it.

Purchased it recently, came along with a bunch of floppys.
I couldn 't get the floppys to work, because none of my macs has got a FDD.
So I just bought one on ebay - hoping it will work fine with my Mac G4.

What I did already, was to connect the scanmate to the Mac.
I used two different SCSI-cards and two different cables.
With no success at all.

When I start the scanmate, a led lightens up which is marked "on".
Then I start the Mac and two other leds lighten up, marked "operating" and "ready".
The scanmate makes some kind of noise - well, and thats all that happens.
When I try to get the scanner to work, it doesn 't appear on my system (neither running OS 9.2.2 nor OS X 10.4.11).

I suppose that in the first place I need to get the information stored on the floppys onto my Mac - I 'm gonna try that, as soon as the FDD arrives.
Furthermore, I 'm just about to get me an old PowerMac 7500, which has a FDD and a native SCSI connection onboard.
Just to make shure, it 's not the cards I 'm using in my G4, which will prevent the scanmate from operating.

What I 'm looking for right now is some information, a manual for example, about the scanmate.

And as I haven 't found anything about it in the web, this forum is my last hope to gather any information about this machine.
So, if there 's someone here in this forum who could help me with further information, well, I 'd appreciate that.

All right, all I can do now is ... sitting, waiting, wishing ... 🙂

Patrick
 
Do your run Color Trio or Color Quartet software? I recommend starting with the first.

ScanMate Plus is a multi-pass scanner to my knowledge (scans 1-channel at the time in 3 passes), hence not the best in drum scanner's world terms, but should be very decent scanner if you get it to work.

If the scanner makes some noise during computer startup, means it gets SCSI ping from the compter. So there's at least a one-way comms which is already a good sign.

Does Plus have a SCSI channel ID switch (0-9)? Use a number from 1-5, don't use 0, 7, 8 or 9.

Make sure you'r SCSI chain is terminated. Try both active and passive terminators in different ports (switch SCSI cable to other port and terminator to other, try other way round if not working).

PS: ALWAYS make a complete system restart each time you change SCSI settings and always disconnect the cable or terminator only when both systems are completely shut down (power off).

Good luck!
 
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