ScanMate drum scanner DIY maintenance, troubleshooting, mods

[Netsoft2k]

R39 resistor on my SM4000
https://www.flickr.com/photos/25191222@N04/27942184440/in/dateposted-public/

Thank you so much for this! I greatly appreciate it.

I think this is all I need. I'll update everyone soon.

Regards,

Pali

 

[Netsoft2k]

R39 resistor on my SM4000
https://www.flickr.com/photos/25191222@N04/27942184440/in/dateposted-public/

MELO! You are my HERO right now. I swapped the resistor out and my scanner is alive again! I temporarily just used a common resistor and am waiting for the exact replacement to come through. I feel like I am learning about circuits so much by just having these scanners.

Thank you to everyone who supports this thread. Honestly, I can't imagine owning these machines without this forum and this group of people.

Pali

 

[meloV8]

Wow! Fantastic!
I'm glad I could help You. 🙂

 

[Netsoft2k]

So, installing this on the 5K is a bit more work than I am willing to mess with for the time being. I believe I will have to remove the entire frame to access the screws that are mounting the fiber optic to the lamp frame. As a "cheat", I tried to glue the filter on top of the entry point on the frame and essentially double on the filters that were ahead of the fiber optic end and though this reduced the red, it caused the scanner to fail white point calibration. For now, I have removed the filter from the 5K but will attempt it again if I feel ambitious at some point.

For 11K users, this is a 10 minute job and does make a big difference to consider it.

Pali

Installing the UV / IR filter on the SM 5K is more effort but possible. I successfully did this and documented the procedure with pictures so let me know if you need me to share this. However, keep in mind that changing the filter drastically changes the amount of red light that is seen by the PMT. So much so that the white calibration will most likely fail and you will need to adjust the PMT gain manually. This procedure is documented in the service manual but the steps require you to take the PMT module out and connecting a multimeter to balance the voltages across the Red, Green, and Blue channels. This is a significant effort and you should only attempt it if you are comfortable working with circuit boards and a multimeter.

I had to do this before when I first got the 5K and even with prior experience, I managed to fry my control board due to a stupid mistake. Thanks to MeloV6, I was able to repair my board.

The biggest benefit I see so far is with negative scans. The negatives are extremely clean and I don't have to make any color adjustment beyond applying the appropriate film setting in ColorPerfect plugin.

Regards,

Pali

 

[meloV8]

Pali,

I'd love to see procedure to install a filter UV-IR. My SM4000 is technically virtually the same as the SM5000, so I'd like to try.

If you are scanning negatives in CQ, you save it as a TIFF or Raw?

 

[Netsoft2k]

I scan using TIFF because I have the IT8 calibration applied which is ignored when saved as RAW.

Below are high-level steps to replace the original filter with a UV-IR filter from ebay (link here)

• First, open the back cover of the scanner
  
• Remove the screw shown in the following picture.
  
  
  
  
  
• Slightly loosen the two screws shown in the pictures below.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Remove the bulb(s) if you haven't already.
  
• Pull of the entire bulb assembly.
  
• The right lamp is the transmission lamp, remove the two screws holding the bulb frame. Very straight forward but be careful because as soon as you open it, the glass filter sandwiched between the holder and the main frame will fall.
• Gently remove the filter and replace it with the one shown in the ebay link above. You will need to use tiny bits of tape to hold the new filter in place over the fiber temporarily.
  
• Place the two screws for the bulb frame on and the new filter should sit nicely.
  
• Remove any color profile from CQScan (this only applies if you already have a profile). It should look like the green setting.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Open CQ and perform a white calibration. If it works, you are done! If not, you need to adjust the PMT gains per the service manual instruction under section 5-6.
  
  CAUTION: You will need to remove the PMT module which has the fiber optics cables connected to it. In my scanner, the fiber optic cables are really stiff and I was very careful while moving the PMT module to make sure I didn't break the fiber optic cables.
  
  PLEASE DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK
  
  
• Some reference images to show you how I had my scanner setup during PMT gain adjustments.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

The hard work will pay back with these results.

Here is what to expect with the filter installed. I think the images are self explanatory. Everything is done in full auto mode here.

• 
  Left - Orig Filter | Right - New UV IR Filter
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Orig filter unadjusted scan - ColorPerfect with Portra 160 Profile
  
  
  
  
  
  New UV IR filter unadjusted scan - ColorPerfect with Portra 160 Profile
  
  
  

Hope this helps someone. I am happy to help with any questions you may have.

Regards,

Pali

 

[meloV8]

Thank You for your instructions! I will try to insert a new filter in my SM4000 and SM3000.
As for the scanning negatives, let me'll tell you something😉 When scanning negatives, do not use the IT8 calibration. Using IT8 will limit the color space and giving color profile files. This will introduce errors colors when you try reversing the negatives. IT8 calibration is only used when scanning slides.
Please try perform a simple test. Make scan negative in the CQ as you do it so far. Then do the scan without IT8 and save the RAW 8bit. Then load the RAW file 8bit to PS and convert to 16bit and start ColorPerfect. At the magnification of 100% Compare two scans, you'll see that the scan converted Raw 8bit to 16bit is sharper and the colors are much better.
In fact, the same thing can be done in CT scanning negatives as slides, but a certain advantage over CQ is that it can change the value of Gamma, which has a large impact when converting negatives. Quality scans with CT is exactly the same as with CQ in Raw mode 8bit and can not in any other way, achieve better quality scans. Every other way save files in the CQ will only worsening the quality of scans. The only downside in the CT Scan or CQ Raw 8 bit can be visibility effect "wow & flutter", which is masked by a blur when writing files to TIFF, resulting in a fuzzy, ugly scans.

 

[jzagaja]

I always obtain best results for negatives when there is no any ICC or LUT just RAW data from scanner then LOG curve applied in PS to get into film color space then inversion and Levels. That's all. If all done with 16 bits precision there is no posterization. What I miss in scanners is 10 bit log files (less space required) like in cinematography for final grading. Scanners should do LOG conversion electricaly before ADC.

 

[onnect17]

...
Scanners should do LOG conversion electricaly before ADC.

That's the case with the Howtek scanners. They include a log amp, Unfortunately the design of their light source underperforms.

I think the ScanView's uses a 75w lamp. The Howtek only 20W.

 

[jzagaja]

Light source isn't a big problem I think you can fix it with external PSU and halogen. Anyone tried cheap car xenon H4 with 4000K? Where to find small parabolic mirror?

 

[onnect17]

That's an option but I am happy using RGB leds. It's a more efficient and clean approach. I don't own a scanmate, only Howteks.

 

[jzagaja]

Can you write more? Which LEDs picture of the fixture?

 

[onnect17]

I am on the road right now but I'll try to post a picture. Currently, I'am using an XML-Color from Cree. This is a work in progress. They are coming with better leds every year.

The led is coupled directly to the optical fiber via a teflon adapter to maximize the energy transfer. It's basically a led glued to a base which is then glued to a heat-sink. The R,G and B dies are connected in series, the white die is not used.
Works fine in the Howteks and the scanmates could benefit of this approach too, of course, using multiple leds and splitted fiber to increase the power.


As I said, I do not own a scanmate so I am unable to built a prototype for these models.

 

[jzagaja]

Oh ok picture not needed. Do you adjust color LEDs brightness to match color temp? Which colors?

 

[onnect17]

The green channel is a little higher but not too much. You can always patch a resistor to reduce output of each color.

Here's a pic of the prototype:

 

[jzagaja]

This is interesting because normally one would use warm white Cree XML2 diode - higher flux and CRI (85)?
RGBW diodes connected in series to one driver right? Voltage?
Driven above 350mA per diode?

 

[Netsoft2k]

Please try perform a simple test. Make scan negative in the CQ as you do it so far. Then do the scan without IT8 and save the RAW 8bit. Then load the RAW file 8bit to PS and convert to 16bit and start ColorPerfect. At the magnification of 100% Compare two scans, you'll see that the scan converted Raw 8bit to 16bit is sharper and the colors are much better.
In fact, the same thing can be done in CT scanning negatives as slides, but a certain advantage over CQ is that it can change the value of Gamma, which has a large impact when converting negatives. Quality scans with CT is exactly the same as with CQ in Raw mode 8bit and can not in any other way, achieve better quality scans. Every other way save files in the CQ will only worsening the quality of scans. The only downside in the CT Scan or CQ Raw 8 bit can be visibility effect "wow & flutter", which is masked by a blur when writing files to TIFF, resulting in a fuzzy, ugly scans.

You are correct - I do see an increase in overall sharpness when scanning in 8 bit raw. I'll try to scan with a calibration target and post results but it's clear that 8 bit raw is sharper than Tiff. Thanks for pointing this out.

 

[Netsoft2k]

Armando and Jack, what is the benefit of higher powered light sources?

 

[onnect17]

This is interesting because normally one would use warm white Cree XML2 diode - higher flux and CRI (85)?
RGBW diodes connected in series to one driver right? Voltage?
Driven above 350mA per diode?

I started the tests using regular white leds but they do not separate the green and red. They are in fact a blue led with a phosphorus mask on top.

CRI is not relevant here because we are only interested in the wavelengths of the red, green and blue.

No driver needed in the case of the Howtek. The 11 volts feeding the lamp are enough to drive the XML-Color at 900 mA.

 

[onnect17]

Armando and Jack, what is the benefit of higher powered light sources?

The power of the light source seems ok in the scanviews. In the Howteks, it seems underpowered, resulting in noise, especially in the smallest aperture.