USB TO SCSI Possible - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / projects

author: Quarlo Klobrigney
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2025, 04:01:56 am
content: I'm trying to find a way to get either a cable or adapter board (not PCI card) to do 2 way coms via USB TO SCSI.I really wouldn't want another ancient PCI bus Adaptec 2940 card etc, motherboard / box / computer setup just for that purpose.I just need to do scans in A3 (Tabloid) with my original hardly used and formerly quite good $$$ USD 50 pin SCSI scanner."Built like a brick dunny" I"have the S-6E.http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/umax/brochures/Umax-Vista-S6.pdfAny ideas out there for USB-SCSI?The OS is immaterial as I can do any if needed, with Linux being my easiest.

author: Andy Chee
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2025, 04:12:10 am
content: Something like this?

author: Quarlo Klobrigney
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2025, 04:15:58 am
content: I had to save your photo as it appeared GINORMOUS just to see it!How does it preform and is it a SCSI port?

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2025, 04:18:04 am
content: I see some Adaptec USBXchange for sale on ebay.I think that's the easiest approach, other than buying an old Mac.I still have a working (last time I tried it!) Mainstreet/PDQ 266 MHz G3 laptop with SCSI and ADB and serial and modem and floppy disk (expansion bay) and ethernet and FireWire on a PC Card. The next model, which my dad still has one of, has SCSI and USB.

author: Quarlo Klobrigney
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2025, 04:35:11 am
content: As I would hate to build a separate doorstop (trip hazard) computer with the hardware I have.....I find nothing of the 2 solutions presented so far, of a virtual box solution and be debugged to even let it understand just what got plugged in!The USB Xchange tops out at Os's are MAC OS 8.6 Windows 98, 2000Everything I post is getting triple spaced making every post be edited!!!!

author: Quarlo Klobrigney
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2025, 04:42:27 am
content: Can't make the model out?

author: Andy Chee
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2025, 04:54:23 am
content: Quote from: Quarlo Klobrigney on May 31, 2025, 04:15:58 amI have no idea how it performs. I copied the image from an eBay listing. Search for "USB SCSI"

author: Quarlo Klobrigney
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2025, 04:58:29 am
content: I did search but then I came here being dissatisfied there.I was seeking intelligence in the form of this forum and the result is certainly quicker than the time I wasted there

author: Quarlo Klobrigney
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2025, 05:22:59 am
content: Then there's this:https://www.ratocsystems.com/english/download/brochure/u2scx.pdfFor 300-600 USD I could just buy a new scanner for 200 more.This nonsense in today's money for an A3 scanner compared to an A4 is ridiculous!There is no other way to describe "Because you want it" GREED.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2025, 05:55:52 am
content: Quote from: Quarlo Klobrigney on May 31, 2025, 04:01:56 amHuh? I had one of those scanners as a kid. It’s not A3, it’s an A4 scanner. And by today’s standards, it’sterrible: it has tons of noise, color accuracy is… meh. I remember spending hours in Photoshop manually cleaning up scans to make them usable.There is zero reason, other than nostalgia, to get one of those running. You’d be much smarter to spend the money on a later UMAX model that has native USB, or even better, a newer USB model from Canon or Epson.Or spend $2 at your local copy shop, whose copy machines have actual A3+ scanners, to scan your pages to email or a USB drive.FYI, if you want to buy a brand new A3 flatbed scanner today, the cheapest way to do so by far is to buy a Brother inkjet all-in-one.

author: Quarlo Klobrigney
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2025, 06:00:15 am
content: It would only be used for B&W and 2 colors.Show me a cheap A3 scanner today and....

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2025, 06:00:50 am
content: Quote from: Quarlo Klobrigney on May 31, 2025, 05:22:59 amIt’s not greed so much as the fact that there’s basically no market for consumer-level standalone A3 scanners. So the few that exist are targeted for professionals.A3 scanning is common, and not super expensive, in office multifunction machines.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2025, 06:03:11 am
content: Quote from: Quarlo Klobrigney on May 31, 2025, 06:00:15 amBut you’re not even looking at an old A3 scanner. This entire thread so far is about how to resurrect an ancient, awful scanner that doesn’t do what you say you need.Even if the S-6E were A3, which it’s not, it is still super noisy. You see that in black and white scans, too.I already said where to find the cheapest A3 scanners you can buy new. You can just ignore the printer attached to it.

author: Quarlo Klobrigney
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2025, 06:03:14 am
content: A3 is very over expensive for no reason where A4 is cheap and plentiful.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2025, 06:04:38 am
content: Quote from: Quarlo Klobrigney on May 31, 2025, 06:03:14 amI literally explained it to you already. There’s no market forstandaloneconsumerA3 scanners, so nobody makes them.

author: Quarlo Klobrigney
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2025, 06:10:55 am
content: Meanwhile...The note the original topic....If you want to derail it and are looking for a pointless argument It ain't me.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2025, 06:12:49 am
content: Quote from: Quarlo Klobrigney on May 31, 2025, 06:10:55 amI’m trying to help you achieve your goal of making A3 scans.Helping you resurrect an ancient, terrible A4-only scanner won’t help you towards that goal. Don’t you understand that?Youare the one who derailed your own thread with whining about the “greed” of scanner manufacturers today.

author: Quarlo Klobrigney
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2025, 10:43:58 am
content: Meanwhile, you have offered nothing of anything positive to my question only negative opinions to it.You seem to like to interject your negative opinions quite a bit as evidenced from the multitude of ramblings as a "Super Contributor" with not much helpful to contribute.In fact you have said you are trying to help but have no solution so far.You say A3 scans with an A4 scanner. Just how would that be done exactly in you esteemed opinion?You do drive-bys just to interject yourself in the conversation as some do, speak much, but say really nothing.I see your help "Even if the S-6E were A3, which it’s not,(BUT IT IS!)it is still super noisy. You see that in black and white scans, too."Have you ever used one and can speak from experience or just perhaps of an unfounded opinion?It is what I want to do and your participation in doing it is inconsequential, as it is my right to do it.Go piss on someone else's A3 drawings.

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2025, 11:00:14 am
content: I'll probably regret getting involved, but please remember I'm a neutral party.Quote from: Quarlo Klobrigney on May 31, 2025, 10:43:58 amI believe that is his point. It's impossible.QuoteHe said he used one as a kid.The brochure you sent a link tohttp://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/umax/brochures/Umax-Vista-S6.pdfshows "Maximum document size: 8.5" x 11.7" (216 x 297mm)That's A4.

author: Quarlo Klobrigney
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2025, 11:04:21 am
content: Agreed as to the S6, but I have as I said, I have an S6E.And measured as such.I used mine as a grown adultI had to log back in. I timed out.

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2025, 11:28:49 am
content: So the brochure you sent is not for the machine that you have?How on Earth are we supposed to intuit that an S6E is an A3 machine, and not e.g. a European 240V version of a US spec S6?Even assuming that anyone noticed that you said S6E but sent information for S6 in the first place.

author: Quarlo Klobrigney
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2025, 11:34:56 am
content: I sent the S6 doc because the S6-E for which the PDF I have been looking for a few years now seems to be among the missing.I sent it to give a sample of the ruggedness of the thing.I did specify the size though and while posting if I neglected to state enough times it would be by accidental omission, with the facts stated throughout the post.

author: madires
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2025, 01:38:43 pm
content: Regarding linux, SANE supports the Umax Vista S6E. The only advice I can give is that if you want to use vintage peripherals you should keep also a vintage PC. Back then when servers started to come with SAS disks and HAs it was pretty clear that old school SCSI is a thing of the past.

author: Nominal Animal
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2025, 04:34:30 pm
content: Umax Vista S6-E is a Fast SCSI (SCSI-2, 8-bit parallel, 50-pin) device, topping at 10 MBytes/s, so well within USB 2.0 High Speed.It is supported by thesane-umaxbackend in Linux, FreeBSD, Windows, et cetera, so the issue is the 8-bit parallel SCSI interface.Because ofTiny SCSI Emulator, I know for a fact that one could build a Fast SCSI – USB bridge using aTeensy 4.0and either voltage level translators or isolators (since Fast SCSI uses 5V signaling, and Teensy 3.3V). The maximum clock rate is just 10 MHz, so it would not even be that complicated. (GPIO pin assignment is key, however, for the ~ 20 signals.)Raspberry Pi Zero -based SCSI emulators exist (seeZuluSCSI-Pico-OSHWandBlueSCSI-v2for example), but RP2040 and RP2350 only support USB Full Speed, 12 Mbit/s ≃ 1 MByte/s, which would probably not be fast enough for the scanner, if modified for SCSI-USB passthrough (a software change). (Even if you use 128k of buffer on the RP2xxxx, the scanner would pause for quite a bit every few scan lines, because of the very slow data transfer rate.)A much better option would be to use a PCIe SCSI adapter. You need either a PCIEx4 slot, or a M.2 M-key slot with 4-lane support and a suitable adapter like ADT-Link R42SF, R42SL, or R42SR. One common PCIe SCSI adapter you can find at eBay/Amazon/AliExpress for 30€ – 50€ is LSI LSI20320IE. I see reports online that the Windows 8 drivers also work in Windows 10. For Linux, you need to either use an old kernel, or recompile the old drivers for new kernels (which probably needs a bit of porting work).Thus, I'd say grab a LSI20320IE PCIEx4 adapter, and install it in your Windows machine, and useSanebackend and one of the compatibleapplications/frontendsto scan via Sane.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2025, 07:59:14 pm
content: Quote from: Quarlo Klobrigney on May 31, 2025, 10:43:58 amIt’s absolutely incredible how you can be so rude, illiterate, and incorrect all at once. You owe me a huge apology for the insults you’ve lobbed at me.First of all, I haven’t been pissing in your Cheerios, I’ve been giving sound advice based in fact, including the cheapest way to buy a new A3 scanner today.I did not say to scan A3 with an A4 scanner. I was asking how YOU think that is possible, because that is what you are proposing.I am NOT wrong about the S-6E (WHICH I ALREADY SAID I OWNED AND USED EXTENSIVELY, the damned thing lived on the desk in MY bedroom!). And I canproveI’m not mistaken:Here’s the Consumer Reports review of it,including specs:https://archive.org/details/consumerreports1997cons/page/n461/mode/2upAs you can see, it lists the scan size as 8.5x11.7 inches, which is A4 (well, technically the length of A4 and the width of US letter, so that both fit completely).Here’s a current eBay listing for one, and it states the scan size as A4:https://www.ebay.com/itm/145972328371And finally, here’s a Macworld magazine review of it, which makes clear that the S-6E is a budget scanner.https://vintageapple.org/macworld/pdf/MacWorld_9703_March_1997.pdfIs it really in any way plausible that — back in a time when scanners were still very expensive peripherals — that one of the cheapest ones on the market would be a jumbo-size A3 scanner? That simply makes no sense.So either:- UMAX used the same model name for two completely different scanners with completely different specs, one of which nobody except you has ever heard of, and for which there is no record.- You don’t actually own an S-6E, but rather some other model.- You do own an S-6E and don’t know how to operate a ruler, since you claimed you already measured the scan bed.

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 31, 2025, 08:36:32 pm
content: Coming to this thread late, so pardon me if I missed something I didn't read.This is a subject I know something about, as the company I worked for used SCSI for all its devices this was back in the 90s-early 2000s). We standardized on the canonical Adapted 29XX, then later the Advansys clones which were a bit better. (I wrote some low-level code back then using Adaptec's ASPI API.)I have a SCSI-only device, a Nikon Coolscan film scanner, that's hooked up to my old Windows 2000 computer since it's the only thing I've found that will support SCSI. I spent a good deal of time looking online for SCSI-to-USB adapters but found nothing. Yes, there were some made, but everything I read about them told me to stay away from them.Of course it would be entirely possible to construct such an adapter, but apparently there's so little demand for it that nobody's made a reliable and reasonably-priced one. it would only need to be the size of a small dongle.I'd love to be proven wrong here, so will continue to watch this thread.

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 01, 2025, 12:13:06 am
content: Quote from: Analog Kid on May 31, 2025, 08:36:32 pmSomething like this? (yes, it's in the box)

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 01, 2025, 01:17:53 am
content: Quote from: brucehoult on June 01, 2025, 12:13:06 amYep, that's it.I got a screaming deal on it on eBay, and it works perfectly. Great scans.(I only wish it were just a little bit bigger so I could scan my 6cm negatives ...)What do you use to access your CoolScan?

author: brucehoult
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 01, 2025, 01:45:01 am
content: Quote from: Analog Kid on June 01, 2025, 01:17:53 amMine was free :-) Haven't actually used it yet. I've got 20 years of 35mm negs from the OM-10 I got for my 21st birthday in 1983 (and still have) and later Olympus µ (1991) and Fuji DL Super Mini Zoom (1996) (which I LOVED as one of the few pocket cameras with 28mm lens (and 56mm "zoom")). Switched to digital with a D70s in 2005, and iPhones (3GS on) from 2009.I understood fairly early on that the best camera is the one you always have with you, which the µ was amazing for.