[sane-devel] UMAX Astra 1200S

[Wolfram Heider]

David,

obviously you have done the miracle to get a scsi-connector fit into a  
parallelport ( till now I thought this would be impossible) And as far as  
I know there is no parallelport-version of the Astra 1200 (at later  
modells there was). Are you really sure that it was the parallelport you  
plugged in the scanner-cable?

>
>> the driver for the Umax 1200 S (the 'S' stands for SCSI) should already  
>> be  on your hd in a SuSE 10.1 Installation. You may check it with Yast  
>> -  Hardware - Scanner.
>
> Yes, it is there, as "UMAX Astra 1200S : Driver umax (package sane)  
> provides good functionality. [OK]"
>
> But, when I plug it in into my pc's parallel port (I never received a  
> special pci card) it just doesn't find it. Yes, I had made sure that  
> scanner support was available when I installed the system two days ago.  
> The message I get is "umax - No scanner recognized by this driver"
>
>> If you don't get the list of drivers, you will have to  postinstall the  
>> SANE-package.
>> A more serious point is the scsi-controller (PCI-card). This one  
>> shipped  together with the scanner by Umax  probably won't work. You  
>> will need a  decent one from an independent manufacturer (AdvanSys,  
>> Dawicontrol or so -  not very cheap,. so googling around for an used  
>> one may spare some money).  The controller needs a seperate driver  
>> normally loaded by the kernel at  boot time.
>
> So, maybe I didn't enable scsi (cannot remember, as I didn't know then  
> the scanner was a scsi part). I'll try it.

You don't need to do further configuration - the kernel will do it.

> But also, will I _need_ a special pci-card for scsi hardware?

A SCSI-card is indispensable for a SCSI-scanner.

> Would the scsi plug in card have a parallel port interface too?

The SCSI-card would be plugged into one of the PCI-slots on the  
motherboard inside your box (it's a simple operation, could be done by  
yourself without any tools excepted a screwdriver for the screws of the  
box) and provides an additional port, the parallelport would be untouched  
and stay in its old place and keep its old functions.
Note to have an eye on the connectors of the SCSI-cable of the scanner,  
there are different ones and possibly you will to have to get another  
cable that fits into the connector of the SCSI-card.
>
>> As for Windows: XP supports the 1200 S directly with an own driver -  
>> try a  postinstallation with the hardware/device-manager. For the  
>> original  Vistascan-driver go to http://www.umax.com/support. It's not  
>> downloadable,  only available on CD-ROM.
>
> I had Windows 2000 on the other machine.

No difference to Xp. The Umax 1200er series works fine both with the Umax  
driver as well as with the Windows one. But also here, if it's a  
SCSI-scanner you will need a SCSI-card.

So my advice is, try to get a used good SCSI-card (also called  
SCSI-controller) in a second-hand-PC-shop or somewhere in the net. To buy  
a new one wouldn't be very economical because its price could easily  
exceed the expense for a new USB-scanner.


Wolfram Heider