Heil scanner help....urgent

[Allen in Montreal]

A tenant in the building where I have my studio skipped out and did a midnight move,
they left behind a Linotype Heil scanner, a Topaz.

Anybody know these old units, is it worth trying to patch it together and getting it operational??

[ASRafferty]

Allen, I don't know if this will be any help at all... just ignore if not... but here's something Ted wrote in email to someone who was asking his advice about scanners back in 2006... it's not the Topaz, it's the Saphir, but the point may be useful:

"...when you think about digital equipment you need to determine the quality level that is satisfactory for your needs.... As an example, I spent this afternoon working with the scanner operator at a large printing house... For his personal work at home,when he can't scan it at the office, he uses a Linotype Heil Saphir. The Saphir is a 6 year old ... read many generations back ... scanner that only does 1200 spi but it delivers an honest 1200 spi and has reasonable dMax so it still works fine ... point is he is not going to replace it soon."

Now...whether the guy would get it fixed if it broke down, I don't know, but that was the mention of Heil I found (typos and all, so you know it's really Ted's!) and pass on FWIW.

[erie patsellis]

Allen, the Topaz is a beast of a scanner, but can do some amazing scans.

[Allen in Montreal]

Thank you,
I went down and picked it up, it is huge! The connection is scsi, so I will try it out on my old OS 9 Mac first and see if it powers up etc then look into software from there.

[JW Dewdney]

yeah - it should be good. But you'll need the software to run it. Try Linocolor 4 5 or 6 if you have it... If you don't -write me and I'll see what I can do.

[JW Dewdney]

The saphir someone mentioned earlier is actually about TEN years old - as is the topaz. They're both superior even to new epsons, etc... in my humble opinion. Well - I'm just saying I'd pick even a saphir over alot of newer choices.

[Allen in Montreal]

The saphir someone mentioned earlier is actually about TEN years old - as is the topaz. They're both superior even to new epsons, etc... in my humble opinion. Well - I'm just saying I'd pick even a saphir over alot of newer choices.

Any assistance getting this up running would be greatly appreciated!
It seems to power up well and the scanner lamp works.
I searched for an online instruction manual, no luck so far.



I checked the link to your web site, wow!

[ASRafferty]

Allen, did you already find this thread?

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?t=23428

A local printer may be your best resource....?

[erie patsellis]

Allen, I purchased an Opal Ultra a few years ago and Heidelberg USA was very accomadating, they sent me a Color Factory Pro CD gratis. It can't hurt to give them a call


erie

[seawolf66]

Only run that scanner on Mac O/S or windows XP Pro : Windows vista will give you problems: also I had found a Heil scanner parts dealer on the famous web site [ebay] when I locate it will email it to you

[Allen in Montreal]

Thank you gents,
I am getting closer!

Erie, I did make that call, and I think they would have had I lived in the ConUS. They flipped me to the CDN office who said...what? that dinosaur, good luck buddy!
Oddly, they gave me their blessing and suggested I try a buy a copy of the software from anyone who had originally purchased it and may still have a disk!

Silverfast has offered the software at a good discount but I still do not know if the scanner is fully operational. I secured a centronics to 25 pin scsi to get it up on the OS 9 mac but have no software yet, I have a demo version of the software for OS X 10.4 but no cables centronics to Firewire yet! :mad:

Lauren, that e bay lead was great thank you. The have the original Linocolor software at 350.00 but I will hold spending on S.W. to try and get a firewire setup and test first.

[seawolf66]

Allen: What is the softwarte called that your looking for : Would it be the same as my hiedelberg ultra saphir 2 , if so I'll be happy to help you ? Lauren

[Allen in Montreal]

Hi Lauren,

According to Heidleberg Canada, I need Linocolor 5 or 6 or Silverfast for MAC.

I really do not mind paying for software, but since it is not refundable, and I am not yet certain the scanner is fully functional, anywhere from 400 to 1200 for software on a gamble is not that attractive!

I believe, if I run it on my OS 9 I need the Linocolor.
If I get the Firewire to scsi adapter and run it on my MacBook Pro, I need Silverfast.
Heidleberg USA seemed far more interested in helping than HB in Canada.

I really appreciate your help in trying to get this scanner back to life!

[dwhistance]

At least with Silverfast you can try a demo. It will at least tell you if the scanner is functional. Having proved that you can then decide what software is best for your purposes although I have to admit I stuck with Silverfast with my Howtek just because they offered a demo.

David Whistance

[seawolf66]

Allen The person, I got my Scanner from stated I did not need all the software that I got with the scanner , It would just run fine on Silverfast : Lauren