Screen 1030 drum scanner: make it work with PowerMac G3 (OS 9.2)

[XFer]

Hi,

I want to share my experiences with the Dainippon Screen DTS 1030 AI drum scanner.

It's a "desktop" drum scanner from the first half of 90s; has a maximum resolution of 5200 DPI and can scan up to 10x12".
It can be found for reasonable prices; a few hundred dollars in good working conditions. Even as low as $300.
Its main limitation is the 8-bit-per-channel output format, but this is not so great a problem with chromes.

Getting this scanner to work has been hard, for various reasons.
So I'm writing here hoping to help some other guy.

This is a SCSI scanner, and must be driven by a Mac, since there is no working Windows software for it.
Vuescan or Silverfast won't support this model.

The DTS Scan application is a 68K binary born under System 7.
It is possible to run it using a PowerMac G3 and OS 9.2, with some care.
Classic mode of OS X won't work.

1) The most important thing: you have to DISABLE Virtual Memory, or DTS Scan will hang shortly after the scan begins, freezing the whole Mac in the process.

2) Then: the DTS Scan app version must match the scanner firmware version.
So to run the latest version of DTS Scan (v. 3.41) you'll need firmware CU version 3.40 (3.41 is OK with 3.40. No fw v.3.41 exists).

I was driving mad because of the Virtual Memory issues: I tried everything (SCSI driver, terminators, cables, IDs, OS versions) because I really could not relate the freezing to virtual memory being enabled.

A note: this scanner can be picky about SCSI adapters.
I had no issues with the Adaptec 2906 PCI card; it's also OK the built-in SCSI port of Beige Powermac G3.
Since the max. transfer rate of the scanner is 2 MB/s, you really don't need a fancy SCSI adapter.
You also don't need a fast CPU, nor lots of memory: the scan application uses RAM only as a buffer, since it directly writes to hard disk during scanning.

Hope this helps.

Fernando

[vinny]

I have the same machine running off an old Mac clone. Thanks for the tips.

[4x5]

Hi,

I have the Dainippon Screen DTS 1015 AI, I'v tried to run it with a G4 with Osx 10.2 and 9.2 instaled, I have the same SCSI card as you are
but everytime i try to run it, (on Os 9)come an error message up, such as "" No DOFF SCSI MGR 4.3 SCSI ACTION BAD PARAMETER"" any ideias, what i need to do?
Tanks
Louis

I want to share my experiences with the Dainippon Screen DTS 1030 AI drum scanner.

It's a "desktop" drum scanner from the first half of 90s; has a maximum resolution of 5200 DPI and can scan up to 10x12".
It can be found for reasonable prices; a few hundred dollars in good working conditions. Even as low as $300.
Its main limitation is the 8-bit-per-channel output format, but this is not so great a problem with chromes.

Getting this scanner to work has been hard, for various reasons.
So I'm writing here hoping to help some other guy.

This is a SCSI scanner, and must be driven by a Mac, since there is no working Windows software for it.
Vuescan or Silverfast won't support this model.

The DTS Scan application is a 68K binary born under System 7.
It is possible to run it using a PowerMac G3 and OS 9.2, with some care.
Classic mode of OS X won't work.

1) The most important thing: you have to DISABLE Virtual Memory, or DTS Scan will hang shortly after the scan begins, freezing the whole Mac in the process.

2) Then: the DTS Scan app version must match the scanner firmware version.
So to run the latest version of DTS Scan (v. 3.41) you'll need firmware CU version 3.40 (3.41 is OK with 3.40. No fw v.3.41 exists).

I was driving mad because of the Virtual Memory issues: I tried everything (SCSI driver, terminators, cables, IDs, OS versions) because I really could not relate the freezing to virtual memory being enabled.

A note: this scanner can be picky about SCSI adapters.
I had no issues with the Adaptec 2906 PCI card; it's also OK the built-in SCSI port of Beige Powermac G3.
Since the max. transfer rate of the scanner is 2 MB/s, you really don't need a fancy SCSI adapter.
You also don't need a fast CPU, nor lots of memory: the scan application uses RAM only as a buffer, since it directly writes to hard disk during scanning.

Hope this helps.

Fernando

[Nguss]

This is amazingly helpful. I will give also this a go as soon as I have a bit time to try my scanner out. As for it being 'desktop' I certainly got a shock when it was delivered on a massive pallet! My wife was not exactly impressed.

[vinny]

I really need to switch my system over to a g3 that has a usb or firewire card. The mac that came with my second scanner was DOA.

[IBICO]

I got the same scanner and G3. Setup an ftp server on my macbook pro 17" and got Fetch on the g3 connected to the same router at home. Running OS 9.2.2.
Also setting up a G4 Agp to use later. Much better with usb, firewire and everything "normal" things you are used to on modern mac.

Everything seems to work fine, but somehow I only get maximum dpi 3000. Tried 6x6 frame and one 8x10.. Software say I only could set between 1-3000dpi on both.

Anyone got some error like this?