DPL users/owners of Howtek/Aztek scanners

[fishbulb]

Why not using a dedicated old PC for scanning and another one with W7 for editing?
I use an old XP dedicated to scan and then upload the images to the server (an old W2K). In the W7, I download the images from the server and I can be editing while scanning.

I don't really want to build a separate PC for that, and have the separate monitor for it, etc. I don't have a space to put it that is within 10' of my scanner either. Tight quarters, unless I could do like a 20' SCSI cable, which I've heard from Aztek is too long. I am already at 10' as is.

[onnect17]

I don't really want to build a separate PC for that, and have the separate monitor for it, etc. I don't have a space to put it that is within 10' of my scanner either. Tight quarters, unless I could do like a 20' SCSI cable, which I've heard from Aztek is too long. I am already at 10' as is.

You don't have to. You can use a KVM switch to share a monitor/keyboard/mouse. A small refurbished dell 990 with w7 x64 pro can be found for less than $400 and it's half the size of a standard pc case. Perfect for editing. File transfer via shared folder. I am quite limited in space too.

Are you looking for a particular feature in dpl8? If not, I would think twice before upgrade. It's a new release and the 7.8X has been tested for a longer period of time. Most likely you are thinking of upgrading ($900 vs $1300) and perhaps the key needs to be updated, so there's a chance Aztek will ask for access to your PC, in case you keep any private data in it.

Not sure if you can request a demo, or at least a refund/rollback option in case the upgrade shows any issues with your setup.

The Adaptec SCSI card mentioned (29160N) is also sold by dell and there are a bunch of "pulls" for sale in the auction site, some for $15.

Good luck!

[onnect17]

Finished testing some tapes for drum mounting in terms of adhesion and residue. Tessa and Kami are nothing special. The OEM tape from Aztek is really good. So far I found one match for a decent price ($8 for 1" wide) in tapejungle.com. Search for 70924.

Also the Sunnyside Odorless Paint Thinner works great as mounting fluid. Many hardware stores carry it. Here are the part numbers:
70532 for a quart (<$10)
705G1 for a gallon (<$20)

[onnect17]

I don't really want to build a separate PC for that, and have the separate monitor for it, etc. I don't have a space to put it that is within 10' of my scanner either. Tight quarters, unless I could do like a 20' SCSI cable, which I've heard from Aztek is too long. I am already at 10' as is.

Did you consider also the option of running in "XP mode" inside Windows 7?

[onnect17]

Glad you asked. I've been contemplating a message here to the group and your question now gives me a reason to post. Like you, I am very interested to hear from anyone else running DPL 8.0 on Windows 64-bit, especially if you are scanning at 4000dpi on a Howtek 4500.

Yes I am running DPL 8.0 on Windows 7 64-bit on a HP Z230 Workstation, 8GB RAM, using a 29160N SCSI card which I purchased from Aztek along with DPL 8. My scanner is a recently acquired refurbished Howtek 4500 (not from Aztek). I am new to high-end scanning but have been reading here a long time to research and learn from the collected wisdom as I develop my scanning and DPL skills. I will be scanning my 4x5 B&W negatives and perhaps later doing some scanning for other photographers.

Regarding the SCSI 29160N: This is a 32-bit PCI card, however there is a 64-bit driver which can be downloaded from Adaptec. So to use this card you will need an available PCI slot in your machine, or Aztek also sells a PCIe adapter/bridge card that would allow you to plug into a PCIe slot. In my case, in two different machines, I could not use the adapter card because the combined 29160N and adapter card were physically too tall to fit.

Regarding scanning @4000dpi: So far I cannot scan a 4x5 at 4000dpi because of "Buffer Transfer - Length Too Big" errors in DPL (saving as TIF 48-bit). Also I cannot do a scan at any resolution when saving to gray TIF format (different error: "Unable to create a buffer for one scan line"). I am in touch with Evan at Aztek who is working with me on trying to understand what is happening. Initially we thought there might be hardware problems with the IOC card in the scanner or somewhere in the SCSI communications, but after a lot of diligence in cleaning contacts and veritying the scanner HW, cables, etc. the failure pattern remains and is very consistent/repeatable. Our investigation is ongoing...

So my question back to the group: Is anyone using DPL 8.0 on Windows 64-bit with a Howtek 4500 and able to successfully scan a 4x5 negative/chrome @4000dpi?

Dave

Not sure what is the status, if you/Aztek found the resolution. Once thing that called my attention is the SCSI speed. The chip in the IOC card in the 4000/4500 that handles the SCSI (AM33C93A-16PC) should not be stable with speeds over 5MB/sec. The minimum speed you can select in the BIOS in the 29160 is 10MB/sec, so I not sure how that can work properly.

You can always force a 2940 to work with it in W7 but that's a different story.

Good luck!

[fishbulb]

For what it's worth, I am doing fine with my new SCSI board - 29160N - in my Win 7 32 bit, Howtek 4500, DPL 7.83. Works just the same as my old board - 2930CU. No problems scanning at 4000 dpi.

I wonder if something went wrong with the refurbishment of the 4500 that datro bought...

[datro]

A quick update: The 4500 is just fine. I setup a dual-boot environment on my machine and installed Windows 7 32-bit on an extra disk in the system. I downloaded a demo copy of Silverfast 6.6Ai for the Howtek and was able to get it running on Windows 7 32-bit (even though it is not officially supported by Lasersoft). Silverfast was able to do a 4000dpi scan of my 4x5 negative without any issues on my 4500. Still working on the DPL side of things...

Datro

[onnect17]

For what it's worth, I am doing fine with my new SCSI board - 29160N - in my Win 7 32 bit, Howtek 4500, DPL 7.83. Works just the same as my old board - 2930CU. No problems scanning at 4000 dpi.

I wonder if something went wrong with the refurbishment of the 4500 that datro bought...

Good to know!

Perhaps the Howtek API is "throttling" the data going towards the scanner. According to the datasheet the AM33C93A chip can not handle anything sustained beyond 5MB/s, which is the max for SCSI-1. Otherwise, I have to be missing something.

A couple of questions. Which version of firmware BIOS in the SCSI card are you using? Did you have to configure your SCSI card in any way? Do you know if your scanner IOC card uses a different chip?

[onnect17]

A quick update: The 4500 is just fine. I setup a dual-boot environment on my machine and installed Windows 7 32-bit on an extra disk in the system. I downloaded a demo copy of Silverfast 6.6Ai for the Howtek and was able to get it running on Windows 7 32-bit (even though it is not officially supported by Lasersoft). Silverfast was able to do a 4000dpi scan of my 4x5 negative without any issues on my 4500. Still working on the DPL side of things...

Datro

Thanks for the update! So the issue is not hardware related. I use the 4000 and 4500 with a dedicated XP box but some members were looking for options with Windows 7.

A couple of questions. Which version of firmware BIOS in the SCSI card are you using? Did you have to configure your SCSI card in any way?

[fishbulb]

Good to know!
A couple of questions. Which version of firmware BIOS in the SCSI card are you using? Did you have to configure your SCSI card in any way? Do you know if your scanner IOC card uses a different chip?

I didn't even know there were different BIOS versions. I just bought one of the $15 used Dell cards on eBay. Two actually, so I'd have a backup.

I didn't configure it at all, besides downloading the Windows drivers from Adaptec. Win 7 32 had no problem with it (nor with the 2930CU). Win 7 64 drivers installed fine, but haven't used it with the scanner yet since I don't have DPL 8.

My scanner is an original 1990s Howtek that was owned by the same print shop until I bought it. Still have the receipt. I doubt it ever had a new IOC card installed, as they were using it with a 2930CU and a Windows XP box.