SCSI card question

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ian Woodrow
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Ian Woodrow

I have an Adaptec AHA-2930CU SCSI card and would like to know a couple of
things.

All I need this for is to run a slide scanner I have. I don't have any
other devices I need to run off it.
Now, there is a ribbon cable with it. Question here is .... does such a
cable have to be used or is that
just if you want to have a chain of devices ?

There is also a bit for POWER from the PC to go into. Is this actually
needed ? I have seen a diagram of
the board and this power input is labelled as LED Connector (situated just
above an LED labelled as
Host Adapter LED.

If all I want the SCSI card for is to eneble me to connect my slide scanner
to the PC can I just plug the card
into PCI slot and sort out the drivers ? Does the card actually need power
input ??


Cheers for any info,


Woody
 
Ahhh ... hold on a min. I have just looked at the card and it seems it is
not a 2930 but a 2940U2W. Plus the power input is not on the card but on
some sort of PCB which is on the ribbon cable.... which I hope I don't need.


Woody (again)
 
Ian said:
Ahhh ... hold on a min. I have just looked at the card and it seems it is
not a 2930 but a 2940U2W. Plus the power input is not on the card but on
some sort of PCB which is on the ribbon cable.... which I hope I don't need.


Woody (again)
Click to expand...



Bus terminations. Some devices have a built-in terminator,
and some require the user to plug an external terminator, if
the device is the last one on the bus. You need to read up
on termination. Termination is important to signal quality.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_SCSI

http://www.scsita.org/aboutscsi/termTutorial.html

If you'd mentioned the slide scanner model, it might have
been easier to dig up some more info.

Paul
 
Somewhere on teh intarweb "Paul" typed:
Bus terminations. Some devices have a built-in terminator,
and some require the user to plug an external terminator, if
the device is the last one on the bus. You need to read up
on termination. Termination is important to signal quality.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_SCSI

http://www.scsita.org/aboutscsi/termTutorial.html

If you'd mentioned the slide scanner model, it might have
been easier to dig up some more info.
Click to expand...

Good input as usual Paul.

I take it the scanner is external (heh) so it's fairly safe to assume that
it's internally terminated (or has that option). Probably has a device on
the back to set ID number (won't matter if it's the only SCSI device
attached to the card) and maybe termination. Or it'll have one of those
terminator blocks fitted to the second cable interface, hopefully. (If it
has one).

So, Woody, just slot the card in, plug in your scanner and try it out. You
won't break anything and, chances are, it'll work just fine. There's even a
good chance that Windows will find a driver for it. (Although I'd personally
use one downloaded from Adaptec.)

Luck,
 
The scanner is a Nikon Coolscan III (LS-30). Prety sure it does have built
in terminator.

I haven't tried it with the scanner on yet as scanner is in my house and I'm
building the machine at work. Windows has
picked up the SCSI card OK but I have also been on Adaptec page and got the
slightly updated ones.

I'm stuck with Windows 2000. Was going to put XP on but I have read of many
users of this scanner having issues with
XP sp2, and Nikon don't seem to support it. I think I'll build an XP model
too and take a ghost image of that and my w2k
anyway so if it doesn't work on XP I can revert quickly.

Cheers for replies



Woody
 
Ian said:
The scanner is a Nikon Coolscan III (LS-30). Prety sure it does have built
in terminator.

I haven't tried it with the scanner on yet as scanner is in my house and I'm
building the machine at work. Windows has
picked up the SCSI card OK but I have also been on Adaptec page and got the
slightly updated ones.

I'm stuck with Windows 2000. Was going to put XP on but I have read of many
users of this scanner having issues with
XP sp2, and Nikon don't seem to support it. I think I'll build an XP model
too and take a ghost image of that and my w2k
anyway so if it doesn't work on XP I can revert quickly.

Cheers for replies



Woody
Click to expand...

The faceplate of the SCSI card has a 68 pin high density (wide SCSI).

http://download.adaptec.com/pdfs/aha2940u2w.pdf

The scanner has a 50 pin high density (narrow SCSI).

I checked my "expensive junk" box in the basement, and they
did make a 68 pin HD to 50 pin HD adapter. I'd connect one of
those first, to the 2940u2w, then a 50 pin high density cable
from that, to the scanner.

The scanner has a terminator switch above the right connector.
If the scanner is the only SCSI device, you can turn the
terminator on. Connect the 50 pin to 50 pin high density cable
to the left hand connector (as viewed from back).

Scanner manual is here. Top right figure on page 23 is what you want.

http://www.nikonusa.com/pdf/ls30rm.pdf

For a SCSI ID, the value can matter. Some OSes may assume things, like
a SCSI ID of 5 is a tape drive. Or obscure stuff like that. If you go
with a SCSI ID of 0 or 1, that ought to be safe.

Paul
 
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