Firewire to SCSI

September 13, 2005 9:49 AM

An excellent SCSI negative scanner seeks connection with firewire based Mac running OS X. What's a peripheral to do?

I've a feeling this may have been asked before, but a search through the archives didn't reveal anything. I've found a few adapters via Google, but they look to be a bit clunky. If someone has had a good experience with a solid piece of hardware, I'd appreciate hearing about it!

posted by aladfar to computers & internet (4 comments total)

It's going to be a clunky experience.

I used a Belkin SCSI/FireWire converter for a scanner for a few years. I can't find it on Belkin's website (surprise!) but here's a picture from an ebay auction.

It worked just fine although connecting/disconnecting involved a certain amount of voodoo (i can't remember the exact set of steps; something like put PowerBook to sleep, turn on scanner, plug in FireWire cable, wake PowerBook... you know, that whole rigamarole). The biggest problem was finding OS X drivers that would recognize the scanner--simply by virtue of being ancient it was always a chore.

Hamrick's VueScan seems to be the defacto standard for getting old/unsupported scanners working in OS X once you have the hardware end sorted out.
posted by bcwinters at 10:33 AM on September 13, 2005

I've had good experiences with the OrangeMicro line of scsi to firewire adapters under OS 9 and OS X.

They're a little harder to find now, and not cheap, but probably cheaper than a new scanner.
posted by Wild_Eep at 10:56 AM on September 13, 2005

A more reliable option (if your Mac is expandable) would be to buy a SCSI PCI card (ATTO PSC is the best option, although a bit pricey).
posted by pmbuko at 10:57 AM on September 13, 2005

Thanks much for the feedback. It's looking like a clunky adapter is pretty much my only option.

I'm currently using an older G4 tower with a SCSI card, but am planning to upgrade to a nice mini in the near future. Hence the need for an adapter of some kind.

Vuescan is driving the scanner right now, so I'm hoping it will continue to handle it once I've got the adapter set up. For now, I'll go check out the options and will see if I can find any of those OrangeMicro bits.
posted by aladfar at 11:34 AM on September 13, 2005