Scanners for Suns

[Dinah Anderson]

We are using the MicroTek scanner. Our configuration is a scanner
connected to an external SCSI adapter into a shoebox on a 4/140 (Sun OS
4.0.3). I am trying to get it to work on a 3/60 (no shoebox) with little
luck. However, that is a new problem and I hope to get it resolved this
week.

Microtek provides a sunview based interface which works pretty well.
However, we run under X and are having to write our own interface.  This
same scanner will also work on a MacIntosh. We installed one and it worked
immediately. It took us weeks to get the scanner to work on the Sun. We
ran into problems with their installation script (I recommend *not*
running it the first time.) and it seems their Sun was off visiting 1 or
more conferences. However, I managed to convince MicroTek of the
seriousness and urgency of the problem and we reached a resolution. I hope
these types of problems will go away as the company matures.

A couple of design problems with the adapter. You must take the box apart
just to change the SCSI ID. This could easily have been made accessbile
from outside the box with little trouble. Also, the power and "ready" LEDS
are just sticking up off the board on little connector wires. When I took
the box apart to check the SCSI ID, the power LED got bend.  When I put
the box back together again I had no power light and thought I may have
damaged the box. The power led had just gotten bent a bit and was no
longer visible. These LEDS extend beyond the footprint of the board so
this is *real* easy to do.

Anyway, we are real excited about the possibilities of being able to scan
articles, etc. 
Dinah Anderson					 internet: dinah at bcm.tmc.edu 
Baylor College of Medicine	           uucp: {rutgers,mailrus}!bcm!dinah