On Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:53:23 -0000, "David WE Roberts"
wrote:

Note X-Post to uk.d-i-y

I am trying to connect an old SCSI scanner bought on eBay to a Windows PC
for a friend.

*sucks teeth*

She has bought and installed an Adaptec SCSI card and this seems to be
recognised by the PC.
However although the scanner powers up it is not recognised as a SCSI
device.
I suspect bus termination issues.

Or cabling. The usual flaw there is to use a Centronics printer cable
rather than a SCSI cable, but that requires a PC end that looks like a
parallel port and a device end that looks like a printer port so
hopefully isn't the case here... Best thing is that doing this nearly
works! But not quite.

Now I have played with SCSI devices in the past but this has always been at
work, where you open a big drawer or cupboard and a load of different cables
and terminators fall out and you try a few until it works.
There is also usually at least one other SCSI device floating around for you
to test with.

I havve a few cables to work with, and something (double ended) labelled as
a passive terminator (but not like the terminators I am used to which are
usually a single ended plug).

Never seen one of those double ended ones, seems a bit odd.

Now SCSI bits aren't that cheap, so I don't fancy buying a selection of
terminators.

You should only need one. The scanner will have a pair of SCSI
sockets, yes? One terminator to fit on the second socket, one SCSI
cable to go from the Adaptec to the scanner.

Check on the scanner, there may be dip switches to enable termination
directly. Then all you need to worry about is which SCSI port on the
scanner to cable to.

I sent all my big drawer of SCSI bits to ebay a year or two ago, or
I'd post you some bits....

Is there any simple DIY way to check out if the bus is O.K. and the
terminator is O.K. such as measuring voltages?

Not really, you're stuck with the full-on sacrifice of a chicken - or
a bag of turkey twizzlers if that's outside your budget...

Cheers - Jaimie
--
"Oh drat these computers, they're so naughty and so complex."
-- Marvin the Martian