HP Scanjet 6100c and 2940U2W

[Eric]

Greetings,
I recently acquired an HP Scanjet 6100c. My computer has all scsi drives
running off of an Adaptec 2940U2W controller. These include a DVD, CDRW,
and Zip 100 on the ultra narrow internal connector and an IBM DNES hard
drive on the internal LVD segment. The external connector is part of the
LVD segment so I don't wish to utilize it as connecting the scanner would
slow the hard drive down to UW specs. The card has an additional internal
68 pin ultra wide connector which is not being utilized at this time. Given
the above considerations, what would be the best way to connect the scanner
to the card?

Thanks, Eric

 

[RSD99]

"Eric" asked:
"...
Given the above considerations, what would be the best way
to connect the scanner to the card?
...."

Buy a second SCSI card. One of the "low-end" Adaptec's would
work just fine for a scanner, and your scanner would be
isolated from the critical components of your system.

 

[Eric]

"Eric" asked:
"...
Given the above considerations, what would be the best way
to connect the scanner to the card?
..."

Buy a second SCSI card. One of the "low-end" Adaptec's would
work just fine for a scanner, and your scanner would be
isolated from the critical components of your system.

Thanks for the reply. In addition to your suggestion, I was also
considering bringing one of the internal ultra scsi connectors external via
an internal to external expansion slot adapter and a short length of cable.
One option would be to move my internal ultra narrow scsi devices over to
the internal UW 68 pin connector using a 68 to 50 pin adapter with high byte
termination. I could then use an internal LD50 pin to external HD50 pin
adapter along with a short length of cable to bring the ultra narrow bus
external. The scanner would then be connected using a centronics to HD50
pin cable.

Another option that seemed reasonable would be to connect the scanner via
the 68 pin UW internal connector using the above 50 pin internal to external
adapter and the internal 50 to 68 pin adapter with high byte termination.
The internal ultra devices would stay on the 50 pin connector.

Lastly, a modification of the second protocol would be to use an internal 68
pin to external HD68 pin adapter. The scanner could then be connected using
a centronics 50 pin to HD68 cable with high byte termination.

This last scheme uses the least connectors but would cost more than the
first option which is the one that I'm currently leaning towards. The
external cable would be 6 ft long making the total length of the ultra bus
about 9 ft which is within the specs in the card's manual for 4 or less
devices on the ultra bus.

Some of the questions that arise at this time are, 1) the external cable may
be too long but a 3 ft cable won't work well in my current work area (I know
that I can get a custom length cable made but premade cables cost less), and
2) the card has selectable termination for the ultra segment within the scsi
select utility. These settings are low on/off and high on/off. The manual
states that if both the 68 and 50 pin connectors are being used then these
should be set to low off and high on. Will this be compatible with my
proposed setup? Is it possible to use these settings to terminate the high
byte on the internal 68 pin connector so I would not need the internal
adapter with high byte termination?

Thanks again, Eric