Re: UMAX Astra 1200S lamp question

Rogier Wolff (R.E.Wolff@BitWizard.nl)
Fri, 26 Feb 1999 00:14:15 +0100 (MET)

Jeff Evarts wrote:
> Zygo Blaxell wrote:
> >
> > I've recently acquired a UMAX Astra 1200S.
>
> Me too.
>
> >
> > When I connected power (and nothing else) to the scanner, the imaging
> > lamp came on. When I connected the SCSI cable, the lamp stayed on.
> > I've tried SCSI bus resets, scanning images, setting every available
> > option in xscanimage and scanimage, and never has the lamp been off.
> > The lamp is still shining under the scanner cover to this day.
>
> Yep, for me too.

I have a Tamarack 1200C, and according to the docs (I wrote the
driver), the lamp cannot be turned off.

My guess is that they tried stuff like "turn the lamp off after 10
minutes of inactivity" and either decided that it would prolong the
life of the lamp, and that it would cost them business in lost sales
for replacement lamps, but more likely the extra power-cycles for the
lamp would wear it down faster than just leaving it on.

> > Is this normal? Are the Windows drivers able to turn the lamp off?
> > Is the hardware incapable of turning the lamp off? Is it some kind of
> > funky solid-state lamp with a 100K-hour lifetime?
>
> We can hope. I generally leave the power off except: during
> boot time, when the BIOS and OS are looking for the scanner,
> and when I'm using it.

If you're using Linux, just leave it off, until you need it.

#!/bin/sh
echo "scsi add-single-device 0 0 $1 0" > /proc/scsi/scsi

use this script with the SCSI ID of your scanner as the argument to
have it detected when you want to use it....

> Well, I can't say it's "normal" or "intended", but I can say
> that mine and yours are acting the same way.
>
> Now, if I could only get SANE to FIND the darn thing. (I have
> been less lucky than you in getting SANE to work)

Tip: Edit dll.conf, and remove all other backends.

Roger.

-- 
** R.E.Wolff@BitWizard.nl ** http://www.BitWizard.nl/ ** +31-15-2137555 **
*-- BitWizard writes Linux device drivers for any device you may have! --*
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*   four times, they will bite your lips!  And they don't let go for at  *
*   least a minute. -- Lisa Coburn, age 9

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