For all the other creatives out there trying to hook up an old SCSI Imacon scanner to a new Mac, I hope this information is helpful. *I am not responsible if this information doesn’t work for you, or if it screws up your computer. But this worked for me.
You will need:
Ratoc FR1SX FireWire to Ultra SCSI Converter
AC Adapter for FR1SX Item# FR-AC05
High-Density 50F to Centronics 50M Adapter Item# RCL-3005
FireWire 800 to 400 converter (the new macs don’t have FireWire 400).
* I also needed a new power supply for my scanner, so I bought a Protek PMP60-32 from PSU which works perfectly.
A. Downgrade the Firmware of the FR1SX to 1.23. Firmware can be downloaded from Ratoc
1. Make sure the FR1SX is plugged into the AC adapter and the green light is on, and make sure to plug it into the computer with a FireWire cable.
1-b. Double click “FR1 Utility” icon to launch the FR1 Utility.
2. Click “Enable FR1 Utility” button. The system will be restarted by the utility automatically.
3. Double click “FR1 Utility” icon again to launch the FR1 Utility.
4. Click “select firmware data” button to browse firmware data.
5. The firmware data named FR0123.BIN is located at “old firm” folder.
6. Click “Start firmware update” button. Confirm “Firmware Rev” number is changed to 1.23.
7. Click “Disable FR1 Utility” button. The system will be restarted by the utility automatically, or restart your computer.
Please don’t forget to disable the FR1 Utility after changing the settings. If the utility is enabled, all firewire devices are not recognized by the systems temporarily.
B. (I also had to follow these steps which I was given by Ratoc tech support)
0. Disconnect FR1SX from scanner, Mac and AC adapter.
1. Turn off the scanner
2. Connect the FR1SX to the SCSI port of the scanner
3. Turn on the power of the scanner and plug in the AC adapter to FR1SX. Check the green LED light on the FR1SX is ON.
4. Wait for the scanner to finish initialization.
5. Connect the firewire cable to the Mac
6. Run the FR1 Configuration utility
7. Click on “Enable the utility” and then exit the utility.
8. Restart your Mac
9. Run the Configuration utility again. This time, you should be able to edit the parameters.
9-a. Change the parameter “Delay time between power on and SCSI bus reset” to 15 seconds.
9-b. Change the parameter “transfer speed” to “ASYNC”.
10. Click on “Start Configuration Changes”
11. Disable the utility and exit.
12. Restart your Mac.
If you are still having problems, try this start up procedure: With fr1sx unplugged and computer off, start up scanner and wait for it to be in the ready state, plug in fr1sx power, and then start the computer.
According to Hasselblad/Imacon tech support, the new FlexColor software versions (starting from 4.5) does not support older SCSI models, such as the FlexFrame camera backs or Flextight Precision scanners. For the FlexFrame and the Flextight, please use FlexColor 4.0.x.
*Some information is directly from Ratoc’s website and some is compiled from tech support. Have fun scanning!
