Page 1 of 1

question for using sheep shaver with an external scanner

Posted: Sun Jun 16, 2019 12:39 am
by scooke20
Hi i am in an interesting situation and was hoping someone more knowledgable than me could help out. I have an old film/transparency scanner that i use called the microtek artixscan 1800f. I recently bought a mac to use as my main station for both film scanning and editing. My problem is that the native software the film scanner works best on (from what i have seen) is their own software called scanwizard pro. But the mac version of their scanning software uses powerpc which does not work on the newest mac software. So i figured i could get a virtual machine to install the software onto and use the software on the vm to run the scanner and scan my film with. But i dont know how to allow sheepshaver to use external usb devices which would be my scanner. if anyone has any knowledge that would help i would be very greatful

Re: question for using sheep shaver with an external scanner

Posted: Sun Jun 16, 2019 4:20 am
by adespoton
You want to be using QEMU, not SheepShaver. QEMU can pass through your scanner from the host to the emulated machine. SheepShaver doesn't do that.

Re: question for using sheep shaver with an external scanner

Posted: Sun Jun 16, 2019 8:08 am
by mabam
scooke20 wrote:My problem is that the native software the film scanner works best on (from what i have seen) is their own software called scanwizard pro. But the mac version of their scanning software uses powerpc which does not work on the newest mac software.
That ScanWizard is written for PowerPC doesn't necessarily mean it requires Classic Mac OS. If it runs on OS X, you would probably be better off using a VirtualBox VM with Snow Leopard.

Re: question for using sheep shaver with an external scanner

Posted: Sun Jun 16, 2019 11:26 am
by 24bit
An XP virtual machine or an old Windows XP rig may be worth a try too.
There seems to be a driver package for both XP and OSX at Microtek still.
http://202.39.72.3/eu/modules/tinyd0/index.php?id=2
Grab it while you can. :)
Same for OSX up to 10.5 / 10.6.

Both XP and OSX 10.5 / 10.6 Server should be set up fairly easy in VMWare.
Virtual Box should work too, but I did not try OSX there.

Edit:
The .exe file offers installers for XP/Vista/Windows 7 32bit and 64bit.
Seems on the Mac side there is support for your scanner up to Leopard only - weird.
System Requirements for OSX:

1. Mac OS X version Panther (10.3), Tiger (10.4), Leopard (10.5), or Snow Leopard (10.6) installed on HFS+ (Mac OS Extended) file system volume; UFS (Unix File System) file system volume is not supported.
2. PowerPC Macintosh G3, G4 or G5; Compatible with Intel-based Macintosh.
3. Minimum 128MB RAM; 256MB or more is recommended.
4. A color monitor with minimum resolution set to 1024 x 768 and thousands colors.
5. Supported Microtek scanners:

* Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6):

ArtixScan F1, ArtixScan M1, ScanMaker 9800XL,
ScanMaker 1000XL, ScanMaker E900, ScanMaker i900,
ScanMaker 9800XL Plus

* Mac OS X Leopard (10.5):

ArtixScan 1800f, ArtixScan 2500f, ArtixScan F1,
ArtixScan M1, ScanMaker 1000XL, ScanMaker 9700XL,
ScanMaker 9800XL, ScanMaker i800, ScanMaker i900,
ScanMaker 9800XL Plus

* Mac OS X Panther (10.3) ~ Tiger (10.4):

ArtixScan 1800f, ArtixScan 2500f, ScanMaker 1000XL,
ScanMaker 9700XL, ScanMaker 9800XL, ScanMaker i800,
ScanMaker i900

Re: question for using sheep shaver with an external scanner

Posted: Sun Jun 16, 2019 12:24 pm
by Ronald P. Regensburg
Not free ($40,-), but doesn't VueScan support the Microtek ArtixScan 1800f? https://www.hamrick.com/

Re: question for using sheep shaver with an external scanner

Posted: Mon Jun 17, 2019 4:50 am
by adespoton
I think there's also a TWAIN driver for it... I know at one point I got TWAIN support working for OS X, but I think it was 32-bit only. Still, it should be possible to get TWAIN working with 64-bit macOS using Image Capture.