Old HP scanner

From: Glen Goodwin <acme_ent_at_bellsouth.net>
Date: Thu Feb 14 23:35:14 2002

> From: Don Maslin <donm_at_cts.com>

> John, both the Scanjet and the Scanjet Plus used a HP proprietary
> interface. The card for the Plus is reputed to work for both the
> original and the Plus. The reverse is not true. In both cases,
> however, it is definitely NOT parallel port.

I bought one of these used (MIB!) for $200 in 1994, for use in my engraving
shop. The card was 8-bit ISA and appeared to be some sort of half-baked
SCSI. It was easy to configure if you happened to possess a working
crystal ball ;>) The card-end of the cable was DB25, and the scanner-end
was "Centronics" (you know what I mean by this term).

The software included a runtime version of Win 3.0, which promptly crashed
when run on our DOS-based 386/20. After installing the full version of Win
3.0 on this peecee, the software ran perfectly. When we upgraded to Win
3.1 (I don't remember the reason for the "upgrade"), the software generated
an avalanche of error messages, then ran without error. As a side note,
AFAIR the ScanJet was the only reason I installed Windows on this machine,
which was used primarily to control engraving tables. All of the other
applications were DOS-based, running under DesqView.

All in all, the ScanJet was a nice piece of equipment for its time. I
think I still have the software for it, in case anybody needs it.

Glen
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Received on Thu Feb 14 2002 - 23:35:14 GMT