Jump to content

Plustek 6x6 negative carrier


EoinC

Recommended Posts

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Well, I'll tell you what mine does and it might be the same for yours. With the 2nd frame of the 3 frame 6x6 carrier, the carrier is drawn into the scanner and the 2nd frame is scanned. After the first pass the carrier needs to be spit out of the front of the machine again but it gets stuck on the two-way door of the scanner and cannot be pushed back out. When scanning the first frame the two-way door rests on top of the carrier so the carrier doesn't get stuck so nothing impedes the reversal of the direction of travel. With the 3rd frame, the carrier passes all the way through the two-way door so when direction of travel reverses, the two-way door can function as intended. It is only the 2nd frame's scan which is problematical because that two-way door jams against the end of the carrier. I stop this happening by following the carrier in with a finger to hold open the door lifting it off the carrier. As soon as I feel the carrier direction reversing I pull away my finger by which time the door rests atop the carrier no longer impeding it's travel.

Pete

Thanks. I think this is exactly the problem I experience intermittently with mine, always the 2nd frame and always ends up getting ejected from the back when it gives up passing back through the front (as it should do.) Will give this a go now. It never skips a beat with 35mm, only 2nd frame with the 6x6 carrier, frustrating!

 

Any progress with your machine Eoin?

  • Like 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

Guest NEIL-D-WILLIAMS

Thanks. I think this is exactly the problem I experience intermittently with mine, always the 2nd frame and always ends up getting ejected from the back when it gives up passing back through the front (as it should do.) Will give this a go now. It never skips a beat with 35mm, only 2nd frame with the 6x6 carrier, frustrating!

 

Any progress with your machine Eoin?

 

What software are you using Vuescan or Silverfox?

Link to post
Share on other sites

Vuescan. I bought the scanner second hand and the bundled Silverfast copy was already licenced to someone else. The version I have on disk is useless, it only scans 2/3 horizontally of the carrier. Despite attempts to get the licence transferred to me, never managed it. Vuescan is good. I'm now sure the problem is definitely hardware related - the door blocking the carrier exactly as described above, I just can't manage to move it adequately to stop it happening unfortunately.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Guest NEIL-D-WILLIAMS

Vuescan. I bought the scanner second hand and the bundled Silverfast copy was already licenced to someone else. The version I have on disk is useless, it only scans 2/3 horizontally of the carrier. Despite attempts to get the licence transferred to me, never managed it. Vuescan is good. I'm now sure the problem is definitely hardware related - the door blocking the carrier exactly as described above, I just can't manage to move it adequately to stop it happening unfortunately.

If I were you I would try and make a scan with the Silverfaox first and then try the vuescan.

On my machine, it was going tits up the same as yours, it would make funny noises and basically not work. I shut down Vuescan, and made a successful scan using silverfox. I then tried to make a scan with vuescan and "Bobs your uncle" it worked peferctly....................its like silverfox reset the sequence

Give it a go and see how you get on :)

Link to post
Share on other sites

...Any progress with your machine Eoin?

My scanner has arrived back at Plustek in Taiwan (delays in getting there were due to me traveling). It only needs one more trip back there in order to be able to apply for Permanent Residency.

As noted before, Plustek have been excellent to deal with, which makes a very large difference in my perception of the failure/s of the machine.

 

I have a growing mountain of scanning to do. The ox is slow, but the earth is patient...

Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks Neil. I will try that and/or even another box to connect it to, maybe Windows to see if that fares any differently (from my Mac)

 

I did take the housing off to get a closer look at what is happening, see if I could just remove the flap door or prop it open. 

No I can't is the short answer to that question. Was at least interesting to get a look inside. The carrier holder sits towards the front on a pair of long rods, so the whole things moves backwards and forwards whilst it also has two rollers on it that move the carrier itself backwards and forwards as well (explains the full repertoire of whiny cheap motor noises it delivers.) 

 

The scanner itself is right towards the back. You can see why alignment of where the frames are is an issue since the carrier holder and carrier held within both move separately.

Mine is second-hand and out of warranty, I wouldn't recommend opening it if you still have warranty - had to remove the front plate, rear plate, rear door and about 40 screws to open it. 

 

Good luck Eoin, slow and steady wins the race...

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Here's the inside

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/62505869/IMG_2892.JPG

 

The grey thing is what the negative carrier is inserted into (front of scanner is on right of the image.)

It has a small motor/rollers on top that move the negative carrier back and forth.

 

The whole assembly moves back and forwards along the threaded rod in the foreground.

The black box with blue wires above is where the scanner itself is located, a light below shining up through negs.

 

Another angle:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/62505869/IMG_2891.JPG

 

 

The whole thing just bores me to tears to be honest lol! zzzz.

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

My boring story, Chapter 4.

 

Reinstalled the Plustek drivers and Vuescan software (on OS X Sierra)

First 3 frame 6x6 scan sailed through! Problem solved!

 

No, just kidding. 9 times out of 10 the second frame of three causes the scanner to jam exactly as before.

 

I've never been able to recover it 'at the door' as Pete does above. 

That isn't an acceptable workaround for me anyway. I don't have time to babysit the scans frame by frame.

 

Removing the door altogether looks a significant hassle. I'd have to pull the whole thing apart again and dive deeper to access the rear of the door mechanism.

In the meantime, I'm buying myself a contact printer and wondering how to get shot of this POS Plustek device.

 

Would be great for tinkerers!, or 6x7, 6x45, 6,9 etc. users. Comes with all carriers and a 0 day hassle-free warranty.

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Thanks Pete, good idea. I tried a piece of blu tack at the front of the carrier to do exactly that and... success! The door stays open long enough to offset the problem 100%.

My longer term fix will be a wooden ice cream stick, once I've eaten one. The

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...