Now that I have (mostly) moved to the Mac, I find that there are still a few items I go back to my PC for. One is the faxmodem. I only need to fax something in or out of the house about twice a year, but I'd hate to give up the ability to do that.

I can buy a usb faxmodem for the Mac for about $50, so that'll work, but generally when I'm faxing out I scan something and then fax it.

My scanner is an old HP SCSI Scanjet. It works real well and I'd hate to give it up, but maybe I should?

I figure I could either buy a new combination USB scanner & fax (there must be something out there that does that) or maybe I could find a USB or Firewire to SCSI adapter.

Anyone know of such a thing? Or even better have one for sale?
(I would need a SCSI 1 adapter, either Centronics or Apple's 25 pin).

I've seen references on the Web, but I'm loath to lay out the kind of money they're asking for for something that may or may not work. I'd really like to hear personal experiences from people I trust (that would be you guys!).

TIA

Sam

You really may just be better served by getting a scanner/fax/printer all-in-one deal for your mac. They aren't too exspensive. A laser one will run in the $200 ballpark depending on what you are looking at. Inkjet's are cheaper. What you need to look at if you buy one is how much the replacement cartridges/toner are.

The other option is a $50 faxmodem like you said and then another $50 for a USB flatbed scanner (that is also probably a lot thinner then your old SCSI scanner).

But to answer your question, I dont really know of any USB to SCSI converters off the top of my head. Plus for the price you could probably do any of the above to options easier.

James -

That's what I figured, but I thought I'd ask. I'll be out of town for two weeks. When I come back, I'll meander down to Staples, PC Richards & Best Buy and see what they have to offer.

(Knowing me though, I'll procrastinate till I have no choice.)

Thanks,

Sam

If you dont need color printing I have used/sold the Brother 7420 and 7820N (network-capable one) with good luck. It looks like a small copier, has a sheet feeder and flat-bed scanner, prints, faxes, has mac OS-X 10.2.4+ Support. They are about $300 tho, but the replacement toner is only $60 and will last for around 2500-pages. The drivers they have are also fairly light-weight and clean. I'd avoid HP just because their drivers are garbage and cause nothing but headaches.

I carry a PCMCIA to SCSI. It works very well if you have a slot!

I've got a PCMCIA to SCSI on my old win'98 toshiba laptop, the macbook doesn't come with one though.

It's not like it's crucial. I got real into SCSI (quite) a number of years ago. I found it reliable, quick and durable.

Now, of course, I no longer need my huge 1GB external SCSI drive, or my speedy 2X external CD Drive or my enormous 2GB Jaz drive or....... (you get the idea)

What's left over is the Legal sized Flatbed Scanner that takes a licking and keeps on scanning. It came with some software that lets me use it like a Xerox machine and I've been scanning docs into a piece of software called Paperport. Once I've got them in memory I can print them, email them, fax them (with winfax). It's been pretty handy and I don't know what I'm going to use to replace it now.

I've been told by a higher authority that I'm always going to have to have some sort of windows machine. My wife likes the MS version of Spider Solitaire best (it's easier to win).

Sam


PS. Anyone need a 1GB SCSI 1 HD the size of the King James Bible?