SCSI adapter for laptop PC

Does anyone know of a way to give a Windows laptop PC a SCSI port? I have seen XP era cable adapters but don't know if they would work with WIN7 or later. PCMCIA cards are out because that port no longer exists in modern laptops. My goal is to connect an old dye sublimation Kodak printer via scsi to a modern windows laptop.
 
I have an old Castlewood ORB 2gig tape drive that has a usb to scsi cable. It works as designed with the Orb tape drive in WIN7 and WIN10 but does not work as a scsi adapter when I connect it to my Kodak printer with scsi interface. The cable does show up as a scsi device in windows but device manager says that it will not start and gives an "error code 10".
 
So has anyone added scsi to a modern Windows laptop?
 
TIA, Mike.

Mike:
 
I can't help you directly, but felt compelled to point out that you might be able to get away with setting up an older computer that does support SCSI somehow (ISA, PCI, PCMCIA, built-in, etc.) as a print server.  That will only work, of course, if the dye sub printer has a driver that works on said hardware/OS.  Anyway, the point is, no need to have the app and printer driver on the same system.
 
-Tom

xlurkr said:

Mike:
 
I can't help you directly, but felt compelled to point out that you might be able to get away with setting up an older computer that does support SCSI somehow (ISA, PCI, PCMCIA, built-in, etc.) as a print server.  That will only work, of course, if the dye sub printer has a driver that works on said hardware/OS.  Anyway, the point is, no need to have the app and printer driver on the same system.
 
-Tom

Click to expand...

 
Thanks for that but I already do have the printer working on an old P III 700mhz WinXP tower computer that is connected to my home network but it won't live forever. I can replace it with a new computer if I can find one that will still accept a scsi adapter. Can you still buy a scsi adapter that will fit a modern motherboard? I did add an Adaptec scsi adapter to my newest (five year old) PC a while ago but it required XP in a VM to run because Win7 did not support the adapter.
 
The last time I built a PC the data bus was pci-e ??? and Adaptec made scsi adapters to fit but I have no idea what is out there now. I also have little use for a desktop or tower PC. I pretty much use laptops for everything now. The one exception is that I use a small tower to stream video from the net to a TV set.
 
Life would be good if I could just make one of my existing laptops have a scsi port.

Here still utilize an Alps MD5000 dye sub printer connected to an old HP Jet Direct 3 port network server. 
 
 
Also utilized a USB to SCSI device for my tape back up stuff / SCSI CD tower changer from the 1990's here. 
 
I would suggest that you try a different SCSI USB device.  The one I used worked with different SCSI devices.
 
I did notice it still sitting in my home office desk drawer. 
 
I can send it to your if you want to give it a try. 
 
Thinking here had a box o ISA/PCI bus Adaptec controllers and threw them out a few years back.

Pete
 
I am interested in the usb - scsi cable that you have. What brand name is it? I have learned that my Castlewood cable uses an "SCM Microsystems" chipset but that turns nothing up with a google search in the way of windows drivers. I have also learned that Belkin makes an adapter that uses the same chipset and may try their drivers if I can find them online.
 
Do you have driver files for your device? Maybe you can email them to me if you do?
A lot of these simple devices will work with each other's drivers.

BTW
 
I have two Kodak DS-8650 dye-subs here and they both work well. They are commercial  printers that were used in the kiosks in drug stores and other retail outlets. The resolution does not compare to a good high-res inkjet but I just threw away my epson that would be clogged every time that I wanted to use it. I spent more money pumping ink through it trying to unclog it than I used printing images.

I played with the adapter again tonight and now I don't think that any of the usb to scsi adapter cables will work for my printer. I found that when I plug the cable into my pc, windows device manager recognizes it as a usb-scsi mass storage device. It then shows that the device is working properly and about fifteen seconds later it changes to can not start device error 10. I get the same results in winxp, win7 and win10.
 
I think that the device driver is waiting for a response from a mass storage device that it is not getting from the printer and rejecting the device. I'll have to take a different approach.
 
Mike.

I have to look for the USB to SCSI cable.  At the time and for work needed to have it work with numerous device.
 
Here is a picture of the one that I have.  I still have to look for mine as I moved it in a clean up effort and did not throw it away.
 

 
The above said I purchased Kodak Kiosks as my first touchscreens here. 
 
I made my test devices faster overclocking them at the time.  I purchased 5-6 originally new old stock.  I kept one running by my basement work bench but disconnected it about 3 years ago.  The motherboards were basic but custom a bit for Kodak.  I was impressed with the touchscreen integration to the computer at the time.  I mounted one in one wall fine and used it for many years.
 
I have all of the original drivers / manual that were used for these kiosks and will look at my archives.

Checking on your printer Kodak printer seeing specifications that the printer had parallel, SCSI and a network port. 
 
Does your printer have a parallel port? 
 
The Kodak Kiosk computers I have have two parallel ports but no SCSI cards or ports on them.
 
The KODAK PROFESSIONAL 8650 Raster Driver for WINDOWS Systems will allow almost any Windows-based application to print directly to the KODAK DIGITAL SCIENCE 8650 Color Printer via SCSI, Parallel or the Network connectivity options. This robust printer driver provides users with ease-of-use access and control over the sophisticated imaging features of the award-winning KODAK PROFESSIONAL Thermal Printers, including print layout control, package templates, Kodak color management, logo placement and more.
 
Printing from SCSI requires ASPI (Advanced SCSI Programmer's Interface), a layer of software that manages communication to and from peripheral SCSI devices. The raster driver requires installation of the latest version of ASPI, which is available from Adaptec Inc's Web site. See the Readme file for more information on how to install the latest version of ASPI.
 
 
 

I'm aware of the LPT/parallel port and I do have the 10mb IP adapter and have tried both and but both are painfully slow. SCSI is by far the best of the three interfaces.

Yup; here when I have the Alps printer connected to the jet direct server it is really slow but not much slower than the parallel port connection.
 
Thinking it takes close to 5 minutes to print out a 8X11 photograph.  10Mbs is not really that slow.  Parallel is only 3 MBps.  And yes SCSI is faster than the two.  IE: ultra2 SCSI was around 40Mbps (guessing here).
 
The reason I brought up using the parallel port instead of the SCSI is that it might be easier to get updated drivers that will work with a USB connection than SCSI drivers.

Yes the parallel port works and it has the advantage of printing from any windows application with the raster driver. Adversely the scsi port needs a 32 bit kodak export module installed which is an addon to Photoshop. I only do glossy photos on the Kodak and exclusively from Photoshop. With Photoshop and the scsi port a print takes about a minute or so.

Ahh...
 
Yup here used Adobe Photoshop a bunch way back. 
 
Are you running Photoshop now with Windows XP/7/10 / Kodak export module?
 
Thinking an Oracle VB of XP might work with the USB device and SCSI drivers.  Did you try with Oracle when you tested above?
 
I haven't played much with this stuff lately or the USB SCSI adapter I have.
 
In the 1990's and early 2000's I did help some friends with printing companies that were using MACs and PCs and Kodak printers to do their stuff.

pete_c said:

Ahh...
 
Yup here used Adobe Photoshop a bunch way back. 
 
Are you running Photoshop now with Windows XP/7/10 / Kodak export module?

Click to expand...

Yes I run Pshop in XP and Win7 right now using the Kodak export module. I also did a lot with it a few years ago and haven't used it a lot lately.
 

pete_c said:

Thinking an Oracle VB of XP might work with the USB device and SCSI drivers.  Did you try with Oracle when you tested above?

Click to expand...

Oracle? I only know Oracle as a database software and no I don't use it here.

Oracle Virtual Box.
 
Main used laptop here (not in home office) primarily is using Ubuntu 16.04 64 bit and Oracle VBs running XP, W7 and W10.  Resources / files are shared between VB and main OS these days. I also utilize Linux Wine to get wintel applications to work in Linux.  Recent Linux endeavor was to get my combo Canon printer/scanner/fax network connected machine to work in Linux.  I did get it to work but didn't like the interface as much as the one running in Windows such that I just open a VB and use the Windows drivers.  That said the Windows VB could be XP, W7 or W10 not chosen for it being new but rather for my interaction is to whatever it is I want to use.  Not knocking W10 here; just stating that I use it a la carte.  
 
Let me find that SCSI USB adapter here such that I can see what mfg/model it is.  We will get you going Mike with your Kodak printers one way or another.