Using Zeiss SCAI scanner

YOU MUST BE TRAINED BEFORE USE

General Guidelines

Always use gloves
Always have something between the glass to prevent scratching
Never use compressed air sources (which inevitably contain water or oil)
     use brushes to remove dust
      or clean glass while wet with glass cleaner - experts only
Transfer and Delete your images from the local disk immediately after scanning
       they won't be there when you return
Turn off scanner when no foreseable use later that day (to preserve lamp hours)

Turning on scanner:

connect to PC that controls the scanner (maybe already connected)

open terminal window
type: cu -l /dev/ttyd2
observe response: Connected

turn on power to scanner

wait while scanner initializes and calibrates itself

watch progress in terminal window where PC connected:
SCAI Rev. 3.20
*** 31.03.1999 ***
Copyright (C) 1994, 1999 by Carl Zeiss Oberkochen
C:\SCAI\REV03.20\SCAI320.EXE
System started at:
Wed Nov 03 23:03:50 1999
. . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . .
No. of gain-values cut to 2047: B    0 | G    0 | R    0
No. of gain-values cut to     0: B    0 | G    0 | R    0
No. of offs-values cut to 2047: B    0 | G    0 | R    0
No. of offs-values cut to -2048: B    0 | G    0 | R    0
Write back old scanner parameters.
ESC R 112 112
ESC C 17
ESC D 8
ESC V 100
ESC T 19
ESC b r
ESC b g
ESC b b
---------- Initialization completed ----------

gain-values and offs-values should all read zero as above

start phodis software (dropdown menu from Toolchest or type psc)

Scanner should be "Connected

open your "project" by choosing Project -> Open

Setup Prescan:

Choose Setup -> Scan

Specify large Density range (0.01 - 2.0) for initial prescan, will refine this later on

Settings shown below should be generally correct for most people:

Resolution
Linearity
Polarity
Color Mode
Color Correction
CCD Normalization (every scan),
Photo Orientation

Press Ok

choose Scan -> Prescan

Adjust box about where you expect the negative to be and Start

Press Adjust and move box to include image densities of interest. Keep in mind that minimum OD range is 0.3 (ODmax - ODmin) and that ODmin seems not to work if > 1.1.

Press Adjust density to find out what OD values correspond to your box. Press Reset if unsatisfied.

Press Close to have current density limits entered into Scan Setup (which you can change later)

Use the prescan image to specify the boxed area you actually want to scan at high resolution (you can type exact number of mm in X and Y if desirable to have a defined box size)

Press close to return to main menu

Scanning the Image

Go to Scan -> Start

Go to Scan Settings Setup and fiddle ODmin and ODmax if necessary. Also make sure Color Correction is not functioning to truncate densities (should be 0 as min and 255 as max) and refer to above Scan Settings for everything else

Go to Image settings Setup and change filename and make sure tld format is specified.

Now Start scan (can watch terminal window to be sure normalization proceeds normally)

File Conversion:

To convert directly from TLD to MRC format:

in terminal window, run program tld2mrc or tld2mrc_bs (for byte-swapping)
this program must be run on klug and then ftp file elsewhere

To convert to TIFF and later to MRC format:

choose Tools -> Convert Image
Specify filenames and click on Conversion to set TIFF options to be "scanlined"
then ftp tiff tile elsewhere and use tif2mrc.exe to convert

Turning off the scanner:

replace negative with white protective sheet (to prevent glass-on-glass scratching)
exit phodis software
turn off power switch
leave the scanner connected and leave phodis user logged on