Epson Scanner on Freebie shelf; need its rare power cord

[David_A_Tucker]

TLDR: could this item’s donor pretty-please locate (& donate) its power cord adapter for me?

Recently, someone was kind enough to donate (on the Freebie shelf) an Epson Perfection Scanner (Model 2580). Thank you. This model is very interesting because it has 2400 dpi – which is twice the resolution of my at-home Hewlett Packard All-In-One scanner. More importantly, it can backlight the objects placed on the flatbed, so you can scan 35mm slides and film strip negatives. The software for it looks pretty useful too.

I’d like to use this for my own archiving purposes and then donate/permanently-lend it to the DMS Digital Media department (along with a few old VCRs and related video capture equipment). It seems to me that making digital media from analog media ought to be something you should be able to do in our Digital Media department.

However . . . I couldn’t find the power cord for this little wonder on the Freebie donation shelf. Modern Epson scanners use power cords with a different tip, so they’re not useful. This particular model uses 24V – which isn’t super-common – and takes 1.4A current. The real problem is that the power receptacle on the scanner requires a core pin on the tip that isn’t commonly offered in universal power adapters (or even in uncommon power adapters having an array of various interchangeable tips). Some Amazon listings that purport to be compatible aren’t, and some are intentionally vague about tip designs. I could gamble $25 hoping to get the right power cord, but if you’ve got the original lying around I’d prefer to receive that.

If you’ve got the software disc for running this, that would be useful too.

Thanks in advance!

[Raymond]

I have a power brick with no end on it… 24v 2.7A that you can have. You’ll just need the special end that plugs into the scanner.

[David_A_Tucker]

Fantastic! Thank you for your kind offer. This takes me half-way to where I need to go.

Unfortunately, I can’t enjoy the power brick until I get the right tip, which is hard to find.

Amazon tells me that the tip will look like this, with the central pin:

However, unless I can figure out how to bypass the tip at minimal expense/trouble, I’ll just have to pay the $25 or so for an off-brand, allegedly-compatible power adapter.

So I guess my answer for the moment is thanks-but-no-thanks for now, but I might need it later if I decide to solder different power connections to the main board behind the female connection on the scanner. [I was really hoping that the scanner’s donor could dig up the adapter that came with the scanner, but I suspect that this isn’t going to happen.]

[mdredmond]

It shouldn’t be too difficult to find the right connector at Mouser.

I googled a bit and found a 6mm plug associated with a 24V Epson power supply. A quick search on Amazon found this.

It’s going to take some measuring and luck but you might find something. I doubt they did anything too off the wall.

[Raymond]

I’m heading to Computer Reset today and will see what I can find there.

[kbraby]

The with pin inside sounds like the 3 pin dell connectors. Power the inside and outside walls of the sleeve as separate connectors providing the power. Then the center pin is a light gauge wire, hooked up to a TI one wire serial rom, that identifies the power supply type and capabilities.

[David_A_Tucker]

Matt, that connector looks very interesting.

Apparently, from the title description, you solder it – but everything on that end seems to be covered in very meltable rubber on the non-tip end.

I’m curious though. How do you know it is a 6.0 by 1.0 mm connector that I need? Aren’t there multiple possible sizes? (e.g., 5.5 by 2.1 for CCTV):

Amazon.com: Lsgoodcare 40Pcs 5.5MM x 2.1MM Male Female DC Power Socket Jack...

Does the required amperage (1.4A) somehow dictate the plug specs?

[mdredmond]

I don’t know that you need a 6mm connector but I ran across an ad for an epson scanner power supply and it mentioned 6mm.

At these levels of power consumption they can use about any power connector they want as long as the labs don’t bitch about it.

[skyspook]

Raymond says there are a couple adapters in his personal bin that may work

[Raymond]

Thanks @skyspook !

@David_A_Tucker - I put 2 adapters in there. Both Epson brand. 1 is a 24v with what looks to be the right end, but I don’t think enough current. The other is the wrong end but right voltage and enough current.

Raymond

[David_A_Tucker]

Thank you so much!

I can’t wait to try 'em out.

Would there be any problem splicing the right connector adapter tip wire to the right Voltage/Amperage adapter wire, or would you find that too wasteful of one of the adapters? And are these adapters a gift to me or a loan?

[Raymond]

Gift.

If it were me, I’d look to see if there were any screws under the labels to disassemble them. If not, I’d take a hammer around the seam and open them and swap the cables. Reassemble with a bit of super glue and it’ll look almost factory.

[David_A_Tucker]

Thanks! I’ll try the screw inspection thing and hope I don’t have to hammer it open.

[Raymond]

The hammer option isn’t bad… you want to just keep whacking it along the seam as you turn the adapter in your hand. You’ll crack the seam open and be able to expand the crack and eventually open the adapter.

[David_A_Tucker]

Status report:

1. I got the adapters from your storage box, per your instruction. Thanks!

2. The tip on the underpowered adapter (800 milliamps) was correct. It fit. The tip on the correctly-amped adapter (2 amps) did not fit.

3. So I took out the four screws on the 2 amp adapter and photographed the inside, so I could see which wire connected to voltage and which to ground. Clipped-off the bad tip, leaving bare wires.

4. Had to demolish the other adapter. Turns out there was a central screw running through the center that I couldn’t remove. I clipped the DC power wire and identified the ground and voltage wires by the writing on the PCB board.

5. Used alligator clips to connect the good-tip wire to a power supply in Electronics. The scanner powered-on nicely. Couldn’t test the scanner because it needed its software and a connection to a computer to work. I lack the administrator credentials to load the Epson scanner’s software onto a DMS computer, so that test would have to wait.

6. Then I connected the correctly-amped power supply to the correct tip using alligator clips and plugged them in. It powered on nicely again.

7. So I decided to solder the wires together and try using the scanner at home. I accomplished this soldering job – despite having the skills of a below-average golden retriever.

8. I set everything up at home. It powered on. The scanning software activated. The software announced that the scanner was warming up, as its solid green light started flashing green (as it should).

9. Then the power light started flashing red rapidly. The product manual says that the transportation/carriage lock is probably on, but it’s not. So the carriage mechanism is somehow jammed?? I guess this is why the original owner abandoned the scanner. Either that or I damaged it last week when I opened the case. I wanted to inspect whether it would be difficult to solder-in a different power connector (or power it using a power supply that I would wire into the PCB board).

So, the upshot is that I’m further along but stuck with a new problem. I’ll open the scanner up again and see if I can unjam the carriage somehow.

But thanks again for the adapters. I couldn’t have taken it this far without your help.

All my best,

David

[David_A_Tucker]

Next status report:

1. Well, I took apart the backlighting head/top unit of the scanner and extracted a thin, white, plastic rectangle about 1.5 in by 4.5 in.
   
   

It diffuses the light from the 4-inch-long ccfl light above it before the light hits the slide/film. The slide image looked good when I manually held the rectangle behind the slide while backlighting it with my cell phone, so I tried to rig-up a normal HP All-In-One scanner to record my slides with the same configuration. No luck. The image was colorless, too dark, or blown-out no matter how I tried arranging everything. I guess there is some magic in how a scanner captures slides and negatives that go beyond mere lighting.

2. So I reassembled everything and tried harder to diagnose the scanner. I figured out that although the document scanning function (normal scanning) immediately generated a flashing red light, the “non-reflective” scanning function (which backlights film or slides) tried to scan. Fortunately, I don’t have a problem with my software or the carriage mechanism.

But . . . the main scanning light (approx. 23 cm ccfl mercury tube) refused to turn on; so I think that means that the ccfl tube is blown or its controlling electronics are kaput.

Mouser quotes tubes of this type at over $20 per tube, which makes this project less cost-effective (relative to paying Wal-Mart to scan my slides for me). I’m not that confident that I could replace this tube anyway (since it has special connections that make it not easily replaced by a casual user). Also, I’m not sure that tube replacement would fix all the problems, so I’m giving up. Wal-Mart, here I come!

3. If someone else has an interest in trying to fix this thing, I’ll hang onto it for just a little while longer. It would make a nice addition to digital media if we could get it working – especially since it scans both negatives and slides.

Thanks to all of you for taking an interest in my failed project.

DT