[sane-devel] HP ScanJet 5550C

[Henning Meier-Geinitz]

Hi,

On Fri, Jun 13, 2003 at 01:36:16PM +0200, Janez Dovc wrote:
> So, what do you suggest? Is the only solution, that I write the driver
> myself?

I think so, yes.

> How much time does it take, to write a driver for HP scanner.

That depends on how intelligent it is. If it's rather low-level, it
may take weeks to understand the basic protocol and to get it to scan.
On the other hand I was able to get an image out of a rather high
level Mustek scanner after about 10 hours of work.

> Is their interface somehow inteligent?

I have no idea. That's up to you to find out :-) Some info on how to do
that is here: 
http://www.meier-geinitz.de/sane/misc/develop.html
http://www.meier-geinitz.de/sane/misc/unsupported.html

You can also try check-usb-scanner, it tries to detect the chipset of
USB scanners. But I'd be surprised if it's an already known chip:

http://www.meier-geinitz.de/sane/check-usb-scanner/

> Are other Scanjets totally uncompatible?

I don't know until you find out about that :-)
Have a look at the list of HP scanners and compare if the protocoll
looks similar once you have found outhow it basically works:

http://sane.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/cgi-bin/driver.pl?manu=hewlett-packard&model=&bus=usb

If you are lucky it's compatible (or similar) to one of the already
supported scanners. But I don't think so.

Contacting HP for help may also make sense. I don't know however, if
they are helpfull at all.

Bye,
  Henning