[sane-devel] Epson gt-8000 transparency experiment

[Martin Collins]

On Thu, 27 Nov 2003 21:02:43 +0100
Bart Buitinga <bartbuitinga at xs4all.nl> wrote:

> It occurred to me that if it is possible to project a negative on
> the scanners glass pane using a slide accessory, it might also work
> to use a photo magnifier (I mean the thing used to print in a (B&W)
> darkroom, an Opemus 11 to be precise)

An enlarger. You might also use a projector.

> with some kind of half transparent projection surface,

It might work better without a screen, just project the image straight
into the sensor.

> just if I would succeed in scanning with the lights off.

Right, you would need to turn the lamp off. Although, if you didn't
use a screen the lamps may not matter.

> I guess that normally the scanner would notice a device connected to
> the 15 pin entrance on the rear, and maybe it would just be a matter
> of shortcircuiting some of its contacts, but maybe there is a trick
> to do it with one of the ini's that twain32 (win95) uses. (In the
> latter case I hope there's a similar linux option or continue my
> quest elsewhere)

I don't know if the sane epson backend can directly control the lamp,
I know the mustek one cannot. So you need to fake the scanner into
thinking it has a transparency adapter connected. That 15 pin
connector probably has 24V on some of its pins so don't go shorting
any of them unless you know what they connect to. If you don't have a
TPA so can't sniff its protocol you could open up your scanner and
disconnect the lamps.

I would try it with the lamps on and no screen first, see what you
get. Please tell us the results of your experiments.

Martin