[sane-devel] Re: (sane-devel) info HP scanjet 4600 scanner

[Adrian Perez Jorge]

Hi Eddie,

   Some years ago I was in the same situation as you, but fortunatelly I 
know about programming (more or less ;)  I had to develop hp4200 backend 
and I could obtain some results without too much documentation available 
(later I could get much more docs and then improve my results).  Some 
guys here were able to do the same and develop a SANE backend for its 
scanner.

   There are some standard steps to solve the situation:

   * find out what chipset is using your scanner:

       - open the scanner and read big-chip numbers, or
       - sometimes .inf files or file names from the window$ drivers 
will help, or
       - using a sniffer like USBSnoopy 
(http://www.wingmanteam.com/usbsnoopy/) in a window$ machine to look at 
the protocol and somebody in the list could identify if (usbsnoopy log 
files can be real big; don't send that stuff to the list; give some URL; 
log for few seconds, not the entire page).

   * look for a backend that supports the chipset and use it

   * if there is no backend, then develop a new backend using chipset 
manufacturer information, the log files from snoopy, imagination, 
reverse-engeneering (disassembling window$ drivers; there are PE 
disassemblers for linux available) and help from the list.

   That's my suggestion.  Cheers,

Adrian P.

Eddie Colon wrote:

>Hello Henning
>
>I'm glad you are including this scanner into your project list.  I
>would love to start the ball rolling and bang out a rough driver, but I
>don't know any programming at all.  Sorry.    :-)    But I'm not shy
>with hardware, if you give me some instruction, tell me what to type at
>the command prompt, I can try a few things for you.  
>
>About your other question,  I haven't been able to scan at all. 
>Mandrake will detect the scanner, and say "it is not supported. Would
>you like to install it manually ?"   When I say yes, I choose a driver,
>(usually  another model from the HP list)  then Mandrake says "not
>supported"  and stops right there.  Like a loop.
>
>If it helps this forum at all, I searched on the web for any info and
>someone had written that this scanner is actually manufactured by
>another company, and that's why the HP drivers won't work.  I looked
>all around and couldn't find another company name.
>
>What do you suggest
>
>=====
>Eddie Colon
>Bayamon, PR  00959
>
>"The best things in life are not things"
>
>__________________________________
>Do you Yahoo!?
>Yahoo! Hotjobs: Enter the "Signing Bonus" Sweepstakes
>http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/signingbonus
>
>  
>