[sane-devel] Thinking about trying to add support for Mustek 1200 III EP

[Ron Hunter-Duvar]

On October 5, 2005 11:04, Henning Meier-Geinitz wrote:
> Hi,
>
> On Tue, Oct 04, 2005 at 05:24:10PM -0600, Ron Hunter-Duvar wrote:
> > I've read all the recommended introductory material (which is how I ended
> > up on this list). I haven't gotten to the sane standard itself yet.
> > That's next on my list. I'm assuming it's version 1 of the standard that
> > I want, not the version 2 that's under development (haven't seen this
> > clearly stated anywhere - "Version 2.0 (Development)" could mean the
> > version to be used for backends and frontends that are under
> > development).
>
> When you click on that link, there is some more text: "The SANE
> standard version 2 is currently under development. It shouldn't be
> used yet for production software because some important parts are
> still missing."
> If this is not clear enough, please propose a better wording. The
> author of that text is not a native English speaker :-)

Sorry, I guess I missed that. I think that's clear enough.


> > I tried contacting Mustek to see if they would provide any technical
> > info. Tech Support flatly refused, and Customer Service simply ignored
> > me. They wouldn't so much as tell me if it was a CCD or CIS type scanner.
>
> If it has a white fluorescent lamp, it's most probably CCD. If it
> flickers red/green/blue during scanning but there is no white lamp,
> it's most probably CIS. Also I think all Mustek "EP" scanners are CCD.

Yes, it's a white flourescent lamp, so I guess it's safe to assume CCD.


> > I saw
> > messages on this list suggesting that some people have established
> > contact with Mustek. Perhaps they can get more info?
>
> For the mustek_usb backend I was in contact with its original author Tom
> Wang <tom.wang at mustek.com.tw> some years ago. For the mustek_usb2
> backend I am in contact with Roy Zhou <Roy at mail.mustek-hz.com.cn>. Both
> addresses are in the current AUTHORS file of SANE so I guess they are
> not secret :-)
>
> As both contacts were working on (at that time) curent USB scanners, I
> don't know if they know anything about "historic" parport devices.

Oh, I didn't think to look in the AUTHORS file. I notice they're in Taiwan and 
China (where the real work is presumably done), whereas I contacted US tech 
support and customer service (probably just a marketing organization). Might 
explain the response I got.

You might be right about knowledge of the parport devices. But maybe they can 
dig up a mouldy reference manual from the archives or something 8^). I can 
contact them directly if this wouldn't be stepping on any toes.

If I can't get anything from them, what do you think the chances are for being 
able to implement a working backend for it? I don't have any reverse 
engineering experience, but I suppose there might be a way to run a scan in 
Windoze and capture the parport traffic, then analyze. Doesn't sound easy, 
though.


> > The FCC id suggests a CCD (it has "A4SII" in it), and following the
> > instructions on the mustek_pp web page, I've been able to determine that
> > it uses asic 1505.
>
> Same chipset as Mustek ScanExpress 12000 P.

Yeah, I noticed that. And that it's also not supported.


> > I do have a conflict to resolve with sane-backends-1.0.14-3mdk.i586
> > sane-frontends-1.0.13-1.1010.1mdk.i586 that are already installed by
> > default (the problem is Mandriva's dependency mgmt wants to remove all
> > kinds of other essential packages). I'm working on this.
>
> You can also install the source of sane-backends in /usr/local
> (default) and sane-frontends and/or xsane from source in /usr/local.
> At least that works for me and you don't need to delete your
> distribution's packages.
>
> Or just use sane-backends in /usr/local and do something like
> LD_PRELOAD=/usr/local/lib/libsane.so xsane

Yeah, I went with the default of having it installed in /usr/local. The 
annoying thing is that the standard Mandriva path puts /usr/bin 
before /usr/local/bin, so it still picks up the old version unless I give it 
a full path. It would make more sense to me the other way around, so that 
local installs override standard installs. I suppose I can just change the 
path. As long as some future update doesn't revert it on me (I've had trouble 
with this with various config files, such as the usb device maps). I haven't 
had to tinker with this, or the default library search order before. May be 
the simplest way, though.


> > I saw some mention of a sane-mustek_a4s2 backend. Should I try this
> > instead? Or am I mistaken?
>
> IIRC musteka4s2 was the predecessor of mustek_pp.

Okay, I won't bother investigating that further.


> Bye,
>   Henning

Thanks for the helpful reply.

-- 
Ron
ronhd at users dot sourceforge dot net

Opinions expressed here are all mine.