[sane-devel] Looking to add support for Avision AV50F plus scanner

[Ludwig Jaffe]

Hi Ove,

this is lots of work. You can try to sniff the interface (scsi, usb, ethernet, firewire), and you can try debuggging software like ida pro or the nsa debugger with the funny name which is open source. But anyway it is a lot of work as scanners are not documented in most cases.
About a decade ago there where usb flatbed scanners that often used a quite generic soc (genesys) which differed a bit in firmware blobs, some hw hacks or different timing (copy right royalties were enforced on some markets, so scanning was slow) used, so people hacked that driver to support a bunch of cheap scanners (usb id deteftion and some quirks).
So another way is to disassemble the scanner and look for "famous" chips. But today I guess some custom built microprocessor variant to be used here.
But look inside, void warranty and btw look for console rs232 (ttl level) and jtag connectors for debugging.

Have fun.

BTW,

I need support for kodak i810 monsters with the sane kodak driver that was obviously never tested with the real monster hardware, I guess. 
Here I can provide remote access to the linux box and a cam with remote hands sessions.

Cheers

luja

On September 1, 2024 6:48:42 PM GMT+02:00, Ove Laurum <laurum.tech at gmail.com> wrote:
>Hello.
>
>I am new to sane but hope to find some guidance on how I can help adding
>this printer to sane supported devices.
>
>I am trying to use a scanner "Avision AV50F plus" on Linux (Ubuntu).
>I do not see it listed as a supported scanner by sane.
>Also after installing xsane it is not recognised, see command line output
>at the end of the mail.
>The scanner works fine on Windows with Avision driver and SW and Button
>Manager SW.
>I have attached screenshots from Windows Device Manager.
>I also attached a photo of the circuit board of the scanner as well as a
>pdf  product sheet of the scanner.
>
>I would be grateful for any advice on:
>a: has anybody else tried, failed, succeeded in adding support, if so what
>is your experience?
>b: what is the recommended process for me to follow?
>c: how do I know if this can be added to an existing backend, or if I need
>to write a new backend.
>d: any advice on how to trace the driver/scanner communication on windows
>to reverse engineer the protocol?
>
>Looking forward to contributing to sane.
>Kind regards
>Ove.
>
>
>
>
>
>Command Line Output:
>
>$ sudo sane-find-scanner
>
>  # sane-find-scanner will now attempt to detect your scanner. If the
>  # result is different from what you expected, first make sure your
>  # scanner is powered up and properly connected to your computer.
>
>  # No SCSI scanners found. If you expected something different, make sure
>that
>  # you have loaded a kernel SCSI driver for your SCSI adapter.
>
>found possible USB scanner (vendor=0x04a9 [Canon], product=0x190f
>[CanoScan], chip=GL848+) at libusb:001:004
>found possible USB scanner (vendor=0x0638 [AVISION], product=0x2b6a [AV50F
>Plus]) at libusb:001:003
>  # Your USB scanner was (probably) detected. It may or may not be
>supported by
>  # SANE. Try scanimage -L and read the backend's manpage.
>
>  # Not checking for parallel port scanners.
>
>  # Most Scanners connected to the parallel port or other proprietary ports
>  # can't be detected by this program.
>
>$ sudo scanimage -L
>device `genesys:libusb:001:004' is a Canon LiDE 220 flatbed scanner
>
>$ lsusb
>Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
>Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0627:0001 Adomax Technology Co., Ltd QEMU Tablet
>Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0638:2b6a Avision, Inc. AV50F Plus
>Bus 001 Device 004: ID 04a9:190f Canon, Inc. CanoScan LiDE 220
>Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub

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