[sane-devel] Plustek OpticPro A320E (07b3:1826): fifth version, after all — a defect the fourth one shipped

[Ralph Little]

Hi Marshall,
In fairness, I did respond positively to the earlier emails from Tero. I 
did not feel that the later messages necessitated additional 
communication, but let me reconfirm that this work is much appreciated.

In truth, scanning is a much less popular activity compared to past 
times and the free/open software realm involves far fewer people than 
the mainstream anyway.
This sane-devel forum is a lot quieter than it used to be and that 
surely reflects the fact that far fewer people are scanning at this time.

Analysis of scanner communications and the production of supporting 
backend code is already a fairly niche activity that requires patience 
and a certain innate need to get "into the weeds" as it were and there 
are only a few of us left that are interested in that activity 
unfortunately, as it requires some specific skills and knowledge. AI 
analysis tools is changing that but we will have to see how it works out 
for the future.

In response to your wish for the future Tero, I *do* remember a time 
when hardware (particularly printers) came with programming manuals out 
of the box to indicate how to communicate with the device and I really 
hope we get back to those times. How we got to this state of 
manufacturer secrecy of these things is quite beyond my understanding.

Cheers,
Ralph

On 2026-09-27 01:52, Tero Kankaanperä wrote:
> Thank you, Marshall. This was a no-brainer to contribute: I needed a 
> Linux driver for this scanner and the work serves hopefully many more 
> people this way.
>
> I would hope EU, in it's drive to digital sovereignty and open source, 
> would legislate mandatory driver openness to ICT-manufacturers for the 
> lowest level drivers and firmware. Trying to fathom what the f the 
> closed driver actually does is an unnecessary burden to open source 
> community.
>
>
> Marshall Jose kirjoitti 27.9.2026 klo 3.59:
>> I had hoped that someone would respond to your post and express 
>> gratitude for the vigor with which you pursued the driver/hardware 
>> interaction problem. Sadly, only silence.
>>
>> Please accept my appreciation for your persistence. I have been down 
>> that lonely road occasionally in my EE career, and so can sympathize 
>> with you.
>>
>> Marshall
>>