The New "Standard Scanner"

Built a scanner? Started to build a scanner? Record your progress here. Doesn't need to be a whole scanner - triggers and other parts are fine. Commercial scanners are fine too.

Moderator: peterZ

User avatar
Drake Ravensmith
Posts: 70
Joined: 04 Jan 2011, 05:16
E-book readers owned: Kindle 3
Number of books owned: 0

Re: The New "Standard Scanner"

Post by Drake Ravensmith »

It's possible the camera mounts will have to be higher but with either the fixed or flexible setup it should be easy to find out and fix before you paint it so you'll just have to see.

Yes, I mean the screw holes on the slides. It's hard to say how the wood will have to fit together without realizing precisely where it will have to be. I would imagine that if you made the pieces that connect to the drawer slides and the platens longer it wouldn't matter where on the column they were located but It's really the kind of thing you'll just have to wait and see on. Also, if I recall correctly Daniel didn't really like that design and was thinking about using corner brackets in their place. Something for you to think about.

I've never tried to change my jpegs directly into a pdf. I can't even say what program you'd use for that. I have heard of it working but I don't think I could ever personally live with it because I am forever finding that my cameras have shifted ever so slightly one way or another and the image has tilted somewhat. Scan tailor cleans this up making it irrelevant. Also, a 250 page book scanned with an 8MP camera comes in at over 700MBS. After scan tailor that size drops down to a little over 45mbs and OCR'ing it results in a sub 2MB pdf. Something to keep in mind.
garycdewitt

Re: The New "Standard Scanner"

Post by garycdewitt »

Just finished this build and am quite happy with it. Have a few tweaks to the camera mounts because I'm using an SLR and it sits higher than the others. Getting quite a bit of keystoning and need to move the camera down vertically. Thinking about putting together an adjustable column to allow for different cameras. Maybe in 1 inch increments, or with 2 slots and infinitely adjustable in range.

Thanks for the build instructions!
User avatar
Drake Ravensmith
Posts: 70
Joined: 04 Jan 2011, 05:16
E-book readers owned: Kindle 3
Number of books owned: 0

Re: The New "Standard Scanner"

Post by Drake Ravensmith »

That's great! Could you post a pic? When you get your camera mounts made, I'd love to see pics of that too.
User avatar
daniel_reetz
Posts: 2812
Joined: 03 Jun 2009, 13:56
E-book readers owned: Used to have a PRS-500
Number of books owned: 600
Country: United States
Contact:

Re: The New "Standard Scanner"

Post by daniel_reetz »

Thanks for reporting back, Garcdewitt! It would be really cool to see a pic of your build someday, and also to hear your experiences with SLR-based scanning.
garycdewitt

Re: The New "Standard Scanner"

Post by garycdewitt »

My older Nikon (D50) is a 6.1 MP camera. As far a image stability and ease of use its great. Since it is an advanced SLR, it has a remote shutter control. I set the ISO to 200 and let it auto select the remainder of the

But, when the images are converted, the OCR has a great deal of trouble determining certain characters. The characters "s", "'", "'", and "," give it fits. So does the word "injury". Any noise or dust on the page can cause errors.

The camera is also very sensitive to the way the light is on the page. If I am not careful to adjust the lights correctly, then I get definite dark areas.

Based on this, I plan on going today to get an Elph 3000 to see if this improves the process.

On the software front, I switched to the Abbyy fine reader as I can correct the spelling and OCR mistakes. This is important because a lot of the text I work with is for law school. (I have a bad back and can't carry all of those books with me on a daily basis.)
garycdewitt

Re: The New "Standard Scanner"

Post by garycdewitt »

My idea for a camera mount is not the least expensive, but is stable. (5 feet of pre punched angle iron is $14).

It would use pre-punched angle iron (available at the big orange box store). On the base of the scanner, set another 2x4 to put the camera "outside" the left side of the platen. Come up with 2 angle irons on each end of the base to form uprights. Come across the top of that with angle iron to finish a box. Use small corner braces to connect it all. Or if I'm really feeling good, then solder them together. Go across the middle of the box with another piece of punched angle for the camera to mount. This would allow the camera to move up, down, left and right. Angle iron is very structurally stable for the amount of metal used.

It could be done with wood for less money, but more labor. You would have to drill centered 1/4 inch holes, with 1/2 inch between up the uprights. For the cross piece in the middle , you would either drill holes, or you could route a 1/4 inch slot in the uprights and cross piece. Enough wood would have to be left for stability. With the slot method, I would glue a cheap level to it for ease of adjustment.

Image
Post Reply