DIY Book Scanner

Although I'm a newby, it didn't take long to realize that the A590 is hard to get, so I went for the Canon a480 which now enjoys a chdk firmware release (Beta2). I completed my remote and it all works beautifully. I've just begun my project, and I'll be posting my progress at my blog (where I've given details of my remote setup and firmware). As the pic of my remote suggests, I'll be avoiding battery power of any sort for my scanner!

Setting up the Canon a480 with CHDK firmware from a mac. I've pulled together links and instructions that I used, and everything seemed to work great in the end.

Holy cow! THis is great news! How does it work so far? Love your hub-trigger, too.

The A480 is super cheap and widely available, it would be a great camera for any scanner as far as I can see.

Hmm, I didn't have to go through all that fuss on my Macs to load CHDK. I just formatted my 4GB card on the camera, copied the CHDK files from the Mac, and it worked... unless this is specific to the beta software?

daniel_reetz wrote:Holy cow! THis is great news! How does it work so far?

It's working great... 4.74 volts seems to be just right. My project as a whole will take another 4 to 6 weeks to complete, so we'll see how it all comes together. Right now, I'm considering using the auto focus feature--when I press the button and hold, it autofocuses and prepares for the shot. A quick depress and repress snaps the shot.

rob wrote:Hmm, I didn't have to go through all that fuss on my Macs to load CHDK. I just formatted my 4GB card on the camera, copied the CHDK files from the Mac, and it worked... unless this is specific to the beta software?

I'm not sure. I tried just formatting the card to FAT16 and loading the firmware, but the camera wouldn't boot it. It took about 20 mins, but it's all working now.

Drat... scanner on hold for at least a month (doctoral work!). I have most of the parts I'll need aside from the lumber. Perhaps I'll finish in June?

I'm totally going to steal your trigger design for my A590 trigger setup. I just got CHDK working on the first camera, so now I just need SD cards for each so I can get it running consistently. It's all coming together now! Thanks for the awesome post!

I'm trying to choose a pair of cameras for my scanner build, scheduled to begin in June. I'm leaning towards the Canon a480 as the most cost effective. Has anyone used a480s for a fully functional scanner yet? If so, how are the results?

Thanks!

edit: regarding the a480 vs the a590 and comparable, I've been wondering about the importance of manual focus, which is not available on the a480. I posted a question about this here.

BTW, Canon a480 is $73 refurbished today at buy.com

linkhttp://www.buy.com/prod/canon-powershot ... adid=17654