Options re: writing drivers for additional cameras

Everything camera related. Includes triggers, batteries, power supplies, flatbeds and sheet-feeding scanners, too.

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JeffB
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Options re: writing drivers for additional cameras

Post by JeffB »

My son should graduate with a computer science degree in December. I asked him whether he thought he could/would try and write drivers for a camera for these scanners. He seemed open to the idea, but said that he would need SDKs or APIs or whatever... it's kind of Greek to me, but I am wondering how feasible, time consuming a task like that would be.

I am also wondering where one might get the necessary SDKs or whatever? Contact camera manufacturers? Or are they available elsewhere?

For instance, the Canon Elph 160 is no longer manufactured from what I can tell, but a slightly newer version is. I think the Elph 180 is still manufactured. Would the drivers for the 160 likely work for the 180? Or maybe just a relatively simple tweak here or there to make it work?
duerig
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Re: Options re: writing drivers for additional cameras

Post by duerig »

The 'drivers' for these cameras will be part of one of two projects:

CHDK uses some hooks that are available in the cheap Canon point and shoot cameras to bootstrap a more full-featured environment onto the camera that also lets you control it via a computer. Porting CHDK to a new camera can be either relatively easy or hard depending on if similar cameras already have ports. I'd take a look at the CHDK project and forums for more details if you or your son want to port it to new cameras. Note that recently CHDK has in fact been ported to the ELPH 180 cameras. This means that there is a supported camera that is still being manufactured. And this camera will work with Pi Scan.

The other project that deals with cameras is called gPhoto. It uses the PTP protocol which higher end mirrorless and DSLR cameras use to talk to computers and transfer files. All of these higher end cameras come with support for computer control of one form or another out of the box. So adding support is some combination of adding the details of the camera to the library and testing the camera to make sure it works. But you would want to look at the project and forums for more details on how exactly new camera support is added to gPhoto. Many currently manufactured cameras have gPhoto support. It is just a matter of price. These cameras are typically $500 and up in cost (each) just for the cameras. And while you do get better quality that puts them out of reach of many people who want DIY scanners.

-Jonathon Duerig
JeffB
Posts: 13
Joined: 03 Mar 2014, 13:58
E-book readers owned: Adobe Acrobat, Calibre, Kindle for Windows, perhaps others. Not sure.
Number of books owned: 200
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Location: Missouri, USA

Re: Options re: writing drivers for additional cameras

Post by JeffB »

Thank you for your time, & sharing your expertise.
duerig wrote: 29 Aug 2018, 11:32 The 'drivers' for these cameras will be part of one of two projects:

CHDK uses some hooks that are available in the cheap Canon point and shoot cameras to bootstrap a more full-featured environment onto the camera that also lets you control it via a computer. Porting CHDK to a new camera can be either relatively easy or hard depending on if similar cameras already have ports. I'd take a look at the CHDK project and forums for more details if you or your son want to port it to new cameras. Note that recently CHDK has in fact been ported to the ELPH 180 cameras. This means that there is a supported camera that is still being manufactured. And this camera will work with Pi Scan.
That's great. It means that no 'drivers' or whatever would be needed for the ELPH 180? Almost plug & play easy? Ditto for any other camera that CHDK supports? That is both for controlling the aperture, shutter speed & remote shutter release?
duerig wrote: 29 Aug 2018, 11:32The other project that deals with cameras is called gPhoto. It uses the PTP protocol which higher end mirrorless and DSLR cameras use to talk to computers and transfer files. All of these higher end cameras come with support for computer control of one form or another out of the box. So adding support is some combination of adding the details of the camera to the library and testing the camera to make sure it works. But you would want to look at the project and forums for more details on how exactly new camera support is added to gPhoto. Many currently manufactured cameras have gPhoto support. It is just a matter of price. These cameras are typically $500 and up in cost (each) just for the cameras. And while you do get better quality that puts them out of reach of many people who want DIY scanners.

-Jonathon Duerig
I have an old Olympus SP-570UZ 10 megapixel I was thinking about trying. It hasn't been used in a couple of years or so & I would probably have to get batteries, cable & an XD card. It sounds like 10 MP is sub optimal for book scanning, so maybe it isn't worth trying to find out if it has factory remote control software. I think it was manufactured in 2008 or so & was considered a bridge between point & shoot & higher end cameras. It has no screw mount in the shutter release for manual remote control.
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