Using pi-scan
Posted: 23 Mar 2018, 23:06
Hi,
I have very recently completed building a version of the hardware store book scanner (Great fun by the way) and am attempting to run pi-scan. I've got two working canon elph-160 cameras and a brand new raspberry pi 3. Pi-scan says version 1.5. Both cameras are 100A firmware, and the CHDK version is 1.4.1.
Questions:
Currently, it takes a minimum of 7 seconds for the pi-scan software to be ready to capture and usually another 4 seconds or so if I wait for the camera menus to re-appear. I hear 4 seconds is pretty do-able with fast USB storage but nobody has mentioned an item number for the storage and/or card reader as far as I've noticed. I'm using a SanDisk 32GB class 10, U1 card that says 80MB/s. I've put it into a Transcend RDF5 card reader. What should I do to improve scanning speed?
In addition, I'm experiencing camera crashes regularly. I scanned a 310 page book and had four crashes. I notice that the pi-scan capture menu reappears before the camera menus reappear. I've tried slowing down and waiting until the camera menus reappear, which doesn't seem to have much effect. I've also tried restarting pi-scan about every 50 shots but the jury's out still on if that's at all helpful. Should I consider something other than pi-scan?
I'm using a logitech wireless keyboard and mouse combo, which seems to work well. Should I consider a wired only keyboard? I'm not having any problem using the keyboard, just not sure if it eats cycles on the pi.
Image quality. The images that appear on the sd card are JPEG images that seem to range between 6 and 7MB. Is this the expected result? I sort of though I'd be getting a folder full of RAW images. Can I override things and get an even higher quality image if I like? If so, how?
One other nit, one camera just doesn't really like to go into record mode. I just fiddle with it until it gets into record mode, but I don't have an absolute checklist of buttons to hit to make it happy yet. I think so far its something like start pi-scan, detect storage, turn on cameras, both cameras detect, try to refocus, the "even" camera won't open the lens. Then restart pi-scan and the camera, and then it might work half the time. Fool around pressing buttons and restarting and then suddenly everything is working.
Again, it's been a blast so far and thanks for any advice you can offer.
Best!
rduz
I have very recently completed building a version of the hardware store book scanner (Great fun by the way) and am attempting to run pi-scan. I've got two working canon elph-160 cameras and a brand new raspberry pi 3. Pi-scan says version 1.5. Both cameras are 100A firmware, and the CHDK version is 1.4.1.
Questions:
Currently, it takes a minimum of 7 seconds for the pi-scan software to be ready to capture and usually another 4 seconds or so if I wait for the camera menus to re-appear. I hear 4 seconds is pretty do-able with fast USB storage but nobody has mentioned an item number for the storage and/or card reader as far as I've noticed. I'm using a SanDisk 32GB class 10, U1 card that says 80MB/s. I've put it into a Transcend RDF5 card reader. What should I do to improve scanning speed?
In addition, I'm experiencing camera crashes regularly. I scanned a 310 page book and had four crashes. I notice that the pi-scan capture menu reappears before the camera menus reappear. I've tried slowing down and waiting until the camera menus reappear, which doesn't seem to have much effect. I've also tried restarting pi-scan about every 50 shots but the jury's out still on if that's at all helpful. Should I consider something other than pi-scan?
I'm using a logitech wireless keyboard and mouse combo, which seems to work well. Should I consider a wired only keyboard? I'm not having any problem using the keyboard, just not sure if it eats cycles on the pi.
Image quality. The images that appear on the sd card are JPEG images that seem to range between 6 and 7MB. Is this the expected result? I sort of though I'd be getting a folder full of RAW images. Can I override things and get an even higher quality image if I like? If so, how?
One other nit, one camera just doesn't really like to go into record mode. I just fiddle with it until it gets into record mode, but I don't have an absolute checklist of buttons to hit to make it happy yet. I think so far its something like start pi-scan, detect storage, turn on cameras, both cameras detect, try to refocus, the "even" camera won't open the lens. Then restart pi-scan and the camera, and then it might work half the time. Fool around pressing buttons and restarting and then suddenly everything is working.
Again, it's been a blast so far and thanks for any advice you can offer.
Best!
rduz