SpreadPi: The new DIY Book Scanner control system.

Johannes Baiter's Spreads and SpreadPi are the latest control systems and postprocessors for DIY scanning. http://spreads.readthedocs.org

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kifty
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Number of books owned: 600
Country: Canada

Re: SpreadPi: The new DIY Book Scanner control system.

Post by kifty »

I'm not sure how to tell if it's autofocusing or not. It doesn't seem to refocus between each shot, only when I go to the gear menu. I don't seem to see a lot of difference when I change the focus distance: it's either completely out-of-focus or relatively clear.

I'll uncheck the "hidtrigger" plugin for now, then. I assume the only one I need on the Pi is "web", correct?

Do you just connect your Pi to your Windows machine via a regular ethernet patch cable? Is that sufficient to provide the Pi with an IP address that you can use to access the web interface via a tablet or phone?

Sorry for all the questions. I'll keep experimenting.
kifty
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Joined: 18 Jul 2013, 20:03
E-book readers owned: Android phone
Number of books owned: 600
Country: Canada

Re: SpreadPi: The new DIY Book Scanner control system.

Post by kifty »

OK, other than the focusing issue, I think pretty much everything is working. I've gotten Internet Connection Sharing to work on my Mac laptop, so I can control the RPi directly via an ethernet patch cable. I assume I can't control it via my phone without some fancy port forwarding or something, but at least I have something reliable for the conference.

The focusing issue is still mystifying me, though. I can get the focus just right, but if I create a new workflow with the exact same settings, it will be completely out of focus again. Perhaps I'm not configuring things properly via the command line. When it asks for a book with "as little white space as possible", what exactly does that mean? I've tried a few different books, but I haven't noticed a difference. Also, at this point, it asks me to turn on "one of the cameras". Could which camera I turn on make a difference? I'm really grasping at straws here, but it's frustrating to be so close to having a working setup.
spomwii
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Re: SpreadPi: The new DIY Book Scanner control system.

Post by spomwii »

I just got my Pi up and running but it looks like I have the same focus problem as Kifty. All pictures are just blured. Also it looks like the camera does not have the same settings. Does anyone know what I am doing wrong here?
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markvdb
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Re: SpreadPi: The new DIY Book Scanner control system.

Post by markvdb »

spomwii wrote:I just got my Pi up and running but it looks like I have the same focus problem as Kifty. All pictures are just blured. Also it looks like the camera does not have the same settings. Does anyone know what I am doing wrong here?
Just double checking... You do realise that these are the embedded thumbnails from the jpeg, right? The real files are just too big to push through the pi's network connection in real time...
Mark
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markvdb
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Joined: 28 Dec 2010, 18:45
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Re: SpreadPi: The new DIY Book Scanner control system.

Post by markvdb »

kifty wrote: Do you just connect your Pi to your Windows machine via a regular ethernet patch cable? Is that sufficient to provide the Pi with an IP address that you can use to access the web interface via a tablet or phone?

Sorry for all the questions. I'll keep experimenting.
The pi expects a dhcp lease. The easiest way to get that is to use a router. Either buy an al cheapo one (20-30€) or use an existing one. Connect the pi to it using an ethernet cable. You can then control it from any ip device with a browser.
Mark
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spomwii
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Joined: 17 Jun 2011, 07:57

Re: SpreadPi: The new DIY Book Scanner control system.

Post by spomwii »

markvdb wrote:
spomwii wrote:I just got my Pi up and running but it looks like I have the same focus problem as Kifty. All pictures are just blured. Also it looks like the camera does not have the same settings. Does anyone know what I am doing wrong here?
Just double checking... You do realise that these are the embedded thumbnails from the jpeg, right? The real files are just too big to push through the pi's network connection in real time...
Well this is awkward...

I new that the images was saved on the pi but when i did my first tests i did it in bad lightning without my scanner just to see if it was working. Then when I hooked it up to the scanner I just assumed that the thumbnails was supposed to be of better quality than in my first test and I never checked the actual images. omg :oops:


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daniel_reetz
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Re: SpreadPi: The new DIY Book Scanner control system.

Post by daniel_reetz »

that's alright. the pi is so slow that it cannot generate thumbnails in realtime, so we just extract them from the jpeg (they are automatically created by the camera). while this sucks a bit, it's so much better than waiting an additional 1-5 seconds per capture just to see things. after all, if we make the system reliable enough, a preview becomes (almost) irrelevant.
spomwii
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Joined: 17 Jun 2011, 07:57

Re: SpreadPi: The new DIY Book Scanner control system.

Post by spomwii »

I did a few test last night and SpreadPi is performing very well. I had a small problem though and I wonder if this is a bug? When I use the foot pedal the cameras takes a picture but it is not registered in the webgui. (no thumbnail and it shows 0 images) But if I download the images they are there. If I click the "take picture" button in the webgui everything is ok. Has anyone else experienced this?
markvdb
Posts: 90
Joined: 28 Dec 2010, 18:45
Number of books owned: 0
Country: Belgium

Re: SpreadPi: The new DIY Book Scanner control system.

Post by markvdb »

spomwii wrote:I did a few test last night and SpreadPi is performing very well. I had a small problem though and I wonder if this is a bug? When I use the foot pedal the cameras takes a picture but it is not registered in the webgui. (no thumbnail and it shows 0 images) But if I download the images they are there. If I click the "take picture" button in the webgui everything is ok. Has anyone else experienced this?
Strange. Never seen it. Did this happen every time, or just once?
Mark
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spomwii
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Joined: 17 Jun 2011, 07:57

Re: SpreadPi: The new DIY Book Scanner control system.

Post by spomwii »

Every time. Tried to reboot, same behavior. I am not sure but I think it was working the first time i tried it. Also when I think about it I have connected cameras and the foot pedal to a usbhub. I think that I connected the footpedal directly to the pi the first time I tried it. Not sure if that has anything to say but I will try to move the footpedal connection to see if that works.
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