Using pi-scan

Discussions, questions, comments, ideas, and your projects having to do with DIY Book Scanner software. This includes the Stereo Data Maker software for the cameras, post-processing software, utilities, OCR packages, and so on.

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rduz
Posts: 5
Joined: 16 Mar 2018, 22:47
E-book readers owned: kindle
Number of books owned: 100
Country: United States

Using pi-scan

Post by rduz »

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
Konos93a
Posts: 195
Joined: 19 Sep 2016, 10:00
E-book readers owned: kobo aura,kindle 1,kindle pw3,pocketbook inkpad 2
Number of books owned: 3000
Country: greece

Re: Using pi-scan

Post by Konos93a »

upload some photo of your work


i suggest you read this threat viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3428&hilit=extusb
and go for an electronic trigger
rduz
Posts: 5
Joined: 16 Mar 2018, 22:47
E-book readers owned: kindle
Number of books owned: 100
Country: United States

Re: Using pi-scan

Post by rduz »

Will do, thanks for the info!
rduz
Posts: 5
Joined: 16 Mar 2018, 22:47
E-book readers owned: kindle
Number of books owned: 100
Country: United States

Re: Using pi-scan

Post by rduz »

Can you clarify what your setup is, please? Do you run chdk on the cameras or not? If so, the SD cards in the cameras have to be locked or they won't boot as I understand. If the cards are locked, then where do the images go? How do you ensure the cameras have the same shutter speed and zoom and are capturing the page correctly?

Thanks for trying to help me.

rduz
Konos93a
Posts: 195
Joined: 19 Sep 2016, 10:00
E-book readers owned: kobo aura,kindle 1,kindle pw3,pocketbook inkpad 2
Number of books owned: 3000
Country: greece

Re: Using pi-scan

Post by Konos93a »

Can you clarify what your setup is, please?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1ZKAbBjeJ0 will add subs as soon as i can
Do you run chdk on the cameras or not?
Yeap
If so, the SD cards in the cameras have to be locked or they won't boot as I understand. If the cards are locked, then where do the images go?
they boot , they auto-zoom where i want , they save in their sd card where they boot ,inside sd cable case to not move my camera.

How do you ensure the cameras have the same shutter speed and zoom and are capturing the page correctly?
About shutter speed i think that can change in each page . the focus change too so camera have to spot in letters.


viewtopic.php?f=14&t=3364&start=10 read till the post and if you want the threat
Post by Konos93a » 25 Jun 2017, 01:25




how do you give power to your cameras?
in what language do you read your books?

upload some photo of your setup and some captured pages
rduz
Posts: 5
Joined: 16 Mar 2018, 22:47
E-book readers owned: kindle
Number of books owned: 100
Country: United States

Re: Using pi-scan

Post by rduz »

Hi,

Thanks again for trying to help me, I really appreciate the effort.

how do you give power to your cameras?
I use AC adapters so I don't have to be concerned with running out of battery.

in what language do you read your books?
English.

upload some photo of your setup and some captured pages
I will attempt to upload.
Konos93a
Posts: 195
Joined: 19 Sep 2016, 10:00
E-book readers owned: kobo aura,kindle 1,kindle pw3,pocketbook inkpad 2
Number of books owned: 3000
Country: greece

Re: Using pi-scan

Post by Konos93a »

ac adapters inside the case of the batteries right?

i ask you about the language because in english you have very good ocr rather that any other language. so you don't have to keep the image to read.

if you wanna keep the image to read you have to find the best distance between glass and lens.

what programs do you use?
rduz
Posts: 5
Joined: 16 Mar 2018, 22:47
E-book readers owned: kindle
Number of books owned: 100
Country: United States

Re: Using pi-scan

Post by rduz »

Konos93a,

Yes, AC adapters that slide in the spot where the battery would normally go.

I can't use OCR - the books I'm scanning are all handwritten.

Originally, my plan was to use pi-scan, then post-process the images and most likely convert to pdf format. I'm not comfortable with the cameras crashing though so I'm starting to look at alternatives. I'm thinking I may either modify pi-scan to just save to the SD cards, or I may write something sort of like pi-scan that could do something similar. I've been thinking about your idea of using a shutter release, too, but not too sure that I want to scan more-or-less blind.

Pic of the book scanner
Konos93a
Posts: 195
Joined: 19 Sep 2016, 10:00
E-book readers owned: kobo aura,kindle 1,kindle pw3,pocketbook inkpad 2
Number of books owned: 3000
Country: greece

Re: Using pi-scan

Post by Konos93a »

don't use pdf,use djvu 5 times smaller space with the same quality and better running in ebooks. after scantailor-advanced use djviewsmall 0.4.4

i am not sure about it but i think that pi-scan stuck trough connectivity or bad ac adpaters (with less ambers rather what it need).
modify pi-scan to keep images on their sd cards (buy sd cables you wil need them) is a faster way to capture photos but still stuck with the connectivity.

with ext-usb you are not blind you have two tv to show liveview were to capture

now i used abbyyfinereader to find the best distance-zoom that's happed with a command name suggest dpi . take a book and use this command to find that.
duerig
Posts: 388
Joined: 01 Jun 2014, 17:04
Number of books owned: 1000
Country: United States of America

Re: Using pi-scan

Post by duerig »

rduz, it looks like you might be going with a different setup now (one that doesn't use Pi Scan). But if you still want to resolve your Pi Scan issues, let me know and I will be happy to help you get things working.

As an aside, there is another alternative to Pi Scan called TwoCamControl. This is a windows program that does the same job and saves things to a local folder on your computer:

https://github.com/nod5/TwoCamControl

Different setups work best for different people.

-D
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