Rhino his first scanner

Built a scanner? Started to build a scanner? Record your progress here. Doesn't need to be a whole scanner - triggers and other parts are fine. Commercial scanners are fine too.

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Rhinobirds
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Joined: 05 Feb 2013, 06:35
Number of books owned: 100
Country: Netherlands

Rhino his first scanner

Post by Rhinobirds »

hi all,

first post so with it goes also a quick introduction. Stumbled upon this forum more than a year ago and since then been hooked. In the past I have been scanning a book occasionally but that takes 1 to 2 hours at a normal copy machine. Now I have to scan a couple so a little google brought me here. A lot of ideas and builds from other people to get inspiration so I had to start building a scanner myself!

My first build was out of cardboard as that is cheap and wanted to see a proof of concept for myself :). I still had a Canon A590 laying around so I bought a second one for cheap to make a stereo setup later. A little reading that it is possible to hack these things and I was good to go. Here is my first build and pictures is ofcourse what you all like to see :mrgreen:

First I started to make a simple cradle out of cardboard:
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The idea is simple, for the first build I wanted to use a glass plate and only one camera.
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Support structure to mount the camera:
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I used the spotlights in my kitchen which gave good results. I little playing with the settings and I scanned my first book! I used Scantailer and turned it into a PDF in no time.
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After scanning the first book, some drawbacks were clear from the start. The scanner is situated rather high sitting on the cooking island so turning the page manually was a bit of a pita. I could feel my arms afterwards... Also 2 camera's would half the work which means saving time.

So, new idea's for my second build involved re-using some old IKEA parts. The idea is to make a scanner with the camera's facing upwards. For now this is oke as I will be mainly scanning pockets and novels. To start I bought 2 aluminum picture frames to make a platen and connected them with a strip of aluminum at an angle of 100 degree.
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The whole setup itself is constructed using some old IVAR parts. I cut a square hole in the top shelf to create and opening for the camera's. Re-used the inner wood to make mounts for the camera's and here we go:
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Now I am in the process of fixing the platen on the top shelf and I have to think of the lighting. Probably will go with 2 spotlights in the lower shelf. I also found some original Canon adapters to power the camera's and will trigger them by supplying power to their USB inputs. More to come later!

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daniel_reetz
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Re: Rhino his first scanner

Post by daniel_reetz »

Nice looking build! I love the pictureframe approach. Keep us up-to-date on your progress...
rkomar
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Re: Rhino his first scanner

Post by rkomar »

Have you tried using it yet? I'm slapping together something similar, and I'm having trouble with the lighting. When I place it on the bottom shining up, it shines into my face through the platen and hurts my eyes. I think I'll have to place the lights high up on the side I'm standing on and angle them up towards the platen so that they're shining away from me. However, I'm not sure that the lighting will be even enough, that way. Anyway, I look forward to hearing what you're doing about lighting.
Rhinobirds
Posts: 4
Joined: 05 Feb 2013, 06:35
Number of books owned: 100
Country: Netherlands

Re: Rhino his first scanner

Post by Rhinobirds »

I have no experience yet with the lighting, it has been on hold for the last couple of weeks... But your point that it shines in your face is a good one and which I'll probably have to address too. My initial plan is to place 2 spot lights at the bottom facing upwards but then I'll have it shining in my face too.

Maybe go with LED lighting (switches on and off fast enough) and switch them on (maybe automatically) the moment you are about to take the pictures?
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daniel_reetz
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Re: Rhino his first scanner

Post by daniel_reetz »

You know, I'd never thought about the fact that the lighting that would evenly illuminate the entire platen would also shine in your eyes. You have to illuminate the entire area of the platen that you want to use, so it's tricky. Here are is a thought on solving this problem.

1. Direct the light to the platen only. Imagine for a minute that the light illuminating the book was a projector. It would have a defined cone of light emitting from the front. By making this cone as narrow as the area you want illuminated, it gives you a place to stand without getting blasted in the eye. Without using projector optics, you should be able to achieve this using "barn doors" or just cardboard blockers to prevent the light from coming at you. Here's a ridiculous drawing that might help.
diy_upside_down_scanner.jpg
diy_upside_down_scanner.jpg (34.57 KiB) Viewed 13123 times
rkomar
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Re: Rhino his first scanner

Post by rkomar »

I thought I'd make another comment about this design. I had a platen made with a 120 degree angle to reduce reflections between the two sides. It works very well for that, but I'm finding that I have a problem with the light at the bottom appearing in the picture. A platen with a 90 degree angle would have the light appearing further away from apex. If I want to leave the light at the bottom, I would have to increase the distance between the light and/or cameras and the platen to reduce this reflection. That's a problem with this design, unless you want to dig a pit into the floor :P. So my advice to those who want to use a similar design is to stick with the conventional 90 degree angled platen, as rhinobirds has done.
dpc
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Re: Rhino his first scanner

Post by dpc »

You can also move the camera back from the platen and zoom in to decrease the camera's viewing angle which will allow the light to be moved closer without appearing in the frame. Another option is to use two lights on either end of the platen crease instead of a single light overhead (underneath). One of those lights might get in your way when flipping pages though.
rkomar
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Re: Rhino his first scanner

Post by rkomar »

dpc wrote:You can also move the camera back from the platen and zoom in to decrease the camera's viewing angle which will allow the light to be moved closer without appearing in the frame. Another option is to use two lights on either end of the platen crease instead of a single light overhead (underneath). One of those lights might get in your way when flipping pages though.
I forgot about this thread, so I'm pretty slow in answering. You're right about the fact that moving the cameras back helps with the reflections. I have the cameras on the floor now (with the platen resting about 30" higher), and it pushes the reflections down to the point where I can scan a trade paperback without problem. I still can't do large format books, though. My two lights are directly beneath the apex, which seems to be best. If I place them outwards, the reflections get worse since the lights are getting closer to the cameras.

I also bought the kind of lights that have 108 LEDs in a 3"x4" grid. They provide a more even light than a single LED, which is nice. However, their larger size means that I have more of a problem with reflections, since parts of the lights are closer to the cameras than just single LEDs right on the center line.
Rhinobirds
Posts: 4
Joined: 05 Feb 2013, 06:35
Number of books owned: 100
Country: Netherlands

Re: Rhino his first scanner

Post by Rhinobirds »

It has been a while but I made my lighting (2 spotlights in an old shoebox roughly 65 cm below the apex) and it is sufficient. I can't move them outward because then I get reflections too just like rkomar. The light shining in your face is indeed a bit annoying but I try to keep the book between my eyes and the lights and it is doable.

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Furthermore I made a push-button to remotely control the camera's and I have been scanning 5 or 6 books now. So far I get a speed of 300~350 pages an hour which is good. Only disadvantage of this setup is that you have to lift the book all the time to flip the page. For pockets and small books this is ok but for bigger and larger books it is not...

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To conclude a sample page. I also have to scan in the evening/night when it is dark outside, otherwise I end up with reflections from things around the room.

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