Scanner for less than 20$

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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DocBeech
Posts: 2
Joined: 25 Mar 2014, 12:12
E-book readers owned: Asus
Number of books owned: 100
Country: USA

Scanner for less than 20$

Post by DocBeech »

Hey guys, I know I'm new here, but I ran across this: http://www.instructables.com/id/New-Imp ... /?ALLSTEPS

One which I did not see on the forums while looking at different designs for more than a week now. I joined in order to share it, I will be doing this build over this next weekend, and next week. If all turns out well I will publish photos with how it went, and which software I decided to use along with it.
rkomar
Posts: 98
Joined: 12 May 2013, 16:36
E-book readers owned: PRS-505, PocketBook 902, PRS-T1, PocketBook 623, PocketBook 840
Number of books owned: 3000
Country: Canada

Re: Scanner for less than 20$

Post by rkomar »

It looks great for the price, but personally, I wouldn't accept the results. You can see from the first picture that the pages don't sit flat like they do against a pane of glass. The text will be slightly distorted because of that. Also, if some light comes in obliquely, you'll see shadows on the page, just like in the picture in the link. Finally, I think the camera is too close to get good focus over the entire two pages of the book. The image will be blurry in places. However, it's certainly better than just snapping pictures of an open book by hand, and for $20, it's worth trying out to see if the results are acceptable (maybe others aren't as picky as I am).
DocBeech
Posts: 2
Joined: 25 Mar 2014, 12:12
E-book readers owned: Asus
Number of books owned: 100
Country: USA

Re: Scanner for less than 20$

Post by DocBeech »

I have read about programs that can correct for the page curve, unless I am mistaken?
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daniel_reetz
Posts: 2812
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E-book readers owned: Used to have a PRS-500
Number of books owned: 600
Country: United States
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Re: Scanner for less than 20$

Post by daniel_reetz »

Welcome, DocBeech - we talked about that one a little in the past: http://diybookscanner.org/forum/viewtop ... less#p4983

Basically, I agree with rkomar. It's a neat rig and will definitely work for some people. And depending on what you're doing the quality could be plenty. Not everyone wants the best captures. Over time, I've become more and more focused on doing every part of the scan correctly, and that's definitely changed my designs.

When I built a similar scanner, the big problem was the shadowing from the threaded rods. And if you cover them (like a tent around the whole thing) then you can't see what you're photographing. So it needs a little work. If you build one, I'd be really interested to see it.
sparepartsjr
Posts: 1
Joined: 09 Jul 2014, 11:48
E-book readers owned: kindle
Number of books owned: 50
Country: United States

Re: Scanner for less than 20$

Post by sparepartsjr »

i built one lat saturday (7/12/14), and there is issues with lighting but i'm going to try something to correct it, sometime this week/weekend. there are some issues with pushing down on the spine. i'll try and post pictures at some point.
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