I'm starting on a project I saw someone do online. Only problem is there were no instructions and the rest of the pages were in Japanese. That's fine, more excitement for me.
I was wondering what is the best way to go about this.
The project is a scanner camera, basically a digital photo camera comprised of a CCD line scanner from a multi-function printer/scanner. It sits on its rails and moves up and down scanning an image. I want to place a lens infront of the scanner and have it scan the incoming image and displayed from the lens. The four largest variables in this project I believe are:
The optimal way to connect the scanning mechanism to my arduino unit.
Software interface controlling the scanner to adjust quality, preview image/framing, and save the results to USB Stick.
Powering both the Arduino and Scanner with battery to make it portable.
Creating a case to hold all the hardware and the lens.
Starting with problem 1. My initial thought was "why don't I just use the existing USB setup and go USB into Arduino?" This may work good for prototyping, but I feel like this is a lazy route and that there will be a lot of excess materials in the printer/scanner interface that I will have to carefully remove. I would love to get it small enough to fit into a custom made case. While I havn't cracked into my donor multifunction scanner yet, I was wondering if anyone has experience with these scanners. Is there an alternate way to hook it all up to the Arduino?
Should I just start from scratch and have my own motor control the CCD Line Scan Camera all controlled by the Arduino?
That's a good point, If possible I would just shorten the length of the travel on the rails since your right I don't think it's going to be bigger than that. At the moment I have a candidate Nikon Nikkor 35mm Film lens of 50mm size. I'd prefer to use that. I think the first issue along that stage of construction will be the distance needed from sensor in order to have properly focusing images. Once I establish that distance, I'll know how large the 'throw' of the image onto the sensor is and limit it by whatever means to only the inside throw radius of the lens.
I'm going to take it all apart this weekend and see what it looks like. Originally I was thinking of setting it up using it's USB connection at first just for prototyping and easiness. I hope it's a little more feasible to run the whole thing without that tons of boards and wires that I'm sure inhabit this giant multi function. I'll try and post pictures of what I find inside.
Most scanners are 300dpi, if you use a 35mm camera lens you will have an image circle maybe 50mm in diameter giving a rectangle 24x36mm or let's say 1x1.5". That's an image resolution of about 135k pixels. Not worth doing I would think.
the distance needed from sensor in order to have properly focusing images
That is well documented, look for the "back focal distance" distance for Nikon SLR cameras, they will all be the same (they have to be if they share lenses). It will be around 45mm I think.
But as I said I think this is a dead end as a project if you use 35mm lenses. BUT, if you use an 8x10 lens you would get coverage over the entire scanner bed (maybe a bit less), have a back focal distance of 200-400mm and have a really nice project IMO.
Here are some examples
Also most large-format lenses have the shutter and aperture built in in a way that's easy to use with a cable release.