Re: Cheap HP 3200C scanner

Peter Kirchgessner (peter@kirchgessner.net)
Thu, 27 May 1999 18:53:58 +0200

Ronald Pijnacker wrote:
>
> Hi there,
>
> At the risk of asking a silly question, here it is anyway...
>
> I am thinking of buying a cheap scanner (e.g. a HP 3200C). However, I
> saw that there is now support for that in SANE, but I cannot determine
> why. Could anybody give me a short answer to the following questions
> (or a long one if you feel like it)...
>
> * Is there a good and cheap alternative to the HP 3200C with the same
> quality that I'd expect from HP that is supported by SANE (in Linux).

Hi Ronald,

if you think about another HP scanner, the answer is no. From HPs
current models only the SCSI scanners are supported.

> * Why is the HP 3200C not supported? Does it have something to do with
> it being a non-SCSI scanner?

Yes. The SCSI protocol is well defined and the documentation for scanner
commands is quite good. The protocol for sharing the parallel port with
a printer is not documented.

> * Would it be difficult to write a driver for HP 3200C (assuming I
> know something about programming but not too much about SCSI or
> parallel ports)? Is there a risk of breaking the scanner?
>

I suppose its difficult. And there could be a risk to break the scanner.
But currently there are developments with regard to USB-support under
Linux 2.2 or other developments with regard to the parallel port (see
http://www.torque.net/parport/parscsi.html). Maybe this gives support
for cheaper HP scanners.

--Peter

> Please CC to me, since I am not a member of the
> mailing-list. Depending on the answer I might be tempted to become
> one, however... :)
>
> Thanks.
>
> Ronald Pijnacker
> rhp@iname.com
>
> --
> Source code, list archive, and docs: http://www.mostang.com/sane/
> To unsubscribe: echo unsubscribe sane-devel | mail majordomo@mostang.com

-- 
Peter Kirchgessner
WWW:    http://www.kirchgessner.net
e-mail: peter@kirchgessner.net







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