[sane-devel] scan problem with the Mustek A3 USB

[mustek at ariplex.com]

Hi, I am new to the list. Why does my email not come through to the list?

Do you know who I could ask concerning my scan problem with the Mustek A3
USB??

Thank you,

Aribert Deckers


------------------------------------

Hello,

I have a problem with a Mustek A3 USB for scanning xray film:

Using SANE for scanning the transparency lid for scanning xrays is sending
light into the scanner, but the lamp in the scanner is not turned off
whilst scanning, so the xray film is lit from 2 sides and the scans are
very bad in quality. Even those parts of the xray film which have NO
silver on it, do not become white, but have a shady gray.

Trying to scan with Windows 98 or Windows 2000, using the original driver
from Mustek, is a desaster as the scan area is automatically cut off, so
that the scan does not cover the full surface of the glas area but only a
stripe of, say, 10 cm or whatever the insane thing decides to take at the
very moment. I found no way of shutting off this automatism.
The scan result is a plain mess: varying of contrast and light will only
change from a striped picture which looks like a real bad foto copy with a
defect drum to a white background with sharp black spots on it.
BUT: with Windows the lamp is shut off!

The scanner itself is a shame: the scans are not sharp: if the paper in a
reflective scan lifts of a mm from the glas, the picture is unsharp...
The cause for this seems to be the technique used by Mustek. The more
expensive scanners seem to have a better hardware.

The problem with the sharpness is not related to the lighting. As the
sharpness is not my main concern right now, I only need a way to turn off
the lamp for scanning the xray films. The latest (and still very old) SANE
linux driver I downloaded, but the result is the same as before.

Please note:

The scanner is a Mustek A3 USB, not a Mustek A3 USB 600, 1200 or whatever.


What can be done with the SANE driver to work correctly?

Thank you,

Aribert Deckers