[sane-devel] Thinking about trying to add support for Mustek 1200 III EP

[Ron Hunter-Duvar]

Hi,

I have an old Mustek 1200 III EP parallel port scanner I'd like to use under 
Linux. Unfortunately, it's not supported by the sane-mustek_pp backend. I'm 
not going to boot into Windoze just to use the scanner, so right now it's 
useless. It's not even heavy enough to use as a boat anchor 8^). Even if I 
end up frying it, I'm no worse off.

I'm considering trying to implement support for this scanner. I'm an 
experienced developer, though my C is a bit rusty, and I haven't yet 
developed anything under Linux. I've also never written a device driver. I've 
been using Linux for over a year now, and had quite a bit of Solaris 
experience before that.

I've read all the recommended introductory material (which is how I ended up 
on this list). I haven't gotten to the sane standard itself yet. That's next 
on my list. I'm assuming it's version 1 of the standard that I want, not the 
version 2 that's under development (haven't seen this clearly stated anywhere 
- "Version 2.0 (Development)" could mean the version to be used for backends 
and frontends that are under development).

I tried contacting Mustek to see if they would provide any technical info. 
Tech Support flatly refused, and Customer Service simply ignored me. They 
wouldn't so much as tell me if it was a CCD or CIS type scanner. I saw 
messages on this list suggesting that some people have established contact 
with Mustek. Perhaps they can get more info?

The FCC id suggests a CCD (it has "A4SII" in it), and following the 
instructions on the mustek_pp web page, I've been able to determine that it 
uses asic 1505. 

I've compiled and installed SANE-Backends-1.0.16 and sane-frontends 1.0.14 
(under Mandriva 10.1, 2.6.8.1-24mdk kernel, if it matters), and 
"sane-find-scanner -p" reports that it 'found possible Mustek parallel port 
scanner at "parport0"'.

I do have a conflict to resolve with sane-backends-1.0.14-3mdk.i586 
sane-frontends-1.0.13-1.1010.1mdk.i586 that are already installed by default 
(the problem is Mandriva's dependency mgmt wants to remove all kinds of other 
essential packages). I'm working on this.

FWIW, I've downloaded the Windoze driver. I don't suppose anyone has done 
something like ndiswrapper or captive ntfs to make Windoze drivers work under 
sane? I could disassemble it, but I'm not sure what that would tell me.

I'm assuming I should extend the mustek_pp backend, rather than building a 
separate one.

I saw some mention of a sane-mustek_a4s2 backend. Should I try this instead? 
Or am I mistaken?

Any advice? What next? Should I bother?

Thanks, and sorry for the long post.

-- 
Ron
ronhd at users dot sourceforge dot net

Opinions expressed here are all mine.