[sane-devel] Medion MD90090 Scanner

[Jon Chambers]

Hi Stefan,

Firstly I should say that although I have written a SANE backend it was for a 
network scanner (not USB) and so I don't have any great insights into the 
details of the required driver for your scanner.

Also I didn't see earlier messages in this thread so apologies if I cover old 
ground.

On Tuesday 09 January 2007 22:28, Stefan Leichter wrote:
> [...]
> I'm a newbe and i don't get paid for working on OSsoftware. Therefore i
> like to do the stuff in an efficient way or leave it as it is. I don't like
> to spend ages.

Don't worry: we all started somewhere and I doubt that many SANE contributors 
(maybe none?) do so as part of their jobs.  You can find information about 
the process of writing a SANE backend at 
http://www.sane-project.org/contrib.html

Time and patience will certainly be required.

> I have no idea if it is enough to switch on some sane logging and compare
> the output wiith the logs from windows, or is there a need do disassemble
> the scanner to get a knowledge of the electrical components. Will the
> programmers manual of the ASIC be enough or are the schematics needed...

If you were starting with no documentation at all then your steps would likely 
be:
1. Get scanner working under Windows
2. Use a USB snooping tool to obtain USB traffic between computer and scanner 
whilst performing a one or more scans on Windows.
3. Stare at the captured data and try to make sense of it.  You might be able 
to get clues by comparing with the other backend source code.  Also if you 
have queries about the interpretation of specific messages then posting those 
questions to sane-devel is more likely to receive answers than general 
inquiries.
4. Determine whether a new backend is required or whether modifying an 
existing one will suffice.
5. Do it :-)

Good luck!

cheers,
Jon

-- 
====================== Jon Chambers =====================
 http://www.jon.demon.co.uk, 020 8575 7097, 07931 961669
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