Re: Paperport ix - scanner keyboard

becka@sunserver1.rz.uni-duesseldorf.de
Wed, 6 Aug 1997 02:07:04 +0200 (MET DST)

Hi !

> Is anyone working on a Visioneer serial driver for their Paperport ix
> scanner keyboard? I assume it uses the same protocol as their other serial
> scanners.
None that I know of.

> I started reverse engineering it yesterday and found some setbacks.
> Apparently, the scanner keyboard uses CTS,DSR,RNG,DCD to send nybbles of
> data. The CPU strobes DTR,RTS to send command data and request new
> nybbles. The RXD,TXD aren't even hooked up!

Urks. This is _sick_. I suppose they have adapted an older design which
used a proprietary card or the parallel port (using four lines of data
would suggest the latter).

> This had made it very difficult to trace via serial line monitor because
> the Win95 driver code cycles the DTR too quickly for my line monitor to
> detect cleanly. I've been mainly using SoftIce on the Win95 to piece
> together the protocol.

Wow - what an effort. Go ahead, write a driver.

> This scanner keyboard is a great device, I just want a native interface and
> one that works with Linux ;)

I'm afraid you'll have to write it. Don't worry, we will try to help where
possible.

I am afraid this is not a trivial (but surely doable) task for you, as you
will probably need to write a kernel driver which natively talks the sick
protocol, as I am not sure wheter you can get what you want via termios
and friends (anybody here who knows, if you can read/write all the needed
lines via termio ?). This method would at best be slow. However a small
driver that will allow setting DTR/RTS (I know this can be done using
standard calls) and reading the other four lines should do.

If you need help with that - contact me.

CU,Andy

-- 
Andreas Beck              |  Email :  <becka@sunserver1.rz.uni-duesseldorf.de>
===  World-Wide-Web URL :  http://sunserver1.rz.uni-duesseldorf.de/~becka  ===
========  GGI - The Right Thing To Do : http://synergy.foo.net/~ggi/  ========

--
Source code, list archive, and docs: http://www.azstarnet.com/~axplinux/sane/
To unsubscribe: mail -s unsubscribe sane-devel-request@listserv.azstarnet.com