Re: color trouble with Microtek ScanMaker E6

Klaus Espenlaub (espenlaub@informatik.uni-ulm.de)
Tue, 09 Nov 1999 09:56:35 +0100

Matto Marjanovic wrote:
> This is really a tough one. There seem to be a few undocumented SCSI
> commands that the TWAIN driver sends to the E6, and they seem to have
> something to do with calibrating the CCD. I discovered this once a
> long time ago when I played around with a very limited tool to
> monitor Windows scsi transactions.

Hmmm... something just came to my mind. How about using the ASPI32 support
in wine to run the TWAIN module under Linux, with access to the ASPI emulation
source in the wine code. My current work machine isnŽt suited for this
(dual boot Linux/WinNT), but I have access to a fairly recent wine
installation on some other machine with a SCSI controller. IŽll check if
the scanner software runs well enough under wine. May take a while for me
to get around trying this setup.

> My best guess is that your scanner needs to see these commands.
> Unfortunately, the tool was so limited that I couldn't get enough
> information to tell what was going on. And, counting you, only about
> three people have ever had this problem; every other E6 scanner seems
> to work just fine without these commands. (Including models with the
> same firmware rev.)

Can you ask the other two poor fellows if they also have the Macintosh
version of the E6? Possibly they have a different firmware than the
regular PC version.

> The backend is really in pretty good shape; I've kind of slipped in
> adding stuff to it because the last few things to add involve
> tracking down these weird commands by toying with Windows --- what a
> drag.

I can agree with that - the stability of the backend is way beyond what
Mac or PC users usually get. The Mac crashed after a few test scans and
also takes about the same time for a preview scan as sane-microtek takes
for a full 600dpi scan.

> Does anyone know of anything I can download to spy on what the Windows
> driver is sending back and forth? Last time I tried looking (about a
> year ago), it was a frustrating experience. If I had the tool, reverse
> engineering the spec would probably be a snap.

IŽve found a message on the sane-devel list from some Mustek user that
had a Win32 ASPI snoop tool, but needed a Win16 one. I asked him for an
up-to-date URL, because the one he quoted didnŽt work. WeŽll see if that
is usable. At least it sounds like.

Last minute update: I found the web page:
http://www.Student.Uni-Augsburg.DE/~scorpion/aspi32snoop.html
Drawback: currently the ZIP file is not accessible. I notified the guy,
and while I did this, I asked him for the sources...

Klaus

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