I had one of these in my younger days. It was much cheaper than a flatbed scanner (at the time) and you can do larger images with photo stitching software providing you were careful during the scan process. Overall decent quality for its size however it got quite cumbersome scanning larger images so I caved in and purchased a flatbed a year later. The passthru parallel port was for printers (obviously) and it was about a year or two out before USB started gaining traction.
I appreciate so much that you ran the scanner over pretty much every surface within arm's reach. It bothers me a lot that the device is somewhat dependent on scanning a calibration card. It's impossible to replicate one because it would have to be scanned and then printed - both of which might alter the output. On a related note, my mom had me stop by a couple weeks ago to fix her HP OfficeJet MFD printer, and about the only thing about it that impressed me was that it could calibrate its print color by printing a test page that you then put on the scanner/copier bed.
Cool stuff, one of those things that was always on my wishlist but I never actually got to play with, too. Being the fancy "color" model, I'm guessing the form factor is probably sized for scanning in photo prints, maybe 5" wide plus some margin? As for the complexity in that electronics module, it also had to deal with the parallel printer pass-through and whatever logic to make that work... and that this was well before the era of cheap, powerful microcontrollers. Custom ASICs were about the only option. Similarly, driving stepper motors used to be a lot bulkier, more expensive, and really power-hungry, so I can definitely see some advantages to this over a flatbed scanner, as long as you're willing to tolerate the skew issues you were seeing.
I think Logitech were pushing this type of hand held scanner over a rotary type feeder scanner simply because it was lighter and more portable. This supposedly made it attractive to business men "on the go". I'm not positive that was the intent, but I seem to recall them advertising these things a lot in Office Depot back in the day and that was the intended appeal of them. PS: I LOVE what you did here with all the experimentation. This makes it quite attractive to digital artists who want to capture some abstract stuff.
not ideal for its intended use case but still tons of fun. The inescapable urge to scan any and everything around you, its like labeling things after buying a label maker
well the comparing voltage part in that thing usually works with a zener diode and an op amp comparing the zener voltage with the supply voltage and then regulating a transistor accordingly in a feedback loop
Thanks for this video, it brings memories back of my old Mustek (?) Handy Scanner! :) Back in the 90s, I had it connected to my 286 running Windows 3.1, I believe. I remember how we used that thing to digitize family photos. Unfortunately, I had no color printer, just a b/w Laserjet+. At the time, having both a colour printer and a scanner was outstanding. Still remember when my father and me drove to Metro and bought a 14.4k modem. Data and FAX! With that big 25pin serial connector and a 9pin/25pin adapter cable. ^^ PS: I saw an ancient scanner software called Image-In for Windows 2.x at Winworldpc once. If you're lucky, it *could* work with that Scanman even. Anyway, just saying. Never tried yet.
i think just about anything that has an "internal reference voltage" is using a zener diode; those magic bastards that shunt all excess current such that the voltage drop across them is ALWAYS whatever the zener is rated for. i mean technically all diodes do this with the standard 0.6v drop or whatever.. so u could make a reference voltage of 0.6v with a regular diode... or put a few in series for whatever multiple of x0.6v you want. you have to feed them with a resistor so its not a short circuit. +V...[resistor]....*.....[zener]...GND where * is your stable reference voltage output. NOTE that zener's special breakdown voltage happens in reverse, so they always look like they're wired in upside-down. finally, this "reference voltage" is only meant to source infinitesimal amount of current, to be used for an opamp or something... trying to use a zener directly for voltage regulation CAN work, but for any meaningful current you have to choose a very low value resistor which will catch fire :P (o and also, i think voltage regs like 78xx basically have [ref volt]....[opamp]....[transistor] where the transistor is run in forward-active mode so it acts as a variable current amplifier rather than a switch... thus, the heat generated in a voltage reg is actually from the transistor)
I had the ISA version in a 486 dx 40 with just 8 mb of ram. It sucked because of the computer crashing and sadly never got to use it with our newer Pentium 133 mhz and 32 mb ram because of win 95/98 driver software. you wouldn't happen to have the drivers for the ISA Logitech Scanman Color???
"Doesn't smell like bang" is one of my new favourite phrases
I had one of these in my younger days. It was much cheaper than a flatbed scanner (at the time) and you can do larger images with photo stitching software providing you were careful during the scan process. Overall decent quality for its size however it got quite cumbersome scanning larger images so I caved in and purchased a flatbed a year later. The passthru parallel port was for printers (obviously) and it was about a year or two out before USB started gaining traction.
Thank you! I've always wanted to see how well these things worked :)
"scans man" sir you are a public hecking menace
also, your instinct for creatively abusing any given technology is something i absolutely don't have, and it's a national treasure
I appreciate so much that you ran the scanner over pretty much every surface within arm's reach.
It bothers me a lot that the device is somewhat dependent on scanning a calibration card. It's impossible to replicate one because it would have to be scanned and then printed - both of which might alter the output.
On a related note, my mom had me stop by a couple weeks ago to fix her HP OfficeJet MFD printer, and about the only thing about it that impressed me was that it could calibrate its print color by printing a test page that you then put on the scanner/copier bed.
Cool stuff, one of those things that was always on my wishlist but I never actually got to play with, too.
Being the fancy "color" model, I'm guessing the form factor is probably sized for scanning in photo prints, maybe 5" wide plus some margin?
As for the complexity in that electronics module, it also had to deal with the parallel printer pass-through and whatever logic to make that work... and that this was well before the era of cheap, powerful microcontrollers. Custom ASICs were about the only option.
Similarly, driving stepper motors used to be a lot bulkier, more expensive, and really power-hungry, so I can definitely see some advantages to this over a flatbed scanner, as long as you're willing to tolerate the skew issues you were seeing.
I think Logitech were pushing this type of hand held scanner over a rotary type feeder scanner simply because it was lighter and more portable. This supposedly made it attractive to business men "on the go". I'm not positive that was the intent, but I seem to recall them advertising these things a lot in Office Depot back in the day and that was the intended appeal of them. PS: I LOVE what you did here with all the experimentation. This makes it quite attractive to digital artists who want to capture some abstract stuff.
20:16 Old clunky technology always has the best comedic timing, that's half the fun of messing with it.
You are a true artist, consider selling these. 🧑🏻🎨
not ideal for its intended use case but still tons of fun. The inescapable urge to scan any and everything around you, its like labeling things after buying a label maker
Glad you made this video so I don’t have to buy one just to re-experience it
well the comparing voltage part in that thing usually works with a zener diode and an op amp comparing the zener voltage with the supply voltage and then regulating a transistor accordingly in a feedback loop
Thanks for this video, it brings memories back of my old Mustek (?) Handy Scanner! :)
Back in the 90s, I had it connected to my 286 running Windows 3.1, I believe.
I remember how we used that thing to digitize family photos.
Unfortunately, I had no color printer, just a b/w Laserjet+.
At the time, having both a colour printer and a scanner was outstanding.
Still remember when my father and me drove to Metro and bought a 14.4k modem.
Data and FAX! With that big 25pin serial connector and a 9pin/25pin adapter cable. ^^
PS: I saw an ancient scanner software called Image-In for Windows 2.x at Winworldpc once.
If you're lucky, it *could* work with that Scanman even. Anyway, just saying. Never tried yet.
okay you redeemed yourself with the phone light scan.
thats all very cool, brother
"It just does!"
JFM (just fucking magic)
Also, in place of medical tape, should prophylactic hot pink hockey tape work?
i think just about anything that has an "internal reference voltage" is using a zener diode; those magic bastards that shunt all excess current such that the voltage drop across them is ALWAYS whatever the zener is rated for. i mean technically all diodes do this with the standard 0.6v drop or whatever.. so u could make a reference voltage of 0.6v with a regular diode... or put a few in series for whatever multiple of x0.6v you want. you have to feed them with a resistor so its not a short circuit. +V...[resistor]....*.....[zener]...GND where * is your stable reference voltage output. NOTE that zener's special breakdown voltage happens in reverse, so they always look like they're wired in upside-down. finally, this "reference voltage" is only meant to source infinitesimal amount of current, to be used for an opamp or something... trying to use a zener directly for voltage regulation CAN work, but for any meaningful current you have to choose a very low value resistor which will catch fire :P (o and also, i think voltage regs like 78xx basically have [ref volt]....[opamp]....[transistor] where the transistor is run in forward-active mode so it acts as a variable current amplifier rather than a switch... thus, the heat generated in a voltage reg is actually from the transistor)
I got to play with one of these in the early 90s. It was cool but you had to be super steady.
I had the ISA version in a 486 dx 40 with just 8 mb of ram. It sucked because of the computer crashing and sadly never got to use it with our newer Pentium 133 mhz and 32 mb ram because of win 95/98 driver software. you wouldn't happen to have the drivers for the ISA Logitech Scanman Color???
goo gone is a fantastic products for that goo from thhe electrical tape
Fun vid, thanks.
Did you ever mod this?
How did it turn out?
Never got around to it!
ACHOO AU JUS I HATE YOUUUU
Buy better electrical tape.