Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/07/10

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Subject: [Leica] OT: Homebrew Transparency adapter
From: "korenman" <leica_korenman@hotmail.com>
Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2003 17:56:17 -0400

Greetings all-

Well I did it. I ripped apart my Epson 636 perfection scanner and disabled
the main light.
Easy to do, just requires taking out a few screws and pulling the light's
plug.

When turned on, the scanner attempts to calibrate its sensor by reflecting
its light off a white strip mounted on the inside of the main case.  I found
that as long as a bright light (in my case, an inverted lightbox) is pointed
at the sensor during startup, the scanner thinks its main light is on and
calibrates itself to the lightbox source!

I plan to extend the scan casing by an inch or so at top so the sensor can
see the light from my inverted lightbox.

Why do all this and wreck a good (but unused) scanner? Instead of heading
for the tag sale,  now I've got a dedicated contact sheet maker which can
scan a full sheet of negs at once.

You do get striping artifact from the 60hz flicker of the lightbox, but
tweaking the scan resolution can minimalize the artifact. 600 DPI works best
for me.

CAVEAT: I am not an electrical engineer, and I in no way recommend modifying
your Epson scanner unless you know what you are doing. PLEASE unplug your
scanner before opening it. I assume that opening it voids any warranty.

Eric
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