Hand scanner interfaces \ VOGONS

Hand scanner interfaces

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First post, by james1095

Posted on 2025-04-12, 23:24

james1095 Offline

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I’ve been looking at hand scanners lately such as the Logitech Scanman series, mostly because I wanted one when I was a kid back in the 90s but never had one. Most of these use a proprietary ISA card which is missing about 90% of the time due I assume to the card being left in the computer when it got pitched while the scanner survived forgotten in a drawer. Having never had one of these I’m curious if there is any compatibility between scanners of the same brand or is every mode a totally proprietary pair? Despite these not being rare at all there is surprisingly little information that I can find.

Reply 1 of 5, by Errius

Posted on 2025-04-13, 03:58

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I got a Scanman Color 2000 back in the day in the hopes it would make it easier to scan books, which are difficult to scan on flatbed scanners.

It was pretty useless and I soon got rid of it.

I still haven't discovered a way to scan books without destroying them. (I think libraries have fancy 3D scanners that correct for the curvature of the page, but that's out of my league.)

ETA: add picture of my scanner. I see it connected to the computer via parallel port, so didn't use a separate expansion card.

Is this too much voodoo?

Reply 2 of 5, by lolo799

Posted on 2025-04-13, 09:49

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I have the one I mentioned in this thread, it was sold under different brands:
Drivers and soft for hand-held scanner Mustek GS-800?

I mostly used it with a 486 and Pentium 200 but it also works on XT machines:
Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

PCMCIA Sound, Storage & Graphics

Reply 3 of 5, by Jo22

Posted on 2025-04-13, 15:20

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Some links.
https://oldcomputer.info/pc/apscan/index.htm
https://web.archive.org/web/19961111175555/ht … om/drivers.html

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In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

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Reply 4 of 5, by PC Hoarder Patrol

Posted on 2025-04-13, 16:07

PC Hoarder Patrol Offline

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Doubt there's much compatibility across controller boards, even within a single brand like say Logitech...have a look at how many scanner boards / board revisions are listed thru the FCC - https://fccid.io/dzl

I still have my original ScanMan Color & board (first with 24-bit colour, from 1993) which I'll dig out for a few pics.

Reply 5 of 5, by james1095

Posted on 2025-04-14, 02:43

james1095 Offline

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That’s useful info, thanks. Pretty much what I was assuming would be the case. I’m under no illusions of these things being particularly useful, there’s a reason they disappeared as soon as flatbeds got cheap. The only reason I kinda want one is that I remember drooling over them in catalogs when I was a kid.

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