Re: Original ~600pg/hr, very portable scanner now achieving ~900pg-1100pg/hr
Posted: 06 Sep 2019, 18:43
Those of you who have followed the evolution of my scanner may recall the original version, before I started using a smart-phone camera, used Daniel Reetz' bike bike brake idea to trigger the shutter of the small point-and-shoot camera I used.
The hardware needed to fasten the shutter trigger mechanism to the camera (below) was rather ugly, heavy and custom built for the camera, although could handle very slight variations in the camera size. It worked but was far from ideal.
A couple of years ago I needed to use a better camera (better than the Olympus point-and-shoot and an iPhone I was using) for an old book I needed to scan. I have a Sony RX 100 (first model) but it doesn't have an electronic shutter release option so I started to think about a more flexible and adaptable design of the bike brake shutter trigger hardware. Something that would work on virtually any small camera without modification.
One day I hit on the idea of using the smart-phone tripod adapter (I was using when scanning with a smart-phone) to hold small point-and-shoot cameras instead of using the camera's built in tripod socket. This was a major break-through as the hardware could now be made virtually independent of the camera's size as well as avoid balance problems if the camera's tripod socket was off to one side (as it is in the Olympus, and which caused the camera to flop down under it's own weight unless everything was very tight).
I've been meaning to post what I came up with for a long time but never got around to it. The new assembly, attached to both the Olympus and Sony, is shown in the pictures below.
The only down-side is that the smart-phone tripod adapter does block part of the screen, although it's usually not a real problem as you can usually shuffle it bit this way or that so it so it's not blocking anything important before scanning.
The parts (from ebay but also available at local bike, camera and hardware stores)
- Qty 2 --1/4"Male to 1/4"Female Socket Screw Adapter For Tripod Camera Stand
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/20mm-1-4-Male-t ... SwCJxZ56Jn
- Qty 1 -- 5mm M5 Sidepull Caliper Brake Cable Anchor Bolt Set
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/5mm-Sidepull-Ca ... OSwwrFdJO8~
- Qty 1 -- 5mm M5 Steel Leveling Knurled Thumb Metric Nut
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/M2-M6-Steel-Lev ... w-7jgNhebA
- Qty 1 -- Vastar Universal Smartphone Tripod Adapter
https://www.amazon.com/Vastar-Universal ... 01L3B5PBI/
- Qty 1 -- 1/4-20 bolt, 1/4" long
- Qty 1 -- 1/4" Rubber End Cap
https://www.servocity.com/0-250-1-4-rubber-end-cap
- Qty 2 -- plastic coated wire clothes hangers (preferably one with a heavier gauge wire)
- various washers as needed (see pictures)
The yellow wire clothes hanger is heavier than the white so it stays rigid while the white one flexes to trip the shutter when the bike brake leaver is pulled.
The white wire clothes hanger is pinched together (so it grips the rubber encased bolt that presses the shutter trigger) and then the "1/4 Male to 1/4 Female Socket Screw Adapter" is tightened to hold it pinched.
The key to this set up is the smart-phone tripod adapter which has 2 tripod attachment points. One on the back, where the ball and socket tripod head attaches to and fastens the camera to the scanner post. And a second on the "top" to which the white wire clothes hanger is attached to.
If your camera has a hot-shoe on the top, you can might be able to do away with the smart-phone tripod adapter and use this to hold the white wire clothes hanger (and so the screen on the back of the camera won't be blocked):
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/1-4-3-8-New-Bla ... fMY3RsPRkg
The key to the flexibility and adaptability comes from many aspects of the design, the main ones being:
a) The height of the camera is not too critical as the smart-phone tripod adapter can open up quite a bit and fit most small cameras used for scanning.
b) Almost any shutter trigger placement is ok because the white wire clothes hanger can be rotated to handle off centre triggers. The rotation can be a little extreme, so the bike brake cable can be quite skewed, as seen from the Sony camera, but it doesn't affect the operation.
c) The rubber encased bolt can be slid as needed to position it over the shutter trigger and also its depth can be adjusted so it rests snugly against the shutter release button.
In the pictures with the cameras, I have a 1/4" bolt attaching the yellow wire clothes hanger, but I have since replaced that with the second "1/4 Male to 1/4 Female Socket Screw Adapter". Similarly, the pictures show the 5mm M5 Sidepull Caliper Brake Cable Anchor Bolt holding the cable with a nut and I've since replaced that with the knurled knob. These two changes allow me to setup and fasten the entire assembly without any tools. Both changes can be seen in the first 2 pics of the assembly without the camera below (the barrel nut, in these 2 pics, between the yellow and white wires, just lets me keep all the parts together when I'm not using the trigger hardware).
The hardware needed to fasten the shutter trigger mechanism to the camera (below) was rather ugly, heavy and custom built for the camera, although could handle very slight variations in the camera size. It worked but was far from ideal.
A couple of years ago I needed to use a better camera (better than the Olympus point-and-shoot and an iPhone I was using) for an old book I needed to scan. I have a Sony RX 100 (first model) but it doesn't have an electronic shutter release option so I started to think about a more flexible and adaptable design of the bike brake shutter trigger hardware. Something that would work on virtually any small camera without modification.
One day I hit on the idea of using the smart-phone tripod adapter (I was using when scanning with a smart-phone) to hold small point-and-shoot cameras instead of using the camera's built in tripod socket. This was a major break-through as the hardware could now be made virtually independent of the camera's size as well as avoid balance problems if the camera's tripod socket was off to one side (as it is in the Olympus, and which caused the camera to flop down under it's own weight unless everything was very tight).
I've been meaning to post what I came up with for a long time but never got around to it. The new assembly, attached to both the Olympus and Sony, is shown in the pictures below.
The only down-side is that the smart-phone tripod adapter does block part of the screen, although it's usually not a real problem as you can usually shuffle it bit this way or that so it so it's not blocking anything important before scanning.
The parts (from ebay but also available at local bike, camera and hardware stores)
- Qty 2 --1/4"Male to 1/4"Female Socket Screw Adapter For Tripod Camera Stand
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/20mm-1-4-Male-t ... SwCJxZ56Jn
- Qty 1 -- 5mm M5 Sidepull Caliper Brake Cable Anchor Bolt Set
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/5mm-Sidepull-Ca ... OSwwrFdJO8~
- Qty 1 -- 5mm M5 Steel Leveling Knurled Thumb Metric Nut
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/M2-M6-Steel-Lev ... w-7jgNhebA
- Qty 1 -- Vastar Universal Smartphone Tripod Adapter
https://www.amazon.com/Vastar-Universal ... 01L3B5PBI/
- Qty 1 -- 1/4-20 bolt, 1/4" long
- Qty 1 -- 1/4" Rubber End Cap
https://www.servocity.com/0-250-1-4-rubber-end-cap
- Qty 2 -- plastic coated wire clothes hangers (preferably one with a heavier gauge wire)
- various washers as needed (see pictures)
The yellow wire clothes hanger is heavier than the white so it stays rigid while the white one flexes to trip the shutter when the bike brake leaver is pulled.
The white wire clothes hanger is pinched together (so it grips the rubber encased bolt that presses the shutter trigger) and then the "1/4 Male to 1/4 Female Socket Screw Adapter" is tightened to hold it pinched.
The key to this set up is the smart-phone tripod adapter which has 2 tripod attachment points. One on the back, where the ball and socket tripod head attaches to and fastens the camera to the scanner post. And a second on the "top" to which the white wire clothes hanger is attached to.
If your camera has a hot-shoe on the top, you can might be able to do away with the smart-phone tripod adapter and use this to hold the white wire clothes hanger (and so the screen on the back of the camera won't be blocked):
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/1-4-3-8-New-Bla ... fMY3RsPRkg
The key to the flexibility and adaptability comes from many aspects of the design, the main ones being:
a) The height of the camera is not too critical as the smart-phone tripod adapter can open up quite a bit and fit most small cameras used for scanning.
b) Almost any shutter trigger placement is ok because the white wire clothes hanger can be rotated to handle off centre triggers. The rotation can be a little extreme, so the bike brake cable can be quite skewed, as seen from the Sony camera, but it doesn't affect the operation.
c) The rubber encased bolt can be slid as needed to position it over the shutter trigger and also its depth can be adjusted so it rests snugly against the shutter release button.
In the pictures with the cameras, I have a 1/4" bolt attaching the yellow wire clothes hanger, but I have since replaced that with the second "1/4 Male to 1/4 Female Socket Screw Adapter". Similarly, the pictures show the 5mm M5 Sidepull Caliper Brake Cable Anchor Bolt holding the cable with a nut and I've since replaced that with the knurled knob. These two changes allow me to setup and fasten the entire assembly without any tools. Both changes can be seen in the first 2 pics of the assembly without the camera below (the barrel nut, in these 2 pics, between the yellow and white wires, just lets me keep all the parts together when I'm not using the trigger hardware).