Converting Plotter to Scanner?

[Smiley]

Many years ago, there used to be some kits available which allowed you
to convert a printer or plotter into a scanner. It was a small device
which
attached to the print head. The program that ran it, simply told the
printer to move its head back and forth, while advancing the paper
without printing.

The cheap home-printer kits simply taped to the print head and had a
separate cable running from the scan head to the printer. The
higher-end plotter versions (if I recall correctly) even had a plug-in
substitute for the ink-jet head which communicated directly through
the plotter interface.

The results were a large format scanner at the fraction of the cost
(and storage space) for the dedicated scanners.

However, I can't seem to find any of those kinds of products now...
do they still exist?

Joe Dunfee

 

[CSM1]

Many years ago, there used to be some kits available which allowed you
to convert a printer or plotter into a scanner. It was a small device
which
attached to the print head. The program that ran it, simply told the
printer to move its head back and forth, while advancing the paper
without printing.

The cheap home-printer kits simply taped to the print head and had a
separate cable running from the scan head to the printer. The
higher-end plotter versions (if I recall correctly) even had a plug-in
substitute for the ink-jet head which communicated directly through
the plotter interface.

The results were a large format scanner at the fraction of the cost
(and storage space) for the dedicated scanners.

However, I can't seem to find any of those kinds of products now...
do they still exist?

Joe Dunfee

I found this on google.
Convert Your Printer into an Image Scanner.
http://www.atarimagazines.com/startv4n6/stpictascan.html

 

[Smiley]

Convert Your Printer into an Image Scanner.
http://www.atarimagazines.com/startv4n6/stpictascan.html

Yes, in fact it I had an Atari ST, and knew a friend with that
device.

Since my message I've also found out that the old Houston
Instruments DMP 60 pen plotter we have in a closet at work had just
such an accessory option. However, even if I could buy one, the
drivers are unlikely to work now.


Joe Dunfee

 

[Michael Black]

Many years ago, there used to be some kits available which allowed you
to convert a printer or plotter into a scanner. It was a small device
which
attached to the print head. The program that ran it, simply told the
printer to move its head back and forth, while advancing the paper
without printing.

The cheap home-printer kits simply taped to the print head and had a
separate cable running from the scan head to the printer. The
higher-end plotter versions (if I recall correctly) even had a plug-in
substitute for the ink-jet head which communicated directly through
the plotter interface.

The results were a large format scanner at the fraction of the cost
(and storage space) for the dedicated scanners.

However, I can't seem to find any of those kinds of products now...
do they still exist?

Joe Dunfee

But we're talking twenty years ago. The one I remember coming first
was for the Apple Imagewriter, called a "Thunderscan". At that time,
scanners were out of the picture for most, so it made sense to spend
a hundred dollars or whatever it was to fit into an existing printer or
plotter.

But I bought a Canon LIDE20 a few months ago, for about seventy dollars
Canadian, and it would be cheaper than the price of that Thunderscan
decades ago. It's certainly faster, since that Imagewriter took it's
time moving the carriage across the page. Those adaptors used a small
element, so it had to not only scan down the page, but across each page.
Modern scanners take the whole row at a time.

Such things exist today, though in a different fashion. They are those
combined scanners/printers. One package, and I would think the scanner
uses the printer movement controls to get the scanner head across
the page.

Michael

 

[Smiley]

(e-mail address removed) (Michael Black) wrote in message

Such things exist today, though in a different fashion. They are those
combined scanners/printers. One package, and I would think the scanner
uses the printer movement controls to get the scanner head across
the page.

Michael

I imagine you are referring to letter-sized combo devices. In my
case, it is paper ranging from 22"x34", up to 34"x44". There are
actually combined scanners/printers at this scale, but again the cost
is a big issue.

I've searched the internet for the scan-head attachment for that old
DMP-162 Plotter, but there are none to be found. So I guess it is
service-bureau time if we want these drawings scanned.

I guess as technology marches on, some ideas get left in the dust,
even if the might still be viable today.


Joe Dunfee