CanoScan FB630U project

Introduction

This is a project to write a SANE driver for Canon's CanoScan FB630U (and similar) USB scanners.

The beta code from this project was integrated into SANE 1.0.8 (released on 27th May 2002) and development at this end has since stopped.

Sample scanned image

Here's an image scanned using version 0.0.1 of the software.

Documentation

Simon dismantled his FB630U to see what chipsets were used in its construction, since Canon were unwilling to divulge any technical specifications. The following information is as much as we know to date.

• Simon created this ASCII art diagram of the PCB layout.
• He also took photographs of the front and back of the PCB.
• The main chip, the LM9830 is an EPP scanner-on-a-chip from National Semiconductor, and has this datasheet (566k).
• The USB interface is provided by the GL640, an EPP-to-USB bridge from Genesys Logic, which has this datasheet (314k).

The following documents have also been used for familiarisation with the USB protocol and its support under Linux.

• The USB 1.1 specification (1.7M) - all 327 pages of it. Written in part by Intel and Microsoft, it is not recommended bedtime reading, but it contains useful tables documenting the USB protocol and some hilariously complicated diagrams.
• The Programming guide for Linux USB device drivers

Links

• SourceForge project summary page - project status and access to code via CVS
• SANE home page - Scanner Access Now Easy, a project which provides a popular open source API for scanners
• CanoScan FB330P/FB630P project - a project to support the parallel port version of this scanner
• Jonathan Buzzard's USB scanner page - lists the current status of SANE support for many USB scanners
• Canon USB and SANE - Vladimir Dergachev's resource for Canon USB scanner developers
• libusb - a user space library for manipulating USB devices
• USB Snoopy - tool for sniffing traffic on the USB bus in Windows 98 (I have had limited success with version 0.1 and none at all with version 0.12)

Credits

• Simon Heywood
• Nathan Rutman
• Nathan Robertson
• Iain Thomas