Scanything setup and configuration questions

[David Buchhauser]

Here are several videos I took. I do normally look at the Mask view when calibrating and adjusting the levels, but I enjoy watching the Original Image when scanning. I still have the same problems as before when tracing/scanning the shiny wrenches. Perhaps this is due to reflections from the wrench that cause problems at higher feed rates. I may buy some of the black hair spray you recommended to see if that helps, but I'm OK with just going slower with problem parts. I have the Z height set so that the camera is about 3/4" above the table, which seems to work pretty well for me. I purchased a 25 ft. active USB extension cable

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07P8 ... UTF8&psc=1

along with a 33 ft. extension cable for the camera LED light ring

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075H ... UTF8&psc=1

so I could run the cables thru the cable tracks on my table. Everything seems to work great with no apparent problems due to the long USB extension cable.

Thanks for all of your help!
David

20200314_234412_resized.jpg (475.74 KiB) Viewed 1870 times

https://youtu.be/zfq1nI5od7g

Scanything test scan-trace - large steel washer.jpg (100.63 KiB) Viewed 1870 times

https://youtu.be/qAwEU5kHIUM

Scanything test scan - large steel washer.jpg (111.04 KiB) Viewed 1870 times

[motoguy]

Thanks for the camera suggestions, Les. I too am using the Supereyes camera, and yes, it can be a booger to get a good image. I've found the following cameras on US Amazon. These seem to be the same cameras you suggest, for US based users. I find ScanAnything to be one of those "rarely used, but sorely needed" items. I haven't used it in a few years, but when I needed it, I REALLY needed it. Well worth the minor investment, IMO.

Calibration can be a PITA, but IMO a big portion of it is getting the new users to realize that Camera XY MUST be correctly oriented with Table XY.

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B01N8YH5VY/ ... DEbPJF3B4X

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07VDRGP61/ ... DEb8S29SPC

[Les Newell]

Yes, that camera should work. All of the ELP cameras I've tried worked pretty well.
I agree the orientation is a problem. The new version I'm working on automatically detects if the camera is rotated 180 degrees and compensates.

[David Buchhauser]

This is the camera I ordered from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07R4 ... UTF8&psc=1

And this is the LED ring from Amazon that I am using:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZR ... UTF8&psc=1

I have discovered that as long as I leave the camera distance to the template unchanged, and pretty much use the same settings for Smoothing, Exposure, Brightness, and Servo Gain that Scanything does not require calibration every time I turn on the system. I can wait several days or more and come back and power up the system and it seems to remember the calibration settings. If I change to a thicker (or thinner) template, then I just make small adjustments to the camera to target Z distance to achieve the best focus for the Original Image.

But when I do run the Calibration, it seems to run correctly and calibrate on the first try. Sometimes I have to make a small adjustment to the Brightness setting to get it to work. I am running the camera aperture stop wide open, with the Scanything Exposure set to the minimum level, and Brightness almost all the way to the minimum setting. These settings seem to work very well for me.

David

[David Buchhauser]

The new version I'm working on automatically detects if the camera is rotated 180 degrees and compensates.

Les - that will be a great improvement and convenience. There is one other feature I would like to see, which would be more of a convenience for testing. That would be a resettable timer that measures the elapsed time to do a trace (or partial trace if it loses lock on the edge).

Thanks,
David