swalker
Very helpful member
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2014
- Messages
- 1,576
- Reason
- DX MND
- Diagnosis
- 07/2014
- Country
- US
- State
- CO
- City
- Vail
I have been a passionate photographer for over 40 years. Like many photographers from the film era, I have many thousands of slides stored in Kodak carousels.
For a couple of decades now I have been thinking about and researching various ways to scan these slides so I can share them with the rest of my family and friends.
About three years ago I purchased a dedicated slide scanner. It does a pretty good job, but takes a very long time to scan each slide. I calculated that if I took it on as a dedicated, full-time job it would take a bit more than a year to scan all my slides.
Worse, it requires removing each slide from a carousel, inserting into the slide scanner tray, blowing dust off of it, and then interacting with the computer to scan the slide. Then I have to store the slide back away. My hands just won't cooperate enough to do this.
Over the last 3 years I have managed to scan just under 200 slides. At that rate, it will take decades to do them all. So, I have decided to go a different direction.
Now that I have all four wheelchairs in good working order, it is time for a new fun project. That project is to build a slide scanning robot. I will have the able assistance of my good friend Greg and I think we will have a great time working on this.
The basic plan is to use an Arduino microcontroller connected to a 4 channel relay. One of the relay channels will be used to control the slide projector via a hacked up remote control cord. Two of the relay channels will be used to control the camera focus/metering and shutter via a hacked up camera remote control cord.
We will remove the lens from the slide projector and replace its bulb with one that is dimmer (the projection bulb is too powerful). We will then aim a digital SLR camera with a macro lens into the slide projector to where the slide is dropped into it from the carousel for viewing.
I have done sufficient research to feel like this has at least some chance of working. I have written some prototype software that I think will control the Arduino so that it advances the slide projector one slide, turns on the camera's metering, and then fires the shutter (with appropriate delays so vibration settles out).
Based on this research, I have placed orders from various online retailers for the bits and pieces I think will be necessary to make it work.
If it works, I think it will be able to scan an entire tray (140 slides) in about 5 minutes with no interaction from me except to mount the tray on the slide projector and turn on the Arduino controller.
This is new territory for me. I have never done anything remotely like this before, so the potential of adventure and failure are high. That is the kind of challenge I can really get excited about!
I will post here as I start putting the bits and pieces together so that others can follow the journey with me.
Wish me luck! I think I am going to need it.
Steve
For a couple of decades now I have been thinking about and researching various ways to scan these slides so I can share them with the rest of my family and friends.
About three years ago I purchased a dedicated slide scanner. It does a pretty good job, but takes a very long time to scan each slide. I calculated that if I took it on as a dedicated, full-time job it would take a bit more than a year to scan all my slides.
Worse, it requires removing each slide from a carousel, inserting into the slide scanner tray, blowing dust off of it, and then interacting with the computer to scan the slide. Then I have to store the slide back away. My hands just won't cooperate enough to do this.
Over the last 3 years I have managed to scan just under 200 slides. At that rate, it will take decades to do them all. So, I have decided to go a different direction.
Now that I have all four wheelchairs in good working order, it is time for a new fun project. That project is to build a slide scanning robot. I will have the able assistance of my good friend Greg and I think we will have a great time working on this.
The basic plan is to use an Arduino microcontroller connected to a 4 channel relay. One of the relay channels will be used to control the slide projector via a hacked up remote control cord. Two of the relay channels will be used to control the camera focus/metering and shutter via a hacked up camera remote control cord.
We will remove the lens from the slide projector and replace its bulb with one that is dimmer (the projection bulb is too powerful). We will then aim a digital SLR camera with a macro lens into the slide projector to where the slide is dropped into it from the carousel for viewing.
I have done sufficient research to feel like this has at least some chance of working. I have written some prototype software that I think will control the Arduino so that it advances the slide projector one slide, turns on the camera's metering, and then fires the shutter (with appropriate delays so vibration settles out).
Based on this research, I have placed orders from various online retailers for the bits and pieces I think will be necessary to make it work.
If it works, I think it will be able to scan an entire tray (140 slides) in about 5 minutes with no interaction from me except to mount the tray on the slide projector and turn on the Arduino controller.
This is new territory for me. I have never done anything remotely like this before, so the potential of adventure and failure are high. That is the kind of challenge I can really get excited about!
I will post here as I start putting the bits and pieces together so that others can follow the journey with me.
Wish me luck! I think I am going to need it.
Steve