USB scanner

Ages ago I got a Canon FB630U USB scanner. I'm not exactly sure when, exactly, this was, but I'd guess this was around turn of the millennium. It's hasn't been up to current standards for a long time now, but it is still functional. At least I think it is, haven't used it over 10 years now, and it has been just sitting in storage.

So, what's inside?

For once, it's (kinda) easy to see; it's all visible by simply opening the lid!

At right is the control board (okay, hidden underneath that metal), on left scanner head and guide/drive system and... Well, there's nothing else, really.

Scanner head moves across the scan area, guided by metal bar (on left) and moved with chain pulley system driven by a small stepper motor. Here drive mechanism is upside down, usually it's hidden underneath scanner head assembly. Motor was already taken out in this picture as it could prove useful yet.

I am no mechanical designer but the drive system seems pretty robust, with minimal change of slippage or other such failures.

The scan head itself is single row, with light bar and dot scanner built in single, tightly integrated unit.On left here is light source (two leds, it seems; on mechanics assembly there is light bar to distribute light evenly), and on bottom first few scanner units can barely be seen. On top of that was focusing array, essentially large number of short (approx 5mm) light tubes, there to improve pixel resolution.

I don't have equipment for taking pictures with large magnification so this, unfortunately, will have to do.  I am not familiar on how exactly this works, but it would appear to be some kind of serially-driven array, as there is only 7 signals (light not included) going to main PCB. Based on PCB it is some kind of three-color CCD row array.

From date codes on PCB I'd expect this to be designed in 1999, and very likely I got this early 2000 or 2001.

Botton left is USB connector, then power filtering and regulation (done with classic 34063 buck converter). Components that are underneath scanning head need to be very low, so capacitor have been angled to 90 degrees, placed in slots on board.

GLUSB97SC08 appears to be USB to IEEE 1284 (parallel printer) converter. If I remember correctly, this scanner was also available as parallel printer port version, so they took that designed and shoved USB converter in there. This was around the time when Windows 2000 and then XP took away applications' ability to access printer port directly so USB was a bit of forced update there.

On top is IS51C1024, SRAM memory chip, and below it LM9830VJD, a built-for-purpose flatbed scanner controller with illumination, motor control and CCD reading all included in single package. I almost feel betrayed here as I was expecting more discrete approach, but guess even then these were already built to bring the price down.

All in all, this is neatly done design, but in case of Canon, I wouldn't expect anything else.