Scan to Evernote with Rasberry Pi

scanner

I’ve had long time a plan to scan all receipts and documents and save them to Evernote in order to find what I need quickly, even when mobile.

Problem

I’ve been lazy scanning because there are so many steps:

  1. Connect scanner to a computer
  2. Open scanning software
  3. Place the document inside the scanner
  4. Click scan in the software
  5. Enhance contrast
  6. Copy the image to Evernote

While it should be simple as:

  1. Place the document inside the scanner
  2. Click email button from the scanner

Solution

Plug the scanner to a Rasberry PI (connected to internet) and keep it always on. Have the physical scanner buttons scan and send to different targets (Evernote, Dropbox, printer, email).

Requirements

  • Scanner (Canon CanoScan Lide 110)
  • Rasberry PI Model B
  • 4GB SD
  • USB stick with Raspbian installer

Steps

  1. Install Raspbian
  2. Install scanner software: apt-get install sane
  3. Install scanbd to control scanner buttons: 
    apt-get install libconfuse-dev libhal-dev libsane-dev
wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/scanbd/releases/scanbd-1.4.1.tgz
tar zxvf scanbd.tar.gz
./configure
make
make install
  4. Install mutt mail client: sudo apt-get install mutt
  5. Configure smtp for mutt (place the configuration under /root):
  6. Install imagemagick: sudo aptitude install imagemagick
  7. Take control of one of the Rasberry PI’s led: 
    echo 1 > /sys/class/leds/led0/brightness
echo 0 > /sys/class/leds/led0/brightness
  8. Set up Dropbox commandline client
  9. Configure scanbd: 
    echo 1 >/sys/class/leds/led0/brightness 
DIR=`dirname $0`
scan_dir=/var/spool/scan
datetime=`date +%F_%H%M%S`
filename=scan-$datetime
case $SCANBD_ACTION in
pdf)
# Not working
;;
scan)
# Upload to dropbox, used for photos
scanimage --mode Color --depth 32 | convert - $scan_dir/$filename.jpg
dropbox_uploader.sh upload $scan_dir/$filename.jpg  /
;;
copy)
# Print with default printer
scanimage --depth 16 | convert - $scan_dir/$filename.jpg
lp $scan_dir/$filename.jpg
;;
email)
# Send to Evernote via email
scanimage --mode Color --depth 16 | convert - -normalize -level 10%,90% -sharpen 0x1 $scan_dir/$filename.jpg 
echo "" | mutt username.secret@m.evernote.com -a $scan_dir/$filename.jpg -s "$filename" -d 5
;;
esac
rm $scan_dir/$filename.jpg
echo 0 >/sys/class/leds/led0/brightness 
exit 0

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