Introduction

    Quite possibly the slowest and lowest resolution of any scanner on the market today, but it sure is mesmerizing to watch.. and it actually works! 

    That's about the best way to describe this behemoth of a project, which involved countless hours of building, gluing and scavenging for parts.

The goal we strived for was to create a useable scanner that outputted to the TV and possibly data serially to the PC, in black and white with the ability to do some gray scale.  We were able to reach the goal of outputting the resultant scan to TV in black in white, but due to large amount of man hours spent on the mechanics of the device and to make the device  run entirely independent of any lab equipment, we didn't implement the serial connection.  The scanner does have the capability to output grayscale to PC.. if  we ever have to time add it.

"We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard,"

    - John F. Kennedy in September 1962.

So our project isn't anywhere near as difficult as landing on the moon, but we decided to delve into a very mechanically driven project because of all the challenges we faced.  One of the largest challenges being the utter lack of proper tools to make precise cuts, measurements etc.  A second challenge that makes the project incredibly entertaining is that the device used to detect the darkness of a pixel of the image, represents only 1/40 of the budget.. we spent $1.29 on it.  With these factors in mind we are very pleased with outcome and results of homebuilt scanner.