Pi-Scanner

A Raspberry Pi-based automated document scanning solution that uploads scanned documents directly to Nextcloud. This project provides an Ansible playbook to automatically configure a Raspberry Pi as a network-connected scanner with automatic upload capabilities.

Features

Automatic document scanning with SANE
OCR processing using Tesseract
Automatic upload to Nextcloud
Runs as system services for reliability
Minimal configuration needed after setup

Prerequisites

Raspberry Pi (any model) with Raspberry OS installed
Scanner compatible with SANE (check SANE supported devices)
Nextcloud instance with write access to a specific folder
Ansible installed on your control machine
SSH access to the Raspberry Pi

Quick Start

Clone this repository:

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/Pi-Scanner.git
cd Pi-Scanner

Set up SSH key access to your Raspberry Pi:
```
ssh-copy-id pi@<your-pi-ip-address>
```
Run the Ansible playbook:
```
ansible-playbook -i <your-pi-ip-address>, -u pi Ansible/playbook_setup_scanner-Pi.yml
```
You will be prompted for:
- Nextcloud server URL
- Nextcloud username
- Nextcloud password
- New password for the Pi user

What to Expect After Setup

The Raspberry Pi will be configured with the hostname "ScannerPi"
Two services will be running:
- scand: Monitors for new documents and handles scanning
- uploadd: Handles uploading scanned documents to Nextcloud
Scanned documents will be:
- Automatically processed for better quality
- Converted to searchable PDFs (with OCR)
- Uploaded to your specified Nextcloud folder

Troubleshooting

Check service status:

sudo systemctl status scand
sudo systemctl status uploadd

View logs:

journalctl -u scand
journalctl -u uploadd

Common issues:
- If scanning fails, ensure your scanner is properly connected and recognized by SANE
- If uploads fail, verify your Nextcloud credentials and connectivity
- Check permissions if files aren't being created or uploaded

Security Note

The Nextcloud credentials are stored unencrypted on the Raspberry Pi. This is considered acceptable as:

The credentials only have access to a specific upload directory
The Raspberry Pi should be physically secured and on a trusted network
The credentials cannot be used to access other parts of your Nextcloud instance

Technical Details

Scanning Service (`scand`)

The scanning service runs continuously and handles document scanning and processing:

Uses scanadf for ADF (Automatic Document Feeder) scanning in duplex mode
Scans at 300 DPI in grayscale
Performs automatic deskewing (both software and roller-based)
Processing pipeline:
1. Scans pages to PNG format
2. Compresses to JPG using ImageMagick (85% quality, grayscale)
3. Combines all pages into a single PDF using img2pdf
4. Cleans up temporary PNG/JPG files
Implements systemd watchdog for service health monitoring

Upload Service (`uploadd`)

A separate service handles the upload process to Nextcloud:

Monitors the data folder for new PDF files
Uploads using Nextcloud's WebDAV interface
Automatically removes successfully uploaded files
Runs checks every 60 seconds
Uses systemd watchdog for service health monitoring

File Locations

Scanned documents: {{ datafolder }} (default: /home/pi/scan-data)
Service scripts: /home/pi/scand.sh and /home/pi/uploadd.sh
Service definitions: /etc/systemd/system/scand.service and /etc/systemd/system/uploadd.service

Customization

Advanced users can modify the scanning parameters by editing /home/pi/scand.sh:

Resolution (default: 300 DPI)
Page height limit (default: 500)
Image compression quality (default: 85%)
Scanner-specific options via scanadf

Contributing

Feel free to open issues or submit pull requests if you have suggestions for improvements.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

License

comakingspace/ScannerPi

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