tobvor/brother-auto-scan

•Updated 7 months ago

Brother DS-640 multi page scan api

Image

1.1K

tobvor/brother-auto-scan repository overview

⁠Brother Scanner API

A FastAPI REST API to scan documents with a Brother printer via scanimage, auto-collecting pages in a loop, then generating a PDF/A with img2pdf and ocrmypdf.

⁠Option 1: Using docker-compose (recommended for easy management)

Create a docker-compose.yml file:

version: '3.8'

services:
  brother-auto-scan:
    image: tobvor/brother-auto-scan:latest
    ports:
      - "8000:8000"
    devices:
      - /dev/bus/usb:/dev/bus/usb
    volumes:
      - ./scans:/app/scans
    environment:
      - SCANNER_RESOLUTION=300
      - ENABLE_GUI=true
      # Uncomment and modify if auto-detection doesn't work:
      # - SCANNER_NAME=Brother DS-640 USB
      # - SCANNER_DEVICE=brother5:bus6;dev3
    restart: unless-stopped

And run the compose file:

# Run docker 
docker compose up -d
# or with podman-compose
podman-compose up -d

This automatically handles USB device passthrough and volume mounting.

⁠Option 2: Manual docker/podman run commands

# Find your scanner's USB bus/device (e.g., /dev/bus/usb/006/009)
lsusb | grep Brother
# Example: Bus 006 Device 009: ID 04f9:0468 Brother Industries, Ltd

# Option 1: Auto-detect mode with specific USB device (recommended for security)
docker run -d --name brother-auto-scan -p 8000:8000 \
  --device /dev/bus/usb/006/009 \
  -v ./scans:/app/scans \
  brother-auto-scan

# Option 2: Pass entire USB bus (convenient, grants access to all USB devices)
docker run -d --name brother-auto-scan -p 8000:8000 \
  --device /dev/bus/usb \
  -v ./scans:/app/scans \
  brother-auto-scan

# or with podman
podman run -d --name brother-auto-scan -p 8000:8000 \
  --device /dev/bus/usb \
  -v ./scans:/app/scans \
  brother-auto-scan

# Override scanner device (if auto-detection doesn't work)
docker run -d --name brother-auto-scan -p 8000:8000 \
  --device /dev/bus/usb \
  -v ./scans:/app/scans \
  -e SCANNER_NAME="Brother DS-640 USB" \
  -e SCANNER_RESOLUTION="300" \
  brother-auto-scan

# Alternative: Run with privileged access (less secure but grants all device access)
docker run -d --name brother-auto-scan -p 8000:8000 \
  -v ./scans:/app/scans \
  --privileged brother-auto-scan

Note:

USB passthrough is required for the scanner to work inside the container. Use --device /dev/bus/usb to pass the entire USB bus (convenient) or --device /dev/bus/usb/BUS/DEVICE for specific device access (more secure).
The container automatically detects the Brother scanner when the first scan is requested using scanimage -L.
If auto-detection fails, you can manually set SCANNER_DEVICE or SCANNER_NAME environment variables.
The container saves PDFs to /app/scans inside the container. Mount your desired host directory to this path.
Optional environment variables: SCANNER_DEVICE, SCANNER_NAME, SCANNER_RESOLUTION, SCANNER_TARGET_DIR.

⁠Workflow

POST /scan/start
       │
       └─► background scan loop starts
              ├── scans a page every 2 seconds
              └── auto-finishes after 20s idle
                                   ↕
             POST /scan/{id}/finish    ← stop immediately + generate PDF
             POST /scan/{id}/cancel    ← stop immediately + discard everything
       │
       ↓
GET  /scan/{id}/status   ← poll until state == "finished"
GET  /scan/{id}/download ← download the PDF
DELETE /scan/{id}        ← clean up

⁠Session States

State	Meaning
`scanning`	Scan loop is running, pages being collected
`processing`	`ocrmypdf` is generating the PDF
`finished`	PDF ready for download
`cancelled`	Session was cancelled, all temp files deleted
`error`	Something went wrong — check `error` field in status

⁠Example

# 1. Start scanning (webhook trigger)
SESSION=$(curl -s -X POST http://localhost:8000/scan/start | jq -r .session_id)

# 2. Let pages scan automatically...

# 3a. Finish immediately when done
curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/scan/$SESSION/finish

# 3b. OR cancel everything
curl -X POST http://localhost:8000/scan/$SESSION/cancel

# 4. Poll until finished
curl http://localhost:8000/scan/$SESSION/status

# 5. Download
curl -OJ http://localhost:8000/scan/$SESSION/download

# 6. Clean up
curl -X DELETE http://localhost:8000/scan/$SESSION

⁠Swagger UI

Open http://localhost:8000/docs⁠

⁠Web GUI

This project includes a minimal web GUI (when plugging directly via USB into a server).

⁠Running with GUI

Docker:

docker run -d --name brother-auto-scan -p 8000:8000 \
  --device /dev/bus/usb \
  -v ./scans:/app/scans \
  -e ENABLE_GUI=true \
  brother-auto-scan

docker-compose (default in this repo):

docker compose up -d

The service exposes both the API (/scan/...) and the GUI at /.

⁠Running without GUI (headless API only)

To disable the GUI and run the container in headless mode, set ENABLE_GUI=false. In this mode the API behaves as before and no frontend is mounted.

Docker:

docker run -d --name brother-auto-scan -p 8000:8000 \
  --device /dev/bus/usb \
  -v ./scans:/app/scans \
  -e ENABLE_GUI=false \
  brother-auto-scan

docker-compose override:

ENABLE_GUI=false docker compose up -d

In both cases, use the same API endpoints described above; only the web GUI at / is disabled.

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Image

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sha256:8018e05a6…

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338.3 MB

Last updated

7 months ago

docker pull tobvor/brother-auto-scan