The first scanner I built turned out to not work so well with large diameter batteries such as the #6. I could have made extensive changes that would have required moving the optical encoder inside the scan bar to a remote location on the machine. I did not really want to do that. One day a way of getting around the problem popped into my head. It looks crazy but it works just fine. No modifications necessary to the scan bar. The little motor and gear assembly is salvaged from an old VCR. It acts as a winch to pull the long encoder traction bar along at a smooth pace as it simultaneously rotates the battery.
Again the scanned image from this lumpy battery looks terrible but gives accurate positional information for all the graphic features with no damage at all to a potentially rare artifact.
