5. Operation

• DocuPen DPEN-R700 Pen...
• • Buydig.com
  • $156.88

The Docupen R700 has just one control button. Function and status is shown by four green and one red LEDs.

Press the button once and the red and two of the green LEDs signal that the Docupen is ready to scan in standard mode. This mode has a scan resolution of 200 x 100 dpi.

If you don't start scanning within two seconds of pressing the button, the battery-operated device switches off automatically. If you draw the scanner slowly and evenly down the document within the allotted time span, an LED on the outer left of the device shows that it's scanning by shining green. If you're too quick with the pen, the red LED flashes, warning you to slow down. In this case the result or parts of it will mostly be illegible and you'll have to repeat the process all over again. It takes a bit of practice before you get the right mix of speed, evenness and defined direction and the scan result meets expectations. We found that after about 10 to 20 test scans at different resolutions it worked well.

Once you've scanned the document completely and not too quickly, the red and green LEDs to the right light up permanently while the LED on the left begins to blink. The flashing continues until the data have all been saved to memory.

To activate the scanner's high-resolution mode, press the button at the top twice within the space of a second or so. Now the red and all three green LEDs light up. During the scan that follows the LED in position three also lights up continuously. This shows that the high-resolution mode with a resolution of 200 x 200 dpi is active.

Since the Docupen's storage space is limited, the LEDs also serve as a battery charge indicator. To show the size of the free memory, the first two, one or none of the three green LEDs light up when the device is switched on. If storage space runs out during or after a scan, the lamps also let you know this.