Brother DS-940DW Duplex and Wireless Compact Mobile Document Scanner

I ordered a different model at first and it did not come with the micro sd card feature. Brother does not advertise well and their instructions are terrible. I look at a lot of websites to see what people who have bought the product are saying. The instruction did not say to fast press the on/off button to turn it on and did not say you have to press and hold the on/off button for 6 seconds and then let go to turn it off. Almost returned it because the lights were flashing and slow to respond when turning on and off. After figuring out that on and off procedure, the scanner worked flawlessly. I like the double sided scan feature and you do not need a computer if you are saving to the SD card. I bought this brand and model because on a government computer, you cannot just hook up any hardware and put in any software without getting approval from the IT department which usually do not allow anything they do not know about.You would think being part of the largest organization in the State that you would have the best of everything. The exact opposite is true. I have antique hardware and am using Microsoft 2013 which was a recent upgrade from Microsoft 2003. The lazerjet printer looks like it belongs in a museum.This scanner solved my problem. It plugs in and becomes an external drive. It scans 14 pages in 40 seconds or less. It can scan in the jpeg or pdf format. It takes up very little space on your desk and is very quiet. You can scan and save through Wi Fi, SD card, or USB cable. The utilities software is alright, not the greatest and like all other brands, they allow you a sample of the PDF software but want you to buy the full version. They make like it comes with the full version of the software but then it begs you to buy it.The only thing is that you cannot scan a page in a book. The page you are scanning has to pass through the scanner, unlike a scanner bed which will allow you to scan an open book. Not unless you rip out the page and pass it through the scanner. I use this scanner everyday at work and it is holding up very well.Legal documents, maps, timesheets, can be scanned and sent through your computer saving you a trip from your remote office to your main office saving you time, money, and gas. Especially with the price of gas today, you will be happy you purchased this scanner. Do not forget to buy the hard case to protect your scanner. I take my scanner where ever I go.

The Brother DS-940DW is a great little scanner for anyone who needs something portable and easy to use. It’s lightweight, compact, and fits easily in a bag, making it perfect for traveling or small workspaces. The duplex scanning feature is super handy since it scans both sides of a document at once, and the wireless connectivity means no fumbling with cords—you can scan straight to your phone or computer. The built-in battery is a big plus, letting you use it anywhere without needing to be plugged in. It handles receipts, documents, and even photos really well, with sharp and clear results. The only downsides are that you have to feed pages in manually, and the initial setup can take a little patience. Overall, it’s a solid choice for light scanning needs and super convenient for anyone on the move.

I attempted to get into the web-based control panel to configure various settings, but after navigating a page or two you are immediately logged out. I went to go upgrade the firmware, thinking that issue would be fixed in a later version, but upgrading the firmware REQUIRES Windows and the proprietary Windows drivers; I have read that some Mac users have had success but it doesn't always work.The Linux SANE drivers are crap and don't work half the time. When they do work, the page is cut off near the end when scanning at higher resolutions.Feeding the scanner will often fail right as soon as it starts to scan. The lack of a document feeder for alignment could have been mitigated by a less finicky feed mechanism, but that is not the case here. Every other scan it would fail to feed properly without any visible reason and require opening/closing the cover, even if there was not a document stuck (if they got stuck at the entrance like what happened 90% of the time, they could simply be pulled out).Either I got a bad item or this thing sucks. Never been so disappointed in a Brother product before. Got the Doxie Q2 for the same price and, while it does not support direct scanning because it does not utilize scanner drivers and instead scans directly to its own internal storage, the Webhook feature and actually functional web interface makes up for that. The ease of scanning and scan quality is also way better.

Product: Brother DS-940DW mobile scanner.TLDR: if the full software package from brother doesn't install, it starts and then nothing happens, do this simple trick that worked for me on two different computers. Also, how to charge without a computer.1) log into your Windows account with administrator privileges. Make ANOTHER user account with administrator privileges, call it it temp or whatever (does not need a password but you do you).2) log out of your Windows session, and log into the new temp account.3) install the brother software package for your product (ds-640 or ds-940dw). It should work. Just give it a little bit. When it's done installing and you've verified it works, log out.Log back into your account and verify everything works. You may delete the temporary administrator account. Enjoy.How to charge without a computer: I have a USB-a four port hub, with a usb-c PD port. I connect the scanner (ds-640 or ds-940dw), and connect power to the USB PD port, and it charges the scanner, the other end of the usb hub is plugged into my cell phone. The usb cable for power MUST be connected to a wall outlet power source. I tried connect a battery bank to the USB hub, and it would not charge.