Cross-Referencing RENCO Incremental Encoders for Replacement

February 3, 2016

We have always been able to come up with a suitable replacement for Renco encoders, but our customers are making us aware that we need to point that out. For those who don’t know, Renco, after being absorbed by Heidenhain, made the decision to eliminate much of their encoder product...

The Use of Potentiometers in Incremental Encoder Design

January 26, 2016

  Potentiometer vs Encoder Recently, I decided to catalog the competitive incremental encoders that have populated the shelves surrounding my desk. In doing so, I was surprised to find that many of our competitors use potentiometers in their designs. I can understand why they need to use potentiometers. In most...

The Lost Optical Encoder Demo Box

January 20, 2016

We recently teamed up with one of our Optical Encoder Distributors to create a Demo box that showcased our QD145 encoder with a Delta Tau PLC and touchscreen panel. It was sent off to a trade show where potential customers would get to spin the encoder and watch on the...

Finding the RPM of an Optical Encoder using an Oscilloscope

January 9, 2016

  We only need to measure one of the incremental channels in order to calculate the RPM of an optical encoder. Using an oscilloscope to measure the period of one incremental channel A cycle. We will need to find the frequency of the incremental signal. Keep in mind that converting...

Why Do my Optical Encoder Signals Look this Way?

August 12, 2015

I received an email from a customer who was seeing “not symmetrical” optical encoder signals/data channels on optical encoders we shipped to them. Hi Jim, The data channels are not symmetrical and there appears to be something superimposed on the index. Attached are pictures. Can I return these for your...

Rotary Optical Encoder Calculator

March 18, 2015

Encoder Resolution, RPM & Frequency Calculator We just added an online calculator that provides a way to calculate RPM, Frequency, or line count (optical encoder resolution) by entering in the other two variables. Leave the third field empty (do not enter zero). Use to solve for Frequency, Line Count or...

Why Can’t I See My Optical Encoder Output Signals?

October 21, 2014

Why Do My Incremental Encoder Signals Disappear? Today I was called to the production floor after one of the test Technicians noticed that the encoder signals disappeared from the oscilloscope when they ran the encoders “unloaded”. I asked one of the techs if the encoders being tested were of the...

Finding the Index Pulse of an Incremental Encoder

October 1, 2014

The index pulse, often also called “Z” or “Marker pulse”, of an optical incremental encoder is a once per revolution digital pulse that is used for homing or count verification of incremental signals. In the QD145 and QD200 series of encoders, the index pulse fires when the mark on the...

Brushless Motors vs Brush Motors, What’s the Difference?

August 27, 2014

What’s the difference between a brushless motor with a commutating encoder and a brush motor? Well, the brushes of course. And, without brushes – the need for a commutating encoder for current carrying. Yeah, but what does that mean? The principle behind the internal working of both a brushless DC...

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