May 7, 2020
An INDEX PULSE is a digital signal generated from an incremental encoder on an individual output channel, once per revolution. This unique pulse may be used for several purposes: In conjunction with a counter, it can be used to track the total number of shaft rotations. It may be used...
April 18, 2016
As the resolution of optical encoders increases, the distance from sensor to disk decreases. In the incremental encoder industry, this distance is called the “Air Gap”. In the side view photo of an optical encoder above, the two red lines indicate the air gap between the sensor and disk in...
March 29, 2016
I have been working on a project to automate a manual lathing operation for our incremental encoder/optical encoder line. To keep things simple, thumb switches allow the set point, along with some offsets for fine-tuning, to be entered. I am not completely finished with project, but in the video below...
March 16, 2016
The QR145, QR200 and QR12 series of optical encoders have 28 AWG conductors in the standard flying lead cable. This gauge of cable is excellent for tight bends and fitting in applications where space is a premium. The conductors can easily handle the 250 mA max current requirement of the...
March 9, 2016
I received a phone call the other day that caught me a bit off guard. A customer was asking what tolerance they need to have on their motor shaft for it to fit with one of our incremental encoders. I reflexively told the customer that we machine our shaft...
March 2, 2016
When using an incremental rotary encoder, you often have to know how many pulses there are per degree of rotation. This is a very straightforward math problem. Pulses per Degree = Number of encoder pulses per rotation/Number of degrees in a circle For a 5,000 line count incremental encoder we...
February 9, 2016
I recently received an e-mail asking for some help picking the right resolution for an optical incremental encoder. I have removed the personal information and the drive/controller information, otherwise the e-mail is verbatim: Hi, I am using a motor controller in dual loop velocity mode. What resolution incremental encoder would...
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...
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...
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