🚀 go-pugleaf

Regarding cheap shaft encoders:

The Do-It-Yourself Type:

Make a small plastic disk, about 2 inches in diameter. Paint one half of the
disk black, leave the other half clear, or glue aluminum foil to it
(for reflective sensors). Position 2 optical sensors at 90 degrees to each
other. The outputs will give you 4 pulses per rev after decoding. Mount
on shaft of motor by drilling hole in center just a tad (smidge, in the metric
system) smaller and force-fitting the disk onto the shaft. A drop of super
glue does the rest.


The Cheap-Off-The-Shelf Type:

Buy a Bourns Optical Encoder from Digi-Key. For $25 you can get a
128-pulses-per rev encoder.


Decoding the outputs is left as an exercise for the student :-)

tony "i hate it when he says that" o.