🚀 go-pugleaf

"Cory Seligman" <coryms+google@azazel.eng.monash.edu.au> wrote in message news:a64581c0.0309242126.7a4fe4ee@posting.google.com...
> Hi all.
>
> I've successfully made a linear optical encoder with a stroke of about
> 25cm using a flattened steel rod with a nice shiny surface, and gluing
> on a laser printed transparency with a pattern of stripes. This works
> find with a 1mm pattern, and a homemade detector. The detector is an
> IR LED, a small lense and a Honeywell HLC2701 encoder detector
> chip/opto thingy.
>
> No worries, except it's fiddly. The lense and detector and pattern
> have to be adjusted just right, and it's hard to put together.
>
> So I got some Agilent HEDR-8100 detector chips. they have the lenses
> built in and do all the hard work for you. The only problem is that
> they're 150 lines per inch, which is more than I can do reliably on a
> laser printer. So I'm looking for alternatives.
>
> Does anyone know of somewhere I can get stripes like that printed
> directly on the steel? Or etched?
>
> Any thoughts on producing a clear strip with black stripes
> photographically?
>
> Or maybe a replacement reflective optical encoder detector that works
> on a 1mm stripe spacing? As far as I can tell, the Agilent one is the
> only device of its type.

Or use an optical mouse that doesnt need
anything special on what the sensor passes over.