Encoder recommendations?

MFR1 CTS CORP 288V232R161B2 MFR2 DIGIKEY CT2999-ND

$2.41. Really nice feel. That's the one on your P400.

That is a nice one, thanks.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

We also did a lot of experimenting with knobs. Contrary to conventional practice, we used a smallish one, not a big spinner.

With only a few pulses per rev, that sounds right. You can spin a small knob a lot faster with your fingers, without having to rotate your wrist. The CUI ones are 32 pulses per rev, which would be a bit quick with a small knob.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Used a very nice Grayhill part in the past, think it was along these lines:

Not that this one is any cheaper than your example! ;-)

Tim

-- Seven Transistor Labs Electrical Engineering Consultation Website:

The encoder is a 5V 0.5 mA switch? Isn't that a lot like the old serial-port mice that got a little dirty and stopped working?

The more expensive C14D32P is optical, and I expect there are Hall variants available. From my experience with early mice, I'd avoid the mechanical-switch solutions. Or, at least provide a convenient hole to apply isopropanol...

We've used tons of them, and they work fine. Aren't the buttons on an optical mouse still switches? Maybe the roller too?

The encoders on my Tek DPO2024 scope miss clicks often - very annoying

- but I think that's buggy code.

Phil Hobbs:

Mouse wheel. :-)

the old serial port mice had optical encoders, the dirt would get on the friction roller and stop them from turning, most current mice scroll wheels are mechanical switches.

On a slight tangent, I just pilfered a servo motor from a circa 1984 British machine. The optical encoder is fairly large at about 1/3rd the size of a pop can. The best part is it replaceable light bulb module.

Did they not trust LEDs in 1984 yet? I need to tear the thing apart to see what the pickup side of the glass encoder wheel has. Maybe a tube?

The button switches used to be snap-action microswitches, now are sealed buckling-dome snap action. Microsoft's serial port mice, stealing power from RS-232, didn't use any optical wheels, but had rotate-wipe type encoders. In the absence of high transient pressures, like in the snap switches, accumulated lint was enough to incapacitate the rodent.

All the stuff on this box:

There are 16 clicks per rotation, which I guess is four quadrature cycles. With a small knob, you can twirl it between two fingers, so it can go plenty fast.

All the serial port mice I've examined used slotted discs. but not wanting a crippled mouse I shunned the microsoft product.

l-port mice that got a little dirty and stopped working?

iants available. From my experience with early mice, I'd avoid the mechan ical-switch solutions. Or, at least provide a convenient hole to apply is opropanol...

tish machine. The optical encoder is fairly large at about 1/3rd the size of a pop can. The best part is it replaceable light bulb module.

I was designing in visible LEDs in the UK in 1976 and remember going to an HP seminar on the subject, where the main item of information was the fact that LEDs got less bright with time - if you were running them close to rat ed current they'd lose half their brightness within a year or so.

encoder wheel has. Maybe a tube?

Unlikely. Filament bulbs are cheap, but any kind of phototube is a lot more expensive. Photo-transistors were the photosensors of choice long before 1

I don't know why. I think the marketing folks want to collect contacts. I just design this stuff.

The basic unit is $3840. There are options, like OCXO, high voltage outputs, fiber outputs. I have one on my bench and it's a handy gadget, a really quantitative pulse generator.

Four outputs on the back, isolated, 5 to 50 volts into 50 ohms. That wasn't really hard, just mosfets driving transmission-line transformers. The front-panel outputs were a lot harder to design, -5 to +12 volts DC coupled, a really weird gaasfet circuit.

I don't control (or want to control) marketing policy. But for exotic and expensive gadgets, I don't think people mind asking for the price; they usually have other questions anyhow.