[irvingc]

Originally Posted by Maxchrist

we are trying to sense position. we have it on an a and b channel plugged into the digital i/0 on port 1 and 2.

This is not the proper wiring to use the encoder as an absolute sensor (position). Refer to the last section of Joe Ross's link.


[ edit ]
Provided you do want to use it as a quadrature, though, you would first create a new Encoder object:

Encoder encoder = new Encoder(aChannel, bChannel);

Then enable it:

encoder.start();

Then, you would read it like so:

encoder.getDistance();

Depending on the application, you may also want to calibrate the distance per pulse:

encoder.setDistancePerPulse(someConstant);