[mman1506]

Originally Posted by Qbot2640

Excuse my lack of experience - we have never used encoders, and I desperately want to this year. The Grayhill models referenced above look like potentiometers, for lack of a better description...How are they installed? Do you just couple the shaft to the gearbox shaft?

I understand how the US Digital one's install - in fact, we installed a pair on our robot this fall for the off-season, but never figured out how to wire them up or program them.

You are correct, they interface mechanically exactly like a pot would. Here is a pic of two grayhills 971 has on their bot https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-f...52841%2529.JPG .
What's really great about the greyhills is that the shaft is supported by a ball bearing so they are MUCH more tolerable tolerable to axial and radial load than the commonly used US digital encoders.