[Jeff Waegelin]

Originally Posted by Dave Flowerday

This year we used 4 Bourns quadrature encoders on our robot and were very pleased with them. The model number is ENA1J-B28-L00064 and they are available from Digikey. They give 64 pulses per revolution (per channel). So, if you decode the quadrature output and count both rising and falling edges on both channels, you get 256 ticks per revolution (but that's tough to do using the RC hardware). We used them geared 1:1 on our drive wheels and the winches for our lift height and tilt. They come in variations with other counts per revolution as well. They're quite pricey at $50 each but they are high quality and durable. These encoders were originally recommended to us by the Thunderchickens and as far as I know they were quite happy with them as well.

Also, make sure to get an optical encoder rather than a mechanical one, and don't get any with detents (detents are spots where the encoder "clicks" into position, often used with knobs on stereo controls or whatnot).

I don't have a huge budget for sensors for my summer project. Is there something less expensive you (or someone else) could recommend? Or will I be disappointed with the performance from lesser components?

Also, what did you use to attach the encoders with your 1:1 gearing?