We had a gear on the end of the winch shaft. That gear drove an idler shaft that had the pot attached to the end of it.
Sure, that's a good solution. But the point was it's also possible to mount the pot (or encoder)
directly to the shaft through a simple in-line coupler on the end of the shaft. With that approach there would be no undue loads on the pot. It's not the direct connection to the shaft
per se that causes the loading problem, it's if you try to use the pot in place of a load bearing.
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