1/2" Shaft Encoders

[DavidGitz]

Originally Posted by DavidGitz

We are using 2 of the KOP rotary encoders, one on a 5/8" shaft and one on a 3/8" shaft. What we did was drill a hole in the end of the larger shaft, take a shaft that is the right size for the encoder, insert that into the hole and epoxy it in. Then all you have to do is build a bracket for the encoder and you're good to go. We have used this on our Arm for about 2 weeks with pretty extensive testing and haven't had any problems yet.

We are having problems with this method now. On Saturday, on our 2nd arm joint there was a "dead spot" of about 30 degrees where our encoder wasn't registering a change in distance. The disc was rotating and it would work once past this dead spot but within it there would be no change. And then after about 2 hours of other work our 1st arm joint had the same problem. I suspect that it is due to a mechanical alignment of the shaft that we inserted, as described above. Our 2nd arm joint had a noticeable angle offset (maybe 3 degrees) although the 1st arm joint did not have anything noticeable. We were unable to troubleshoot this any farther due to running out of time so if someone else has any ideas that would be interesting to verify.