Air Gap in High Resolution Optical Encoders

April 18, 2016

As the resolution of optical encoders increases, the distance from sensor to disk decreases. In the incremental encoder industry, this distance is called the “Air Gap”. In the side view photo of an optical encoder above, the two red lines indicate the air gap between the sensor and disk in...

Incremental Encoder Lathe Automation

March 29, 2016

I have been working on a project to automate a manual lathing operation for our incremental encoder/optical encoder line. To keep things simple, thumb switches allow the set point, along with some offsets for fine-tuning, to be entered. I am not completely finished with project, but in the video below...

QD145 Incremental Encoder IP66 Sealing Option

February 24, 2016

Quantum Devices Inc. has a mounting option that allows for IP66 sealing of the QR145 Incremental Encoder. There are two o-rings in the clam shell design; one o-ring seals the encoder to the mounting surface (usually a motor) and the other o-ring seals the end bell housing that covers the...

Cross-Referencing RENCO Incremental Encoders for Replacement

February 3, 2016

We have always been able to come up with a suitable replacement for Renco encoders, but our customers are making us aware that we need to point that out. For those who don’t know, Renco, after being absorbed by Heidenhain, made the decision to eliminate much of their encoder product...

The Use of Potentiometers in Incremental Encoder Design

January 26, 2016

  Potentiometer vs Encoder Recently, I decided to catalog the competitive incremental encoders that have populated the shelves surrounding my desk. In doing so, I was surprised to find that many of our competitors use potentiometers in their designs. I can understand why they need to use potentiometers. In most...

The Lost Optical Encoder Demo Box

January 20, 2016

We recently teamed up with one of our Optical Encoder Distributors to create a Demo box that showcased our QD145 encoder with a Delta Tau PLC and touchscreen panel. It was sent off to a trade show where potential customers would get to spin the encoder and watch on the...

Why Can’t I See My Optical Encoder Output Signals?

October 21, 2014

Why Do My Incremental Encoder Signals Disappear? Today I was called to the production floor after one of the test Technicians noticed that the encoder signals disappeared from the oscilloscope when they ran the encoders “unloaded”. I asked one of the techs if the encoders being tested were of the...

Brushless Motors vs Brush Motors, What’s the Difference?

August 27, 2014

What’s the difference between a brushless motor with a commutating encoder and a brush motor? Well, the brushes of course. And, without brushes – the need for a commutating encoder for current carrying. Yeah, but what does that mean? The principle behind the internal working of both a brushless DC...

Inverted Flex Mount for QD145 Optical Encoder

July 19, 2014

O. Another Way to Mount an Optical Encoder Instead of using an end bell,  a lot of our motor manufacturer customers recess the QD145 optical encoder into an extended motor housing and then seal the motor with an endplate. This has the advantage of being a lower cost item to...

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