Understanding and using quadrature encoders - The Byte Sized Engineer | DigiKey

When working on projects, sometimes it's really useful to be able to track the rotation of an object. Whether that's the shaft of a spinning motor, or a knob that you turn to select an item on a user interface. In this post I'll talk about how encoders work, and how to read them with a microcontroller. I'll even go over a couple of mistakes that I've made that you should avoid. Encoders come in two different varieties. There's the electromechanical kind that have physical switches that open and close inside them. Then there are the contactless kind that usually use magnetic fields or light to detect the rotating shaft. Bill of materials Rotary encoder: https://www.digikey.com/short/d4pn3mj2 Limit Switch: https://www.digikey.com/short/8j5jchvf Nema 17 Stepper motor: https://www.digikey.com/short/b9fzpttt Fluke 117 Multimeter: https://www.digikey.com/short/q2jqvjhj Resistor Kit: https://www.digikey.com/short/q4w7wj75 Jumper Wire Kit: https://www.digikey.com/short/8n0p92pn Rigol DS1054 Oscilloscope: https://www.digikey.com/short/3j4b3vrb Geared DC motor with encoder: https://www.digikey.com/short/9bd8mh0v Arduino Nano Microcontroller: https://www.digikey.com/short/bzc8j5wn Breadboard: https://www.digikey.com/short/nbh4q298 Github project: https://github.com/bytesizedengineering/stepper-motor-encoder Learn More: What is Switch Bounce and How to Debounce https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvU8m_30iK0 Byte Sized Engineer channel - https://www.youtube.com/@bytesizedengineering Maker.io - https://www.digikey.com/en/maker DigiKey’s Blog – TheCircuit https://www.digikey.com/en/blog Connect with DigiKey on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/digikey.electronics/ And follow us on X: https://twitter.com/digikey