[herring_fish]

I saw the Reading the Rotary Encoders page in the Arduino Playground and this got me thinking about making a Hand Held Pendant for my low end 2 axis machine. They used an ALPS STEC12E08 encoder which has 24 steps per turn and they offered some code to play with but it won't quite do what I want it to do, as is.

I have thought that I would move the LCD from the main controller enclosure to the external box with the wheel, that I would get machine by a friend, a turn knob for choosing the axis, another for a multiplier, a manual mode switch and an all stop button.

Of course this is just for fun and not a necessary part of my project but it would be cheap to implement. I would hope that as I turned the main wheel, it would move the steppers and read out the moves on the screen.

I already saw Arduino EMC Pendant II but he uses a key pad and I didn't see any encoder code. I'm looking for something simple.

Does anyone know of some similar project that might have some code that I could look at so I can see if this is too much for this beginner code smith?

[borisz]

It is not Arduino, but I am suggesting you to check PoKeys: PoLabs - Affordable PC USB oscilloscopes, logic analyzers and USB interfaces
It can do more than you asked. There are USB and ethernet versions. Ethernet version is supporting also ModBus.

regards

Boris

[herring_fish]

Actually, I already have almost everything that I need aside from the LCD that I need to buy anyway and the encoder.

I have the driver board and motor and they are talking. The motor accelerates and decelerates to move to the right spots, it powers down and waits to stay cool and goes home accurately. My code awaits the arrival of 3 limit switches so that I can finish the "power out" wake up calibration. The second axis is not here but it is a simple learners kit because the slide is so simple and light. (it is moving feeding tubes not spindles)

I thought that I would add
while the manual switch is on,
jump over the rest of the program,
read the encoder,
read multiplier switch and multiply (times 1, times 10, times 100)
and then move that many steps.

I want to keep it really simple because I'm a beginner.

[borisz]

I thought that I would add
while the manual switch is on,
jump over the rest of the program,
read the encoder,
read multiplier switch and multiply (times 1, times 10, times 100)
and then move that many steps.

I want to keep it really simple because I'm a beginner.

That could be done very easy with Mach and PoKeys

[herring_fish]

I'm confused, sorry. I looked at the web site. Are you talking about hardware for others that might read this thread or are you talking about something that I can use? I already have a Rugged Step Motor Shield that is working.

I think/hope that all that I need is to be directed to some good simple code and a cheap encoder. Are you pointing me to code that is available to be downloaded for those two parts?

[borisz]

Sorry, English is not my native language, probably you do not understand...
My first post started with: "It is not Arduino..."
That means, that it is not Arduin

regards

Boris

[vegipete]

Reading an encoder is almost the same as reading a switch - almost. An encoder is more or less 2 switches with a related on-off state. Have a look at this encoder from Digikey. The arduino, or any other controller, reads the 2 encoder signals at some rate, giving a 2 bit number. This 2 bit number is compared to the 2 bit number from last time the encoder was read and any change indicates how the encoder has moved.

I'd say, get your hands on an encoder of your choice, connect it to your arduino and have fun experimenting. Step one would be to read and display the quadrature signals from the encoder at very slow turn rates to get a feel for how it works.