I saw this design come up when the video was posted and utterly fell in love with it. I want to build a couple, but they're currently experiencing an issue sourcing motors - the original motor...
I saw this design come up when the video was posted and utterly fell in love with it. I want to build a couple, but they're currently experiencing an issue sourcing motors - the original motor choice seems to have been a limited-stock component that's now all out.
All components are limited stock right now. The supply chain issues the past few years have been really bad for open source hardware—as soon as you designate some particular component as the...
All components are limited stock right now. The supply chain issues the past few years have been really bad for open source hardware—as soon as you designate some particular component as the drop-in version for the published designs, they evaporate.
This is a really smart bit of design, and open source too. I don't currently have a use for such a thing but I will remember this device when I do. Lots of great stuff could be done with an...
This is a really smart bit of design, and open source too. I don't currently have a use for such a thing but I will remember this device when I do. Lots of great stuff could be done with an encoder like this. I'm a big fan of a good knob as an input device.
One of my backburner projects had been put off indefinitely because I couldn't find decently priced rotary encoders with anything nearing a decent resolution. And then when the Playdate came...
One of my backburner projects had been put off indefinitely because I couldn't find decently priced rotary encoders with anything nearing a decent resolution. And then when the Playdate came around and they went over how they were going to make their crank work with a hall effect sensor and it was so simple that I felt like I must be a complete idiot, especially because one of my other ideas was to build a custom magnetic joystick that would have worked essentially the same way.
Do you know which hall effect sensor they use? The smartknob uses a small chip that doesn't look easy to solder, and they say the Adafruit breakout board they tried had problems. It looks like...
Do you know which hall effect sensor they use? The smartknob uses a small chip that doesn't look easy to solder, and they say the Adafruit breakout board they tried had problems.
It looks like optical rotary encoders and hall effect sensors are two common ways of doing it and I've gone down the optical sensor route. Since 3D printing has limited resolution, the resolution on my encoder wheel's grating also is limited. But maybe I'll add a gear to make the wheel spin faster, since doing things the mechanical way is kind of fun to look at.
I didn't remember where I read that teardown, but it turns out that ifixit already has a teardown of their own and it would appear they're using an A1266 from Allegro Microsystems, which is a very...
I didn't remember where I read that teardown, but it turns out that ifixit already has a teardown of their own and it would appear they're using an A1266 from Allegro Microsystems, which is a very tiny smt chip indeed.
That being said, there are many different sensors you can use, some of which are designed for through-hole, which should be a bit easier to use.
I didn't like the mechanical aspect of making my own optical encoder, but if you're going to go down that route, you might want to look into differential signalling. It might end up being a bit easier to implement.
Yeah, shopping for components you've never used is kind of tedious. I tend to go with whatever Adafruit has a breakout board for. In this case, they have two and it's unclear which is better....
Yeah, shopping for components you've never used is kind of tedious. I tend to go with whatever Adafruit has a breakout board for. In this case, they have two and it's unclear which is better.
Edit: how would differential signalling work for a phototransistor? Would it reduce noise somehow?
Are you already using two phototransistors on your encoder? I’m basically saying to try adding more. Edit: I didn’t even realize how incredibly vague I was being at the time when I wrote this, but...
Are you already using two phototransistors on your encoder? I’m basically saying to try adding more.
Edit: I didn’t even realize how incredibly vague I was being at the time when I wrote this, but to be honest I only have basic theory knowledge to begin with so maybe you would be better off following your own instincts.
I saw this design come up when the video was posted and utterly fell in love with it. I want to build a couple, but they're currently experiencing an issue sourcing motors - the original motor choice seems to have been a limited-stock component that's now all out.
All components are limited stock right now. The supply chain issues the past few years have been really bad for open source hardware—as soon as you designate some particular component as the drop-in version for the published designs, they evaporate.
Yeah it's rough. There's some talk going now about a group-buy with an actual motor manufacturer to get a reliable source.
This is a really smart bit of design, and open source too. I don't currently have a use for such a thing but I will remember this device when I do. Lots of great stuff could be done with an encoder like this. I'm a big fan of a good knob as an input device.
It's using magnetic sensing to detect the rotation of the knob, which is something I hadn't considered before. That seems worth checking out.
One of my backburner projects had been put off indefinitely because I couldn't find decently priced rotary encoders with anything nearing a decent resolution. And then when the Playdate came around and they went over how they were going to make their crank work with a hall effect sensor and it was so simple that I felt like I must be a complete idiot, especially because one of my other ideas was to build a custom magnetic joystick that would have worked essentially the same way.
Do you know which hall effect sensor they use? The smartknob uses a small chip that doesn't look easy to solder, and they say the Adafruit breakout board they tried had problems.
It looks like optical rotary encoders and hall effect sensors are two common ways of doing it and I've gone down the optical sensor route. Since 3D printing has limited resolution, the resolution on my encoder wheel's grating also is limited. But maybe I'll add a gear to make the wheel spin faster, since doing things the mechanical way is kind of fun to look at.
I didn't remember where I read that teardown, but it turns out that ifixit already has a teardown of their own and it would appear they're using an A1266 from Allegro Microsystems, which is a very tiny smt chip indeed.
That being said, there are many different sensors you can use, some of which are designed for through-hole, which should be a bit easier to use.
I didn't like the mechanical aspect of making my own optical encoder, but if you're going to go down that route, you might want to look into differential signalling. It might end up being a bit easier to implement.
Yeah, shopping for components you've never used is kind of tedious. I tend to go with whatever Adafruit has a breakout board for. In this case, they have two and it's unclear which is better.
Edit: how would differential signalling work for a phototransistor? Would it reduce noise somehow?
Are you already using two phototransistors on your encoder? I’m basically saying to try adding more.
Edit: I didn’t even realize how incredibly vague I was being at the time when I wrote this, but to be honest I only have basic theory knowledge to begin with so maybe you would be better off following your own instincts.
I'm using one and thought about going to two that are 90 degrees out of phase. Yeah, more would help.