I am in need of a way to convert the rotation of a shaft (manually rotated) into pulses.
The situation: I have a Parker stepper motor controller/driver/motor combination that I am using to help my brother develop some mechanisms. I noticed on one of his CNC tools that he can rapidly move an axis by rotating a large knob. I am guessing that this large knob is attached to an encoder of some type that send a pulse for each increment. The controller I have will accept pulse input (about 3.5 volts) to increment the motor so all I need to do is come up with the device to generate the pulses.
I can easily find the slotted opt0-interrupter components in Jameco and other catalogs - I just need what I imagine is the rest - I imagine a small slotted wheel - or plastic with dark/light sections to create the interruptions. No need for precision - the point is to generate what might be 20, 50 or more pulses per revolution so we can move the motor manually.
I have to admit that I am having a lot of fun with this.
What is this called and where can I find a source of reasonable low cost devices? It's probably right in front of me and so very simple.
Thanks.
The situation: I have a Parker stepper motor controller/driver/motor combination that I am using to help my brother develop some mechanisms. I noticed on one of his CNC tools that he can rapidly move an axis by rotating a large knob. I am guessing that this large knob is attached to an encoder of some type that send a pulse for each increment. The controller I have will accept pulse input (about 3.5 volts) to increment the motor so all I need to do is come up with the device to generate the pulses.
I can easily find the slotted opt0-interrupter components in Jameco and other catalogs - I just need what I imagine is the rest - I imagine a small slotted wheel - or plastic with dark/light sections to create the interruptions. No need for precision - the point is to generate what might be 20, 50 or more pulses per revolution so we can move the motor manually.
I have to admit that I am having a lot of fun with this.
What is this called and where can I find a source of reasonable low cost devices? It's probably right in front of me and so very simple.
Thanks.