Thanks for the help guys!
Chagrin:
According to the doc the "optics" encoders appear to be quadrature encoders. This tutorial shows an encoder knob that is functionally and electrically equivalent to what you have.
I read this and tried to run the code for the encoder without a pushbutton, but did not receive results. Two problems on my end that are causing no feed back with the program provided on the page you referred me to are 1). I don't know how much voltage these encoders are supposed to be supplied with (I've tried 3.3V and 5V). Having said this, when I connect power to the encoder, it's not drawing any current. 2). As cr0sh and I are discussing, I have not found a way to get a datasheet on the motors/encoders to figure out the information needed as stated in my first point.
cr0sh:
The picture of that robot is pretty poor, but from the look of things, those motors appear to be Pittman DC motors, with encoders. Have you tried contacting the current manufacturer of these motors (whomever they are) for datasheet info (and hookup info for the encoders)? If they are Pittman, contact info here:Note - be nice, state what you are wanting in plain language, offer to pay for the information (literature shouldn't be too expensive - but I can tell you that the gears in those motors are not cheap, so don't break them!).
Yes, their whole website is poorly put together. Anywho, you are correct about the motors being pittman. I tried to email them on January 9th, but they did not respond to my email. I also offered some type of compensation for the information, but still nothing. As I mentioned above, when I apply power, the encoder is not drawing any current. I've tried connected to three of the five just to see if one or two may be bad or something, but I don't think that's the problem. I've got the red wire connected to power, the black to ground and the blue and green wires are Channels A and B (if encoder in the link that Chagrin posted is similar to the ones on these motors) of the encoder which are connected to pins 2 and 3 on the arduino. I think I'll try and call Pittman to see if I can speak with someone directly because datasheets would be extremely helpful.