Alternative to digital rotary encoder

No. This video show almost nothing. But it is stille better than many other machines - I agree on that. Let me explain.

  1. This video shows jump start to a rather high speed of about 60 stitches per minute. The machine cannot make very low speed, and it is typical, that these servo motors got a limited speed range often about 1:25 or perhaps up to 1:45. Look at other video and compare and you see 8 stitches/min and no jump start. Jump start do also mean, that you cannot hear when the machine will start to sew. Suddenly it starts when you press the pedal sufficiently.

  2. A slow speed increase to max speed is not shown, and it will probably have some uneven behavior.

  3. Very small steps forward is not shown, and I know you cannot do that with the pedals they use.

  4. when it runs that high low speed, then it is hard to evaluate how it reacts to load variation. But I think it is reasonable.

The servo motor you show is for an industrial sewing machines, and they got very high torque in a set up like he show with reduced gearing. It is hard to limit the torque, and you can easily get a household vintage sewing machine damaged by that.

The man in the video is happy about the performance, because many other machines is a lot worse. And many users are used to worse situations. But it does not mean, that there is still room for a lot of improvement.