Hi all,
What kind of sensor that i can use to know how much angle a shaft is rotated? i heard about shaft encoder, but i dont know how it works with arduino. is there any other options i can use ?
Thanks
you could use a QEI encoder
http://mbed.org/cookbook/QEI
What speed? (RPM)
What accuracy? (degrees)
How big is the shaft? (mm or inches)
Anything else you think we should know about what's connected to the shaft? Can you access both ends? Only one end?
This isn't google. If you write a couple of paragraphs, you get a lot more responses.
MorganS:
What speed? (RPM)What accuracy? (degrees)
How big is the shaft? (mm or inches)
Anything else you think we should know about what's connected to the shaft? Can you access both ends? Only one end?
This isn't google. If you write a couple of paragraphs, you get a lot more responses.
Suppose i'm trying to get the angle of a steering wheel of a car. So the RPM will be very low since we are rotating it,
accuracy can be +/- 5degrees
Shaft will be max of 3cm in dia
You could probably use a gyro/accelerometer module (IMU) to measure steering wheel turn angles.
A gyro+accel would be very difficult if you wanted to transmit that information from the rotating part of the wheel to a non-rotating part.
If it is actually a car steering wheel then you have no access to the ends of the shaft. You can't attach a shaft encoder there. So an off-the-shelf encoder probably has to go on a gear or belt drive off the side of the shaft.
Lots of shaft encoders will do this. It should not be too costly, although my preferred one - the US Digital MA3 - is about $70, there are many cheaper than this for that resolution requirement.
Another option is to make your own encoder wheel that fits around the shaft and then put an optical sensor where it can see the wheel. That can be done cheaply, with less than $10 worth of materials. Almost free if you can repurpose a sensor out of a junk printer or copier. Horace's link shows you some of the ideas that will help you do this.