Connecting printer's encoder to Arduino Leonardo

Hey there,
I have been working on a DIY Steering Wheel for racing games for the past few months and its mostly complete. However, I have been struggling to connect an encoder (Used to detect the rotation of the physical steering wheel).

The problem is that I am unable to identify which pin connects to which port on the Leonardo (VCC, GND, CH A, CH B)
Considering that I have previously burnt an encoder by reversing the polarity, I want to be be sure about the wiring before I test it out.

I would appreciate assistance with figuring out which pin is which.

Please note that I possess a multimeter (which can supposedly help but idk how) and that I am just a novice at circuits and circuitry (Simple explanations would be preferable).

PFA the images of the sensor and the sketch of the wiring I am following for the project (although the wiring for the sensor may not be accurate to my unit)

You shouldn't be able to damage it if you have 1k is series with each pin...

Diode mode in a multimeter may be able to identify the IR LED, although there
are 12 ways to connect the leads to search through.

Then the other two are the phototransistor, with 1k and an LED in series you have
two polarities to check against with the IR LED active (20mA is typically used, so
perhaps a 220 ohm resistor for that).

MarkT:
You shouldn't be able to damage it if you have 1k is series with each pin...

Diode mode in a multimeter may be able to identify the IR LED, although there
are 12 ways to connect the leads to search through.

Then the other two are the phototransistor, with 1k and an LED in series you have
two polarities to check against with the IR LED active (20mA is typically used, so
perhaps a 220 ohm resistor for that).

Hey there, thanks for responding.
I'm not too familiar with some of the terms you have used lol.

As for not being able to damage the sensor, there was some smoke that came out of the pcb when I reversed the polarity which usually isn't a good sign, right?
I do know what Diode mode is but I don't know how to use it in this situation. Also, what do you mean by "12 ways to connect the leads".

If you could explain it like I was a 5 year old, maybe it would help :slight_smile:
Thanks

First thing to do: use the multimeter to check which solder joints connect with 0Ω (put it into resistance measuring). Can't see the PCB lines in your photo's. If you know which dots connect, draw a line between them on the photos in Paint or photopea.com and show us the connections you find by uploading that image.
Use the first image to draw those lines onto.

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