Optical encoder help

Projects General Guidance
1

Hello everybody,

I am a somewhat experienced Arduino user however I am moving into very unfamiliar grounds. Up until now my experience has been mainly using LEDs and PIR sensors nothing terribly involved. Now I have the need to use an optical encoder and display the results on an LCD. I have attached some pictures of my project at this point. The black and white segments on the wheel match up with the teeth on the pulley pictured. My thought is to use this guy https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01I57HIJ0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

to read the segments and display the results on this LCD https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0711WLVP9/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This is going to be replacing a machine for my employer that determines belt length. I have taken it upon myself to design a new, much safer machine (The old machine was driven with a motor no guards, generally a rather scary machine). This machine will use human power to pull the belt over the pulley thus turning the pulley and the segmented wheel, my thought is to measure the length of each tooth (which will align with the wheel segments) and convert that to inches on the lcd. I enjoy this sort of thing but this is stepping outside of my comfort zone. I am not looking for a hand out by any means just some guidance.

Thank you in advance for any help you are willing to offer
Maxx

Wheel.jpg
Wheel.jpg960×1280 59 KB

wheel2.jpg
wheel2.jpg960×1280 75.6 KB

2

For that small code wheel, I would recommend a much smaller optical sensor, like this one or this one, depending on the speed with which it needs to be read out.

The one you linked is very likely to be slow, and has a broad view angle, so it may not work in your application.

Pololu offers code and excellent support for their products.

3

The QRE113 sensor is pretty good for most encoders. It only sees a couple of millimeters and ignores everything beyond tgat.

4

I have been using the QRE1113 to detect the rotations of a small DC motor. Sparkfun makes a breakout board but the device is big enough to be hand-soldered if you don't have much space, or want to save money. I use the circuit that Sparkfun refers to as an analogue circuit for triggering a digital interrupt.

...R