Problem detecting rotation in rotary encoder.

Other Hardware Sensors
1

Hello. I need to use a rotary encoder in a project that involves menus displayed in a I2C LCD.
I bought one and tried to make it work with some codes from internet. None of them worked for me so I tried to guess it by using the code below.

My encoder has a button and 5 pins. I don't have the model number so I couldn't find the datasheet. It does not come in a module.

In the code below I attached interrupts to pins 2 and 3, and i connected them to the pins A and B of the rotary encoder.
I connected the pin C to ground.

#include <Arduino.h>

struct state {
	int a, b;
};

void isr();

void setup() {
	pinMode(2, INPUT_PULLUP);
	pinMode(3, INPUT_PULLUP);
	Serial.begin(115200);
	attachInterrupt(0, isr, CHANGE);
	attachInterrupt(1, isr, CHANGE);
}

void isr() {
	state buff = {digitalRead(2), digitalRead(3)};
	Serial.print(buff.a ? 'H' : 'L');
	Serial.println(buff.b ? 'H' : 'L');
}

void loop() {
}

And the output was like this:

When I turned the encoder clockwise once:

LH
LH
HH
HH

When I turned the encoder counterclockwise:

LL
LL
HH
HH

So I decided to use only an interrupt in A and detect the next state after a HH. If it was LH, the encoder was turning clockwise; if it was LL, it was turning counterclockwise. I implemented that in this code.

#include <Arduino.h>

struct state {
	int a, b;
};

void isr();
void button();

state prev = {1, 1};
int counter = 0, butcounter = 0;
bool change = true, but = false;
unsigned long t = 0;

void setup() {
	pinMode(2, INPUT_PULLUP);
	pinMode(3, INPUT_PULLUP);
	pinMode(4, INPUT_PULLUP);
	Serial.begin(115200);
	attachInterrupt(1, isr, CHANGE);
}

void isr() {
	state buff = {digitalRead(3), digitalRead(4)};
	if (!(buff.a && buff.b)) {
		if (prev.a && prev.b) {
			if (!buff.a && buff.b) {
				counter++;
				change = true;
			} else if (!buff.a && !buff.b) {
				counter--;
				change = true;
			}
		}
		prev = buff;
	} else {
		prev = {1, 1};
		t = millis();

	}
}

void button() {
	if (millis() > t+500) {
		but = true;
	}
}

void loop() {
	if (change) {
		change = false;
		Serial.println(counter);
	} else if (but) {
		but = false;
		Serial.println();
		Serial.print(++butcounter);
		Serial.println(". Button!");
		Serial.println();
	}
}

And connected the arduino nano as it is shown in the image attached.
The encoder worked fine, the counter increased when I turned it CW and decreased when it went CCW. The button also worked. Then I used it in my project and connected it the same way. It worked for a while and then stopped. When I used the code above to test it once more, it didn't work properly. I connected the pin A to pin 2 and pin B to 3 and attached at both interrupts in CHANGE mode. To my surprise the B pin was changing all the time and most of the time it was low. A day later the encoder worked for a while and then happened the same. My question is: Am I using the rotary encoder correctly? If I'm not, how is it supposed to be used?
Is the encoder broken?

I'm sorry if I've written too much but I wanted to detail it as much as possible. Thank you!

Schematic.jpg
Schematic.jpg840×897 84 KB

2

  1. Don't do serial.print(), delay(), etc. in interrupts

  2. Your encoder is connected incorrectly. Here is one way for an encoder switch to be wired (using INPUT_PULLUP):

    765×558 38.1 KB

There are a number of good encoder libraries, and good tutorials, like this one. Please spend some time studying them.

3

Thank you. I'll try it out. Btw, the link to the library does not work.

1 Like
4

You can just loose all those resistors and capacitors, its going to work fine directly connected. No debouncing
is needed for an encoder because it will self correct (a bounce alternates between two neighbouring counts,
something you have to expect anyway).

If there are long wires to the encoder you might need to augment the internal pullups with external 4k7 resistors.