Christoph680:
Hey guys!Thank you all so much for your generous information! I've been able to snip off the leads of the rotary encoder (after looking at it, yea, it is one.. :D) and desolder the remaining pins - thankfully without breaking any pads. Now that I have the part broken out, I'm not sure what kind of rotary encoder this is. Would I be able to use any encoder that's similar in size and amount of pins? Or are there different versions of encoders? Sorry about the confusion, first time working with encoders.
Greets
Philipp
Almost all encoders work the same way. There is a +V pin (purely mechanical encodes don't have or need this, ones with integrated electronics do), a GND pin, and two channels, A and B which produce square waves out of phase with each other. The electronics can tell which way the encoder is moving by how the waves are received. But most encoders work the same way. Mechanical ones are the cheapest and have the shortest lives. Optical and magnetic don't have the same wear potential as the mechanical ones and some are rated for a hundred million rotation life. I've bought several of these, they are just fantastic encoders, but a bit expensive:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/370592502534
And if you think what he is asking is high, I think the normal <10 pieces price on this encoder was about $60. This encoder has it's own logic and runs at 5V.
Cheaper mechanical encoder with a nice tutorial linked, maybe that data will help you conceptualize: