Aviation Electronics

Abstract

Details of Electrical and Electronic Apparatus with Applications in the Maintenance and Operation of Aircraft, Missiles and Space Vehicles. These optical incremental encoders have been designed to optimize three basic characteristics ‐ very low price, high resolution, and dependability: low price through design simplifications, high volume production and maximum utilization of high impact moulded plastic components, high resolution (with equivalent accuracy), by computer‐designed optics and in house production and control of discs and masks; dependability, through careful material selection and the application of over 12 years' experience in the design and production of tens of thousands of encoders of a wide variety of types. A wide selection of resolutions can be provided. A binary (powers of two) and a decimal (multiples of 10) series are standard. The units presently being manufactured include a binary 2048 count per turn and a decimal 2000 count per turn. Earlier this year 500, 512, 1000 and 1024 count units were added to the line. Actually any number of direct output counts per turn up to a maximum of 2048 can be obtained on special order and counts as high as 4096 can be produced by electronic doubling of the basic count. This technique requires the use of the quadrature outputs normally furnished in encoders having direction sensing. Outputs from the encoder consist of a counting channel (A), a second counting channel (Q) in quadrature with the (A) channel, and an index marker channel (1) which provides a single pulse per revolution. Encoders arc supplied with any or all of these outputs cither at a low level direct from the photocells or with the outputs amplified and squared by internal electronics.

Citation

(1968), "Aviation Electronics", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 40 No. 11, pp. 34-34. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb034446