Looking for rotary encoder with friction - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: montyx
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: December 02, 2019, 11:35:23 am
content: Hello there,I'm a newbie here, this is my first post.I'm not a native English, this is the reason why I'm looking for help. I'm building a smart thermostat, and it's working fine. Currently I'm working on the design.To use the menu, I selected a step less EC16 rotary encoder. This is a fine stuff with a 40mm dia aluminium knob. But the feeling to turn the knob is too cheap, if you understand how I mean.I have an old-school Yamaha amplifier, which have a great volume potmeter attached to a motor, which can be remote. The feeling to use that is awesome. I'd like to reach the same effect. Somehow I'd like to brake the rotary, or the knob.My first thought was that to use some kind of cotton fiber below the knob and this worked great. But this prevented to click with the knob. I'd thought about a rubber band and a pulley, which is broken with the fiber, but I cannot find a 6mm axis dia pulley in this size.So I'm stuck, this is why I'm here. Maybe you have any great or extreme idea to help my wannabe design plan.

author: I wanted a rude username
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 02, 2019, 10:24:06 pm
content: Have you compared a rotary encoder which has small steps? Stepless onesseem"premium" if you haven't used them, but they have some unpleasant characteristics, like the lack of friction that you have discovered ... and also they are less intuitive for the user, because of the lack of "haptic feedback". Look at the bad reviews that people give mice which have stepless scroll wheels.You could also use an actual potentiometer, perhaps mounted with some flexibility so that the user can press it onto a microswitch. It is an interesting puzzle to create a user interface that will work with a potentiometer.

author: JustMeHere
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 02, 2019, 11:19:48 pm
content: Here's a part's list on Digikey:https://www.digikey.com/short/pvwb4p

author: iroc86
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: December 03, 2019, 02:48:31 am
content: You can try using a damping grease to improve the feel of the encoder. Coincidentally, I recently tried this on the same Bourns PEC-16 encoders for a digital counter project. I used Rocol Kilopoise 0868. Datasheet here:http://www.farnell.com/datasheets/494930.pdfThis stuff is super sticky and not very easy to apply to sealed encoders, but you can kinda squeeze it in where the shaft protrudes from the housing. It's not a major improvement, but it did slightly dampen the feel of the knob. No doubt it'd work better if the grease could be applied to the shaft directly. I was using an encoder with detents/steps.The PEC-16 is an inexpensive encoder, so I wouldn't expect a "premium" feel. The one in your Yamaha is probably a bit nicer.

author: montyx
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: December 03, 2019, 04:07:33 am
content: Thanks for the advices, I'm going to check the UX with the rotary encoder. Honestly I'm a UI/Frontend developer, so I have experience with web bases stuffs. I hope that I can make my home instrument UI good enough for usage.But if the UAT test (performed the best tester ever, my wife) result will be unaccepted, I'm going to check a normal stepped rotary of course.

author: montyx
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: December 03, 2019, 04:09:18 am
content: Thanks, but I've got a list about many different rotary encoders. Which is the model, that you advice me to use?

author: montyx
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: December 03, 2019, 04:13:37 am
content: Thanks a lot. Maybe this grease what I'm looking for.I know that this rotary encoder is so cheap, but this is my very first project. Honestly if this will work well, I'm going to upgrade it later based on the experience collected.But till that time I try to make it a little bit fancy, as I can.