Heavy duty rotary encoder - hard detents etc?

[max_torque]

Has anyone used a quadrature rotary encoder that is "chunky" and tough?  I'm talking about solid bearings, heavily detented action, kinda thing you could operate (and not break!) wearing gloves etc?

There's obviously loads to choose from in the various online sites, but it's difficult to tell how "solid" they feel without actually buying them!  So, any recommendations anyone?

(not to fuses about number of detents per turn etc, i guess something between 6 and 12 as normal would do it.  There must be industrial ones of these for HMI in poor environmental conditions etc)

[Precipice]

I usually just see normal encoders in a sturdy housing to keep inappropriate loads (and fluids) off the precious bits. Much like you tend to see a standard microswitch or tact switch at the bottom of a sturdy e-stop mushroom stack.
Got no photos to hand, though.

[BillWojo]

Look for an encoder from a CNC machine thats used as a Jog Knob encoder for manually positioning the slides. Built to take a lot of abuse. Usually about 100 pulses or more a revolution. Just make sure it puts out the right kind of output. Heidanhein sometimes uses sine wave format. Most use a square wave, 5V.

BillWojo

[woodchips]

Make one from a 24 or 30 position wafer switch? If you file the detent disc you can reduce the force needed to rotate. Will need at least two wafers to get the two channels.

[katzohki]

There is some stuff like that in the robotics world, sorry I can't think of any names though. I saw some pretty good ones in medical plate processing robotics.

Here's an idea for you though; use a big beefy knob with a gear on its backside and then a reduction gear to go to your encoder which is in a safe place. I'm assuming behind a panel or something.

[BillWojo]

I think what he is looking for is a rotary encoder with a dual square wave output shifted 90 degrees in phase relationship. Usually they run off of 5VDC. Turning the shaft puts out a train of square waves, A and B phase and sometimes a marker pulse per rev. Phases A and B are 90 degree out of phase and the counters can keep track of the pulses and also reversals in direction. Very common on machine tools for the position loop. Ever see a digital readout on a milling machine or a lathe? Same concept except the scale isn't a round disk, it's usually a glass rule with chrome lines plated on it. Lights and photo detectors are used to detect the lines and the output is converted into square waves. You need two lights and photo detectors spaced just right to get two square waves 90 degrees apart. The magic happens in the counting circuit.
Now how the magnetic scales work, well I still haven't figured that out yet. Especially the ones made by Newall. Large ballbearings in a metal tube with a sensor surrounding it. Tube moves through sensor and it reads to tiny fractions of the ball diameter. Voodoo magic!

BillWojo

[nixfu]

Your requirements also make me think of stuff made for arcade game controls.    I bet there is a heavy duty high-reliability rotory encoder out there in use for arcade games that would also fit your needs. 

At least that might me another place to look for products that would fit your needs. 

Five seconds on Google gives me these beefy encoders made for arcade games:
https://mobile.twitter.com/CM_Brown1/status/517012626191425536

I bet you can find other and other suppliers. 

[sacherjj]

There are many "beefy" encoders that are purely optical and mount on fast rotating shafts.  CUI's AMT20-V Kit is something I use on small shafts for angular encoding.  You can mount something like this onto whatever physical detent system you want.

It can handle very small changes or very fast speeds, depending on how you set it up.  I picked up a mess of them for $20 or so and they come in handy for many things, due to having many shaft size adapters.