rotary_encoderrotary_encoder waveform


Rotary Encoder Using Arduino Hardware Interrupts

by Lewis Loflin


YouTube video for this project: Arduino with the HEDS-9000 Rotary Encoder.

Rotary or better known as quadrature decoders have been around for while. They are used in motors to detect speed and direction, while others can be used in many applications that require precise shaft unlimited rotation-including industrial controls, robotics, special purpose photographic lenses, computer input devices such as opto mechanical mice and track balls. More on that at Wikipedia.

Also see Better Arduino Rotary Encoder Sensor

Here I'm concerned with HEDS-9000 that I salvaged in motors from a junked industrial printing machine. The motor is shown in the video and were precise enough to enable the printer to do large industrial blueprints.

The HEDS-9000 uses a single 5-volt supply and produced TTL compatible outputs. In the Arduino sample code below I used one of the two ATMEGA168 external interrupts to detect the rising pulse from channel A then read the logic level of channel B.

The relationship between channels A and B is based on the direction of the motor shaft and the attached code wheel. Also measuring the pulse width can determines the shaft rotational speed. This was displayed on two LEDs.

Shown above is the waveform relationship on channel A and B outputs. If we use the positive going edge of waveform A as a reference, we need to read the logic level channel B.

If B is a logical HIGH then we know the direction is counter-clockwise. And if a logical LOW then we know the direction is clockwise. This holds true be it the small front panel unit above or the HEDS-9000 type below.

Block Diagram HEDS-9000


The HEDS-9000 and 9100 provide sophisticated motion detection at a low cost. Typical applications include printers, plotters, tape drives, and factory automation equipment.

Theory of Operation HEDS-9000

The HEDS-9000 and 9100 are C shaped emitter/detector modules. Coupled with a code wheel, they translate the rotary motion of a shaft into a two-channel digital output.

As seen in the block diagram, each module contains a single Light Emitting Diode (LED) as its light source. The light is collimated into a parallel beam by means of a single polycarbonate lens located directly over the LED. Opposite the emitter is the integrated detector circuit.

This IC consists of multiple sets of photo detectors and the signal processing circuitry necessary to product the digital waveforms. The code wheel rotates between the emitter and detector, causing the light beam to be interrupted by the pattern of spaces and bars on the code wheel.

The photodiodes which detect these interruptions are arranged in a pattern that corresponds to the radius and design of the code wheel. These detectors are also spaced such that a light period on one pair of detectors corresponds to a dark period on the adjacent pair of detectors.

The photodiode outputs are then fed through the signal processing circuitry resulting in A, A, B, and B. Two comparators receive these signals and produce the final outputs for channels A and B.

Due to this integrated phasing technique, the digital output of channel A is in quadrature with that of channel B (90 degrees out of phase).

Output wavforms HEDS-9000
Output waveforms HEDS-9000


The photodiodes which detect these interruptions are arranged in a pattern that corresponds to the radius and design of the code wheel. These detectors are also spaced such that a light period on one pair of detectors corresponds to a dark period on the adjacent pair of detectors.

The photodiode outputs are then fed through the signal processing circuitry resulting in A, A, B, and B. Two comparators receive these signals and produce the final outputs for channels A and B. Due to this integrated phasing technique, the digital output of channel A is in quadrature with that of channel B (90 degrees out of phase).

Top view code disk and HEDS-9000
Top view code disk and HEDS-9000


Code Disk sideview HEDS-9000
Code Disk side view HEDS-9000


Rotary Encoder
Typical two disk rotary encoder.


Electrical connections HEDS-9000
Electrical connections HEDS-9000


Programming Arduino

The most obvious method for Arduino to check the logic level of channel A is by polling or constantly checking the logic level on channel A as the following example code snippet shows:


void loop() {
  
  while (!digitalRead(CHA)) { } //wait here for HIGH 
  byte i = digitalRead(CHB);
  while (digitalRead(CHA))  { } //wait here for LOW 
}

I just wasted most of the micro-controller's time simply checking the electrical status of two pins named CHA and CHB. The first while loop idles waiting for CHA to go to HIGH logic level then line two notes the level of CHB after a HIGH is detected on CHA.

Because we don't know the motor speed which determines the pulse width of the HIGH on CHA, we have to wait until CHA goes LOW with line three.

While this will work and will compile just fine it's not very smart coding. But the real solution is to use the Arduino only when CHA goes from LOW to HIGH (or whatever we choose) and do other things in the meantime. The solution is the two hardware interrupts at digital pin 2 (known as INT0) and digital pin 3 (INT1).

Let's look at the following code example:


#define CHA 2
#define CHB 3
#define CW_LED 7
#define CCW_LED 8

volatile int master_count = 0; // universal count
volatile byte INTFLAG1 = 0; // interrupt status flag

void setup() { 
  pinMode(CHA, INPUT);
  pinMode(CHB, INPUT);
  pinMode(CW_LED, OUTPUT); // LED connected to pin to ground
  pinMode(CCW_LED, OUTPUT); // LED connected to pin to ground

  attachInterrupt(0, flag, RISING);  
  // interrupt 0 digital pin 2 positive edge trigger
}

void loop() {
  if (INTFLAG1)   { // do something on interrupt  
   } // end if
    // do other things
}


void flag() {
  INTFLAG1 = 1;
}

The first four lines define the LED connections and the connection to the encoder with channel A being digital pin 2 and channel B being digital pin 3.

The next two lines declare two variables INTFLAG1 and master_count. Volatile means these variables are in static RAM and can be changed and read by all subroutines, interrupt service routines, and the main program loop. Most of setup() is self explanatory and now we come to attachInterrupt(0, flag, RISING).

The Arduino mini (ATMEGA168) that I use has two external hardware interrupts: numbers 0 (on digital pin 2) and 1 (on digital pin 3). The Arduino Mega has an additional four: numbers 2 (pin 21), 3 (pin 20), 4 (pin 19), and 5 (pin 18). That is why I connected CHA to digital pin 2 and CHB to digital pin 3.

Thus with attachInterrupt(0, flag, RISING) the "0" specifies interrupt 0 in digital pin two.

"RISING" specifies the type of electrical signal that will trigger an interrupt:

The reason I chose RISING is because I wanted to trigger an interrupt when CHA went from LOW (0 volts on digital pin 2) to HIGH (5 volts on digital pin 2).

What a hardware interrupt does is tell Arduino to stop whatever it is doing, save the location address in memory (known as a stack), do whatever the interrupt service routine (ISR), in this case called flag, then go right back where it stopped and continue on. The advantage is the micro-controller doesn't waste most of its time checking for HIGH or LOW on a digital pin.

In this program example an interrupt is generated from digital pin 2 when the HEDS-9000 encoder goes from 0 volts to 5 volts (known as a positive edge trigger). The main program will stop, save the location where it stopped on the stack, jump to the ISR routine flag(), which sets the volatile variable INTFLAG1 to 1, then go back and continue on where it stopped after pulling the location address from the stack.

At this point the line if (INTFLAG1) checks to see if INTFLAG1 is a 1 (set) then does whatever commands are between the braces { }. After that continues on with other parts of the program. Now let's add some more to this.


void loop() {
  if (INTFLAG1)   {
    byte temp = digitalRead(CHA);
    digitalWrite(CW_LED, temp);
    temp = digitalRead(CHB);
    digitalWrite(CCW_LED, temp);
    INTFLAG1 = 0; // clear flag
   } // end if// end loop

What the above program does is turn on the CW and CCW LEDs based on the electrical states on CHA and CHB giving us a visual indication of direction. The line INTFLAG1 = 0; simply clear the INTFLAG1 until the next interrupt. This doesn't work very well, there has to be a better way as shown below.

The interrupts can be disabled at any time with the detachInterrupt(0) for time consuming for sensitive programs, which can be reattached with attachInterrupt(0, flag, RISING); anywhere in the program. Note with the interrupt off one might miss some interrupts!

The final program below outputs the direction as indicated by the LEDs and on the serial monitor the values of the master_count variable. As I turn the motor shaft CW the count increases, and CCW decreases. Have fun!


/* 
Demonstrates use of rotary encoder for motor
direction and distance.
*/

#define CHA 2
#define CHB 3
#define CW_LED 8
#define CCW_LED 7

volatile int master_count = 0; // universal count
volatile byte INTFLAG1 = 0; // interrupt status flag

void setup() { 
  pinMode(CHA, INPUT);
  pinMode(CHB, INPUT);
  pinMode(CW_LED, OUTPUT); // LED connected to pin to ground
  pinMode(CCW_LED, OUTPUT); // LED connected to pin to ground
  
  Serial.begin(9600); 
  Serial.println(master_count);
  
  attachInterrupt(0, flag, RISING);  
  // interrupt 0 digital pin 2 positive edge trigger
}

void loop() {

  if (INTFLAG1)   {
       Serial.println(master_count);
       delay(500);
     INTFLAG1 = 0; // clear flag// end if// end loop


void flag() {
  INTFLAG1 = 1;
  // add 1 to count for CW
  if (digitalRead(CHA) && !digitalRead(CHB)) {
    master_count++ ;
    digitalWrite(CW_LED, HIGH);
    digitalWrite(CCW_LED, LOW);
  }
  // subtract 1 from count for CCW
  if (digitalRead(CHA) && digitalRead(CHB)) {
    master_count-- ;
    digitalWrite(CW_LED, LOW);
    digitalWrite(CCW_LED, HIGH);
  } 
}

Stepper Motors

Serial LCD Display and assorted Sensors

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