I've just released a freeware program to generate codewheels. The program can generate a number of different types of codewheels, several of which are suitable for building your own quadrature encoders.
The codewheels can be printed on any home inkjet or laser printer with absolutely no hassle. The codewheels are automatically printed out at designed size. One of the included codewheel types, the two-track quadrature codewheel, is particularly applicable to homebrew quad encoder projects. With one of those wheels in hand, you can build a good encoder with a minimum of mechanical precision required. Other wheel types are suitable for robotics, transport, motor control, and other apps where the direction of rotation is known. For advanced constructors, there are two absolute position wheel types available. Windows XP/Vista capable, .NET not required. http://www.mindspring.com/~tom2000/Delphi/Codewheel.html Have fun! Tom Lackamp
