Expanded VLP Encoder Series Offers Control Engineers New Sensing Options

Everight Position is pleased to announce the addition of four new sizes of Netzer’s two-plate VLP rotary encoder amongst other improvements. Based on the success of the VLP-60 and VLP-100, the new options include the VLP-80, VLP-140, VLP-170 and VLP-247.

Potentiometers That Make Sense for Sensing

Despite their perceived simplicity, potentiometers can still be an appropriate option in today’s ever-complicated automation industry. Fundamentally a variable resistor, modern potentiometers also offer more traditional outputs such as voltage and current which are common to more expensive sensors.

Torque Measurement with Angle Sensors

As collaborative robots expand into manufacturing environments the issue of safe motion continues to be a concern. Current design approaches involve adding force sensors, torque sensors, and sometimes proximity sensors. These adders along with more complex software control algorithms mitigate most of the concerns and result in slower operation. Unfortunately, these additional sensors also add significant cost and complexity.

SSI Hardware

SSI hardware is fairly simple. Just use any RS-422 transceiver to generate the differential signals from/to the microcontroller port pins. Keep reading to learn about the different implementations of SSI hardware.