Recommendations for High Quality Rotary Encoder

[jmperagine]

Anyone have recommendations for high quality rotary encoders?

I got a few from Adafriut and I'm really not happy with them.

[Tim Curtis]

What is the specific issue with the encoders?

[jmperagine]

What is the specific issue with the encoders?

The Adafruit encoders are sloppy and imprecise and do not adjust the volume reliably.
There is play in the rotation.

[Tim Curtis]

Ok so some mechanical/quality issues.

Just be aware that the rotary encoder driver included with moOde has a section of code that "blocks" as it updates the value for the moOde volume knob. This can sometimes cause jerky or imprecise volume changes. Another possible issue with the driver has to do with de-bounce thats not 100% perfect.

I think both of these issues can be addressed but it's a project for another dev since my TODO list is always overcommitted.

You might want to look at ALPS encoders.
https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Alp...gK8BvD_BwE

[TheOldPresbyope]

A step up from the mechanical "sliding switch" type of incremental encoder is the optical encoder. An example also listed on the Mouser site is this CUI which lists at about USD29. Full disclosure: I've never used one.

When I was looking for a physical controller, I ended up choosing a USB Volume Control, in my case the DROK. There's a number of competitors. They present to the host USB port as an HID device. You can search this forum for old threads with subject lines like "Remote volume controls" and "Volume control by USB keyboard or volume knob" for users' discussions. My DROK has a great feel to its action. The cost from Amazon was about the same as the CUI above.

Horses for courses, as they say.

Regards,
Kent

[Tim Curtis]

Good point. I have a USB volume control (somewhere) and it worked great. There were virtually no issues. It uses the  triggerhappy daemon. Below is the help from Audio Config for the "USB volume knob" option.

Code:

Activates the triggerhappy key mapping daemon for USB volume knobs.
Refer to /etc/triggerhappy/triggers.d/media.conf for key/event mappings.