Time to put this DIY absolute position encoder to work as a clock

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Reading Time: 2 minutes

Arduino TeamNovember 10th, 2021

Being able to derive the absolute position of an object is vital in countless applications, primarily for anything that uses a motor. Instructables user holybaf had the idea to build their own rotary encoder, which has 60 degrees of resolution and utilizes a CD to act as a precise clock.

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To accomplish this, they first laid down a single circular track featuring patterns of light and dark areas that each correspond to a single value. By reading these areas with a set of six infrared emitters/detectors and comparing their current reading to the previous one, an absolute position can be determined. 

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A custom PCB was also designed for this project, which contains the aforementioned IR detectors along with a PCF8574 I/O expander and a pair of headers for connecting an Arduino Uno and an OLED screen for viewing relevant information such as the current time. After attaching a motor and loading some code, the clock was finally complete. 

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You can see this device in action below or you can check out the build log in more detail here on Instructables

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Website: LINK

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