I'm not too sure if this is the place to ask but I'm not sure where else this question belongs. I'm trying to hook up a rotary encoder to an Android dev board's GPIO pins, although I'm having trouble finding the right encoder.
I would like one that uses quadrature (incremental) and ideally an optical one (will settle for mechanical if necessary). The problem is that the GPIO operates at 1.8V and anything more can damage the device. I spent some time looking on Digi-Key and it seems like all the optical encoders require a higher voltage and the mechanical ones are all rated at ~5V or more. I have found some from TE here although they don't seem to have any distributors for them in North America. Where might I find what I'm looking for / does anyone have a solution?
Best Answer
Get a mechanical contact incremental rotary encoder. Many many are available in low PPR (pulses per revolution) for use as user input devices. They require no power supply unto themselves. You can simply wire them up to your GPIOs as switch contacts to GND and with a pullup to the 1.8V that your GPIOs operate with.