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marquadb

Quadrature Decoder for Incremental Encoders
Coaxial outputs. LED's and reset button
USB connector and D-Sub9 connector for encoder signals

    The marquadb is a microcontroller that counts signals (“A quad B”) from incremental encoders. Incremental encoders are linear or rotary electromechanical devices that have 2 output signals, A und B, which issue pulses when the device is moved. Incremental encoders report position increments nearly instantaneously, which allows them to monitor the movements of high speed mechanisms in near real-time. While either A and B signal would show the progress of a movement, the phase shift between A and B allows to determine the direction of movement.

    The marquadb counts pulses from up to 3 sources independently, but not simultaneously. The counting works in either direction. The instrument will report the direction of the movement and the time elapsed to count pulses from which the speed of the movement can be derived. However, the actual function of the marquadb is to trigger an action after reaching a given count of pulses. The box feeds a signal (TTL like) into one of the coaxial outputs.

    A typical use of the marquadb is to provide trigger signals to any sort of hardware as a motor coupled to an encoder is moving. Trigger signals will be created after counting a given number of pulses. The instrument does not need to know about physical properties of the motor. It just counts A and B pulses of the incremental encoder. Example: a rotation motor giving 1000 encoder pulses per degree triggers read-out of a Dectris X-ray detector. The trigger is fed into the Dectris detector as TTL-type signal.

    The marquadb features a very easy to use API using a serial interface (USB). With simple commands counting of pulses can be started and stopped. In counting mode, simple commands will also provide information about progress of movements. 

    COMPONENTS

    The marquadb microcontroller ships with the following (optional components)

    marquadb

    controller box

    Radiation enclosure 5m USB cable
    Dusb9 Optional: A/B signal cable as used for Attocube piezo motor controllers AMC100/NUM with A,B,GND pins for 3 encoders
    BNC Optional: coaxial cable with BNC at box and LEMO 00 (NIM/CAMAC) connector at remote end

    SPECIFICATIONS

    Physical box
    Dimensions 128 mm x 80 mm x 48 mm (l/w/h)
    Weight approx. 300 g
    Input

    USB type B connector

    D-Sub9 with A, B and GND for 3 independent encoders

    Output 3 coaxial BNC connectors with output signal, either 0V (LOW) or 3.3V (HIGH)
    LED's 2 LED's showing signal activity
    Reset button Reboots the microcontroller