3 ms·
Can confirm, the knobs on those things are turds. Kinda embarrassing for such an otherwise-nice piece of equipment, too. There clearly are better ways to build
by myself248 6y ago
Can confirm, the knobs on those things are turds. Kinda embarrassing for such an otherwise-nice piece of equipment, too. There clearly are better ways to build rotary encoders, and for a unit with a four-figure MSRP, they could've specified a better encoder!
Like the ones Rohde & Schwarz use. I think the detents are magnetic or something; they feel magical.
- spoonjim 6y agoThe butter smooth encoder is the Grayhill 62M.
- lmilcin 6y agoI use exclusively Grayhill encoders and pots on my projects. Which is to say I don't mind paying extra for a knob that I will be regularly using but probably would be revisiting the choice if I had to make 100 thousand of these.
- spoonjim 6y agoYeah, a 62M will cost you ~100 dollars in single unit quantities.
- lmilcin 6y agoI sometimes wonder who buys that kind of parts. I mean I know why I buy them. Because I just like the feel of it and am not restricted by cost. My time is more valuable than dealing with cheap stuff. Military? Aerospace?
- spoonjim 6y agoI think the dominant market is industrial controls. The cost to have a line down or a technician sent out dwarfs the component cost.
- lmilcin 6y agoI guess you might be right. It would be silly to risk entire plant down due to a small PCB broken. Same goes for important machinery that can't be now controlled because an encoder failed. There is just no connection between the cost of components and the value they are generating and possible costs of downtime. On the other hand you have probably low production volumes because there is no mass market for these parts. And that then causes some stupid stuff to costs hundreds or thousands of dollars.