Real rotary position encoders use Gray code to prevent slight misalignments and border cases from being a problem. For some people, the term Gray code (named after [Frank Gray], the inventor) isn ...

Of course, reading an encoder isn’t a mysterious process. How hard can it be to write the code yourself? How hard, indeed. I thought I’d share my code and the process of how I got there.

Tracks on absolute encoders often are arranged to produce a binary output called Gray code. The advantage of Gray code over straight binary is that only one bit changes at a time.

Note that the correct grammar and spelling for Gray codes is “Gray” (not “gray”, “Grey”, or “grey”). This is because Gray codes are named after Frank Gray, who patented their use for shaft encoders in ...

Designed for the 2-bit gray-code encoder sequence (Figure 1b), using a table to provide the state-sequence processing allows you to modify the design to accommodate other encoder output sequences.