Shaft angle transducers

An apparatus for automatically detecting angular motion of a test object, such as a clutch output, utilizing photoelectric devices in combination with helically apertured light shutters, the electric outputs of the photoelectric devices being interpreted by analog logic. Provision is made for a predetermined...     

Angular position measuring apparatus includes a prism mounted on a shaft whose angular position is to be determined, and a light source for directing a beam of light onto the prism. The prism is formed so that the light beam enters one surface of the prism and is refracted by another surface and caused...     

Apparatus for measuring angular displacement of an object in which an alternating potential source is applied to the electrodes of a light source, such as a gaseous discharge light, resulting in alternating illuminations in the medium, e.g., gas, about the respective electrodes, which are detected by...     

An annular position sensor employing optical fibers in pairs, one end of the fiber of each pair being associated with a single light source and the corresponding ends of the other fibers of each pair being associated with respective light detectors. The opposite ends of each pair of fibers terminate...     

A watt-hour meter or other visual read-out apparatus which may also be read electrically through the use of a plurality of code discs and a photoelectric sensing device in spaced juxtaposition with the back sides of the discs. The sensing device is supported by a cable-controlled carriage which reciprocates...     

The drive for the indicator mechanism of an altimeter is connected so as to drive altitude marker means, the relative position of such marker means being indicative of altitude. The marker means has a marker which may be implemented by a slot formed therein to reference this position. Sensor means is...     

An optical encoder comprises a housing capable of being clamped in an end wall of a motor or rotating component about its shaft, a shaft opening in the housing, a fixture for mounting an optical encoding disc firmly in an end portion of the shaft when projecting through the housing opening, a peripheral...     

Shaft position sensing apparatus includes a group of generally parallel vanes extending generally longitudinally of the shaft axis, means for mounting the vanes in that relationship and attaching them to the shaft for rotation with the shaft, a light source providing a beam of light directed transversely...     

An odograph in which calibrated portions of heading and distance signals are used for displaying locations. A magnetic compass is provided including a North-seeking spherical surface carrying a reflective segment, the position of which is sensed by electro-optical components which derive and generate...     

An optical encoder design is disclosed which maintains a constant fixed air gap between the commutator and light sensors. The encoder head is mounted on a partially compressed hollow bellows or other spring member biasing snubber posts adjacent to the light sensors against tracks on the commutator. The...     

The present invention pertains to a system used in conjunction with a rotary member such as a shaft to sense the angular position of the rotary member and produce an output signal which is a function thereof. The signal is received by operator means for producing a programmed response to the signal....     

A shaft angle transducer particularly suited for use as a magnetic compass card for providing an output signal linear with angular movement over a wide range, such as plus and minus 40.degree., with no zero dead band. A member with a plurality of radial segments, each having relatively opaque and transparent...     

The disclosure describes an electro-optical tachometer assembly for use with a device having a movable part and a fixed part (for example, a motor, an electrophotographic system, etc). The electro-optical tachometer assembly comprises a movable assembly and a fixed assembly. The movable assembly includes...     

A densimeter for measuring the density of liquids is disclosed. The densimeter comprises a substantially vertical shaft having a central axis. The densimeter further comprises means for rotating the shaft about its axis and a vessel mounted on the shaft asymmetrically with respect to the shaft axis....     

An electronic odometer and speedometer for bicycles computes distance and speed based upon input signals generated by interruption of a light beam by each spoke and the valve stem of a wheel of the bicycle. The interruption time of the light beam caused by the valve stem is substantially greater than...     

An angular position transducer utilizing photocells and a light source is disclosed. The device uses a fully rotatable baffle which is connected via an actuator shaft to the body whose rotational displacement is to be measured. The baffle blocks the light path between the light source and the photocells...     

Disclosed is an encoder assembly employing a single radiant energy source mounted oppositely disposed from two sensors. A shutter having two distinct leading edges is mounted for movement between the source and the sensors. One edge is aligned to interrupt the optical path between the source and one...     

As a substitute for the conventionally used pair of polarizer panels, a sensor disc is used in relatively rotatable combination with a pair of photo-sensitive elements arranged spatially on one side of the sensor disc and a light source system arranged spacially on the other side of the sensor disc....     

A beam directing device is provided which employs one or more mirrors mounted on a single rotatable shaft. The orientation of the shaft controls the rotational orientation of these directing mirror(s) to direct the beam toward any of a number of sample or reference cells. Behind each cell is a cube corner...     

In the construction of a photoelectric type rotation angle detector for a rotatable or turnable object including a photoelectric transducer, an optical interceptor and a comparator circuit, a cylindrical light interceptive portion extends parallel to the main shaft axis of the interceptor, the optical...     

The present invention is to provide a cine camera in which the exposure time is accurately maintained by detecting the time during which the film is actually exposed and, upon occurrence of a difference of this detected value from the set value, by varying the shutter open angle to compensate the exposure...     

An automatic damper control comprising: damper means for use in a flue or the like; diaphragm means adapted to expand and contract in response to pressure variations in the flue; and sensor means for sensing the pressure in the flue. The sensor means is connected to the diaphragm means and comprises...     

An optoelectronic synchro generator which comprises at least one photoelectric circuit element which includes a light source and an associated receiver. A rotatable shaft has mounted thereon, for rotation therewith, elements which define at least one optically effective surface spaced from the axis of...     

A nuclear reactor system is described in which a position indicator is provided for detecting and indicating the position of a movable element inside a pressure vessel. The movable element may be a valve element or similar device which moves about an axis. Light from a light source is transmitted from...     

An angle-position transducer using light-interrogation employs an optical track and a beam of light. The light beam is formed into a narrow line-pattern. The line-pattern is directed to impinge on the optical track as the optical track moves angularly relative to the line-pattern. The optical track and...     

This invention relates to a speed indicating apparatus for a vehicle comprising a plurality of indicator lights and a speed counter, each said indicator lights mounted externally on the rear frame of the vehicle being connected to said speed counter by means of electric wires respectively and said speed...     

A modular incremental rotary shaft encoder is preassembled within its housing and then installed and aligned upon the shaft of which rotation is to be sensed. The encoder housing loosely confines a thin disc assembly having a shaft receiving aperture dimensioned to be a press fit upon the shaft. The...     

A sensing mechanism for determining the open or closed condition of a valve member located at a remote location. First and second optical fiber sections are aligned with a rotatable light modulator between the sections. Rotational movement of the modulator is governed by movement of a portion of the...     

An absolute-incremental hybrid shaft position encoder providing compacted high resolution. In the preferred embodiment an encoder track is superimposed by a shutter so as to make multiple track revolutions appear electrically as a single revolution.

A test assembly is provided for decreasing the skill and time required for aligning the code detector unit with an optical encoder disc. The output signals from the encoder assembly are conditioned to remove DC offset and to balance the amplitudes of the signals. The conditioned signals are used to generate...     

An encoder arrangement for machines having a rotating worm shaft which controls the movement of a working part and which has an optical disc on the shaft whose movement is photoelectrically sensed and interpreted by a controller to govern drive mechanism for moving the part in accordance with a program....     

An apparatus for measuring the angular position of a first element, rotatable with respect to a second element, includes an arcuate scale mounted to the first element. An arcuate housing substantially encloses the scale, and defines an arcuate slit which extends along the housing. A pair of sealing elements,...     

An optical encoder housing is rotatably mounted upon a hub secured to the shaft of a motor typically by a set screw. The hub also carries the encoder disc. A circular leaf spring is fastened by studs to the motor housing and the encoder housing. Alternatively a spring couples the hub to the motor shaft...     

The electronic watt-hour meter (10) comprises an electro-optical watt-hour sensor (12) adapted to be coupled to a consumer's connection to a source of electric power for sensing voltage supplied to, and the current drawn by, the consumer's electric load and for producing output signals indicative of...     

The present invention is directed to a new and improved active translation sensor which includes a first member having a fixed transmission grating, a second member having a movable linear array of light-emitting diodes disposed juxtaposition relationship with respect to one side of the fixed transmission...     

Apparatus and method for non-contact determination of shaft angle utilizes a patterned disc secured to the shaft or other rotor being observed. The disc has sectors of different optical properties whereby radiant energy directed to the disc will be encoded by the sectored pattern. A set of detectors,...     

A zero-home locator includes a fixed phototransistor switch and a moveable actuator including two symmetrical, opposed wedges, each wedge defining a point at which switching occurs. The zero-home location is the average of the positions of the points defined by the wedges.

A mechanical dial indicating gauge or meter that, without mechanical loading, optoelectronically detects and encodes the pointer position as a digital signal by use of a technique of distributed point position latching. Counter means drives a circuit which cylically sequentially lights LED's along a...     

In a reflecting type optical rotary encoder capable of detecting a number of rotation and rotating direction of a code wheel by projecting light emitted from a light emitting element onto reflecting portions provided on the code wheel through a first optical fiber, and by guiding light reflected from...     

A laundry appliance includes apparatus for analyzing the eccentricity of a rotatable member with respect to its design rotational axis when subjected to dynamic unbalance forces. An indicator is rotatable with the rotatable member and includes a predetermined detectable pattern. A sensor is juxtaposed...     

An apparatus is disclosed for sensing rotational or angular position of a shaft. The apparatus incorporates two light transmission paths, each having a separate photodetector providing an electrical signal in response to the intensity of received light. The electrical signals from the photodetectors...     

An optical excitation electromagnet brushless motor comprises a stator having at least two angularly separated stator coils; a transistorized amplifier connected to the stator coils and connectable to a power source for exciting the stator coils when the amplifier is activated; a rotor rotatably mounted...     

A system for measuring aeroelastic deformation of an aircraft wing in flight or in a wind tunnel utilizing light from a linearly polarized light source (101). The light is transmitted through modulating elements (104, 105) to provide a carrier beam, and a small portion of the beam is reflected through...     

A light shielding plate rotated by the shaft of an object to be measured is provided with a slit. The distance between the slit and the axis of the shaft varies continuously. A light source and a linear light receiving element are disposed on opposite sides of the light shielding plate.

An apparatus is disclosed for sensing rotational or angular position of a shaft. The apparatus incorporates two light transmission paths, each having a separate photodetector providing an electrical signal in response to the intensity of received light. The electrical signals from the photodetectors...     

An output of a rotary or linear encoder of lower-precision (a subject encoder) is corrected according to that of higher-precision (a reference encoder) to provide higher precision output signals. In the present invention, a frequency multiplied pulse signal is obtained by multiplying a low precision...     

A retroreflective attitude marker includes at least two intersecting reflecting planes oriented at 90 degrees with respect to one another, and having the property that incident laser beams which are perpendicular to the line of intersection of the two planes are reflected directly back to the laser source....     

Accelerometer with an inertial mass suspended in a housing, and with apparatus for deriving a signal for the measurement of a force acting on the inertial mass. The accelerometer measurement is thereby made by means of a light source located inside the inertial mass, the light from which is transmitted...     

An optical rotary encoder is formed by a control pulse generator portion and a selector switch portion which are of the unitary construction. The control pulse generator portion is formed by a code plate having a plurality of alternately formed reflecting and non-reflecting areas, a plurality of light...     

A shaft encoder for deriving a number of pulses indicative of the extent of rotary shaft motion including a disc having plural relatively narrow opaque regions spaced from each other by relatively wide transparent regions. Light from a pair of sources is directed through the regions toward a pair of...     

An optical transducer has an optical head mounted above an optically encoded reflective disc. Broad band radiation is supplied to the head via a single fibre cable. This head is a solid glass block with a curved reflecting surface that collimates and reflects radiation onto a diffraction grating. Radiation...     

An analog position indicating optical encoder is provided including: an element (1) with a band (2) having a transparency which substantially is complete with respect to two wavelengths (1.sub.1 and 1.sub.2) but varies as a function of the angular or linear distance for a third wavelength (1.sub.3) at...     

An electro-optical instrument means for measuring the relative angle of roll about an optical axis extending between a sending unit and a receiving unit. The measurement is independent of relative displacements in pitch and yaw within the dimensional limits of the apparatus. The sending unit comprises...     

An improved encoder alignment system is disclosed which provides an indication of the extent of misalignment and a measure of the rate at which the misalignment may be changing. The invention is adapted for use with a conventional encoder which provides a digital coarse word having at least significant...     

A modular optical encoder includes a housing, a rotatable cam-loaded cover, an emitter/detector module and a code wheel which is positionable upon the shaft of a motor. The code wheel is positioned automatically against the cover during attachment of the encoder to the motor to set the desired emitter...     

A drum rotation indicator for indicating the speed of raising and lowering a load by a crane winch. A rate generator connected to the winch develops electrical pulses having a frequency proportional to winch rotational speed. A solenoid having a movable plunger is mounted in the cab of a crane where...     

An angular position encoder utilizes Moire fringes formed by illuminating regions of coded images arranged circumferentially on wheels rotatable in accordance with angles to be encoded. Movement of the Moire fringes from a reference position is detected and used to determine the angular movement. All...     

An improved rotation angle detector of high precision includes a rotary disc formed with slits and a photo sensor array receiving light through the slits from a light source positioned opposite to the array with the disc in-between. The array consists of a plurality of MOS photo capacitors which can...     

An optical code reading device, including a unit having, for each of the tracks of the coded element, a pair of photodiodes, a differential amplifier receiving the outputs of the photodiodes and the trigger connected to the output of the amplifier, a shift register receiving the outputs from the unit,...     

An electro-optic speed sensor for sensing the speed of rotation of a rotating sending unit which includes an optical switch transducer for sensing disturbances in a magnetic field caused by the passage of a rotating magnetic sending wheel on the rotating member. The optical switch transducer uses a Faraday...     

An optical flow meter comprising a source of light, an optical fiber, a connector, a detector, and output electronics. The optical fiber is connected to the source of light so as to transmit light therethrough. The connector is arranged for attaching the optical fiber in a position generally adjacent...     

An extra magnetic field positioning apparatus includes a motor which does not have stable points for defining the extra magnetic field. An encoder is provided which is rotated with the motor and individually has the information which indicates rotating displacement and the information which indicates...     

A first pattern which repeats change in the longitudinal direction with a predetermined pitch and a second pattern which changes in the longitudinal direction with a pitch which is different at least from that of the first pattern; both formed of a predetermined material, are disposed on a surface of...     

An optical rotary encoder eliminates the necessity of relatively positioning a code plate and a click mechanism therefor so that it can be assembled with ease. The code plate is mounted for rotation relative to a stationary plate member, and the click mechanism including a ball and a spring plate is...     

An optical type displacement detecting device including a main scale and an index scale, wherein a pitch of a first optical grating formed on the main scale is set at P and a pitch of a second optical grating formed on the index scale is set at P/n, thereby producing divided detection signal having pitch...     

In an optical rotary encoder which detects the angle of rotation of a rotary shaft by detecting the ray of light transmitting through an angle detection pattern formed on a rotary disc coupled to the rotary shaft, a deflection detection pattern (20b) is disposed on the rotary disc separately from the...     

The stator electromagnets (80', 82', 84', 86', 88', 90') face inward about the rotor cavity (12) of the motor. Spaced horseshoe magnets (70) with spaced apart, opposite poles face outward about the periphery (22) of the rotor (20). The stator electromagnets are in two arrays. Each array is aligned with...     

A pulsed laser beam aiming apparatus is configured such that substantially 00% of the energy from a pulsed laser beam from a Q-switched pulsed laser device is accurately aimed at a distant target/obstacle in space. The pulsed laser beam is reflected off of a multifaceted polygonal mirror spinning about...     

An angular position measurement system including a rotatable mechanism, a potentiometer coupled to the rotatable mechanism and adapted to produce a first output signal indicative of the angular position thereof; a graduated element retaining a plurality of annularly distributed graduations representing...     

A tape twine detecting device is disclosed, in which the rotation direction of a reel base is detected on the basis of signals having waveforms of at least three different widths generated by the rotation of the reel base and a tape twine occurrence indicating signal is sent, when it is judged that the...     

A reflective optical rotary encoder device detects an angular speed or position of a rotatable member with a light beam applied to and reflected from a reflective optical encoder disc. The reflective optical rotary encoder disc has an annular encoder track for reflecting the light beam, the encoder track...     

A position encoder for monitoring the position of a robot arm includes an incremental encoder section which can be initialized locally by an initialization section. The initialization section comprises three engaged encoder gears with relative prime number of teeth, e.g., 23, 24 and 25, so that respective...     

The present invention aims at providing a light-reflecting rotary encoder which is capable of perfectly matching the timing of the clicking detent sensation and pulse signal generation while also guaranteeing a long useful life, and in order to achieve this objective, an optical element and a ring-shaped...     

An angular displacement detecting device which is provided with a tubular casing having a chamber in which a liquid is sealed, a floating body having a magnetic characteristic, the floating body being disposed in the liquid sealed in the chamber and being supported for rotation about a predetermined...     

In a preferred embodiment, an optical rotation sensor for a rotating member, the optical rotation sensor including: at least one reflective element disposed on the surface of the rotating member; first light transmission means to transmit light from a light source, disposed at the proximal end of the...     

A meter reading arrangement has an optical fiber transmission path made up of a pair of optical fibers connecting between a meter to be read and a meter interface unit. Light is transmitted over one of the fibers to an indicator on the meter and reflected light is transmitted by the second fiber to a...     

An encoder mounting device is used for mounting an encoder to the shaft of an apparatus so that the encoder can sense and monitor the rotation of the shaft. The device includes a collar and a plastic ring arranged and designed to prevent metal contact between the encoder and the apparatus. In this manner...     

The invention relates to an interference device having a light source, detectors, and at least two diffraction elements with identical or only slightly different diffraction structures, wherein the parameters of the diffraction structures of the diffraction elements vary continuously as a function of...     

A device and method for monitoring the angular displacement of a rotating shaft provides an ultrasonic transceiver reflecting pulses off of a reflecting edge of a vane of a rotor affixed to the shaft. The reflecting edge is configured in the profile of an involute curve so that changes in the time delay...     

A rotatable member is positioned coaxial with a joint between a first element and a second element. The joint defines an angle to be measured. The rotatable member has coded information thereon. First and second sensing heads are attached to respective elements. Coded information is arranged on the rotatable...     

A system for calibrating production throttle bodies in which a throttle body (18) is mounted in a fixture (16) and light is transmitted by a light source (12) through the throttle body main bore (20) onto a translucent screen (22). A camera (14) senses the light regions (34) and transmits the information...     

A device intended to measure the torque. transmitted by a rotating shaft S1. This device has no physical connection with measured shafts. It employs a laser beam S, S' and a retroreflector RM of which the plane mirrors M1 and M2 are mounted on the torsional shaft S4 and transfer shaft S5 respectively...     

A failure detector for a position encoder which uses a plurality of position sensors. The failure detector receives position signals from the plurality of position sensors. The position signals represent the rotor position for a switched reluctance machine, and the position signals have allowable states...     

A method for generating quasi-sinusoidal signals includes illuminating an object capable of diffusely scattering Eight, focusing a portion of the scattered light on a multi-element sensor to form an image, and matching the image size to the size of the sensor elements.

A meter sensor light tamper detector includes at least one light emitter and one or more sensors. The sensors have some parameter, i.e., conductivity in the case of phototransistor sensors, to provide an indication that they are in the presence of light. The system also includes a microprocessor which...     

An angular encoder for determining an angular position between a stationary element and an element rotatable relative to the stationary element and including a coupling for connecting a scanning unit with a stationary element and formed of a spring material, with the coupling having at least two plates...     

Angle sensor, in particular for the steering gear of vehicles, with several sensor elements of the same design which are positioned separately in a circumferential direction on a facility which is fastened in a fixed position to the installation aligned at a vertical plane to the axis of the installation...     

An imaging system for a linear motor that provides information concerning movement of the same along a plurality of directions, with the information concerning motion along any one direction being substantially unaffected by motion of the motor in a differing direction. In this fashion, a plurality of...     

A slope measuring device, suitable for use on bicycles or other vehicles. Slope measurements are made by sensing the position of a weighted disk rotating in a cylindrical chamber. The disk is hermetically sealed and it's position is electrically monitored. Damping methods prevent the disk from moving...     

An ambient light filter includes light emitting circuitry and optical detection circuitry. The detection circuitry is positioned to detect light from the emitting circuitry. A microprocessor is provided to separately control the light emitting circuitry and the optical detection circuitry. The microprocessor...     

This invention relates to an apparatus for detecting rotational information, and includes a disk attachable to a spindle, with relative rotational information of the disk to be detected. The apparatus also includes a a rotation detection grating on the disk, a main body unit independent from the disk,...     

An optical position sensor comprises a linearity correction circuit 20 having ROM 22 in which a corresponding table between compensation values and respective rotational angular position of a rotational disk 51. The compensation values are obtained such that an actual relationship is measured between...     

An image scanner of the present invention includes an angle sensor for controlling subscanning and implemented by a position sensitive light detector (PSD). The angle sensor allows a subscanning mirror to be rotated at high speed without any vibration. A slit plate for causing a restricted part of light...     

A rotation sensor utilizing light reflection and/or refraction techniques including a light source, a light reflecting surface and a reflected light receiving member in which the elements are positioned so that the intensity of light reflected by the reflecting surface and received by the receiving member...     

A potentiometer includes a shaft, a base including a printed circuit board on which are fixedly mounted a light emitter and a light receiver arranged opposite to and spaced from the light emitter, the light emitter being supplied with steady voltage to emit light and provide working voltage to the light...     

A precision displacement reference system is described, which enables real time accountability over the applied displacement feedback system to precision machine tools, positioning mechanisms, motion devices, and related operations. As independent measurements of tool location is taken by a displacement...     

A position measuring system including a scale and a scanning unit for scanning the scale and movable relative to the scale in a measuring direction, for generating position-dependent measuring signals, the scanning unit including a pattern with first and second sections. A reference track including a...     

A detecting unit provided with an optical system is disposed away from a control unit formed by an electric circuit and an optical transmission/receiving means, and the detecting unit and the control unit are coupled through a transmission optical fiber. The control unit transmits to the detecting unit...     

Apparatus and method for producing a resultant output signal from at least two output signals generated by an encoder. The apparatus and methods include: (a) generating a first output signal from the encoder; (b) generating a second output signal from the encoder; (c) applying the first output signal...     

Disclose is a multifunction input module comprising a clamping stage, an optical chopper, a light source, and a photo detector. The clamping stage has a pivoting rack with two axial holes which can support the shaft of the optical chopper. The clamping stage has two clamping grooves outside the optical...