Possible to use Rotary encoder with no equipment but Labview 8.2?

[efbriere]

Hi all!

I am using a ACCU rotary encoder (15T Thru Bore, 46 mm slotted flex mount, 500 cycles per revolution, 5-28 VDC, Quadrature A&B with index Z open collector) that is going to need to percieve motion both to the right and the left.

The only equipment I have is LabView 8.2 (I am unable to download DAQmx 9.1 because of limited drive space), a USB 1208FS DAQ card (with only 1 counter slot), and the above mentioned encoder.

The encoder will be resting on a pulley that is turning a belt on which a cart is attached. I need to know how far the cart moved.

Is it possible for me to write a program to retrieve the relative position of the cart with only these tools?

NI suggests the use of:

-         cDAQ-9174 four-slot or cDAQ-9178 eight-slot Hi-Speed USB chassis for NI CompactDAQ

-         NI 9401 eight-channel, 5 V/TTL high-speed bidirectional digital I/O module

-         24 pulse/rev rotational quadrature encoder

but I do not have these. If necessary, I can acquire another DAQ card.

Help would be veryyy much appreciated!!!!

Thank you in advance,

Emily

[Taki1999]

I think the simplest thing to do would be to get a DAQ card with at least 2 counter inputs.

You'll need 2 counters to read a quadrature encoder.  DAQmx will also be helpful here since it has built in functions for reading quadrature encoders.