Hi everybody, totally newb here, i've stumbled on this place through a google search a few times when i needed information, i'm not very knowledgable with electronics and circuits, just trying to repair some things from time to time as a hobbyist.

my issue with with a synth i own with a malfunctioning rotary encoder. i've opened it up and it's completely broken, altho it still registers weirdly when turning it (random increments), i removed the top part only because i didn't have the tools on me to desolder it from the board, it looks almost exactly like the one in the attached picture. Found this on an old blog, don't know what model that is. if i remember correctly, the difference is that the one in the synth has three raised metal pins instead of four, but maybe i'm wrong and one was broken, the whole thing looks crooked anyway.

my question is the following, are all infinite rotary encoders the same and swappable ? i went to a local electronics shop, they only had one model, which looks almost like a direct replacement, but after inspecting/opening it up i noticed it wasn't going with the same principle mechanism (second picture looks similar to that).

is it safe to assume that if i replace my faulty encoder with the one i found at the shop, things would work the same ? or do i need to get the same encoder model ?

Thank you and hoping i'm not posting this at the wrong place, if that is the case, could someone maybe redirect me to a ressource, i've looked around but it's hard to navigate this information without knowing the proper vocabulary of things.

 

The main difference would be in the "counts per revolution". Otherwise, they would both output a quadrature switching pattern. The counts per revolution would come into play if your front panel was marked in a pattern for one and you installed the other. Also, if you are accustomed to turning so far for a particular result, you may need to either move more or less, depending, again, upon the counts per revolution.

 

This looks like a switching type of encoder, in which case any such encoder could be used. They are in the class of "incremental" encoders, the other class being "absolute" encoders. But the connections may be different as far as which terminal is the common one. That could be a problem. Other than the connections, mounting is the big difference.

 

thanks for the answers ! i'm more confident now about it, i tried a little test, just having the prongs of the encoder touch the connections on the board with the other (half working) encoder still soldered in place, when i do that, they both stop working until i let go, i wonder if there are other kind of tests that could be made (prior to desoldering) to test if the new encoder would work in its place.

that could go a long way because it would avoid me hiring someone qualified to desolder the old one and put in the new one if it happens to be not compatible, i would desolder myself but this soldering is hard to budge, never came into that before, it takes too long to melt the points and get the board dangerously hot, also, i'm not super confident with this particular job as the soldering points are pretty tight.

 

thanks for the answers ! i'm more confident now about it, i tried a little test, just having the prongs of the encoder touch the connections on the board with the other (half working) encoder still soldered in place, when i do that, they both stop working until i let go, i wonder if there are other kind of tests that could be made (prior to desoldering) to test if the new encoder would work in its place.

that could go a long way because it would avoid me hiring someone qualified to desolder the old one and put in the new one if it happens to be not compatible, i would desolder myself but this soldering is hard to budge, never came into that before, it takes too long to melt the points and get the board dangerously hot, also, i'm not super confident with this particular job as the soldering points are pretty tight.

You can cut off the pins and the part and they are pretty standard all the same.

 

you mean to say that the pins on rotary encoders are always used in the same order/fashion ?

 

you mean to say that the pins on rotary encoders are always used in the same order/fashion ?

for the ordinary 3 pin kinds yes. I sell some of them actually. The ALPS kind also is known as EC12.

Theres black blue and green parts mostly. Of course theres variations in the handle length. But part size is not so much different

 

thank you so very much, this is very helpful, i feel very confident about doing this now