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SensAble Technologies maunfactures a very interesting force feedback device that makes the user feel as though a virtual object on their computer screen is sitting on their desk. The user moves a stylus around in 3-D, and the software and electric motors simulate collisions, friction, inertia, even what it would feel like to sculpt clay.
In some applications, the software wants to know not only the location of the stylus, but also the angular position. Sensable was selling gimbals with 3 encoders as an add-on when the encoder supplier announced they were cancelling the encoders we used.
After a lot of hunting, I found encoders from CUI Stack, inc. that were smaller than anything on the market, and had better shaft bearings and double the resolution to boot. A new housing was designed with a cleaner appearance and more attention to wire routing and ease of assembly. The result was a well documented product with everything from individual part drawings to electrical diagrams showing how far to strip each color wire. SensAble sold this design for at least 3 years before integrating its function into the base product.
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