Debouncing Encoders - Necessary?

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1

Hi,
I am about to put together my own dead-reckoning motion controller, combining an AVR, Pololus MicroMetal Motor + Encoder set, and a Pololu Motor Driver H-Bridge.

I will be programming the AVR in C using an ISP, and I will be mimicking the way Pololus Encoder library works (with interrupts and counters) to handle the encoder input. My question is: should I provide any extra discrete components between the encoder and AVR input (interrupt) pins. Specifically, should I be debouncing the 4 encoder input pins… I’m worried that the encoder sensors could momentarily waver between values, causing degraded performance or other problems by the unnecessarily repeated interrupt calls.

Any thoughts welcome… Thanks.

2

Hello.

The debounce circuitry should not be necessary since the encoders have hysteresis built into the comparator circuit.

- Jan