We had an enquiry from a customer building a small manipulator attachment who needed a compact encoder that could run on a long cable back to the control cabinet – over 50 metres away – without picking up electrical noise along the way.
This looks simple, but running a long cable from an encoder introduces two problems: signal degradation over distance, and interference pickup from other equipment along the cable run. Not every small encoder is built to handle that.
In actual application, the Hengstler ICURO RI30 is a small, low-current rotary encoder built for exactly this kind of industrial application. It has good resistance to interference and supports cable lengths up to 100 m, which is what makes it suitable for CNC machines, manipulator attachments, motors, medical technology, and textile machines where the control cabinet may be some distance away. It’s a solid shaft design with a 5mm shaft diameter, available with Push-Pull or RS422 interface output, cULus listed, and CE marked. Protection class depends on configuration – IP50 for the base version or IP64 for the sealed version.
From our experience, before we quote this, we would normally check the exact number of pulses needed, supply voltage, output interface (Push-Pull or RS422), the protection class required for the installation environment, and the connection/cable length. Hope this helps.
