Hardware method track rotation position of spinning wheel?

i don't known if understand right, my english its poor too.

For position a wheel, a Magnet in the wheel and all "REED SWITCH" you need for each positon/resolution you want.

Cheap optical mouse hardware could track a ring placed on the back of the wheel, series of lines of varying proximity could also be used to catch the absolute position of the wheel

Couldn't you integrate velocity to get position, go with knack's idea of placing magnets on the wheel at various positions to keep it from drifting?

What you will want is an optical encoder, there is plenty of cheap hardware out there, or instructions to make your own using off the shelf optical reflectivity sensors.

You want a "Rotary Encoder". They output "Grey Code", and are very easy to use. They can tell the difference between moving Clockwise, or counter clockwise, and speed is also possible, and pretty easy as well. They are VERY cheap, and can be found on old stereos, they are volume knobs and will connect directly to a what ever Prototype board you use. Good luck with your project!

You could also print a gradient circle (from white to black), glue it to a wheel, and place a photo resistor (optical sensor) in front of it. In this way you can read grayscale values fom a printed gradient and get exact position. Of course, you will need something like arduino to decode your signal and sendd it to a computer. For decoding you could use also a computer audio line input, by connecting a resistor to a sound signal, and feed that ssound signal to some audio analysis software (unity has a live input audio analyser) to decode volume variations.

Another vote for using a rotary encoder. Cheap, easy to use, and can provide absolute position without having to worry about light leakage or checking for wraparound. they're also available in Incremental versions, if all you care about is wheel direction and velocity (and relative position).

Very good idea da, much thank. Time for experiment! Time for eBay! :lol:

I want model bicycle in Rift, not for exercise but game. Dynamo on back wheel give voltage for velocity, but also want model position of pedals and legs for avatar and immersion so need to track position of petals.

This Bodnar board is very good with Hall Effect, much recommend.

Have nice day friends :D

when you say free spinning you mean the wheel has no real begining or end? If so, this thing should work

http://groovygamegear.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=86&products_id=268

I have some on an arcade machine I put together, they are built really well. get the extra weight piece they offer, gives it a great feel