Hi,
I came across this link for a program that can generate seven different types of encoder wheels for use as optical encoders.
thought this would be very handy for people to print them out using laser printers on transparent film and building their own encoders.
http://www.mindspring.com/~tom2000/D...Codewheel.html
link to the software is toward the bottom. has a a very good tutorial on principles of working as well.