Also, these cheap mechanical encoders are terrible. If you were trying to do precision work, you should probably be looking at a different technology like an optical encoder.

Mechanical encoders could add unnecessary drag, and magnetic encoders are not perfectly linear, so optical encoders were used.

TT Electronics has launched FlexSense a technology designed to optimize optical encoder applications. The FlexSense series consists of the FS210 Transmissive Incremental Encoder and the FS310 ...