rotary-encoder - a generic driver for GPIO connected devices Daniel Mack <daniel@caiaq.de>, Feb 2009 0. Function ----------- Rotary encoders are devices which are connected to the CPU or other peripherals with two wires. The outputs are phase-shifted by 90 degrees and by triggering on falling and rising edges, the turn direction can be determined. Some encoders have both outputs low in stable states, whereas others also have a stable state with both outputs high (half-period mode). The phase diagram of these two outputs look like this: _____ _____ _____ | | | | | | Channel A ____| |_____| |_____| |____ : : : : : : : : : : : : __ _____ _____ _____ | | | | | | | Channel B |_____| |_____| |_____| |__ : : : : : : : : : : : : Event a b c d a b c d a b c d |<-------->| one step |<-->| one step (half-period mode) For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_encoder 1. Events / state machine ------------------------- In half-period mode, state a) and c) above are used to determine the rotational direction based on the last stable state. Events are reported in states b) and d) given that the new stable state is different from the last (i.e. the rotation was not reversed half-way). Otherwise, the following apply: a) Rising edge on channel A, channel B in low state This state is used to recognize a clockwise turn b) Rising edge on channel B, channel A in high state When entering this state, the encoder is put into 'armed' state, meaning that there it has seen half the way of a one-step transition. c) Falling edge on channel A, channel B in high state This state is used to recognize a counter-clockwise turn d) Falling edge on channel B, channel A in low state Parking position. If the encoder enters this state, a full transition should have happened, unless it flipped back on half the way. The 'armed' state tells us about that. 2. Platform requirements ------------------------ As there is no hardware dependent call in this driver, the platform it is used with must support gpiolib. Another requirement is that IRQs must be able to fire on both edges. 3. Board integration -------------------- To use this driver in your system, register a platform_device with the name 'rotary-encoder' and associate the IRQs and some specific platform data with it. struct rotary_encoder_platform_data is declared in include/linux/rotary-encoder.h and needs to be filled with the number of steps the encoder has and can carry information about externally inverted signals (because of an inverting buffer or other reasons). The encoder can be set up to deliver input information as either an absolute or relative axes. For relative axes the input event returns +/-1 for each step. For absolute axes the position of the encoder can either roll over between zero and the number of steps or will clamp at the maximum and zero depending on the configuration. Because GPIO to IRQ mapping is platform specific, this information must be given in separately to the driver. See the example below. ---------<snip>--------- /* board support file example */ #include <linux/input.h> #include <linux/rotary_encoder.h> #define GPIO_ROTARY_A 1 #define GPIO_ROTARY_B 2 static struct rotary_encoder_platform_data my_rotary_encoder_info = { .steps = 24, .axis = ABS_X, .relative_axis = false, .rollover = false, .gpio_a = GPIO_ROTARY_A, .gpio_b = GPIO_ROTARY_B, .inverted_a = 0, .inverted_b = 0, .half_period = false, }; static struct platform_device rotary_encoder_device = { .name = "rotary-encoder", .id = 0, .dev = { .platform_data = &my_rotary_encoder_info, } };