Quote Originally Posted by skimask View Post
Yep, you're right, I am completely lost...After reading through the datasheet linked above and for teh 2122-5 itself, I found that what you're trying to do is physically impossible without a decoder/counter chip in between the PIC and the encoder. After all, who would've ever thought of using a couple of the interrupts and registers on a PIC to detect level changes on the outputs of an optical encoder. 'cause that would just be silly.

NOT! There are loads of 'google-able' references out there for directly connecting a quad-encoder to a PIC, with very high resolution/accuracy (which is obviously dependant upon the encoder itself), AND easily complete other tasks at the same time, all without missing pulses from multiple encoders...but I give up. Sometimes ya just can't tell a person anything.
Skimask, I don't think that you have read about my problem. I believe I said before that I need a resolution of at least 360*60=21600 pulses per revolution. Okay, try and find an encoder that has more than 8192 ppr for less than $100. You can't. Then I guess you could use a quadrature decoder along with the encoder to increase the resolution. There you have 8192*4=32768 ppr. That's enough resolution. So what is it that you think that is physically impossible? Didn't you read above that I was using a decoder? And why do you keep talking about missing pulses or any need for a higher frequency oscillator? I think you're probably a smart guy so that's why I must assume that you are simply not reading the entire thread carefully. Go back and read through all of the posts before you make any more comments. k?

PS. I now have the entire system up and running right now, so thanks for all of your help. You rock!!!