Rotary encoder comprising internal error control and method therefor

A rotary encoder comprising:

• a sensor unit sensing an amount of rotation or an angular position and generating, during operation of the rotary encoder, at least one pair of sinusoidal measuring signals, which are shifted in phase relative to one another;
• a monitoring unit connected to the sensor unit in a measuring signal-transmitting manner, the monitoring unit providing an output in the form of a monitoring signal representative of the operability of the rotary encoder, the monitoring unit comprising:
• a computing module generating a characteristic value from amplitude values of the pair of measuring signals;
• a memory unit with stored quality values and a stored association of characteristic values or characteristic value ranges with reference information, as the quality values which are representative of admissible amplitude value combinations;
• a verification device selecting a quality value for the formed characteristic value based on the stored association of characteristic values and reference information;
• and
• an alarm unit controlled in dependence upon the quality value selected by the verification device wherein the monitoring signal generated is based on the quality value selected.

A rotary encoder comprising:

• a sensor unit sensing an amount of rotation or an angular position and generating, during operation of the rotary encoder, at least one pair of sinusoidal measuring signals, which are shifted in phase relative to one another and are representative of an amount of rotation or an angular position sensed by the sensor unit;
• a processing unit connected to sensor unit in a measuring signal-transmitting manner, the processing unit providing an output in the form of a rotary encoder output representing an amount of rotation or an angular position detected by the rotary encoder based on the pair of measuring signals;
• a monitoring unit connected to the sensor unit in a measuring signal-transmitting manner, the monitoring unit providing an output in the form of a monitoring signal representative of the operability of the rotary encoder, the monitoring unit comprising:
• a computing module generating a characteristic value from the combined amplitude values of the pair of measuring signals;
• a memory unit with stored quality values and a stored association of characteristic values or ranges of characteristic values with reference information, as the quality values which are representative of amplitude value combinations;
• a verification device selecting a quality value for the formed characteristic value based on the stored association of characteristic values and reference information;
• and
• a monitoring signal unit controlled in dependence upon the quality value selected by the verification device wherein the monitoring signal unit generates the monitoring signal.