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A few photos of a statistical process controller (SPC) I built as a contract job back in 97. The unit has three processor cores.
SPC calculation master and main processor board.
The first two of these processor sub-sections I first fabbed on a wire wrapped proto-board. Then I pro ceded to commercially FAB-ed PCBs built. The third section is an input and display module I bought surplus pre-built that has an RS-232 communications interface built in.
The encoder used is a special 10,000 line module bought (new) specifically for this project. Don't ask about the price, but one wouldn't want to put these encoders on an armature robot, that's for sure. I wrote an encoder article some years back describing the inner functions of some of the base level circuitry.
The device itself is used in a manufacturing industry to measure mechanical properties of fabricated materials.
It is not visible in the second picture the (mechanical Closeup), but a precision stainless steel anti-backlash gear train multiplies the angular rotation before it is run into the encoder.
A simple switching power supply an a bit of work mounting it all into the case tied the rest of the project together.