Does the Duet and Duet XS support Encoders?

Our dual motor controllers do not support encoders unfortunately; they only hall sensors. They also support HFI and sensorless operation.

It is possible to use our ABI Encoder in hall sensor mode for motors with 32 poles (16 pole pairs) or less. This generally works better than integrated hall sensors as the spacing between pulses becomes more consistent. For most applications hall sensors work just as well as encoders due good interpolation support and low latency in the VESC Firmware. You only need encoders for applications that require fast and precise position or speed control close to 0 speed.

In order to use the ABI Encoder in hall sensor mode it must be configured for the correct number of pole pairs. This can be done using the VL ABI Encoder Config package in VESC Tool.