Brother TC-225 / TC-229 adventure!

ihavenofish wrote:

This is a bcd "encoder" wheel. It has 5 optical sensors. 4 are for bcd encoding. One is a deceleration track.

Ah, right. Suddenly it makes a lot more sense. 

ULN2003 is no help here, it's a low-side drive item too. 

A transistor (PNP) on each channel might do the trick:
electronicsclub.info/transistorcircuits.htm
See "PNP transistor switch[/b]
load switched on when IC output is low"
Though it might be possible to pull-up the inputs with a fairly high resistor and then have the encoder pull them down. I think I would experiment with that first (10k between the +5V encoder supply and the output pin). Once you can at least see a voltage swing you can adjust the resistor to make it a big enough swing.

None of this was needed on mine. If the machine side power is correct, then it should just work.

They are suggesting it needs a sourcing input, and that is definitely not the case.

Well I'm working on Brother tc-227.. maybe it's different atc from 225.. even though everything were same till now..
There are total 7 wires. 4 for encoder, 1 for deceleration track, 1 for ground and 
​1 for +24v
Atc still works fine with original controller.
If I leave original powering all 5 encoder input wires are -23.9v. When I block encoder sensors it drops to -23.6v
If I unplug ground wire then all inputs are +13v
When I block sensors it drops to ~11.6v but thats not enough for bob to trigger input...
Is that how it should be? Only 0.3v drop when sensors are triggered?
I'm sorry it may sound stupid but I'm so confused about this.. 
​​​

That's not right. when switched, it should go from 24v to 0v or close enough. They should behave as an on off switch. You are doing something wrong.

The tc 221, 225, 227, 228, 229 are all the same principle. plausible they reversed to sourcing on the 227, but even then you got something weird going on.

I have the 229 wiring manual, I will look it up later and see if there's anything useful in there (im in the middle of wiring a room in my house haha)

No eBay APP ID and/or Cert ID defined in Kunena configuration

This is the same encoder.
It says for tc321, tc201, tc217 tc227
Maybe they are different then
 

different board layout, same function, but yeah, I guess it's entirely possible they are wired different. Odd though.