avago aedr 8100 reflective encoder question

[daedalus]

Has anyone used these before? They come in chip form and are dirt cheap, but i am having no end of trouble finding reflective code strips for them. Do they work with normal transmissive encoder strips / wheels?

does anyone know a good supplier in us/europe for such code strips?

Basically i have a small automation project which requires a low resolution and cheap linear encoder, and thought these would be ideal.

[Al_The_Man]

US Digital offer strips at $2.00/in, Those from Avego seem very small and fragile?
Al.

[daedalus]

they are going into a prototype cd duplicator robot, so i want small and light, and cheap doesnt hurt either. The robot is going to be completely enclosed with filtered air flow, so i dont see the fragility being a problem, however i appreciate that for cnc these would be totally inappropriate without an enclosure.

the us digital $2/in linear strip is labelled as transmissive strip, and these encoders are described as reflective, are the two technologies compatible?

I assumed that these encoders are designed for mirrored strip with non-reflective lines, rather then transmissive strips which have transparent strip with opaque lines.