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I want to make a wheel that behaves pretty much like a mouse wheel does — when you rotate it with your finger and release, it rotates back or forward by itself to match a nearest discrete position.

What are the common ways to do so?

Vadym Borodin
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    I think what you're asking about is a "detent" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detent: "a device used to mechanically resist or arrest the rotation of a wheel, axle, or spindle." – scanny Jan 04 '18 at 02:36
  • Detents are used in .. bicycle gear levers, the grind setting on my coffee bean grinder, the position in my windshield wiper speed setting knob, for a few examples. – Carl Witthoft Jan 04 '18 at 14:07
  • Possible duplicate: https://engineering.stackexchange.com/q/13208/2559 – GisMofx Jan 04 '18 at 16:51

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One way to do this would be using permanent magnets arranged in a circle spaced out on a base plate with a central pivot point for a top plate (your said wheel) that has a ferrous disc mounted in it. Use the magnets with either pole facing up. As you rotate the wheel, the ferrous disc will be attracted to whichever magnet it is closest to, you can space the magnets to give you any detent pattern you like.

William Hird
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a stepper motor. they have discrete detents, furnish propulsion, are cheaply available in a variety of sizes, and easy to drive using arduino, raspberry pi, beaglebone, etc. and lots of user information regarding them exists in the robotics community.

niels nielsen
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Genova or Geneva mechanism is stepper mechanism, there are plenty of websites explaining Geneva mechanism or drive, like this wikipedia article Geneva drive

Geneva Drive Animation

Jonathan R Swift
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Katarina
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