Steppers have no output unless the shaft is moving. Steppers used this
way are really a velocity encoder and not a position encoder.
Regards,
Glenn AC7ZN


Glenn:

I'm sure that limits stepper motors to certain uses, but I think this
thread/post may be incorrectly titled. Unless I misunderstand the intended
application, I don't think a "position encoder" is what he is looking for.
Rather he wants something that, when rotated, feeds pulses to an up/down
counter for frequency synthesis. The position of the shaft is not important
as long as its rotation can be used to generate pulses for the counter.

Roger