Quadrature Buffer Encoder Data

Hello-

I recently purchased a few quadrature encoder buffers from your website. I am connecting them to the ig52 motors that I also got from you guys. I believe that I have it hooked up correctly, but the data I getting from the encoder doesn’t make sense.

I am using an arduino mega for my mcu. My setup is as follows.

Front Right (FR) motor encoder is connected to Encoder buffer. Front Left (FL) motor encoder is not hooked up yet.
The encoder buffer is hooked to the 5v and gnd from the mcu.
Since I am using a arduino mega, the MISO, MOSI and SCK are hooked to pins 50, 51 and 52 respectively.

I used the code from your website to initialize the encoder (and set it to quadrature mode). I also use the code I got from your website to read the SPI data.

  // Read encoder
  digitalWrite(encoder,LOW);              // Begin SPI conversation
  SPI.transfer(0x60);                     // Request count
  count_1 = SPI.transfer(0x00);           // Read highest order byte
  count_2 = SPI.transfer(0x00);           
  count_3 = SPI.transfer(0x00);           
  count_4 = SPI.transfer(0x00);           // Read lowest order byte
  digitalWrite(encoder,HIGH);             // Terminate SPI conversation 
  
  // Combine (4) 8-bit parts into (1) 32-bit value
  count_value = (count_1 << 8) + count_2;
  count_value = (count_value << 8) + count_3;
  count_value = (count_value << 8) + count_4;

When I read the data from the buffer, I get a count_value of -1. count_1, count_2, count_3, count_4 all return values of 255.

I get this same value when I connect to both chips on the buffer. Again, only one of these chips actually has an encoder hooked up to it.

Any thoughts on what I am doing wrong? Thanks in advance, Dan