I have a project that needs to be able to measure a sensors movement across a surface. Like an electronic tape measure, except I need resolution of .01 inch, or about .25mm. I believe a standard optical mouse has .001 resolution (1000 dpi?) but I'm looking for a discrete sensor to connect to an arduino.
A small wheel seems like a good start, and measuring the revolutions as it rolls over the surface, but I can't seem to get the resolution that I need. Thoughts?
These are some great suggestions, thanks to everyone.
I'm trying to measure the distance i'm running a sensor over. like the digital tape measure here:
(Except with higher resolution.)
I like the LVDT idea, and will look at how it could be adapted to rolling over a surface. But since I need to be in contact with the surface I'm traveling over, it seemed like something wheel based would be better.
Another thought I had was using something optical, but I can't be sure of the reflective properties of the surface.
I should have included this on my first post, my apologies. Any thoughts??