my fear of a single (or less) turn pot is resolution. since this is steering, it's naturally analog. too grainy of digital resolution becomes steps at the tires, and that becomes problematic (especially with the loss of feel/feedback)
in effect, turning 1080 degrees into 270 makes the jumps too large to safely jump, unless the pot resolution is way better than i think it is.
the same problem exists with pushbuttons (or momentary on-off-on toggles) for left/right/center. i'll be driving the car like a normal car, so rotating the wheel a handful of degrees and waiting for full lock to occur is unnatural and counter steering to dial back the steering angle works better for ken block than it does for me.
going the other way (1080 degrees into 3600, or just using the 540 or 1080 on either side of center) more finely resolves the steps into near-enough to analog for this function.
again, i know squat about how the logic actually works, only what my mind says makes the most sense.
if the wheel encoder is instantly at +30*, the logic should see the rack encoder is at 0* and power the drive so that the rack approaches and achieves +30*. the speed of the logic should allow the response to be near instantaneous, and since there is no way to jump over steps, i shouldn't have to worry about the motor hunting/chasing the target if the resolution is fine enough.
i've found a few encoders that will likely work for my needs, some that even look to fit nicely over the input and output shafts.
thanks for the insight, tho...i'm know i'm still floating adrift in this ocean, and if i can get the pieces sorted...i still have to write the logic.