I would like to make, with my son, a rolling tape measure. ( you have probably seen these on construction sites,survey crews,etc)
The thing I would like to have is a USB out so I can observe in real time my distance in Imperial units, feet,inches and fractions constrained to 1/8th inch.
Most commercial units use a mechanical output in decimal feet,not practical for me.Other units have the right software but the wheel doesn't look like it would stand up to several hundred feet per day. I plan on mounting this to a table to measure sheet goods passed under the wheel.
Anybody built something like this? Any better ideas? Is this a good project for a complete Noob?
You're basically describing a wheel with an encoder. There's some code examples in the playground; your wheel and encoder would probably be much sturdier than what is shown but it gives you an idea of what such a project would entail.