vertigo72:
But now Im guessing this is causing me to strip the plastic gears.
Your Original Post said nothing about stripping gears - is that actually happening?
I don't have any of those little motors but I always assumed they are designed to be moved to their limit at one end to identify the zero position. Are you doing that move slowly?
The QRE1113 is a small optical detector that is still big enough for hand-soldering
...R