MarkT:
You can of course avoid analog by using a rotary encoder, not a pot. You can even get
hermetically sealed versions that use a magnetic sensing encoder chip.I personally wouldn't give a standard pot more than a week in a salty marine environment before it
misbehaves... Its the harshest environment for electronics outside of the van-Allen belts!
I actually originally was going to use a Marine TPS sensor of a newer fuel injection engine, what i have found most are spring loaded potentiometers. The spring loaded part will make it hard to test with. Now i will say they more then likely much better quality potentiometer, but this is what lead me to the idea of using a dual potentiometer and data checking it against itself.
I think for this first design i will stick with what i have, as this is only for theory testing on a bench.
Though i will definitely take a look at an encoder, though if i go this route i will have to add a zeroing switch and would probably also add a max throttle switch so i can perform sanity checks on data before out put.
Oh and i will be ordering a external ADC for continued testing for now.