From: default@defaulter.net   
      
   On Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:07:45 -0700, GeoSound    
   wrote:   
      
   >Am thinking about building an electronic sextant that would provide near   
   >centimeter accuracy.  This would mean a degree should be partitioned to   
   >about 400,000 steps.  Was considering using a pot and 5v to feed an A/D   
   >but on reflection think that a single turn pot would not be clean enough   
   >for that many steps.  Would someone confirm this for me.  Use of a   
   >multi-turn pot requires gears which would be too expensive due to their   
   >very critical meshing needed.  Thanx, Ron   
      
   Another idea - a old time variable capacitor.  The position of the   
   knob is directly proportional to the capacity - and that can easily be   
   resolved into a lot of counts by counting an  oscillator's frequency.   
      
   Look into VFO ("variable frequency oscillator") amateur radio   
   operators use them in home built receivers - and they have various   
   schemes for digitizing the outputs.   
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