>I need to "see" a steel setscrew (grubscrew) in a fiber wheel as the wheel >rotates at varying RPM from 1000 RPM to 60000 RPM. I'm only interested in >determining instantaneous RPM, not in position data. I suspect you may find an inductive sensor may be easier to use. These consist of a permeable core with a coil wound on it. The core may have some residual magnetism built in to give the necessary magnetic field for the rotating metal to modify the field, and then an op amp to amplify the signal up to a level where a comparator can be used. To use a hall sensor the rotating metal will probably need to be magnetised, and depending on the sensor used may need amplifying. I am not sure that you will get enough field from a grub screw like you mention to properly trigger a hall sensor that gives a digital output unless there are sensitive ones I do not know of. At 60k rpm you will may need to have 2 set screws to balance the wheel properly. -- http://www.piclist.com#nomail Going offline? Don't AutoReply us! email listserv@mitvma.mit.edu with SET PICList DIGEST in the body