We spoke awhile back about using a stepper motor as an encoder. Still more expensive than a mouse, but hey, we can't all manufacture in Asia. Although I'm the one that brought it up on the list, I can't take credit for the idea. Open up an ETC console and see for yourself :) Coming up with a nice interface circuit and some PIC code has been on my todo list for a really long time....just haven't gotten to it. If I get my USB idea off the ground I might try the stepper/encoder thing. Josh -- A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools. -Douglas Adams On 4/14/05, Harold Hallikainen wrote: > This is not for a PC application. It will be driving a PIC. I'm looking at > reading it like a quadrature encoder (I've already used the uart on the > PIC). It's to be a production unit, so I'd like to avoid having mouse guts > in it... -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist