[Tom Line]

Sean - the danger in using a gear tooth counter in this manner is that it is a 'relative' measurement system.

That means that where ever your lift happens to be when you power it on is the zero point. If the lift is set 3 inches high, then you may run the lift too high at the end of the motion. Or, worse, if you have a power fluctuation on the field, the lift will lose it's 'zero' position.

You are better off if you use something that is absolute. To that end, there are absolute encoders and multi-turn potentiometers that you could use. In 2008 we used a 10 turn pot from radio shack that worked very well. In 2010, we did as you are suggesting and used the encoder to measure how far we unwound our winch. It was a constant hassle to make sure the winch always started in the same position.