[InFlight]

With a large steering gear like that you can't use an absoule encoder.

Team 141 at championships had a similar large steering gear setup. They used an incremental encoder to count steering input revs, but also had a pivot extension that triggered a proximity switch to calibrate the nominal forward position. Really elegant and beautifully machined swerve drive. They used a Kaydon brand bearing, very similar to the Silverthin ones. I had the pleasure of talking with the 141 students and mentor for quite a while, really an exceptional team.