[KenWittlief]

Larry , thats awesome. Only thing I would add is you can accumulate the sensor output in a 16 bit register, I usually start it out at 32000 so you can kept track of having turned left or right

and there really is no need to multiply the heading accumulator by a constant to get degrees - I think multiplying takes a lot of instruciton cycles (not sure) and dividing really takes a lot.

Last year we did almost the same as you described, except we figured out what the accumulator value would be in its 'native' units - for example, if 32000 is 0° heading then maybe 43500 would be right 90°.

you can do the same thing to determine the position of the arm as it rotates up and down - Ive used potentiometers on arms before - its very difficult to get a good mechanical coupling that doesnt destroy the pot.