[MCahoon]

[quote=apalrd;968294]I would actually recommend a pot over an encoder because it's position is absolute instead of relative. Your programmers will thank you.

I completely agree. That is the same reasoning that caused us to use the pot in the first place. The pot we used was driven from a shaft on the winch we used to pull back the kicker. Because it needed to make multiple revolutions, we used a 10-turn pot. If your kicker mechanism allowed use of a standard 270 degree pot, the mechanism might not have been subject to the same stresses ours saw (smaller amount of rotation during the very short time interval of the kick), or may be more robust. I wouldn't think there is enough give in the plastic chain/sprocket to reduce the angular acceleration appreciably.