[drakesword]

Does the jag have the capibility to determine a pulse width comming in on its encoder lines? If so shouldnt the Gear Tooth sensor be up for consideration as an addition to the quadrane and potinometer input?

I dont think any hardware modifications would be nessassary just an interrupt on one of the pins for raising. Set a timeout to read the pin again after 50 uS. If the signal is high then decrease the counter otherwise increase the counter.