Home indicator

[RayRogers]

Our mechanical department needs a "home" indicator that allows repeatable alignment to .001" automatically. I remember some optical devices using Moire patterns that were a lot better than that; but that was a long time ago.
Oh yes, we are fairly cheap (err.. inexpensivly inclined).

Ray

 

[IRstuff]

A position sensitive detector (PSD) ala:

http://www.polytec-pi.fr/sitek/the_psd_school.htm

might fit the bill. This would be coupled with a focussed LED source whose 2-D position could be monitored by the PSD. TTFN