jhorts

Thank you so much. I'm brand new to both Arduino and interfacing with a computer, but I understand the theory of all this. An OLED display is the way to go by far, but since we are talking about building gauges you can probably answer this as well. Referring to a single wheel based tape meter or an avionics altimeter, it seems that a servo would not be able to to do consecutive full rotations, but provides feedback that seems necessary for accurate measurement on gauges. Stepper motors have the ability to do multiple full rotations, but lack that feedback back into the system. Even with a reel based tape gauge, you would have to gear it down quite a bit to prevent a servo from needing to rotate more than 360 degrees. Would this be a necessary concern when building actual gauges, or am I off base?

Can someone please tell me what those vertical rolling linear gauges like richfiles had are called? I've sat here for hours searching Google for the most obscure words to describe them. I finally quit when I searched "360 degree analog circular scale rolling linear gauge with a fixed pointer". Without them, I'll have to resort to using split-flap displays, which are cool, but may turn out to be more like playing "London Train Station Sim"...