The ‘Tom Thumb’ R8C/13 starter kit described in Elektor in February 2006 has proved popular with our readers and has found its way into many applications, as a glance at the dedicated Forum our website will shown.
The original idea behind the project presented here was to make a friction-free device for measuring linear movement using the R8C/13 and an optical mouse. The advantage of the optical mouse over its mechanical brother is that it has no moving parts that inevitably get dirty and jam.