So i'm going to create a gear sensor to determine which gear my manual is in based on the gear stick position.(why would i do something like this well, i'm bored and not married)

I have a 5 speed. So my plan is to use 6 ir or led sensors. Then attach a ir or led to the stick. (5 speed what is the 6th sensor? it's reverse)

Idea is to have the ir/led angled so when in a gear it activates the sensor in that position and then displays the gear.

this will be enclosed under the shift cover so not to make my car look any more gettho than needed.

The main question is should i use leds or irleds and sensor?

The other ideas i had and the reason i decided to not go with them are:
microswitches - have to be too accurate
reed switches - not sure if gears are too close..... this could affect the light idea also.
tilt/accelorometer - what happens when i turn corners ?

well let me know what you think about the ir/led options and if you think the other ideas would be better let me know. or if you come up with an even better one.

 

A couple of other possible solutions are proximity sensors and hall-effect sensors. I would tend to go with the proximity sensors because they are ready made and easy to use.

 

with the proximity sensor would i need one for each gear or could i use it to determine that it's to the right or left ? or is more like a single plane measurement

 

Hmm... I can't answer that. It depends a lot on how and where you mount the sensors and what the stick look like at that position. It is just a sensor that detect whether an object (usually metal) is within a certain distance of its surface.