I am considering making a small PCB drilling station and I was wondering just how precise we can get using this technology. Are we able to go down to thousands of an inch?

If Pic BASIC Pro is unable to accurately measure distance and we require an external distance-mesuring-tool, I was wondering if there was something we can do with an ordinary optical mouse. Two units could be placed to measure the X and Y displacement.

I'm new to PICn my nose, and even more so when it comes to robotics. I was wondering if it was possible to build such a device with decent accuracy without needing components from NASA subcontractors.

Robert