Proximity sensing

Archiver

I took some of the great suggestions I received from some of you and
purchased the QT113 from Qprox (actually I bought the E11X prototype
board) and it works beautifully. But, I have the following
questions/problems:

I am not sensing proximity to the human body but rather sensing the
proximity of a wooden object. This does not seem to work as well as
the body and very dependent on the material of the object the board
is sensing.

1- What material are best for this application?
2- Do the circuit board carying the QT113 has to be insulated from
its surroundings?
3- How can I increase the sensing range? (I don't have lots of space
for an extended "sensing probe). I want to sense the presence of a
wooden peg that rotates and gets within 1/4" of the QT113 IC itself
on each turn. This way I will be able to calculate RPM as well as
triggering other actions done with a BS2. My frequency is about one
turn every .25 second.
4- The QUANTUM site does not have many example application circuits
and diagrams for their IC's. Can anyone point me to some example
circuits?

Many thanks in advance.


Al Najjar