Steering wheel overide

Is there any simple way to get a single pulse out a reed switch or a hall effect sensor? What I am worried about is when a magnet is directly under the sensor the switch is left on. I know agopengps has a setting for this but I am thinking for multisystem use. If you leave the override switch on for two long on many systems it throws an error. I suppose maybe an encoder of some sort is the answer but they seem expensive for what they are and overkill as far as resolution.