R/E/P Community

R/E/P => Mastering Dynamics => Topic started by: DOMC on March 17, 2011, 03:12:53 AM

Title: Precision pots
Post by: DOMC on March 17, 2011, 03:12:53 AM

anyone know a good place to get precision pots for "thing" i am building a prototype of?

Title: Re: Precision pots
Post by: Thomas W. Bethel on March 17, 2011, 07:41:52 AM

Stepped or no steps?

Lots of places...

http://www.parts-express.com/wizards/searchResults.cfm?searchFilter=audio%20potentiometer

http://www.pennyandgiles.com/Conductive-Plastic-Rotary-Potentiometer-pd-101,3,,.php

http://www.marchandelec.com/att.html

http://www.hificollective.co.uk/components/potentiometers.html

It all depends on what you want to spend and the precision you desire.

Title: Re: Precision pots
Post by: bblackwood on March 17, 2011, 08:38:31 AM

Define 'precision'.

Title: Re: Precision pots
Post by: Tim Boyce on March 17, 2011, 12:53:29 PM

On recent 'things' I've been tinkering with ... I'd given thoughts to Veneer dials.. .


Anyone know of good sources for that. seems like it might be a good way to get more fine-tuning, and better recall ability without the expense of stepped switches.. (however when I priced it out, it wasn't that much different).. Just need to find a good source.

any drawbacks to using them?



  Also ... seems like we're only a few years away from good availability of digitally controlled analog components... seems like that would take away the need for expensive mechanical processes for precision gains, etc ... the ULN8 uses them, and I've heard of other prototypes doing that kind of thing. excellent L/R matching, very fine tuned (0.1dB, etc ..) Anyone have any knowledge to share about using those options?

Title: Re: Precision pots
Post by: Gold on March 17, 2011, 02:49:49 PM

Quote from: Tim Boyce on March 17, 2011, 12:53:29 PM

On recent 'things' I've been tinkering with ... I'd given thoughts to Veneer dials.. .


Anyone know of good sources for that.

any drawbacks to using them?

Mouser and Digikey both carry multi-turn pots and Vernier dials for them. You can get good precision but cranking the pot five or ten times around for a setting kinda sucks for daily use.

Title: Re: Precision pots
Post by: Thomas W. Bethel on March 17, 2011, 03:23:08 PM

Just be careful they are not wirewound. <Think variable inductor>
This place has tons of them used at good prices

http://www.electronicsurplus.com/SearchResults.aspx?Keyword=potentiometers

Title: Re: Precision pots
Post by: DOMC on March 17, 2011, 06:32:17 PM

I was thinking along the lines of elma or pallazo

Title: Re: Precision pots
Post by: bblackwood on March 17, 2011, 08:51:40 PM

I haven't looked in a long time but I'm pretty sure you'll be hard pressed to find something much better than 10% in a potentiometer. One manufacturer I know of buys huge amounts of them in order to get matched pairs where needed.

There might be a retailer somewhere who will hand select matched paris for a premium, but if you really want matched pairs you'll probably want switches.

Title: Re: Precision pots
Post by: Gold on March 17, 2011, 11:02:52 PM

Quote from: DOMC on March 17, 2011, 06:32:17 PM

I was thinking along the lines of elma or pallazo

Those are switches, not pots.

Title: Re: Precision pots
Post by: DOMC on March 18, 2011, 03:33:01 AM

Coolio