Long sliding pot

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sleemanj

1514 posts

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#16221 29-Sep-2007 21:11

Ok, so for this project I'm toying with, I need a (few) long sliding potentiometer with 100kohm resistance (to directly connect to a gameport, although if there were a USB type input device which presents as a HID available locally I'd prefer that). By long I mean around about 10cm of travel end to end.

Anybody know if something like that is even made, I've checked (online) DSE (who had some shorter), Jaycar (who surprisingly don't have any sliding pots, on the website at least), and even Farnell (who didn't have anything suitable and also look like they don't really sell many sliding pots any more).

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James Sleeman
I sell lots of stuff for electronic enthusiasts...

paradoxsm

3000 posts

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#88724 30-Sep-2007 13:52

Some old mixing desks had some very nice ALPS pots that would have been perfect, they slid along a very nice rod internally and were designed for heavy use applications. I used to have a few but have just run out in january and have recently closed my repair operations, Dam...

Try RS components. I have the details of another firm whom I used to use who might just have some spares so i'll ask.

They were 50k LOG but you could just make a simple potential divider to change this.

sleemanj

1514 posts

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+1 received by user: 315

#88754 30-Sep-2007 15:27

Thanks; I see some at RS, but none 100k - they have 10k by ALPS both linear and log with 100mm travel.

I think I'm right in saying that the standard PC gameport only connects to the input and wiper of the pot so it just uses the pots as a variable resistor (0 - 100kohm) rather than a voltage divider and that using a 10k is probably going to not work so well, that is it would only hit 10% of the input range, software calibration can resolve that I guess but it would lose a lot of "accuracy" I think - but I'm a programmer not an electrical engineer so maybe I'm totally off base on that?

Could always try it and see I guess, nothing to lose.

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James Sleeman
I sell lots of stuff for electronic enthusiasts...