Need quick help with some potentiometers... Lots of lugs.

[SmoothAction]

Hey! My girlfriend's brother took apart an old mixer for me to salvage parts from. Its got lots of small dimension capacitors, a bunch of in-line 4558's, some rotary switches, sliders, etc... All good stuff.

And lots of pots. There are several pots with 4 lugs, and several with 6 lugs instead of my familiar 3. I want to use these, would I be able to tie all the inner lugs together and keep the outer lugs separate to turn them into 3 lug style pots? Know what I mean?

There are a mess of 50k, 100k, and unlabeled pots here. Like, 30 of em'. Just wondering if they are usable, and if my above question would "work". I could seriously build 10 eternity OD's with just the pots and parts that are on here. Not saying I would, but I could... 

Thanks guys!
-Max

[R O Tiree]

The 6-lug ones are probably dual-gang ones - that's 2 pots stacked togather in the same casing. Sometimes, they are controlled by a common shaft (both turn together) and other designs have concentric shafts (one shaft inside the other) so they can be controlled separately.

The 4-lug ones... I've seen rare uses where the 4th lug is a centre-tap? There's a thread about it on this very site...

[SmoothAction]

Ahh see they aren't stacked in rows and columns like dual-gangs are. The pins are all in line horizontally, both 4 and 6 pin styles. I would imagine the 6 pin pots are still dual-gangs though, and unfortunately the main link doesn't work for me in the post you've linked to clarify the 4 lug pots.. I can post pics tonight. Thanks, will do more research.

[aron]

Just use the trusty multimeter and test the lugs for resistance.

[SmoothAction]

Indeed. With my multi just now I've confirmed the 4th lug on the 4 prong pot is a center tap. Not quite sure how to really utilize that pot properly still. There's a few W taper pots on there as well. Here are some pics either way. These are proving difficult to find info on, and my multimeter skills are being tested in new and fun ways. Thanks dudes!

[aron]

Nice!

[Tony Forestiere]

If your intentions are to harvest the pots, de-solder one of each type and check all lugs with an Ohm meter. In-circuit checks on pots can be misleading.

[R O Tiree]

I've seen 6-pin ones like that before... pins 1 and 6 are connected to either end of one track, 2 and 5 serve another track running round inside the first and 3 and 4 are the 2 wiper terminals. As Tony said, de-solder one and see how it works. Even better, carefully prise one apart and you'll see exactly how they got that funtionality into such a small package.

[SmoothAction]

Yes I plan on harvesting this whole board practically. Almost everything on it I can use for something. 4 rotary switches, 12 inline 4558s, 32 pots, tons of small caps for 1590's... I will pull the unlabeled pots out before measuring resistance. Thanks for the tip Tony.

[Tony Forestiere]

I've seen 6-pin ones like that before... pins 1 and 6 are connected to either end of one track, 2 and 5 serve another track running round inside the first and 3 and 4 are the 2 wiper terminals. As Tony said, de-solder one and see how it works. Even better, carefully prise one apart and you'll see exactly how they got that funtionality into such a small package.

The six pin pots could very well be dual ganged. There could be a wiper and resistive elements on both sides of the PCB wafer. If so, very small package. Nice.

[SmoothAction]

@R O Tiree - You are correct. After taking apart a 6 lug pot, you've nailed the lug layout I'm seeing. 1+6, 2+5, 3+4 spot on. So the question now is what could I actually use these style pots for? I mean, if there's no reason to use them Im not going the spend all that time desoldering 32 heavily-pinned and soldered pots for nothing. There's got to be some practical uses. Utility boxes maybe? Loopers, active mixers (original product), blending, etc... I've got a load of these things and I'd really like to utilize them properly.

[J0K3RX]

I have some of these... Haven't really messed with them so if you figure them out that would be great! Although mine could be different..?