Pot Question!

[alteredsounds]

Nothing to do with Cheech and Chong here!

I never seem to have enough of the right pots on hand so tend to use a resistor in series or parallel to get the value right.  How, if it does, does this affect the range of the pot or performance etc?

Happy Christmas!

Nick,

[bioroids]

Hi!

If you add series resistors that sum the value of the pot you originally wanted, it acts like you have the right pot, but having a limited rotation.

For example, if you needed a 100K pot and you use a 90K pot with a series 10K resistor, when you get to the 100% rotation (or the 0% depending where you put the resistor) it will act as the 100K pot at its 90% rotation (or 10% again depending on the position of the resistor). So you can never reach the real max or min setting (this can be usefull).

On the other hand, the parallel resistor doesn't have this effect, but it may alter the taper of the pot i.e. the curve of resistance vs. rotation. Sometimes this is good too.

You should read http://www.geofex.com/Article_Folders/potsecrets/potscret.htm The secret life of pots at GEOFEX

Luck!

Miguel