Pot Installation Tricks??

[Dominick22]

I was wondering if anyone has found a good method for dealing with the prongs on pots. I have a carbon pot that I am working with and although I am managing...It's a son of a gun to manipulate.

Are there attatchments for these things or is it just one of those annoyances that have to be dealt with?


Dominick

[edjosh23]

What I have done in the past is use some 24awg wire, use 1 or two strands, and begin to wrap it around the prong. Once you have 1 or 2 good wraps and place the signal wire on the prong . Wrap the strand around the signal wire a couple more times so that the signal wire is held in place by the strand that is wrapped around. Now solder both the signal wire and the wrapped strand together on the prong.

Good Luck,

Josh

[psychosteve]

tin everything, if you solder the signal wire on its own, then solder the prong on its own, then use the heat of the iron to melt the two together you should have no problems joining the pots to wires with only holding the wire and iron with the pot resting on your heatproof mat/ kitchen table.

problems ive had have been due to the manurfacturers insistance on plating the prongs, this can make them a swine to solder, prep them with wire wool, or a small file if they are plated.

hope this helps, see you soon, steve.. ..

[rabbitz]

I got sick of broken wires while handling etc, so I add the pot on a little PCB either made with a Dremel or strip board. That way you can use PCB pins or solder the wire directly to the tracks to give a strong mechanical bond.

[Dominick22]

Rabbitz,

That was just the type of tip I was looking for. How do you make tose boards.

I am new and have heard of people making their own boards, but really have no clue how.

Is it easy to inlay traces like that or do I need to order them special??

Thanks,

Dominick

[rabbitz]

Most around here would etch their boards but for the amount I do, I just get a blank one sided PCB and mark out the tracks, drill the holes and Dremel the excess copper.... instant PCB.

The easy way for the pot PCB is to use the strip board and cut / join the tracks to suit. Quite easy for a pot and looking from the front with pins down, left pins ground, centre pins out and right pins in.

[Dominick22]

rabbitz,

Bare with me. I am truly an amateur trying to teach myself.
I don't understand the term stripboard or have a working knowledge of the process you are talking about.

Do you or anyone else know of a site that I could learn about this on?


Thanks,
Dominick

[Nuuk]

Dominick, stripboard is perforated board that has a grid of holes, through which you can solder the legs (leadouts) of components like resistors, caps etc. Each row of holes is joined by a copper strip. It is used to construct circuits when you don't want to make a PCB.

You can also buy a board with no holes in it and clad one side by copper. What Rabbitz did was to mark out his circuit on that type of board and then remove the unwanted copper by milling it out with his Dremel.

I don't think the above is covered on my Getting Started page but you may pick up other useful tips by visiting Decibel Dungeon!

The picture shows a small piece of stripboard. The horizontal white lines are already there and you only need to make one cut, vertically in the centre to produce a small PCB for your pot!

[rabbitz]

Have a look at Basic Car Audio Electronics as it's a great resource and add it to your favorites.

For DIY PCB's see item 88 on the right menu.

Have a look at the pic I posted and the board on the right is a strip board.

[Nordic]

Stripboard is also known as veroboard...