6 channel ganged pot

[daatkins]

Hi everyone,
I'm building a sound system for my computer and need a 6 way ganged pot to control the volume of my soundcard's 5.1 channels of output.

I've tried to usual sources (Farnell, RS, Percyaudio) but with no luck.

Does anyone know of a source?

Regards,
David

 

[fdegrove]

GANGED POT

Hello,

You could give these a try?

http://www.elma.com/

Rgds,

 

[Petter]

You will find info on ganged posts if you search the forum. If you want high-end expensive, consider DACT or variants based on Elma etc. Otherwise, search Bourns, Alps etc. websites.

Some types stack up. I don't know how many sell el-cheapo variants in that configuration, though.

Petter

 

[Bill Fitzpatrick]

The cheapest way to go, excluding the shipping from the US is this pot from All Electronics.

http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?category=470&item=LPS-50K&type=store

This is a DIY project. You have to disassemble 6 of these pots and reassemble the resistive elements to the front/plate shaft assembly with threaded rod and nuts.

Several companies in the US will assemble ModPot resistive elements but they quoted me $50 each for 10 assembled 8 gang pots and a $50 set-up change. Such assembly services are probably available in the UK. The assemblers and distributors I talked with were firm in their rules about not selling the separate elements.

 

[Orgonom]

Try this one

Very good Panasonic Silvercarbon!

 

[peranders]

Have you ever considered a "IC-pot"? They are very good nowadays. The drawback is that you have to fix the control gear.

 

[jgwinner]

Bill:

I bought a few ALPS potentiometers from Brigarelectronics.com, but they don't come apart like the ones you mention earlier.

Brigar Electronics potentiometers

Which is a shame, as they even had a motorized version.

I'm tempted to try drilling them out, but I'm working on other stuff at the moment. I guess I'll order a couple of pot's from All electronics, might be easier.

 

[daatkins]

I forgot to mention the outcome of my original post (the one that started this thread)...

Well, I ended up using some 10K trimmer-type pots from Farnell, for a grand cost of £0.17 each, that have a hole instead of a shaft (no jokes, please) so it's easy to gang a whole load of them together. The quality isn't great - the tolerance is 20% - but they're only for a computer sound system so absolute sound quality isn't necessary.

Here's a pic. Don't worry, the match stick is only for demonstration purposes! The machine shop guys at my company will make a shaft from aluminium when they have some spare time.

Thanks to everyone who replied.

Nice one,

David.

 

[Bill Fitzpatrick]

I've done that with trimpots myself when I needed an 8 section pot to vary the frequency of both channels of a 4 pole active low-pass filter. An allen wrench makes a perfect shaft.

 

[dhaen]

David,

"Well, I ended up using some 10K trimmer-type pots"

That's how I remember the audio kits by Sinclair around 1970 were made.
Of course they were linear law.

 

[MRehorst]

You can gang together a bunch of pots, but they won't track well, and not for long. A sound card usually has digital volume control built into the software that comes with it- is there a problem with that?

About the only way you're going to get a bunch of pots that track reliably over a long period of use is to go digital.

MR

 

[jgwinner]

In my case, I'm actually using a PC to drive my power amp, but with 200w online (I got one of those big Brigar electronics power transformers), I don't want to blast people out of the room if they hit 'up' on the volume too fast. I've also seen some PC programs spontaneously up the volume, based on some remembered setting.

In my case, I got some ALPS detented audio pots, so I'll have a 'Max Volume' on the power amp. I'll probably build a simple 'passive preamp' or build it into the amp, I haven't decided yet.

The nice thing with 3 2 channel controls is that 'front / center / rear' balance can be controlled as well as the max volume, with a minimum of parts.