coreysan Posted March 22, 2012 Report Share Posted March 22, 2012 I have ab obsolete DAC box that works great, but the main volume pot is bad. Since its obsolete, the company that made it won't repair it, and I can't get a hold of a schematic. I know that the pot has 6 pins for soldering to the board, and its rated at 100K. With that kind of very limited info, is it possible to figure out how to replace it with a better one that will not go bad in a year or two? Its a crazy request, but I don't know what else to do - these pots are very unreliable. When the box was being serviced, I had the knob replaced every other year. I have some experience with analog pots, and they are super easy to replace, but since this is an encoder, I'm not familiar with 6 pins and what they do! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawkeye Posted March 22, 2012 Report Share Posted March 22, 2012 (edited) Hi, can you provide us with hi-res pictures of the failed component? Did the volume control act "stepped" (= probably a digital encoder) or continous (= probably an analog potentiometer)? If it says 100k, it is most likely a classic analog potentiometer (= variable resistor) and not a digital encoder - in any case you should be able to find a replacement part when browsing the larger online stores like mouser.com. Greets, Peter Edited March 22, 2012 by Hawkeye Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julienvoirin Posted March 23, 2012 Report Share Posted March 23, 2012 (edited) x0xb0x dual lin pot part @50k http://www.ladyada.net/images/parts/50K-B.jpg BTW pots turn at 270°, encoders are endless Edited March 23, 2012 by julienvoirin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coreysan Posted March 23, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2012 Thanks for this advice. I thought it was an analog pot because: 1. Its rated at 100K 2. It only has 270 degrees rotation. But the manufacturer gave me description of a pot with detents. So now I don't know what I have - why would an analog pot have 6 pins, plus 2 more pins for soldering the casing to ground? I only know about simpler pots with 2 or 3 pins. I'll try to get a picture! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hawkeye Posted March 23, 2012 Report Share Posted March 23, 2012 Look at juliens picture - same 6 pins plus 2 fastener pins. As it is 270°, it is an analog pot, detention is also possible in analog pots, of course... Could be a stereo pot which splits the resistor value for each channel = 2x3 pins plus two pins for better fastening the pot to the PCB. Bye, Peter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julienvoirin Posted March 23, 2012 Report Share Posted March 23, 2012 a detent pot has a switch at the very low end e.g : a cheap radio receiver - volume is controlled by the pot and at the very low end, it is the power on/off switch 6 pins pot = 2 pots in parallel. usage : stereo or dual circuit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coreysan Posted March 23, 2012 Author Report Share Posted March 23, 2012 Thanks for all this help! I think I've identified what I have. It looks Like a stereo analog pot, 8mm, with 3 pins for left, 3 pins for right. I should have figured that out!! This was so helpful - thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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