pot board (without wires everywhere !)

[jeb]

hello,

i'm building a unit with 2 lines of 16 pots... so there is

a lots of wires !

has somebody tried to design a pot board

(single-side pcb...) with as few wires as possible, and

just a pin header in order to connect something that

looks like a 40pins IDE (hard disk) cable... ?

thanks in advance for any idea or photos !

jeb

[pay_c]

Normally a normal stripboard is ideal for that, I did that a dozen times. Put the pots there in a row and only drill the middle strips open between every pot. Outer and inner strip goes to GND/5V. The rest can be soldered to some connection port (SIL header or whatever).

Greetz

[jeb]

hello,

maybe i should try stripboard but just a question :

let 1 2 3 represent the 3 pins of the pot, and --- the strip.

should i do :

--------- 1 2 3 ---------- 1 2 3 ------------ 1 2 3

then the pots are in serial !! and on pin #2 i can't get

the 0v-5v range !!

shouldn't i do this ?

|-------------------|--------------------------------

|----- 1 2 3 --|      | 1 2 3 |

                    |------------ |------------------------

with the first line (0v) connected to each pin #1

and the third line (5v) connected to each pin #3

thanks in advance,

or maybe could you send me a photo of such a "stripboard

pot board" !

jeb

[pay_c]

--------1-------1-------1------>+5V

---x----2---x---2---x---2------

--------3-------3-------3------>GND

x: Drill there

;D

[Sinnsyk]

LX has a great way of solving that:

http://www.lx.czweb.org/modules/mod-btns.htm

get some inspiration ;)

[moogah]

WOW  :o :o Inspiration is right!

[MRE]

Another option is to thread enamal wire through the holes of the pot tabs. It looks like bare wire but is coated with clear enamal paint. Take care to keep the wire from pot to pot short so that the slack wont short to to anything else. Now rub a part of the wire with a knife right where you want to solder to the pot tab and solder it in place.

now you just need one new (normal) wire for each pot.

Pots next to each other in a row: (arrange all tabs facing the same direction)

It helps to bend one set of tabs slightly up, and one set of tabs slightly down, with the signal wire left in the middle. Thus, "high tabs" )all left tabs)= + and "low tabs" (all right tabs)= -  and the signal wire helps to keep the two away from each other.

            []                []            []                []

--------o------------o---------o------------o

      -----s          ----s        ----s          -----s

------------o------------o----------o------------o

Pots in a column:

With all tabs aligned the same direction, wire all the left tabs together and all the right tabs together. Make sure your design allows for space between the pot body and wire. If it does not, then wrap each pot body in electrical tape before building up, that way if a part of the enamal wire is bare and touching a pot, it wont short.

I cant make a good ascii pic of this one  :(

An alternative to enamal wire is wire wrap wire. loop it through, then twist it twice. When you solder to the tab, you actually have to melt through the insulation, but it does work. (do it in a ventelated space!  ;)

[audiocommander]

I cant make a good ascii pic of this one

you can wrap your ascii drawing with [ tt ] [tt]to select a teletype font with unified spaces[/tt] [ \tt ]

...or just click the typing machine icon in the reply toolbar ;)

Cheers!

Michael

[MRE]

hehe.. I COULD do that..  and spend.. like.. EFFORT on it!  BAH!  ;)

Actually, it wasnt so much of a spacing thing as it was being lazy!  Making the other picture would have been a column of things.. tedious.. and the wires on the sides would be loopy..  like  (  bah.. too much work!  :P