Trimmer selection

[hificat101]

I'm getting ready to make some altoid, and plastic box mods (both VV) and am working on building up a stock of various parts. One thing that is really throwing me for a loop is potentiometers. I'm wanting to try Evercool circuits with both TI8100, and and Murata regulators, and I believe that I need 200 ohm potentiometers for each. I despise multiturn, and tiny little microscopic shafts. My ideal pot is something small enough to fit in the tin, top adjust (though I'll work with side adjust), with through hole pins and either a shaft I can cut down, or preferably a pre attached "knob". For a second, I thought I found just what I was looking for on eBay, but when I pulled up a data sheet, it listed a rotational life of 200 cycles. I thought that seemed awfully low, then I looked at the data sheets for some Bourne thumbwheels I have on order. They also list 200 cycles for rotational life.

What should I expect a decent rotational life to be in VV mod pot? Anyone have any 200 ohm pots they recommend for this application?

Any advice is greatly appreciated, because I'm driving myself nuts hunting for pots online half the night.

 

[smp1990]

this may help you

NTE Electronics NTE 500-0099-PK 63P-T607-201 TRIM 200 OHM<br><a href="http://www.arcade-electronics.com/nte_electronics.aspx">NTE Electronics Selection Page</a> - 63P T3 Style series (NTE 500 series) - Packaged - Arcade-Electronics.Com - Detail

 

[hificat101]

That is a bad ... pot. It also says mechanical life of 200 cycles, but it's so cool, I don't think I care.

UPDATE: Ordered 4 and hardly cared the shipping was almost as much as the product.

 

[mamu]

If you ever need to order more hifi... you can get the same pot for half that price here...

NTE 63P-T607-201 TRIM 200 OHM-500-0099

 

[rookbartley989]

3352T-1-201LF Bourns Inc. | 3352T-201LF-ND | DigiKey

I found this I was hoping to use for a build...will it work LOL...

Ron -

 

[Sci]

Here's a 200 ohm thumbwheel pot(single turn), 10 for $1.00, 200 OHM TRIMMER POT | AllElectronics.com I've got them, they work great. I've also bought from this site many times.

 

[hificat101]

If you ever need to order more hifi... you can get the same pot for half that price here...

NTE 63P-T607-201 TRIM 200 OHM-500-0099

They actually aren't half the price at electronic depot (but that's also what I thought) because the link SMP1990 provided above to arcade electronics is for a 2 pack. Also, have you ordered from that place (Electronics Depot)? It's worse than Digi-key with not giving you an order total. They give you no indication how much shipping is at all. At least with Digi-Key you can roughly tell what shipping will be. Also I found this on their "Terms" page:

"Prices on website are based on a $100 ORDER OR MORE. Will waive minimum on certain items. Call for pricing on items that are less than mimimum. Special price breaks on larger quantities.WE WILL CONTACT YOU WITH A QUOTE BY QUANTITY ON ORDERS LESS THAN $100.00 AFTER YOU PLACE YOUR ORDER."

The big news for me is that you aren't concerned with a rotational life of 200. Not having worked in the industry, that seemed really low to me, and I'm the type of person that when I build something, I want it to stay built for a long, long time. If you say that's OK Mamu, I feel a 1000 percent better. I'll probably even order the new old stock, side adjust ones I found on eBay.

 

[hificat101]

3352T-1-201LF Bourns Inc. | 3352T-201LF-ND | DigiKey

I found this I was hoping to use for a build...will it work LOL...

Ron -

I have a couple of those in my kit already. You can get them from onlinecomponents.com for 82 cents (vs 2.19 at Digi-Key). They show a pic of the vertical pkg, but you actually get the 1 pictured at Digi-Key.

3352T-1-201LF BOURNS | Buy 3352T 1 201LF | Onlinecomponents.com

I haven't built with it yet, from a standpoint of size alone (physically bigger than the one above), the one I've gotten so far that's best is this one:

91AR200LF BI TECHNOLOGIES is in stock | Buy 91AR200LF | Onlinecomponents.com

I hate ordering these things and getting SUPER tiny ones. I ordered 4 single turns on eBay from Thailand for 1.98, and what they sent me was unusably tiny. I almost through them out, but I'm a terrible pack rat.

 

[rookbartley989]

Cool thanks...just waiting on the PTR 8100w and LED driver gas gauge I free sampled from TI...yay!

Ron -

 

[hificat101]

If anyone is interested, I sent an email to Copal yesterday asking about the rotational life of 200 cycles on the trimmer I was interested in. I got a reply today that basically said that because board mount trimmers were basically set it and forget it devices, that a rotational life of 200 was normal. He said that the longest rotational life of any trimmer they currently make is only 500, and if I needed something longer, I should consider a panel mount pot.

 

[mamu]

They actually aren't half the price at electronic depot (but that's also what I thought) because the link SMP1990 provided above to arcade electronics is for a 2 pack. Also, have you ordered from that place (Electronics Depot)? It's worse than Digi-key with not giving you an order total. They give you no indication how much shipping is at all. At least with Digi-Key you can roughly tell what shipping will be. Also I found this on their "Terms" page:

"Prices on website are based on a $100 ORDER OR MORE. Will waive minimum on certain items. Call for pricing on items that are less than mimimum. Special price breaks on larger quantities.WE WILL CONTACT YOU WITH A QUOTE BY QUANTITY ON ORDERS LESS THAN $100.00 AFTER YOU PLACE YOUR ORDER."

The big news for me is that you aren't concerned with a rotational life of 200. Not having worked in the industry, that seemed really low to me, and I'm the type of person that when I build something, I want it to stay built for a long, long time. If you say that's OK Mamu, I feel a 1000 percent better. I'll probably even order the new old stock, side adjust ones I found on eBay.

View attachment 106572

I didn't realize you were getting a 2-fer for that price. I've bought those trimmers with a knob and other parts at electronicdepot, but my order total was over $100 so no problem there.

There's quite a few modders using trimmers with a 200 cycle rotational life and I've not noticed anyone reporting problems with that and I've had no problems with them. But yeah, the 200 cycles is a concern so I'm not specifically endorsing that. For the most part you're not going to do full turns with it, but will be set it and leave it type of thing with occasional adjustments. You seemed to like the trimmer (I think your words were "bad ..." ) so I thought you were done looking for a trimmer and thought the link at electronicdepot was a better buy, but it wasn't with your 2-fer deal.

What I've been using in my mods (except for Dena, which I put a thumbwheel trimmer in) for over a year now is the Piher PT10. It's very stable, is single-turn, and has a life of up to 10,000 cycles. I buy the one with the center hole that is hexagonal in shape (PT10MH01-201A2020) so I can insert a Piher shaft (JPEPL5012NE) in the hole. mouser.com sells this trimmer and the shaft. Don't let the price fool you into thinking it's a cheaper trimmer as I've found it very stable and durable and one of my better buys for a trimmer that holds up well. Like I said I've been using it in my mods for over a year and not one failure (gawd... hope I didn't just jinx myself ).

I use the 200 ohm Piher PT10 for the OKR converter and I've recently bought the 1K Piher PT10 trimmer which is required for the DNA board.

The shaft mouser has for the Piher PT10 is the 5mm in diameter one, so if you want to use a knob with this shaft you will need one that accommodates that size of shaft. You really don't need a knob though as the shaft has an arrow indicator on it. I found the 3mm diameter shaft and also the thumbwheel for this trimmer in Belgium. Talk about shipping cost.

PT-10: 10 mm Carbon Potentiometer

 

[hificat101]

Thanks so much Mamu! That is really priceless info for me. I will most definitely get some of these trimmers and the shafts.

I did wind up ordering 4 (2-2 packs) of the trimmers from Arcade Electronics, but after reading some reviews of the physical store on Yelp, I'm not expecting them very soon. I also ordered the lot of 8 Copal new old stock pots from eBay, once it became clear that others were using pots with comparable rotational life. I was hesitant to buy them, as moneys kind of tight now, and I don't mind dropping a couple bucks on something that may or may not work, but the $20 I paid for the lot of Copals made me want to be extra careful. I really like those pots because, as stupid as this is, they look cool to me. As you may be able to tell from my username I'm really into to hifi gear (esp. older stuff), and there is something about the Copal's that, to me, evokes old electronics. They are new old stock, so we'll se how well they hold up. Not really like buying a NOS tube or such with little to no mechanical component to fail.

I'll definitely order some of the Pihers you recommend. It looks like Mouser has both top and side adjust which is great. Right now I'm just trying to build some kit so I can try different things out. I've got my Hakko soldering station, Kester solder, project boards a TI8100, and a 3A OKR, and a new run DNA on the way (thanks to you guys). Also have several different buttons and switches, resitors, and 100uf Tantalum caps. Busy this weekend, but hopefully Mon/Tue I'll have time to pull something apart I don't need anymore, remove a PCB and practice desoldering and soldering.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[hificat101]

Just an update. I got the Piher PT10 pots I ordered from Mouser today, and they are indeed REALLY nice. I got several side adjust and top adjust. Made sure to order shafts for them, and the shafts may actually work with some knobs I just got from my brother this weekend that came from an old Ramsa audio mixing board he scrapped.

Also got the Copal NOS pots I ordered from eBay, and they also are really cool. They are specced at a 200 turn rotational life, but so are many of the other pots used for modding. I would recommend them to anyone finding 200 ohm ones somewhere just based on how they look and feel. Haven't busted out a meter to test them yet, or used them in anything.

 

[bemorphy]

I have a black aluminum hammond box coming soon. That will house 2 18650 batts and this digital vv board



I have been looking for something a bit larger to fit on the small adjustment pot and want to have it just stick through to the outside. Any ideas or leads to something that would work is appreciated.
Also, I am tired of the same looking on/off switches if any one can also lead me to a nice looking one that would fit. YOu can sort of see my drawing layout to size.

I have build several mods a few copper mods and a few box mods and this is my next step.

I guess if a larger knob for the pot sticks thru the lid, it will have to come off every time the lid is taken off, make sense? Not sure if there is room for a charging circuit or not and would not know where to get one for 2 18650 batts. Thanks in advance.
see what I have made from my profile.
peace oh I just bought some Dragons Blood, really awesome, undescribable flavor.