Argh! I thought I got it.
I was looking for an alternative pot (for volume control), found an old post where a precision wirewound potentiometer was recommended, which is... a 5-gang potentiometer... (this one: Vishay spectrol 534B1503JC)
I'd have said that this would be kind of a 5-channel pot, but it doesn't seem to be, as there are only 3 connectors on it, while good ol' Alps blue (stereo) has 6, and states it as a "dual-unit", which seems pretty straightforward.
gosh, what is a 2-gang (or 5-gang) pot, then? how does it work?
david, back to field 1
I was looking for an alternative pot (for volume control), found an old post where a precision wirewound potentiometer was recommended, which is... a 5-gang potentiometer... (this one: Vishay spectrol 534B1503JC)
I'd have said that this would be kind of a 5-channel pot, but it doesn't seem to be, as there are only 3 connectors on it, while good ol' Alps blue (stereo) has 6, and states it as a "dual-unit", which seems pretty straightforward.
gosh, what is a 2-gang (or 5-gang) pot, then? how does it work?
david, back to field 1
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The part you linked looks like a single gang potentiometer - not uncommon for suppliers websites to be inaccurate, have seen it before...
Simply a one gang potentiometer is a resistance track with a wiper, the resistance track has a pin connected at each end, and the wiper is the 3rd pin (might be pin 2 or 3 or whatever), which "wipes" over the resistance track.
For each additional gang you will have another set of 3 pins, which are independent from the other gangs, but the same as above.
Some more specialist parts may have extra pins, like a 4th loudness pin (might be connected to the middle of the resistance track), but you can ignore that in a lot of cases. But that will then be duplicated across each extra gang on the part.
Simply a one gang potentiometer is a resistance track with a wiper, the resistance track has a pin connected at each end, and the wiper is the 3rd pin (might be pin 2 or 3 or whatever), which "wipes" over the resistance track.
For each additional gang you will have another set of 3 pins, which are independent from the other gangs, but the same as above.
Some more specialist parts may have extra pins, like a 4th loudness pin (might be connected to the middle of the resistance track), but you can ignore that in a lot of cases. But that will then be duplicated across each extra gang on the part.
Just keep in mind the space requirements of a 5-gang pot - from the datasheet it seems that each gang is 19mm, so 5 gangs will be almost 10cm long.
If you haven't read it already, Rod Elliott has a great piece here on how to make a linear pot behave more like a logarithmic unit: ESP - A Better Volume Control
If you haven't read it already, Rod Elliott has a great piece here on how to make a linear pot behave more like a logarithmic unit: ESP - A Better Volume Control
Yes I saw it.
I actually read it over and over again, because I don't get everything... section 5 (better balance control) beats me!
I actually read it over and over again, because I don't get everything... section 5 (better balance control) beats me!
I have used wirewound pots for volume control and for motor speed control. I would never do it again.
Thanks, pano
Until your reply, I have found only positive opinions about wirewound pots. Most probably because I began looking after I found a positive, and then I was not looking for opinions, but specific informations...
I‘m after alternatives to active components and readymades (like muses or alps/tkd /etc)