[Electronics] Is this potentiometer repairable?

[Lionclaw]

This may be a bit Off Topic for this forum.

Bought an item with a mixed assortment of potentiometers. One of them was broken though.

It's probably a mix of surplus components.


Not sure what material the brown stuff is made of, it sort of looks like some sort of compressed paper of sorts.
The track might be of some special material. I checked it with a multimeter, and it's nonconductive.

I thought about perhaps gluing the broken parts together, but I'm wondering if the glue would interfere with the function of the pot.

The frame could be glued back together. But the track is a different matter perhaps.

That broken circular thing in the second picture is the track on which the wiper of the pot is tracing around.

It's not that important though. If it can't be repaired, I can just have it to show how "pots" look like inside.

[Wolferz]

The brown base plate is non-conductive compressed cardboard with a veneer glued to it.
I seriously doubt if you could get any type of glue to hold it together.
Pots are relatively cheap, so no need to save it unless you want to do what was suggested and use as instructional material.

At least it wasn't killed by homotrons.

[Commander Wallace]

I'm not sure if you are just tinkering with the potentiometer to see how it works but if you are using it for a guitar, I have a web site I have used that supplies first rate musical equipment. This includes electronics like pickups and potentiometers and everything else. The parts are first rate

http://www.stewmac.com/is the site for the company and

http://www.stewmac.com/Pickups_and_E...nts_and_Parts/

the 2nd listing is the page with the electronic pots. As you can see, the pots can be had for $1.00 up to $ 5.75. I'm not sure on the shipping costs to Sweden though . As Wolferz said, they are relatively cheap. Hope this helps you Lionclaw

[Lionclaw]

Originally Posted by Wolferz

The brown base plate is non-conductive compressed cardboard with a veneer glued to it.
I seriously doubt if you could get any type of glue to hold it together.
Pots are relatively cheap, so no need to save it unless you want to do what was suggested and use as instructional material.

At least it wasn't killed by homotrons.

Ah cool. Thanks.

Yeah I suppose it would fall apart if it was glued together and used in an appliance.

Looking at a similar model, although a 500 Ohm one. A part of the wiper that slides on the track seems to be gone as well on the broken one.

The broken one is a 1M Ohm linear pot.

And I had to Google "Homotron". What?!

Originally Posted by Commander Wallace

I'm not sure if you are just tinkering with the potentiometer to see how it works but if you are using it for a guitar, I have a web site I have used that supplies first rate musical equipment. This includes electronics like pickups and potentiometers and everything else. The parts are first rate

http://www.stewmac.com/is the site for the company and

http://www.stewmac.com/Pickups_and_E...nts_and_Parts/

the 2nd listing is the page with the electronic pots. As you can see, the pots can be had for $1.00 up to $ 5.75. I'm not sure on the shipping costs to Sweden though . As Wolferz said, they are relatively cheap. Hope this helps you Lionclaw

I just bought the stuff to experiment with a breadboard and stuff like that.

Since it was broken I felt like opening it up and have a look and see how a pot looks like inside. It's quite educational to see how things work.

Off topic: Earlier this year I opened up my old "HTC Wildfire S". Quite a lot of things in a smart phone. http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...&postcount=247

There's an electronics online shop I have bought a few things from earlier this year. They have tons of stuff. http://www.electrokit.com/en/


I have two electric guitars, but I have never opened them up and looked at the electronics. Might be a thing to check out.

[Commander Wallace]

Originally Posted by Lionclaw

Ah cool. Thanks.

Yeah I suppose it would fall apart if it was glued together and used in an appliance.

Looking at a similar model, although a 500 Ohm one. A part of the wiper that slides on the track seems to be gone as well on the broken one.

The broken one is a 1M Ohm linear pot.

And I had to Google "Homotron". What?!




I just bought the stuff to experiment with a breadboard and stuff like that.

Since it was broken I felt like opening it up and have a look and see how a pot looks like inside. It's quite educational to see how things work.

Off topic: Earlier this year I opened up my old "HTC Wildfire S". Quite a lot of things in a smart phone. http://www.subsim.com/radioroom/show...&postcount=247

There's an electronics online shop I have bought a few things from earlier this year. They have tons of stuff. http://www.electrokit.com/en/


I have two electric guitars, but I have never opened them up and looked at the electronics. Might be a thing to check out.

you might have fun taking the electric guitars apart. Hopefully you can put it all back together. One of my favorites is one I have put together from spare parts taking the best of everything and building one to my specs. It has been taken apart so many times including the pickups It's been dubbed " Frankenstein's Monster " I suppose that's ok but as with any Frankenstein monster, if I see the local villagers coming down the road towards the castle with torches and pitchforks in the night, all bets are off.

[Gargamel]

Considering you can get pots like this for $.10 each.... is it even worth worrying about?

[Lionclaw]

I guess I'm a cheap bastard.