3 ms·
Potentiometers – Modifying Taper
- Syntonicles 4y agoWhat a crazy coincidence for me. Only today I received a pack of resistors and capacitors in order to experiment on this very thing. I was trying to help my nephew with a basic electronics kit and we found the pot we added didn't have the linear characteristics we were hoping for. Rather than swap it out I was determined to understand where I went wrong.
- rolenthedeep 4y agoIf you haven't already found the answer, pots come in linear and logarithmic flavors. Logarithmic potentiometers are intended for audio applications, specifically volume control because your ear's response to volume is not linear
- fallingfrog 4y agoOne thing to keep in mind when doing this is that you can modify the voltage taper when the pot is used as a voltage divider, but the pot will then have a different total resistance depending on where it is set. That means the pot will load down the previous gain stage differently than a true log taper pot. This might mean you need a bigger coupling capacitor too. If you are trying to make a variable resistor with a different taper out of a linear pot and some resistors, the only one you can make is a reverse log taper. That makes this technique more useful for volume and gain controls but less so for most tone controls.