Description

• Potentiometers are commonly used to control electrical devices such as volume controls on audio equipment.
• Potentiometers operated by a mechanism can be used as position transducers, for example, in a joystick.
• These are rarely used to directly control significant power (more than a watt), since the power dissipated in the potentiometer would be comparable to the power in the controlled load.
• Potentiometers consist of a resistive element, a sliding contact (wiper) that moves along the element, making good electrical contact with one part of it, electrical terminals at each end of the element, a mechanism that moves the wiper from one end to the other, and a housing containing the element and wiper.
• These Multi-turn potentiometers are also operated by rotating a shaft, but by several turns rather than less than a full turn.
• Some multi-turn potentiometers have a linear resistive element with a sliding contact moved by a lead screw; others have a helical resistive element and a wiper that turns through 10, 20, or more complete revolutions, moving along the helix as it rotates.
• Multi-turn potentiometers, both user-accessible and preset, allow finer adjustments; rotation through the same angle changes the setting by typically a tenth as much as for a simple rotary potentiometer.