How can I grow better POT?

[Chrometuna]

So I try to build the APC.

But it wants 500K pots.
Radio Shack doesnt have those. They have 1M and 100K pots, and some in between, but no 500K pots.

I dont like to think for myself. It makes my brain cell hurt.

Is there a simple way I can shove a resistor to the pot to make it 500K from 1M? Or similar? What value of resistor?

Why am I so dumb and lazy?

Here in Tarpuka KS, we have Radio Shack, and ONE electronic supply store....but they have to order EVERYTHING! If you want an extention cord, they have to order it. If you want a X-value pot, and it isnt one of the two they have haning on the wall, they have to order it. And sadly, I can get anything cheaper off of Ebay or somewhere....which sucks cause Id much rather support the locally owned supply house.

I HATE HATE HATE having to order stuff and wait for it.....when I get the itch to build something, I want to make one trip to the store, get the goods, and start soldiering.

Has anyone figured out a good easy was to make PCBs (the etching end of it) ? I cant get the press and peel here.

Someone come over and hold my hand?

Cheers
bob c

[blue hell]

[Uncle Krunkus]

For a 1M pot with a 1M resistor in parallel, it doesn't change the curve very much. (You get about 340K at the half way point.) Well, that's what I'd do anyway. This is of course assuming that the pot is being used as a variable resistor, and not as a voltage divider.

[Chrometuna]

[DrJustice]

[Chrometuna]

[Uncle Krunkus]

[Chrometuna]

[Uncle Krunkus]

On something that size the knobs alone would be worth $100+ if you had to go out and buy them new. And believe me, once you start playing around with DIY electro-music putting knobs on all the controls costs money!
Keep a look out for hard to get linear/op-amp chips in mixers as well. If you're lucky there will be a virtually complete +/-15V PSU in there as well!
Keep up the good work!
Let me know what you find.

P.S. Before you completely dismember both mixers, keep in mind that once you get a few different sound sources happening, you'll need a rough mixer to get them all happening at the same time. And also for sharing your effects around. I got a Fostex 350, 8ch recording mixer for $25 a little while ago, with the meter bridge included. It all "works" fine. I'm still debating whether to open it up or patch it in!

[Chrometuna]

[Yorky]

Connect two 1 meg resistors from the ends of the pot to the wiper.
You're then ok to use in a voltage divider.
Disclaimer - I haven't tried this

[Uncle Krunkus]

I've got a Behringer (does anyone know how to pronounce that?) MX1602 which I use as my main mixer. I know Behringer have a bit of a name for being cheap and nasty, but I've always found it to be reliable and quiet. I don't know if anything else really matters in a small mixer. It gets a good tweaking from my little assistant everyday, and has never missed a beat.

Yorky,
I like the idea, it does have some problems though. If you want the overall resistance across the pot to present as 500K then it would have to be a 1M pot with 2*500K resistors. This would be correct at the centre position. There would be a log effect either side of centre, and at each end the overall resistance would drop to 330K.

[Yorky]

Sorry yes my original post said 2 x 470K but for some odd reason my fingers changed this to 2 x 1 meg

BTW this is a method for changing a linear pot to 'log' (which none of them actually are, of course)

[immigrantboy]

Heh, I too am way too lazy. I haven't multimetered/otherwise gauged anything to date.

What happens if you use an disproportional pot then? Most of the projects I'm working on use 6-9 volts dc, and I've been experimenting with a 50k ohm pot, used as a voltage divider.

[Uncle Krunkus]