Potentiometer Issues

Hello Arduino World.

I am new to this community. I am going through the Basics examples (AnalogReadVoltage) I hooked up my potentiometer and with the knob all the way down it kills the power to the Arduino. When I turn it to the right just a little bit the power comes back on. I do not get a reading of 1023. Its starts off with 2.54 and decreases as I turn it to the right. I have the center pin connected to A0 and the left pin connected to ground and the right pin connected to 5V. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks.

Mark

I hooked up my potentiometer and with the knob all the way down it kills the power to the Arduino.

You have wired it up wrong. The wiper is the middle connection and that goes to the arduino an analogue input. The two outer ends go to the +5V and the ground. If you get this wrong then you short out the supply when the pot is at one end which is what you are seeing. Therefore you have wired it wrong.

Thanks. I tried re-wiring it. I switched the sides with each other and kept the pin in the middle on A0. It still shorts out with the knob all the way to the left (at around 2.6), but this time the reading goes to 5.0 when its turned all the way to the right.

I switched the sides with each other and kept the pin in the middle on A0

No the error is not the sides it is that you have misidentified the wiper and connected it to one of the supplies.

Thanks again for your help. I hooked up everything to a breadboard and it works great now. Before, I was hooking up directly to the supplies.