Potentiometer with Continuous Rotation

Alright,
I am working on a really fun project. I'm putting a potentiometer inside of a See 'n Say and using the readings to change the audio output. But the arrow on the device only spins in one direction, so in order to do this I need to find a pot with a full, continuous 360 degree range of motion.
Does anyone know where the best place to find one is?

So do you mean 360deg or continuous or multi-turn?

You can get multi turn potentiometers which will do say 4 turns or so or if you want continuous, you are looking for a rotary encoder.

Mowcius

You can get continuous rotation pots, these are designed for use in servos and are quite pricey.
A typical example is:-

Thanks,
I'll check out the rotary encoder and try modifying one of my pots.
Appreciate the input.

There are these at digikey, 74 cents, 360 rotation. Supply your own shaft.

Guess the link would have been good:

Search for potentiometer, filter on continuous

If you are looking for a "cheap" small shaft encoder have a look at MA3 | US Digital if you're in europe and your german is passable (or use chrome and translate feature) you can order online from the german site, or just give them a call in the USA or send a fax ( i know, who thought people still use fax'es).

Hope this helps

$40! Hardly seems 'cheap'!
I think I'd give the 74 cents approach a shot first :slight_smile:

Ok, I tried to order to confirm price,
need a slightly different part number, $2.06 each.

Only has 330 degree of resistance coverage, put two back to back arranged so that their 0 +/- 14 locations didn't overlap.

Really low-budget scrounge. Got an old-style mechanical mouse in the junk box? Two rotary encoders and a couple switches for free. If you're lucky the parts can be removed from the housing for re-use. Might have to remove crud.

$40! Hardly seems 'cheap'!

Notice "cheap" with quotation's either side!!! It was supposed to imply that it is relatively cheap!! Not cheap full stop.......

If you can live with a mechanical rotary encoder:

http://www.bgmicro.com/pushbuttonmechanicalrotaryencoder.aspx

http://www.goldmine-elec-products.com/prodinfo.asp?number=G16267
http://www.sureelectronics.net/goods.php?id=221

Or even modern mice usually have an encoder for the "wheel" portion.

Also, there are ways to use a stepper motor as an encoder...

Farnell group are pretty world-wide these days
This is just under 6ukp and is 15ppr (30 if you matrix the A&B channels).

The RV112FF from Taiwan Alpha (http://www.taiwanalpha.com/en/products/4) is such potentiometer with 360 degree endless rotation. Mouser have them at ~5 USD each. I salvaged a bunch from an old Native Instruments KORE controller bought secondhand for ~30 USD.

I found this while searching for a LONG time for drivers for such potentiometers. I could not find any algorithms to decode them, so I have made one. Hopefully this can be useful for you or others looking for same. Driver/algorithm for 360 deg endless potentiometer | Hackaday.io