Potentiometer is getting warm when connected to LCD display.

Hello,

When connecting a LCD display with a potentiometer to Arduino, I noticed that the potentiometer gets warm (it smelled as if it was burning).

Could anyone explain why this is happening? Is it normal for the potentiometer to get a little warm?
I have attached the diagram of how things are connected.

This happens with a 1, 10, and 100k Ohm potentiometer. I checked with a multimeter, and the potentiometers seem to be working well. I also noticed that the brightness change (by varying the resistance) is rather quick. I was expecting a more gradual brightness change.

Thank you for your help!

  • Daniel

Your Fritzing looks absolutely fine.

Are you sure that your pot has the slider on the middle terminal? Check with your DMM.
The pot should not get warm.

The pot slider will always be at the GND end.

There is no need to use all 3 terminals. Just use GND and VO (slider). In which case 100k will be at 0% turn. 10 k will be at 5% turn. 1k will be at 50% turn.

David.