Dual-gang audio rotary pot with switch?

[Terry Casey]

>

Don't worry - you haven't missed anything! It's all in the small print which says, er, 5 available / 5 sold ...

[Adrian Brentnall]

...waiting for the tv to warm up, and (as Dad always used to) 'ticking ' the 78/33-and-a-third pickup needle on the Pye radiogram (with the radio dial marked up with all sorts of 'furrin' places......)

Happy days ! Adrian

[Peter Parry]

I'm pretty sure I have several old style twin potentiometers with integral mains switches ex-equipment lurking in the "too good to throw away" box - If you like I'll try and dig one out and if found you are welcome to it.

[Adrian Brentnall]

Hi Peter That's a very kind offer. I'll see how it works out with the toggle-switch approach, and if I hit a brick wall then I'll get back to you...

Many thanks Adrian

[John Williamson]

>>>

I've been desperately trying all day to remember who sold the modular potentiometer kits. Maybe RS, back in the day.

[D.M.Chapman]

With the seperate wafers? I'm pretty sure maplin did. As a kid in the 80s I remember using them and I'm pretty sure I never used anyone other than maplin to get bits (well, apart from ripping apart goodies collected from peoples "junk" piles and jumble sales :-))

Darren

[John Williamson]

That's the one, but it was possibly a couple of decades before I'd even heard of Maplins. Possibly Henry's or one of the other mail order places. They even pre-dated Tandy.

[Terry Casey]

>>>

Correct! The RS Addashaft range. Wonderful idea!

1/4"; 1/8;" 6mm; 4mm; insulated; normal flat; deep flat ...

And no need to put the pot in the vice while you cut the spindle to length!

They were worth it just for the deep flat spindle - as anyone who's ever tried filing a normal one down will agree ...!

[Terry Casey]

I thought you were talking about potentiometers - not wafer switches!

The RS Addashaft potentiometers were AFAIK unique because the had a completely different way of locating the shaft to conventional controls.

Usually, the wiper asssembly was fixed to the shaft, which was inserted from inside with a circlip in the groove in the shaft where it emerged from the brass bush to hold it together. The shaft in the Addashaft design, however, was inserted into the preassembled control from outside. Funny thing was, they still had the same groove in the shaft, though there was obviously no circlip!

Wafer switches, on the other hand, were simple, as they were all bolted together in the same way. All it needed was for the manufacturer to provide exactly the same range of wafers and spacers as they used for normal production with a long 'cut to length' shafting unit (which would have been standard, anyway).

RS did two different versions with 'Standard' and 'Miniature' wafers.

[Jules Richardson]

Weren't the Maplin ones 'wafastack' or something like that? (but not rotostack or whatnot - I think they were hamster houses :-)

[John Williamson]

Though I remember, possibly wrongly, both being available.

[D.M.Chapman]

Yeah, same here. Although mention of tandy got me wondering. I did use the little tandy store on the corner of bank street in Ashford - so it's possible I got something from there (they sold RS stuff IIRC?)

Used to be a little cave of electronic goodness when I was a kid - with a couple of keen guys behind the counter who were always willing to help and spend time with kids who wanted random electronics components.

It's a cash converter/payday loan type place now :-(

Darren

[Adrian C]

Just a thought, older car stereos are another source of these.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I remember seeing switch kits (makaswitch?) but not pots.

[John Williamson]

Radio Shack was their house brand, IIRC, and still is on the US of A. Tandy was the UK shop branding.

Same with the one in Stafford.

They went broke shortly before Maplin atarted to grow from their original Southend area store and mail order operation. It was about the time that Japanese stuff started to get so cheap that it was more exepensive to build your own. Cue collapse of mass market for components.

I suspect even now that Maplin only sell components because the other stuff subsidises them and the original enthusiasts are still in charge at head office.

[John Williamson]

If, as the OP has said elsewhere, push buttons could be used to control the amplifier, RS sell a couple of rotary encoders with a "push the stalk to make" momentary switch.

[Adrian Brentnall]

It was an 'either / or'.....

Plan A was replace the push-button-operate volume controls with a 'traditional' stereo pot, incorporating a switch for the battery power to the module. Switch in this case would need to be double-throw - not momentary

Plan B (looking more attractive) is two toggles - one spdt for power and the other a single dpdt-centre-off which will replace the 'vol up' and 'vol down' buttons.

For anybody who's interested - the electronics part of things is this Velleman kit

which provides an easy way to carry 8gb (for me) or up to 32gb of mp3 music built into a small speaker cabinet with a dryfit battery - giving an operating time of hundreds of hours on one recharge.

Part of my Market kit - so needs to be fairly rugged

Thanks for all the suggestions Adrian

[Dave Plowman (News)]

It's nearly always been more expensive to build your own than buy ready made, for common stuff.

Electronics construction just isn't as popular a hobby for kids to start as once. Blame it on computers.

[The Natural Philosopher]

But not necessarily with 240vAC rated switches.

[The Natural Philosopher]

THATS what I remember. Horrendously expensive.