Teeny Wittle Parts

Inventor

Greetings fellow synth heads! I am finally bringing my dream of a hobby business selling miniature modular synthesizer boards to reality, and for that I need small parts. For example, my favorite tiny potentiometer is shown below as an image attachment. It is called a "thumbwheel pot" and has advantages of size and ease of use if not cost.

I need switches, right now a 4:1 encoder switch or rotary switch but others too. Plus I need a way to modularize the miniature modular so that things like filter caps can be interchanged by the customer. I suppose those 0.1" terminal blocks will do for that but smaller would be better.

Oh, and surface mount is preferred for most of these. The products in my line are planned for retail in the electro-music store, so you'll be helping to support our community with your parts identification contribution. So thanks in advance!

Les

3352T Bourns Pot.jpg

Description:

My favorite tiny potentiometer (The Bourns 3352T)

Filesize:

15.86 KB

Viewed:

1210 Time(s)

LFLab · Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 6:59 am Post subject:

I bought some very small 10 position rotary switches in an Ukranian eBay store (because I ordered some other stuff, and thought "what the heck, these look interesting", next thing you know you are knee deep in all sorts of parts.......).

They are minuscule, but pulls out of 60's russian equipment are no option for something you want to have properly produced somewhere.

As for switches, can't you use the smt momentary switches for keyboards, and add a few smt transistors for the latching action?

As for exchanging caps (or other stuff), maybe a card edge connector is easier, just do a small pcb with some parts. Like the Buchla Music Easel did.

Captain_Clams · Joined: Jul 02, 2012 Posts: 43 Location: MD, USA

Were you looking to buy the thumbwheel pots, or do you have those and you were looking for small terminal strips and switches?

Because mouser has nice, cheap thumbwheels. They're circuit board mount, not sure if that means the same thing as surface mount. Maybe it'll work. Question

http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Alpha-Taiwan/RV121F-10-009J-A15-00K/?qs=XIViiHmff3rVctIyFgCHdQ3RtkKSPsZx3sAO1GCwIbc%3d

Inventor · Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 10:16 am Post subject:

thanks for the link, Captain_Clams, though those are audio taper and I need linear. Still, Mouser may carry a linear taper version. I'll check them out.

Les

Captain_Clams · Joined: Jul 02, 2012 Posts: 43 Location: MD, USA

Oh, yeah they definitely have linear as well. Here's some filtered search results to show only linear ones:

http://www.mouser.com/Passive-Components/PotentiometersTrimmers-Rheostats/Potentiometers/_/N-9q0yp?P=1yzvm30&Keyword=thumbwheel+potentiometer&FS=True

There's a few types that are going into obselescence that are cheap right now: 100K linear for .96c! Very Happy

brock · Joined: May 26, 2011 Posts: 75 Location: Canada

Inventor · Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 2:46 pm Post subject:

That one is a good choice. It's bigger than the bourns, but it's more durable.

Les

Inventor · Posted: Wed Jul 11, 2012 6:29 pm Post subject:

brock, I am sorry to say you are so right. I cannot use that Bourns pot due to reliability. sigh.

Les

elmegil · Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2012 6:48 am Post subject:

Anyone have any experience with the alphas?

http://www.mouser.com/catalog/specsheets/TW-700171.pdf

Any thoughts on their relative reliability? They do spec at 10,000 rotations.