On/Off Push Button Potentiometer

[MrClamperSir]

Is there such thing as an on/off, push button 5Kohm potentiometer?

I've tried searching here and Google but not even sure they exist, let alone what they're called if they do.

Thank you

 

[hevans1944]

Maybe Google can be your friend. Try looking at some of the links on this page.

 

[MrClamperSir]

Maybe Google can be your friend. Try looking at some of the links on this page.

Most of those links are for products that are no longer available, the descriptions are written by someone who's first language is not English (so I can't follow what they're saying) or otherwise useless.

Like I stated in my original post, I've tried searching google, spent a lot of time there before asking here.

I'm just wondering if anyone here has any experience/recommendations with these kind of pots.

 

[hevans1944]

It has been many years since I encountered a pot with a push-button switch, and I didn't much care for that particular implementation: the pot tended to change position when I operated the switch. Things may have improved (or not) since the Chinese took over the market. Maybe you could try this one, extracted from one of the links on the page I offered to you. You might have to learn Mandarin to communicate successfully with the vendor, but they sure are inexpensive. The minimum order is 500 switches, which may be more than you need...

OTOH, if English is your preference, then this company (also in the original link) may have what you need. Maybe something from their product line like this sample will suit your needs.

Failing to find a suitable product using Google, perhaps you should try another search engine.

 

[MrClamperSir]

It has been many years since I encountered a pot with a push-button switch, and I didn't much care for that particular implementation: the pot tended to change position when I operated the switch. Things may have improved (or not) since the Chinese took over the market. Maybe you could try this one, extracted from one of the links on the page I offered to you. You might have to learn Mandarin to communicate successfully with the vendor, but they sure are inexpensive. The minimum order is 500 switches, which may be more than you need...

OTOH, if English is your preference, then this company (also in the original link) may have what you need. Maybe something from their product line like this sample will suit your needs.

Failing to find a suitable product using Google, perhaps you should try another search engine.

Thank you. The feedback you provided about not liking them is very helpful too. Perhaps I might be more content with a turn dial pot that is also a switch.

I'll keep looking.

 

[hevans1944]

I finally remembered where I encountered the pot with push-button switch: an incandescent light dimmer! I hated that damn thing! It finally failed and I was able to replace it with a "standard" light switch that has a sliding dimmer control next to the switch. This I like because I can set the light level wherever I desire and then turn it off with the switch without the setting changing.

Pots with switches are fairly common. Centralab once sold these as individual stackable pieces. A former boss of mine ordered a complete "kit" of parts for our bench stock, probably several thousand dollars worth. You could assemble a switch, one or two potentiometer elements, single or dual concentric shafts, mix or match linear, audio, log tapers. I don't ever remember Centralab offering them with push-on/push-off switches though. And none of the techs ever bothered to order replacements when they used them, but there was still a goodly quantity left by the time I graduated college and went on to other things at other places. I don't miss Centralab much: inferior parts of cheap construction aimed at the TV repair trade which was quickly vanishing in the 1960s.

Perhaps I might be more content with a turn dial pot that is also a switch.

Perhaps. What are you trying to DO with your pot/switch arrangement? Do you need the higher resolution of a multi-turn potentiometer? Is that what you mean by "turn dial pot" because the term is unfamiliar to me.

 

[MrClamperSir]

Perhaps. What are you trying to DO with your pot/switch arrangement? Do you need the higher resolution of a multi-turn potentiometer? Is that what you mean by "turn dial pot" because the term is unfamiliar to me.

It's for a PSU. I'm trying to eliminate the clutter and though it'd be nice to combine the on/off switch with pot.

So maybe a pot that when you turn all the way to the left it clicks off

 

[hevans1944]

That works of course. My hand-held 2m handy-talkie has a switch on its volume control knob that turns It off when twisted fully counter-clockwise. Many audio devices implement the same functionality, wherein it is desirable to turn on the audio without blasting you out of the room, which could happen if the volume control and the on/off switch were separate.

Wait! My living room Samsung HDTV does exactly that because it drives a multi-function receiver that is "on" all the time. Gotta be careful to mute the receiver before turning the TV on!

Talk about clutter though: there is an IR remote for the Samsung (used to select a TV channel), another IR remote for the receiver (used to adjust audio volume), a Bluetooth remote for the Sony PS3 (used for all sorts of things), and now (thanks to Time Warner Cable) still another IR remote to control TV channel selections when TWC goes "all digital" in the near future, apparently eliminating all the cable RF channels the Samsung routinely tunes (including high definition), or at least the un-encrypted channels. Soon all the channels will be encrypted and require the Cisco TV Adapter and its IR remote for each television in the house. We currently have four set-top TVA boxes, none activated or connected yet.

I still need TWC to provide broadband Internet connectivity, but I may put up an outside antenna for free OTA high-definition TV. We already stream movies using Netflix and Amazon Prime, so I don't "need" the dubious privilege of "tuning in" whatever programming TWC sees fit to allow down their pipe for "Starter TV" service.

Yeah, a PSU can be cluttered, especially if you have DPMs to measure voltage and current, voltage adjust and current adjust controls, power switches to enable or disable outputs, 5-way binding posts if its a bench PSU... yada, yada, yada. I would prefer a "glass cockpit" approach with a backlit, touch-sensitive screen that displays and controls everything.

Maybe an iPad tablet would make a good PSU control panel, although it pains me to think of putting out that much money and wasting that much processing moxie just to have a classy PSU front panel. I happen to have a small touch-sensitive LCD panel that interfaces to Arduino, but I am thinking something with maybe eight or ten times more area would be better if someone would sell it for, say, twenty bux. Then all I would have for "clutter" is the 5-way binding posts.

Good luck finding the potentiometer and switch combination you want.