Potentiometer Testing
Potentiometer Testing
(OP)
I have a 2W, 500 ohm potentiometer that has erratic resistance readings. Does anyone have a good web link for testing pots? I was thinking about setting up a test rig to put voltage across the pot and monitor the voltage drop across the pot (or across an in-series shunt) as the pot is cycled.





RE: Potentiometer Testing
If you push on the pot as you turn it and dont get erratic readings then the wiper is loose.
RE: Potentiometer Testing
RE: Potentiometer Testing
If you have many pots to test one of many viable test setups would be a 3 resistor voltage divider using the pot as the center resistor, a 2W pot can pass a fair amount of current but 5ma should be adequate for a test. You will then need to monitor the voltage at the wiper with an analog meter (or a digital meter with an analog bar graph) and slowly rotate the pot from end to end, and apply a slight up/down force on the shaft if the pot is good you should see only smooth voltage changes on the meter.
RE: Potentiometer Testing
RE: Potentiometer Testing
RE: Potentiometer Testing
RE: Potentiometer Testing