Rotary Potentiometers

Rotary potentiometer (the most common type) vary their resistive value as a result of an angular movement. Rotating a knob or dial attached to the shaft causes the internal wiper to sweep around a curved resistive element.

ACP’s patented detent (DT) feature is especially suitable for control applications where the end user will turn a knob inserted in the potentiometer. Detents can be used to add a click feeling to the turning of the potentiometer or to control the position in which the wiper is placed, assuring a particular output value with a narrow tolerance.

Detents can be light or strong, or even a combination of different feelings. They can be evenly distributed along the angle (standard) or tailored to match customers’ request. They can also be combined with special tapers: constant value areas, open circuit zone, different slopes, etc. One common example is a potentiometer with detents and matching non-overlapping voltage values in specific angular positions, used to feed in a voltage value to a microprocessor.