Wednesday, 4 December 2013

Bad Trimmer Pot


The other day I was setting up one of my new controller boards; and part of that process involves turning the trimmers to their maximum anti-clockwise position.

Once the board was powered up, this one particular trimmer which was used to trim the LCD contrast didn't seem to make any difference when adjusted; So I knew instantly the trimmer was at fault so I just replaced it with another and it worked perfectly.



The problem seemed to be that when I initially quickly adjusted it to it's maximum anti-clockwise position, the wheel gear cog must have gone too far, and then wouldn't re-engage;  I've never experienced this before but might be something to bear in mind;  luckily for me the LCD contrast made the screen visible; but had it failed in the clock-wise direction of turn - the LCD would have been blank! and I would have certainly had to fire-up the scope to find out what was going on.

Below are a few pictures of the offending trimmer pot which I cracked open with the side-cutters;  I managed to break a leg off it in the process but interesting to see how it's constructed.





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