[sdiy] Designing control surface, potentiometer heights?

[Laurie Biddulph]

Hi,

I have this problem every day and the issue gets worse when you add in 
connectors such as 3.5mm jacks or DIN sockets. Add to that it is 
essential that I have a family within each product type i.e. pots = lin 
and log, rotary switches = 1Pole, 2Pole and 3Pole, toggle switches = 
SPxx, DPxx and 3Pxx and then add that I need ONE knob to fit all the 
rotary components so they MUST come with the same shaft type (in my case 
6mm with 18 teeth).  AND THEN, all parts must be readily available and 
NOT require a MOQ of 1000 pieces and you get to the point of virtually 
giving up.

Although I do do design with a 'carrier' pcb for the components mounted 
parallel to the front panel, most of my designs come for the other angle 
i.e. the pcbs (which I call Support PCBS) are at right-angles to the 
front panel and I use right-angle pcb mounted components. The issue then 
is that I want my column of pots, jacks and switches to be inline with 
the same issue, no 2 components seem to use a common shaft height above 
the pcb. You can, for instance, get toggle switches with extended legs 
but (a) what they call extended is a bit of a joke, and (b) they are 
excessively expensive. So my solution was to make a tiny carrier board 
for jacks and switches that allow me to pcb mount these components using 
a 0.1" header and now I can align all my components with ease. Took a 
while to find a rotary switch but ALPHA TAIWAN have the SR series of 
rotary switches that sit pretty comfortably alongside their 16mm RV pots.

I have a document at
"<www.elby-designs.com/webtek/documents/general_construction_notes.pdf>"
if you want to see more

Best Regards
Laurie Biddulph
Mobile: 0400 257 645
Phone: +61 (0)2 4340 0938
Web: www.elby-designs.com
Skype: widgetoz

Elby Designs
9 Follan Close
Kariong
NSW 2250
Australia


On 17/02/2015 11:48 PM, Jack Jackson wrote:
> So I'm designing a control surface (Pots/sliders/switches/front panel). I want everything to be PCB mounted for ease of construction and reliability. A problem I've found is the body of the pot/switch before the shaft/actuator can vary greatly in height. So my rotary switches (Lorlin type) are 20mm or so high in the body, whereas the pots and sliders are only around 7mm. See the link for an illustration in CAD: -  https://flic.kr/p/qhipLE
>
> The only solutions I can think of are to make 'scaffolding' PCBs around the same footprint as the pots/sliders to increase the height of them and bring them in line with the switch, or to mount them on a separate PCB and put holes through for the switches to go through.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> Best Regards,
> Jack  		 	   		
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