[sdiy] FaderBuddy - OSHW motorized fader module

[cheater cheater]

Found some info on their website:

> Built to outlast everything else on your desk.
>
> Brushless motors.
> Contactless optical sensors.
> 50 million+ cycles.
> 500 times the lifespan of a standard pot.
> This technology doesn't wear out.
>
> *patent pending

> 15,000 steps of contactless optical resolution.
> No stepping, no grain, no dead zones.
> The gap between your fingers and the sound disappears.

log2(15000) = 13.8726748803. So they're using 14 bit encoding. Not bad.

The motorized action is visible here: https://youtu.be/1PSJTvJKetI?t=4m56s

It works pretty well!

They are not the first company to create motorized potentiometers...
so what are they patenting?

On Fri, Aug 21, 2026 at 9:08 PM cheater cheater
<cheater00social at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I haven't heard of them until now, no. What design do the motorized
> pots use? There's an artistic exploded view of a stator on the front
> page, but idk how it works.
>
> On Fri, Aug 21, 2026 at 7:31 PM drheqx <drheqx at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Adafruit sells long motorized faders as well
> >
> > I'm sure you've seen the melbourne instruments synths. They have rotary motorized pots.
> >
> > There are several variants out there from Bourns, and alps, they're around 13 bucks each. You'd need a different version control loop, however, totally doable
> >
> >
> > Mike
> >
> > On Fri, Aug 21, 2026 at 1:23 PM cheater cheater via Synth-diy <synth-diy at synth-diy.org> wrote:
> >>
> >> I wonder if this could be repurposed for potentiometers. I wonder what
> >> the smallest setup could be that allows this sort of motion on a
> >> potentiometer. I think a simple gearbox would be necessary.
> >>
> >> On Thu, Aug 20, 2026 at 4:19 PM cheater cheater
> >> <cheater00social at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> >
> >> > I thought some people here would like this.
> >> >
> >> > https://www.youtube.com/v/l-DIM_kQ8EY
> >> >
> >> > https://github.com/scottbez1/FaderBuddy
> >> >
> >> > https://bezeklabs.etsy.com/
> >>
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