[sdiy] Retractable mini pots

[cheater cheater]

hell i bet if you looked around a bit you could probably find a ball
point pen model you could hack up for this purpose and save yourself
an expensive manufacturing process

On Fri, Aug 21, 2026 at 9:34 PM cheater cheater
<cheater00social at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> OK, I have the image, but how are they retractable? You push them in
> and they just don't move? Push them again and they pop out? Is that
> it?
>
> That wouldn't be the potentiometer doing it, there would be a
> mechanism between the knob and the pot doing that. And yeah it would
> be a ball pen style mechanism.
>
> On Fri, Aug 21, 2026 at 9:15 PM Dixon, David <david.dixon at ubc.ca> wrote:
> >
> > Hey cheater cheater,
> >
> > If you search for a picture of the PS-3100 front panel, you will see the 12 pots along the left-hand side.
> >
> > These sorts of pots were fairly common on car stereos back in the day.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Dave
> >
> > > On Aug 21, 2026, at 12:12 PM, cheater cheater <cheater00social at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > [CAUTION: Non-UBC Email]
> > >
> > > how are they pushed in? do you have a photo or video of them in action?
> > >
> > > my tvs growing up had a potentiometer bank behind the channel switcher
> > > button panel. you pressed the panel in to make a drawer the size of
> > > the panel pop out, and then you turned the potentiometer with your
> > > thumb to tune into the channel. so maybe that's similar enough for you
> > > to use this idea.
> > >
> > > if the mini potentiometers are supposed to be shafts coming out of a
> > > hole in the front panel, and you can press them in to make them
> > > ineffective, then you might want a ballpoint pen mechanism.
> > >
> > > On Fri, Aug 21, 2026 at 8:35 PM Dixon, David via Synth-diy
> > > <synth-diy at synth-diy.org> wrote:
> > >>
> > >> Hello Synth DIY Team,
> > >>
> > >> As many of you probably know, I am building my own version of the Korg PS-3100.  (Here’s a fairly cringe video of the core in action, with a lot of extra info about the board layouts, etc — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbtxMdQE64A) I’ve got the core circuitry (48 separate synthesizers) and much of the downstream circuitry (resonators, etc) designed, built and tested, and I am currently trying to lay out the panel.
> > >>
> > >> I am going to also have the 12 mini pots down the left side for “TEMPERAMENT ADJUST” (which I presume was basically a way to adjust the tuning without opening the case and adjusting trimmers).  The original had these nifty retractable mini pots that can be pushed in flush the panel when not being used.  I cannot seem to find anything similar on the internet.  I was wondering if any of you had any inside track into where one might be able to procure such a thing.  I need a dozen of them, and I’d prefer if they were PCB mount, but that’s not strictly necessary.
> > >>
> > >> Thanks in advance,
> > >> Dave Dixon
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