How Potentiometers Work - With Real-Life Examples (How to Wire)

In this animated overview of potentiometers, we work with our Friend of CircuitBread, CUI Devices, to provide a conceptual review of potentiometers, showing how they work using some animated examples. After learning about potentiometers from a conceptual point of view, we show how they work with two practical examples (how wiring potentiometers works). We learn about potentiometers with a practical speaker example using potentiometers before integrating a transistor into our circuit and create a practical motor control example using a potentiometer. These two examples show how easy it can be to integrate potentiometers into any electronics project.
We made this video with CUI Devices and it goes extremely well with their written content that you can find at www.cuidevices.com/blog/all-y...
0:00 Introduction
0:22 Review of how potentiometers work
0:40 How is resistance calculated?
1:16 How does a potentiometer work?
3:15 Music volume example with potentiometer
4:30 DC Motor Potentiometer example with potentiometer
5:37 Check out CUIDevices.com!
5:57 What else is there on CircuitBread.com?
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[@DasIllu]

Hey, cool to see another video from you.
Maybe an interesting video idea would be to combine past lessons into small projects with something useful everyone can use.
Like a PWM speed controller. That would include the lessons about potentiometers, 555 timers and mosfets.
Cheers.

[@CircuitBread]

Definitely! We've talked about that idea a couple times and we really like it but we're trying to prioritize content. We are actively trying to monetize CircuitBread and are making some inroads there (like this content we did with CUI Devices!) - the hope is that if CircuitBread starts generating income, we can increase our resources, and we can start branching out on the content we make.

[@exincident]

Thanks 😊

[@JonDeth]

My simple introduction to using potentiometers was nearly 30 years ago when I switched the stock pot in my Stratocaster from 250K to a 1 meg ohm, and my output magnitude not only went through the roof, but the bandwidth curve greatly expanded.
*I understood very little then, but that has greatly changed, and I always change them in guitars whether it remains a passive pickup setup, or I convert it to an active module.* IMO, electric guitars are still so very far behind in potential technology; even an expensive and active guitar for metal and instrumental work. I once grimaced at the thought of putting a battery in my guitar to play it, *but after I designed and built my own SSA for one of my best guitars 10 years ago, I can't stand a passive system.*
They're absolutely inferior in every way no matter what style you play and whether you prefer single coils or humbuckers; I personally love both.

[@DasIllu]

I, call me the king of the scrap hill or not, but like piezzo pickups.
Granted i am more the folk pick guy than than a death metal shredder, but i do think my dream guitar would have a piezzo pickup in the bridge, a humbucker and 2 single coils.
And some onboard potis to mix them on the fly.
Warmth, precision and presence in one guitar... imagine .... 😀

[@JonDeth]

@@DasIllu that just reminded me, It was surely many decades ago when I was probably 18, but I added a piezo pickup inside the control cavity of my Stratocaster which when you used the push/pull switch for the tone pot that came with it, you switched it to the piezo to get an acoustic sound.
It actually gave a really beautiful and relatively acoustic guitar sound. I can remember putting it on a blender pot to mix with the normal pickups or bypass to one or the other, but it was eventually destroyed from taking the guitar apart so many times with constant mods. The nature of a young player with a cheap Squire Stratocaster during the 90's.