Did I Fry It?

Thread Starter

pntrbl

Joined Apr 21, 2008
123
I'm working on a circuit to monitor battery voltage. In order to test the circuit it seemed wise to add a pot to vary the battery level and this in fact did work for a minute or so. But then it all went dead ....

What happened was the wiper on the pot opened up. At 1st I thought it was just because it was a cheap Chinese pot from the Shack, but now I think yours truly did it in himself because I didn't check the power req. :eek:

It "was" a 15 turn PCB mount that's rated .75 watts. My DMM says my circuit is 143 ohms from supply to gnd. 12v/143 and I get 84 mA. 12v times 84 mils gets me just at a watt.

Was it me? LOL! Well, at $2 it was a cheap lesson.

SP
 

SgtWookie

Joined Jul 17, 2007
22,230
If you didn't get smoke and flames, you've been cheated. Demand a replacement ;)

Add a 220 Ohm 1 Watt resistor between the pot and the DUT (device under test.) 58mA max then.

You're still pushing your luck with a 0.75w pot.
 

Wendy

Joined Mar 24, 2008
23,415
All part of the fun, everyone has fried something at one time or another, and if they say they've only done it once their probably lying. I think I'll start a thread about it.
 

Audioguru

Joined Dec 20, 2007
11,248
The entire resistance of the pot is rated at 0.75W. If the pot is set to half resistance then its max rating is half of 0.75W which is 0.375W. If the pot is set to a low resistance then its power rating is very low.
 
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