Report On potentiometer

Introduction
A potentiometer, informally a pot, is a three-terminal resistor with a sliding or
rotating contact that forms an adjustable voltage divider. If only two
terminals are used, one end and the wiper, it acts as a variable resistor or
rheostat.
The measuring instrument called a potentiometer is essentially a voltage
divider used for measuring electric potential (voltage); the component is an
implementation of the same principle, hence its name.
Potentiometers are commonly used to control electrical devices such as
volume controls on audio equipment. Potentiometers operated by a
mechanism can be used as position transducers, for example, in a joystick.
Potentiometers are rarely used to directly control significant power (more
than a watt), since the power dissipated in the potentiometer would be
comparable to the power in the controlled load.

Circuit Diagram

A potentiometer with a resistive load, showing equivalent fixed resistors for clarity.

The potentiometer can be used as a voltage divider to obtain a manually

adjustable output voltage at the slider (wiper) from a fixed input voltage
applied across the two ends of the potentiometer. This is their most common
use.

Working Principles
This is a very basic instrument used for comparing emf two cells and for
calibrating ammeter, voltmeter and watt-meter. The basicis working
principles is very very simple. Suppose we have connected two battery in
head to head and tale to tale through a galvanometer. That means the
positive terminals of both battery are connected together and negative
terminals are also connected together through a galvanometer as shown in
the figure bellow.
Report On potentiometer
Here in the figure it is clear that if
the voltage of both battery cells is
exactly equal, there will be no
circulating current in the circuit and
hence the galvanometer shows null
deflection. The working principle
of potentiometer depends upon
this phenomenon.

Now let's think about another circuit, where a battery is connected across a
resistor via a switch and a rheostat as shown in the figure below, there will
be a voltage drop across the resistor. As there is a voltage drop across the
resistor, this portion of the circuit can be considered as a voltage source for
other external circuits. That means anything connected across the resistor
will get voltage. If the resistor has uniform cross section throughout its
length, the electrical resistance per unit length of the resistor is also uniform
throughout its length. Hence, voltage drop per unit length of the resistor is
also uniform. Suppose the current through the resistor is i A and resistance
per unit length of the resistor is r . Then the voltage appears per unit length
across the resistor would be 'ir' ans say it is v volt.

Now, positive terminal of a standard cell is connected to point A on the

sliding resistor and negative terminal of the same is connected with a
galvanometer. Other end of the galvanometer is in contact with the resistor
via a sliding contact as shown in the figure above. By adjusting this sliding
end, a point like B is found where, there is no current through the
galvanometer, hence no deflection of galvanometer. That means emf of the
standard cell is just balanced by the voltage drop appears across AB. Now if
the distance between point A and B is L, then it can be written emf of
standard cell E = Lv volt. As v (voltage drop per unit length of the sliding
resistor) is known and L is measured from the scale attached to the resistor,
the value of E i.e. emf of standard cell can also be calculated from the above
simple equation very easily.

We said earlier in this section that one of the uses of potentiometer is to

compare emfs of different cells. Let's discuss how a DC potentiometer can
compare emfs of two different cells. Let's think of two cells whose emf's are
to be compared are joined as shown in the figure below. The positive
Report On potentiometer
terminals of the cells and source battery are joined together. The negative
terminals of the cells are joined with the galvanometer in turn through a two
way switch. The other end of the galvanometer is connected to a sliding
contact on the resistor. Now by adjusting sliding contact on the resistor, it is
found that the null deflection of galvanometer comes for first cell at a length
of L on the scale and after positioning to way switch to second cell and then
by adjusting the sliding contact, it is found that the null deflection of
galvanometer comes for that cell at a length of L1 on the scale. Let's think of
the first cell as standard cell and it's emf is E and second cell is unknown cell
whose emf is E1. Now as per above explanation,
E = Lv volt and
L1 = L1v volt
Dividing one equation by other, we get

As the emf of the standard cell is known, hence emf of the unknown cell can
easily be determined.

Potentiometer applications
Potentiometers are rarely used to directly control significant amounts of
power (more than a watt or so). Instead they are used to adjust the level of
analog signals (for example volume controls on audio equipment), and as
control inputs for electronic circuits. For example, a light dimmer uses a
potentiometer to control the switching of a TRIAC and so indirectly to control
the brightness of lamps. Preset potentiometers are widely used throughout
electronics wherever adjustments must be made during manufacturing or
servicing.
User-actuated potentiometers are widely used as user controls, and may
control a very wide variety of equipment functions. The widespread use of
potentiometers in consumer electronics declined in the 1990s, with rotary
encoders, up/down push-buttons, and other digital controls now more
common. However they remain in many applications, such as volume
controls and as position sensors.

Audio control
Report On potentiometer
Low-power potentiometers, both linear and rotary, are used to control audio
equipment, changing loudness, frequency attenuation, and other
characteristics of audio signals.
The 'log pot' is used as the volume control in audio power amplifiers, where it
is also called an "audio taper pot", because the amplitude response of the
human ear is approximately logarithmic. It ensures that on a volume control
marked 0 to 10, for example, a setting of 5 sounds subjectively half as loud
as a setting of 10. There is also an anti-log pot or reverse audio taper which
is simply the reverse of a logarithmic potentiometer. It is almost always used
in a ganged configuration with a logarithmic potentiometer, for instance, in
an audio balance control.
Potentiometers used in combination with filter networks act as tone controls
or equalizers.

Television
Potentiometers were formerly used to control picture brightness, contrast,
and color response. A potentiometer was often used to adjust "vertical hold",
which affected the synchronization between the receiver's internal sweep
circuit (sometimes a multivibrator) and the received picture signal, along
with other things such as audio-video carrier offset, tuning frequency (for
push-button sets) and so on.

Motion control
Potentiometers can be used as position feedback devices in order to create
"closed loop" control, such as in a servomechanism. This method of motion
control used in the DC Motor is the simplest method of measuring the angle,
speed and displacement.

Transducers
Potentiometers are also very widely used as a part of displacement
transducers because of the simplicity of construction and because they can
give a large output signal.

Computation
In analog computers, high precision potentiometers are used to scale
intermediate results by desired constant factors, or to set initial conditions
for a calculation. A motor-driven potentiometer may be used as a function
generator, using a non-linear resistance card to supply approximations to
trigonometric functions. For example, the shaft rotation might represent an
Report On potentiometer
angle, and the voltage division ratio can be made proportional to the cosine
of the angle.

References

1. Thomas B. Greenslade, Jr. "Potentiometer, retrieved 2010 Nov 2".

Physics.kenyon.edu. Retrieved 2013-06-01.

2. Jump up^ Kenyon.edu Dept of Physics.

3. Jump up^ scenta.co.uk Scenta.

4. Jump up^ Kenyon.edu Dept of Physics. Thermodynamics:

Thermocouple Potentiometer.

5. Jump up^ "Ian Hickson's Metre Bridge Experiment".

Academia.hixie.ch. Retrieved 2013-06-01.