[time-nuts] digital pots Part 2

Perry Sandeen sandeenpa at yahoo.com
Thu Jan 30 01:34:01 UTC 2020


Learned Gentlemen,
I appreciate all the reply's to my questions.
Perhaps I should have added a bit more detail of my planned project after moving.  I have 5 Lucent XO's and two Lucent Rb's which I want to add panel mounted fine EFC controls.
I did consider Bourn's Helipots, but found used on ebay were $20 to $30 each and none had more than two for sale.  I did look at the ebay Bourn,s *tribute* pots with dials from China which seemed to have the exact same item from $10 to $2 (with free shipping). I remembered that Charles Steinmetz had posted to the list that he found many of a lot he purchased were defective.
So I went alookin (southern USA term for searching) for a viable alternative, hence the Maxim DS 1804 non-volatile 10K pot with 100 taps that has a simple toggle up or down interface. (I have no ability to do serial or computer control.  I found a Microchip AN 691 which showed how to use two or three digital pot in series/parallel configurations.
Three DS 1804's and a good reference IC for less than $10. A simple TL431 or LM723 heater circuit would be $2.  So with 100 taps on each IC, I figured (with lots and lots of toggling). I could achieve sub-millivolt or better tuning steps.
And I was fairly certain that fine EFC tuning was like grandma getting ready for church on Sunday.  She was ready when she was ready. No amount of fussing or cajoling could change that. It occurred on her time (slow) table.
Comments appreciated. 

Regards,
Perrier








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