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Allen Bradley Pot Identification

Posted: 22 Mar 2017 12:41 pm
by Boo Bernstein
I recently came upon a few Allen Bradley pots. They are 500K Type J. The number on the box says BA-10034-408. Does anyone know what that designates and whether they would work with a volume pedal? Thanks in advance!

Posted: 22 Mar 2017 3:29 pm
by David Sutton
I do a lot of Allen Bradley controls at work, and I don't recognize that as an AB part number.

Figuring out the taper of the pot is easy. Set the shaft to the mid point of its travel, you don't have to be terribly accurate about this. Measure the resistance from the middle lug to one of the outside lugs. If it measures about 250K it's linear, if it measures about 70K or 430K it's a logarithmic taper of some kind.

As for using it as a volume control, that's a subject of endless debate. Some people like linear taper pots for volume controls, they have their reasons. Most volume controls are logarithmic.