My current project is a mini cmoy where the enclosure will be too small for a proper volume pot (much smaller than a mint tin) and the only pot I can see that might possibly fit the space would be one of those mini thumbwheels. The problem is that I am having trouble sourcing a dual ganged thumbwheel pot.

So, the question is: can I make a mono pot control both channels? I've searched for an answer in the event that I'm just missing something obvious, but the only solution I came across was this schematic which would increase the part count and of course defeats the purpose of a small pot in the first place.

source: http://www.elecdesign.com/Articles/A...4247/4247.html



My other idea involves mechanically connecting two pots, either by dismantling them or by meshing them together like gears.



Any better ideas than this from the clever diyers that frequent this board?


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No, a mono pot is only good for one channel, you have two. No way to fake it. If space is really a problem, you should probably just nix the pot and control the volume by controlling the input signal.

Something I've been wanting to try for a while is combining a digital stereo volume control chip with a single-gang linear pot: use the linear single pot to control the volume control chip.

You might have to throw a small microcontroller in there and use a digitally-controllable volume control chip. Commonly the control is done by a lightweight protocol like 1-Wire or I2C (eye-squared-see). For the uC, there are little 8-pin ones that may work, like the PICmicro series from Microchip.com. The PIC12F675 should work, for instance.

You'll need to be able to learn the assembly language for the device...there's only 1.75K of program memory in the PIC12F675, so you probably couldn't cram even a small C program in there. There are devices with more memory, but it's a very simple program, so assembly is the right way to go here, IMHO.

Depending on your circuit board, you could put two pots back to back. If they track nicely, glue them together, else you can turn both for volume or turn one to tune the balance.

Edit: Or loot an old Discman. That's where I got mine.

Sorry this is so late:
I'm not sure what kind of quality they are as I haven't used them, but you can also buy very small slider-type pots that are audio taper that may fit in to your project more effectively.

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Did that to my Total Airhead, works pretty well.

http://www5.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=68833