[FBJ]

Does anyone know of any, of these pots that are motorized?

 

[tangent]

I finally got around to putting a knob on my faux-ALPS stepper and found a usable way of dealing with the strange shaft. On my pot, I had to saw off the splined part entirely, so I was left with a 5mm main shaft that tapers up to maybe 1/4" (6.35mm) near the bushing. Very hard for the set screw of knob made for 1/4" shafts to grab onto.

The solution: back the set screw out as far as it will go without falling out, then fill the knob's cavity with hot glue about 3/4 the way. Stick the knob onto the shaft, and make sure it's nice and centered. You will want to have the volume shaft turned all the way down (or up, I guess) so that you know where the indicator should point. Let the hot glue cool. Now carefully tighten the set screw through the hot glue until it contacts the shaft.

What's happening is that the hot glue is holding the knob straight, and providing some resistance against the knob's tendency to yaw off axis when the set screw contacts the shaft. It's still possible to tighten the set screw enough to cause some wobbling of the knob, so it's a balancing act: tight enough to hold the knob to the shaft without relying solely on the glue to prevent the knob from slipping off or sliding along the shaft, but not so tight that you make the knob yaw off axis so it wobbles as you turn it.

This is definitely a hack, but a _workable_ hack.

 

[Nezer]

I prefer my knobs ghetto and leave the knobs off. If they are hard to turn I have a pair of pliers handy to make adjustments.

 

[JMT]

Thanks Tangent, that's a great suggestion. Isn't the hot glue gun a wonderful invention? I rank it right up there with desoldering braid.

 

[morsel]

I think Tangent's hack is a bad idea. Hot gluing the knob could make it difficult to remove later if the amp board needs servicing out of the case. It will be difficult if not impossible to manually center the knob such that all eccentricity is eliminated. I also question whether this kludge will be durable. The knob will probably loosen with time and use.

Thumbs down, but realize I am an anal retentive perfectionist.

 

[morsel]

Hypertext Webster Gateway: "kludge"

From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)

kludge n : a badly assembled collection of parts hastily assembled to serve some particular purpose (often used to refer to computing systems or software that has been badly put together)

From Jargon File (4.3.0, 30 APR 2001) (jargon)

kludge 1. /klooj/ n. Incorrect (though regrettably common) spelling of {kluge} (US). These two words have been confused in American usage since the early 1960s, and widely confounded in Great Britain since the end of World War II. 2. [TMRC] A {crock} that works. (A long-ago "Datamation" article by Jackson Granholme similarly said: "An ill-assorted collection of poorly matching parts, forming a distressing whole.") 3. v. To use a kludge to get around a problem. "I've kludged around it for now, but I'll fix it up properly later."

This word appears to have derived from Scots `kludge' or `kludgie' for a common toilet, via British military slang. It apparently became confused with U.S. {kluge} during or after World War II; some Britons from that era use both words in definably different ways, but {kluge} is now uncommon in Great Britain. `Kludge' in Commonwealth hackish differs in meaning from `kluge' in that it lacks the positive senses; a kludge is something no Commonwealth hacker wants to be associated too closely with. Also, `kludge' is more widely known in British mainstream slang than `kluge' is in the U.S.

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (09 FEB 02) (foldoc)

kludge

<jargon> /kluhj/ (From the old Scots "kludgie" meaning an outside toilet) A Scottish engineering term for anything added in an ad hoc (and possibly unhygenic!) manner. At some point during the Second World War, Scottish engineers met Americans and the meaning, spelling and pronunciation of kludge became confused with that of "{kluge}".

The spelling "kludge" was apparently popularised by the "Datamation" cited below which defined it as "An ill-assorted collection of poorly matching parts, forming a distressing whole."

The result of this tangled history is a mess; in 1993, many (perhaps even most) hackers pronounce the word /klooj/ but spell it "kludge" (compare the pronunciation drift of {mung}). Some observers consider this appropriate in view of its meaning.

["How to Design a Kludge", Jackson Granholme, Datamation, February 1962, pp. 30-31].

[{Jargon File}]

(1998-12-09)

Hypertext Webster Gateway: "kluge"

From Jargon File (4.3.0, 30 APR 2001) (jargon)

kluge /klooj/ [from the German `klug', clever; poss. related to Polish `klucz' (a key, a hint, a main point)] 1. n. A Rube Goldberg (or Heath Robinson) device, whether in hardware or software. 2. n. A clever programming trick intended to solve a particular nasty case in an expedient, if not clear, manner. Often used to repair bugs. Often involves {ad-hockery} and verges on being a {crock}. 3. n. Something that works for the wrong reason. 4. vt. To insert a kluge into a program. "I've kluged this routine to get around that weird bug, but there's probably a better way." 5. [WPI] n. A feature that is implemented in a {rude} manner.

Nowadays this term is often encountered in the variant spelling `kludge'. Reports from {old fart}s are consistent that `kluge' was the original spelling, reported around computers as far back as the mid-1950s and, at that time, used exclusively of _hardware_ kluges. In 1947, the "New York Folklore Quarterly" reported a classic shaggy-dog story `Murgatroyd the Kluge Maker' then current in the Armed Forces, in which a `kluge' was a complex and puzzling artifact with a trivial function. Other sources report that `kluge' was common Navy slang in the WWII era for any piece of electronics that worked well on shore but consistently failed at sea.

However, there is reason to believe this slang use may be a decade older. Several respondents have connected it to the brand name of a device called a "Kluge paper feeder", an adjunct to mechanical printing presses. Legend has it that the Kluge feeder was designed before small, cheap electric motors and control electronics; it relied on a fiendishly complex assortment of cams, belts, and linkages to both power and synchronize all its operations from one motive driveshaft. It was accordingly temperamental, subject to frequent breakdowns, and devilishly difficult to repair -- but oh, so clever! People who tell this story also aver that `Kluge' was the name of a design engineer.

There is in fact a Brandtjen & Kluge Inc., an old family business that manufactures printing equipment - interestingly, their name is pronounced /kloo'gee/! Henry Brandtjen, president of the firm, told me (ESR, 1994) that his company was co-founded by his father and an engineer named Kluge /kloo'gee/, who built and co-designed the original Kluge automatic feeder in 1919. Mr. Brandtjen claims, however, that this was a _simple_ device (with only four cams); he says he has no idea how the myth of its complexity took hold. Other correspondents differ with Mr. Brandtjen's history of the device and his allegation that it was a simple rather than complex one, but agree that the Kluge automatic feeder was the most likely source of the folklore.

{TMRC} and the MIT hacker culture of the early '60s seems to have developed in a milieu that remembered and still used some WWII military slang (see also {foobar}). It seems likely that `kluge' came to MIT via alumni of the many military electronics projects that had been located in Cambridge (many in MIT's venerable Building 20, in which {TMRC} is also located) during the war.

The variant `kludge' was apparently popularized by the {Datamation} article mentioned above; it was titled "How to Design a Kludge" (February 1962, pp. 30, 31). This spelling was probably imported from Great Britain, where {kludge} has an independent history (though this fact was largely unknown to hackers on either side of the Atlantic before a mid-1993 debate in the Usenet group alt.folklore.computers over the First and Second Edition versions of this entry; everybody used to think {kludge} was just a mutation of {kluge}). It now appears that the British, having forgotten the etymology of their own `kludge' when `kluge' crossed the Atlantic, repaid the U.S. by lobbing the `kludge' orthography in the other direction and confusing their American cousins' spelling!

The result of this history is a tangle. Many younger U.S. hackers pronounce the word as /klooj/ but spell it, incorrectly for its meaning and pronunciation, as `kludge'. (Phonetically, consider huge, refuge, centrifuge, and deluge as opposed to sludge, judge, budge, and fudge. Whatever its failings in other areas, English spelling is perfectly consistent about this distinction.) British hackers mostly learned /kluhj/ orally, use it in a restricted negative sense and are at least consistent. European hackers have mostly learned the word from written American sources and tend to pronounce it /kluhj/ but use the wider American meaning!

Some observers consider this mess appropriate in view of the word's meaning.

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (09 FEB 02) (foldoc)

kluge

<jargon> /klooj/, /kluhj/ (From German "klug" /kloog/ - clever and Scottish "{kludge}") 1. A Rube Goldberg (or Heath Robinson) device, whether in {hardware} or {software}.

The spelling "kluge" (as opposed to "kludge") was used in connection with computers as far back as the mid-1950s and, at that time, was used exclusively of *hardware* kluges.

2. <programming> A clever programming trick intended to solve a particular nasty case in an expedient, if not clear, manner. Often used to repair bugs. Often involves {ad-hockery} and verges on being a {crock}. In fact, the TMRC Dictionary defined "kludge" as "a crock that works".

3. Something that works for the wrong reason.

4. ({WPI}) A {feature} that is implemented in a {rude} manner.

In 1947, the "New York Folklore Quarterly" reported a classic shaggy-dog story "Murgatroyd the Kluge Maker" then current in the Armed Forces, in which a "kluge" was a complex and puzzling artifact with a trivial function. Other sources report that "kluge" was common Navy slang in the WWII era for any piece of electronics that worked well on shore but consistently failed at sea.

However, there is reason to believe this slang use may be a decade older. Several respondents have connected it to the brand name of a device called a "Kluge paper feeder" dating back at least to 1935, an adjunct to mechanical printing presses. The Kluge feeder was designed before small, cheap electric motors and control electronics; it relied on a fiendishly complex assortment of cams, belts, and linkages to both power and synchronise all its operations from one motive driveshaft. It was accordingly tempermental, subject to frequent breakdowns, and devilishly difficult to repair - but oh, so clever! One traditional folk etymology of "klugen" makes it the name of a design engineer; in fact, "Kluge" is a surname in German, and the designer of the Kluge feeder may well have been the man behind this myth.

{TMRC} and the MIT hacker culture of the early 1960s seems to have developed in a milieu that remembered and still used some WWII military slang (see also {foobar}). It seems likely that "kluge" came to MIT via alumni of the many military electronics projects that had been located in Cambridge (many in MIT's venerable Building 20, in which {TMRC} is also located) during the war.

[{Jargon File}]

(2000-01-31)

 

[JMT]

So, what does "kludge" mean again?

 

[wallijonn]

I bought (2) 10K, (2) 20K and (2) 100K ALPS from Ebay. $43 shipped. not too bad, heh?

 

[dta116]

Where are you people finding these pot on e-bay?
Can't seem to locate them anywhere.

 

[Kickus]

Quote:

Originally posted by dta116 Where are you people finding these pot on e-bay? Can't seem to locate them anywhere.

Just search for "alps potentiometer" and there is usually several of these auctions that turn up.

 

[joe_cool]

This auction is closed but should give you an idea what to look for.

This auction is for a smaller (18mm) pot that fits the META42 board layout.

 

[doobooloo]

Obviously, this is not an Alps pot:

http://www.cxzhenwei.com/english/cpzs-pro01.htm

Unless Alps gets their pots OEM-ed from Cixishi Zhenwei Electron Factory...

But I am getting some too, for $6 each they seem to be quite a deal... hee hee. stepped attenuators for $6!

 

[wallijonn]

and for a cheap ALPS pot, go to Radio Shack. They have 100K stereo pot for under $3. #271-1732. yes, it even says "ALPS" on it.

obviously it's not stepped.

 

[doobooloo]

I tried two of them before, but...

they have the most horrible mismatch ever. one of them even had a complete dip (almost to nothing) in one channel right smack in the middle of rotation!

A $3 real Alps < $6 fake Alps?

 

[Kickus]

Quote:

Originally posted by doobooloo Obviously, this is not an Alps pot: http://www.cxzhenwei.com/english/cpzs-pro01.htm Unless Alps gets their pots OEM-ed from Cixishi Zhenwei Electron Factory... But I am getting some too, for $6 each they seem to be quite a deal... hee hee. stepped attenuators for $6!

I just emailed them. If there is enough interest, perhaps I could organize a group purchase.