Pint pot troubles

[__redruM]

I believe that I have broken my Switched ALPS RK097 pot on my PINT by mounting it. Generally when mounting a board this small, I use the pot to mount the board to the front panel. But on assembly, the battery was a tight fit and put stress on the board, and therefore the pot.

My symptom is one channel plays very loud, like the pot is turned all the way up. The symtom disapears and returns as I flex the board against the front panel. I checked the pot (still soldered into the board) and found that I had different readings between the channels. I check Ohms between the POT output and ground and came up with wildly different readings. I'm going to pull the pot off the board and see if I can confirm my theory.

Has anyone else had this problem? Has anyone else put a working pint into a case and then had issues like this? How about on a pimeta with the ALPS RK097 pot?

 

[FallenAngel]

Buddy, first and foremost, are you measuring inside a metal case which might be shorting out one channel of the pot?

 

[__redruM]

Nope, Problem occurs both inside and outside the case. The problem is also interminttent, and goes away when I flex the board.

 

[MisterX]

Quote:

Has anyone else had this problem?

Yup, that be the problem.

 

[__redruM]

While I'm pulling everything apart, I'm thinking about changing the ground channel opamp. Mine get fairly hot. Is there a good "Unity gain stable" opamp that would fit well into the circut. I'm looking at the LM6172, since it's recomended by Tangent. Will it get hot in this amp?

 

[Pendergast]

I had a similar problem and it really was because of bad solder. When I looked at it , it seemed nice, until I decided to listen in and put heat on the joints, and the sound just got right.

That may not be your situation, and it does not mean that my testing technique is the most appropriate either, but it works wonderfully now.

Hope this helps.

 

[tangent]

Because of the two large ground planes attached to the ground pins of the pot, the unaware can get a bad joint by doing those two pins too quickly. Try flowing some more solder on those joints...hold the heat on until you see the solder flow into a nice cone around the pins. It will take at least a few seconds.

 

[__redruM]

I'll recheck my soldering before taking an axe to the pot, it's possible, epecially since the symptom changes when flexing the board against the pot...