silly potentiometer question

[rsty]

ive had my arduino for about a month now and i came upon this
project.. went to my local electronics/communications store and found
the jack that was needed and when i found the pots, they didnt have
4.7k, only 1k, 2k, 5k, 10k, 25k, 50k, 100k, and 500k. And they came it
all different wattages too including 1/4, 1/2, 1, and 2.

So my question is, can i use a 5k pot? and what wattage should i get?
And what is linear?

They also have pots just for breadboards which i thought was cool, so
i wouldnt have to solder.

[Peter Knight]

Anything between 1k and 50k will be absolutely fine. I'd go for 5k -
that is the nearest to 4.7k.

As for power ('wattage'), it doesn't matter. Lower power components
are generally cheaper - go for those.

'Linear' refers to the resistance range changing steadily across the
range. That is what you want.

The other type is 'Logarithmic' where most of the resistance change
occurs at one end. Those are only ever used in volume controls - avoid
those.

If you're building Auduino on breadboard, be aware that when you turn
the controls, you vibrate the wires. That can cause temporary
disconnections, make the audio scratchy. So you will probably want to
solder things down at some stage.

Good luck, and enjoy your new Auduino!

Peter

[davitr0n]

This would be helpful to me also as I am working on my own arduino
synthesizer project (http://adasynth.tumblr.com/).

I have done up the software but have many, many questions involving
hardware.