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I am trying to get my PC speakers to be controlled by my arduino. I've taken apart the control and it seems very straight forward, just need a few questions about subbing the manual pots for digital ones.

Volume circuit looks like this (R/L for right and left channels)

    R Aux -> Pot Leg 1 -> Out Pot Leg 3 -> R Audio Out
    L Aux -> Pot Leg 2 -> Out Pot Leg 4 -> L Audio Out

All other POT contacts are grounded and it's a B10K pot.

Why are these split by channel? Isn't a standard 3 terminal pot the same? Or is it to keep the audio in R and L channel's seperate?

Is there any weird issue I'll run into subbing out this pot for a digital one? Or would another 4/6 contact digital 10K pot do just fine? Are their power requirements (voltage/heat dissipation) i need to watch out for?

Thank you! Just learning speaker wiring.

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You ought to consider that the volume pot is logarithmic and this might mean that the digipot's resolution needs to be quite high to get a non granular change in volume when you control it.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Digital pots come in log flavo[u]r too. \$\endgroup\$ – Spehro Pefhany Sep 28 '14 at 3:01
  • \$\begingroup\$ Gotcha, what about power tolerances though? Any typical values in speakers? \$\endgroup\$ – Smanger Sep 28 '14 at 18:06
  • \$\begingroup\$ @Smanger - I don't understand your comment - are you believing the pots connect direct to the speakers? This would be incorrect almost certainly. \$\endgroup\$ – Andy aka Sep 28 '14 at 18:53
  • \$\begingroup\$ Ah i understand, so it goes from the AUX line to the pot to the amp out to the speakers.. Thanks. I assume any pot will do then, since the voltage/current from headphones should be minimal. \$\endgroup\$ – Smanger Sep 29 '14 at 6:48

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