Question: potentiometer question

[SirPeale]

About to head to the shop, so before I do...

Last night I thought about playing a game of Galaga on the cabinet.  Then realized the neighbors would likely complain (as the cab is right outside their door).  Figured I'd wire in a volume pot off an old coin door.

Found one, then realized it had not two leads, but three.

Since the point of a pot is to in/decrease resistance in circuit, I'm puzzled what this third lead is for.  More than one lead on the same circuit?  Like, for stereo sound?

[pmc]

I just happened to learn about that too. They all have three connections. in, out, and ground. And you can wire 'em differently to use the pot for different purposes. My application has two contacts wired together so it's used for a variable resistor.

This site talks all about it and shows how to wire for a volume control. There's a diagram for stereo applications too.

-pmc

[SirPeale]

Yeah, I found this site as well:

http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_6/chpt_3/6.html

[spystyle]

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