9 mm PCB mount vertical pots

This is wiki, add or correct sources as needed.

Some sources of these perpetually hard to find pots, often out of stock, keep looking:

Or try

  • AliExpress (search)
  • eBay (search)

If you have to you can get by with the no-threads ones. Then you may have to mount the PCB to the panel a different way, e.g. by drilling holes for standoffs.

If you’re trying to search on Mouser, don’t click “PCB mount”. For some reason they have these listed as panel mount.

Also see this topic:

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These getting hard to find, some of us will be getting whatever we find with the same footprint.

Having never used D-shaft pots + knobs, I have to ask this very basic but fundamental question…

Which way should the pots be mounted on the PCB so the knob’s mark goes from about 7 o’clock to 5, not from 1 to 11 with D-shaft pots ?
Legs “down” or “up” ?

Depends on the knob. They come both ways. Usually down, though.

I used one of these with a D shaft once, seemed to work:

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OK. I’ll go with down then if it’s the more common.
Learning KiCAD by designing my first PCB set, nothing fancy, just copied a mixer schematics from the 'net.

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That’s an interesting “device” to work around the “alpha” pots shortage.

But the shipping to Europe… ouch !
25 sleeves = $12.50
Shipping ranges from $15.30 to over $170 !!!
That amounts to $1.10 per sleeve delivered…

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I wondered how many 9mm pots you’d have to buy from Mouser to get the same price as from Tayda. Turns out the answer is “more than 5000”. And they only have 255 of the 100k in stock with 1000 on order.

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Even with free shipping it’s not exactly cheap for just sliced up brass tubing. For Americans ordering anyway from that vendor, though, it might be worth considering. And maybe there are other sources for the same diameter tubing.

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Outside diameter being 1/4", I have little hope finding this is Europe.

A 1m tube of 6mm outside diameter is 7.50 Euro at the local home-improvement super-store, sliced into 100 sleeves that’d be 7.5 cents per sleeve.
Next time I go there I’ll check what dimensions they have. Maybe a slightly smaller one can be cut lengthwise and do the job.
Still, the wall thickness is really thin. Maybe with brass sheeting used by model maker and rolled around the pots’ shaft ?

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They are back at Tayda !
B100K about 500+ available
B10K about 2600+ available
B50K (for AO’s Mikrokosmos) none :frowning:


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Sometime quite recently Tayda started selling non Alpha ones:

In stock and a lot cheaper than the Alphas. Quality? TBD.

But still 6.35mm shafts… :frowning:

Just noticed I never updated this. Thonk now carries these at a much less ridiculous price:
https://www.thonk.co.uk/shop/brass-pot-adapters-x20/

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6000+ Alpha B100k round shaft in stock at Tayda.

Meanwhile they’re down to 13 of the Hong Yuans.

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Somewhere here in the forum Someone tested them, if I remember correctly? What was the verdict?

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See this and surrounding discussion

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The one comment they made was that the pots feel “greasy” compared to Alphas. I don’t agree with that at all. These are no more “greasy” feeling than Alphas. The Alphas I bought from Thonk all have a similar “greasy” feeling to them and these are no different. For what it’s worth, I’ve used the Hong Yuans in everything and had zero issues.

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