[Proper] Potentiometer Connection and Circuit Diagram

Today we are going to see the Proper Potentiometer Connection. We will see the connection of Potentiometer for different purposes such as voltage divider, and brightness control of light.

The potentiometer is a three-terminal device. First, let's identify the terminals of the potentiometer.

As you see in the above figure the potentiometer has a total of three terminals. The middle terminal is connected to the slider. Here the first terminal is taken as Vcc but you can take the last terminal as Vcc. So can interchange the two end terminals but the middle terminal is always fixed it should be taken as output.

Now let's see the connections of the potentiometer.

Circuit Diagram for Voltage dividing using Potentiometer

We can divide voltage using the potentiometer. The circuit diagram is given below.

In the above circuit diagram, you can see there is only one resistor in the potentiometer but the slider divided the resistor into two. The upper part of the slider is taken as R1 and the lower part of the slider is taken as R2.

The equation of the voltage divider rule is,

So according to the above equation when we change the value of resistance by changing the slider position the output voltage will be changed.

Potentiometer connection for Voltage Dividing

Here you can see the connection of the potentiometer for voltage dividing.

Potentiometer Connection for Light Brightness Control

Here the connection diagram for controlling the brightness of an LED is given below.

Component Used,

• LM317
• 10K POT
• 320 Ohm resistor
• 12V LED
• 12V battery

 Read Also:

• Rheostat VS Potentiometer | Differences with Diagram and Applications
• How to calculate the value of resistor for LED when connecting with Power Supply.
• Change the direction of rotation of 9V DC motor easily

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