Buying a Motorized Potentiometer
When buying a motorized potentiometer, it’s important to select one that features the INCREASE and DECREASE buttons that make it easy to slowly rotate the motor in either direction. These potentiometers have multiple buttons that can be wired in parallel, thus allowing an adjustment in multiple areas for increase or decrease.
Today, you can purchase motorized potentiometers that are easy to mount on the motor thanks to “Din-rail mountable” enclosures. Din-rail mountable potentiometers cut down on installation time and costs while providing an easy-to-use module with upgraded features. One example is the MOP250-000 (Electronic Motor Operated Potentiometer Module) by Carotron, Inc. It has dedicated INCREASE and DECREASE pushbuttons that can be pushed simultaneously to reset the potentiometer. The operator can open or close the enable input to force the unit to ramp down or back up. There’s also an EXTERNAL REF input to scale an external signal if necessary.
Carotron makes multiturn MOPs as well to adjust the settings for ACCEL, DECEL, BIAS and GAIN. Speak with a skilled engineer if you’re unsure of the type of motorized potentiometer you’ll need. These are great units for a variety of industrial operations, and they are affordable and reliable.