Pot and button boards tested

I finally got around to testing the potentiometer and button breakout boards yesterday. They seem to work just fine.

Button board with integrated pullups and diodes on top, potentiometer board (six pots per 10p connector) on bottom

breakout board for buttons, making it easier to connect 8 dupont connector buttons to a single 10 connector

While the buttons worked straight away, the pots gave me a bit of a headache. First time around, nothing worked. Turns out, the connection between the potentiometer and the 10p IDC connector is not particularly good. Pushing on the pot made it work, but releasing it made it lose connecton again.

After comparing with the unmounted connectors I have in my drawer, I realised there are two types. One of them has the sprung contacts further out into the hole:

 

Top: Connectors from the drawer, the contact fills half the hole

Bottom: Connector that failed. The spring fills less of the hole - also, it looks like the edges of the pot legs, being slightly to wide, have dug themselves grooves at the side of the connector, meaning they may not be able to touch the contacts.

Pot inserted into the working connector

Pot inserted into the non-working connector. When pushing the pot down, the legs are pushed up slightly inside the connector, making contact.

pot inserted into the non working connector (slightly more rounded than the working one).