Trimmer Pots

The trimmer potentiometers on the 310 are not very robust. They are not designed to be turned many, many times. If a pot is in an audio circuit, it’s easy to hear when it is going bad. When it is in a control circuit, like the FET BIAS pot in a DAP, it can be difficult to diagnose as a source of a problem.

Bourns 3386H-100Recently, a 310 that I refurbished would periodically slam the low frequency meter downscale. The problem was very intermittent. As I was going through the final alignment, the FET BIAS control was very touchy. At that point, I decided to replace the pot. When I did, both problems disappeared. It was immediately obvious that the pot had failed.

Most of the pots in the 310 are Bourns 3386H-1-202 or equivalent. If you’re replacing caps and bringing a DAP back to life for long-term use, you might want to go ahead and replace the pots. They’re very easy to replace thanks to the single-sided printed circuit boards.

Mike Phillips

One Comment

  1. If you use the tan and white Jordans pots, remember they are backwards from the original blue and white ones. Also, I found that once you mount the pot to the board, it is handy to put a small dab of silicone or hot glue between the back of the pot and the board to give it more support. I’ve also done a modification with a similar pot made by Borden’s. The only difference it is a 10 turn pot. It works much better for adjusting the FET as it is not as touchy, although those pots cost about $5 each on eBay.

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