there's something unique about this potentiometer.
it has three large ball bearings in the back, but what for? (read on!)
the three ball bearings form a planetary "gear" reduction, turning this into a 10-turn potentiometer!
the parts.
here are some approximate dimensions. you can't use the regular planetary gear formulas because this setup has no teeth. ball bearings are 7.9mm diameter but this isn't important.
turns of the carrier (which moves the potentiometer wiper) = turns of the "sun" (potentiometer shaft) * S / (R+S) where R is the ring circumference and S is the sun circumference. since there's no teeth, i'm using the circumference as a stand-in.
(diagram is wrong, shaft diameter is actually 1.55mm)
anyway, do the math, and for 1 full turn of the potentiometer wiper, you get about 12 turns of the input shaft.
of course, the potentiometer wiper never does a full turn. more like 300 degrees or so. therefore 300/360*12= 10 turns.
i printed a new panel insert that has two BNC sockets on it (the original probes would have had captive cables)
the tricky part is that this oscilloscope has a 333K ohm input impedance instead of 1M like umm every other scope on the planet. fortunately someone designed a little conversion circuit...
in honor of Sim Wong Hoo, here's a quick historical review of the Sound Blaster! 🧵
but first we have to go back to their first sound card, the Creative Music System from 1987. (image credit: Bratgoul on Wikipedia)
this card has some special "CMS-301" chips. if you peel back the sticker, they have had their top marks removed. they're actually SAA1099 synthesizer chips made by Philips. Creative wrote music composition software for musicians on the PC.