.. include:: <isonum.txt>

# Analog Potentiometers - Hardware

.. note:: This section covers analog potentiometer hardware.  For a software guide to analog potentiometers, see :ref:`docs/software/hardware-apis/sensors/analog-potentiometers-software:Analog Potentiometers - Software`.

.. warning:: Potentiometers generally have a mechanically-limited travel range.  Users should be careful that their mechanisms do not turn their potentiometers past their maximum travel, as this will damage or destroy the potentiometer.

Apart from :doc:`quadrature encoders <encoders-hardware>`, another common way of measuring rotation is with analog potentiometers.  A potentiometer is simply a variable resistor - as the shaft of the potentiometer turns, the resistance changes (usually linearly).  Placing this resistor in a [voltage divider](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltage_divider) allows the user to easily measure the resistance by measuring the voltage across the potentiometer, which can then be used to calculate the rotational position of the shaft.

## Wiring an analog potentiometer

As suggested by the names, analog potentiometers connect to the roboRIO's :doc:`analog input <analog-inputs-hardware>` ports.  To understand how exactly to wire potentiometers, however, it is important to understand their internal circuitry.

.. image:: images/analog-potentiometers-hardware/analog-potentiometer-to-roborio.svg
   :alt: Wiring a potentiometer to an analog input of the roboRIO.

The picture above on the left shows a typical potentiometer.  There are three pins, just as there are on the RIO's analog inputs.  The middle pin is the signal pin, while the outer pins can both be *either* power or ground.

As mentioned before, a potentiometer is a voltage divider, as shown in the circuit diagram on the right.  As the potentiometer shaft turns, the resistances R1 and R2 change; however, their sum remains constant [1]_.  Thus, the voltage across the entire potentiometer remains constant (for the roboRIO, this would be 5 volts), but the voltage between the signal pin and either the voltage or ground pin varies linearly as the shaft turns.

Since the circuit is symmetric, it is reversible - this allows the user to choose at which end of the travel the measured voltage is zero, and at which end it is 5 volts.  To reverse the directionality of the sensor, it can simply be wired backwards!  Be sure to check the directionality of your potentiometer with a multimeter to be sure it is in the desired orientation before soldering your wires to the contacts.

## Footnotes

.. [1] The way this actually works is generally by having the shaft control the position of a contact along a resistive "wiper" of fixed length along which the current flows - the resistance is proportional to the length of wiper between the contact and the end of the wiper.