is there a way to increase the light of an LED with a dial?

Ok, I hope someone can help me out with this. I went out and bought a

Thanks again. I know that I am probably asking rudimentary questions, but I am learning along the way. Thanks for the patience.

Are you sure those two extra ones on the side are not connected to the metal case? In other words, just a place to attach grounds. Is the metal part of the housing connected right to those two. I see no other reason for them.

As far as the others, the center is the variable contact or output. The left and right go across the source, whereas one is generally grounded, and the other would be positive voltage or audio input signal (input from source). I forget which is which. If it turns the wrong direction, jsut reverse the wires to those two outer ones.

OK. Assuming that the wire to the left of your battery pack is "-" and the one to the right is "+", then it connects pretty much as you have it lying there. The short leg of the LED goes straight to battery "-". The battery "+" wire goes to the right-hand tag of the three that are together on the pot, as we are looking at it on the picture. The centre and left tags should be joined together. You then need a fixed resistor of say 22 ohms connected between the joined-together pot tags, and the long lead on the LED. This resistor is important, as it will limit the maximum current that the LED can draw with the pot turned right up. Without it, the LED will burn out.

Can I just ask that you post replies to the bottom of any text that you are replying to, rather than the top, as you would when replying to a personal e-mail. It makes the thread a lot easier to follow, and whilst there are a few that vociferously defend newsgroup top-posting, the accepted convention is to bottom post, with top snipping if needed to aid clarity.

Thanks.

Arfa

Ok, I have two wire setups here.

The trouble now is getting them to work in combination so I can have it dim and turn off/on. As I said, I have tried both of these setup and then tried to mix and match the setup to see if I could get both the bright/dim and the off/on to work at the SAME TIME, but to no avail.

I have not used a resistor for either of these setup because when I connect the TWO batteries directly to the LED (the way I have been using it before the variable resistor), it has never been a problem and doesn't get hot or burn out.

Ok, I have two wire setups here.

The trouble now is getting them to work in combination so I can have it dim and turn off/on. As I said, I have tried both of these setup and then tried to mix and match the setup to see if I could get both the bright/dim and the off/on to work at the SAME TIME, but to no avail.

I have not used a resistor for either of these setup because when I connect the TWO batteries directly to the LED (the way I have been using it before the variable resistor), it has never been a problem and doesn't get hot or burn out.

Ok, I have two wire setups here.

The trouble now is getting them to work in combination so I can have it dim and turn off/on. As I said, I have tried both of these setup and then tried to mix and match the setup to see if I could get both the bright/dim and the off/on to work at the SAME TIME, but to no avail.

I have not used a resistor for either of these setup because when I connect the TWO batteries directly to the LED (the way I have been using it before the variable resistor), it has never been a problem and doesn't get hot or burn out.

Ok, I have two wire setups here.

The trouble now is getting them to work in combination so I can have it dim and turn off/on. As I said, I have tried both of these setup and then tried to mix and match the setup to see if I could get both the bright/dim and the off/on to work at the SAME TIME, but to no avail.

I have not used a resistor for either of these setup because when I connect the TWO batteries directly to the LED (the way I have been using it before the variable resistor), it has never been a problem and doesn't get hot or burn out.

Ok, I have two wire setups here.

The trouble now is getting them to work in combination so I can have it dim and turn off/on. As I said, I have tried both of these setup and then tried to mix and match the setup to see if I could get both the bright/dim and the off/on to work at the SAME TIME, but to no avail.

I have not used a resistor for either of these setup because when I connect the TWO batteries directly to the LED (the way I have been using it before the variable resistor), it has never been a problem and doesn't get hot or burn out.

Ah! OK. Now I can see what the two additional terminals on the pot are. They are a switch, which presumably goes "click" when you go fully anticlockwise, yes ?

Assuming yes, then the correct hookup will be right hand side yellow to mid body righthand tag, as shown. New wire from left hand mid body tag to righthand tag of the block of three tags, ie the tag where you are currently showing a red wire on the right. Lefthand red wire where it is currently shown ie to the centre and left tags that are joined together. Lefthand yellow wire now irrelevant. Bottom red or yellow wire as currently indicated.

Now, when the pot is clicked fully anticlockwise, the feed from the battery to the righthand pot tag, will be broken by the switch, so no current will flow through the LED, and it will extinguish. Once the switch has clicked back on, as you rotate clockwise, you will be returned to the 'red' circuit that worked ok to dim the LED. Do you follow that OK ?

As far as not having any additional series resistor, if that's the way it was done in the original unit that you canibalised it from, then that's fine. I would however suggest that you do not use any other battery type than the originals, as it probably gets away with current limiting by the internal resistance of this type of cell. Whilst the LED may have its own internal current limiting, from the photo, it looks like a pretty bog-standard type, which if you do allow it to draw too much current, will destroy itself.

Incidentally, your post appeared multiple times on my news server, separated by a couple of minutes each, so I'm not too sure what happened there.

Arfa

I did notice the replication of the posts. I deleted them, but I don't know why google repeated them so.

To make it easier on me to understand, I have updated the image with numbers, so now it is a matter of matching numbers (I hope). I think this is always the difficulties with tech support on the phone or online because it is really hard to visualize with words sometimes.

I tried to read through what you had written and got a little confused, so this might make it easier.

Yes, it clicks off/on

Hmm. I thought that I pretty much covered all the bases with unambiguous wording ...

Right then.

Arfa

Seems like he really needs to get a book, or read up on basic electronics online. It would be beneficial to have the slightest clue how each of the components works. It's a very simple circuit, anyone with any interest in electronics should soak up enough to be able to make it work on their own. Little is learned through such extensive handholding.

No you were perfect in your other explanation - I just didn't want to get it wrong since I have tried a dozen combination and couldn't get it right. This way is great and I understand it completely. As you can tell, I don't have a electronic background of any sort (obvious), but I have experiments myself. I got a regular 3-prong pot to work, it is just these extra prongs that were throwing me. I would love to take a course in this stuff, but unfortunately, it is not offered in my area (yes, I have checked).

I will let you know how it turns out once it is all connected.

Sweet success! Thank you so much. It goes pretty much through the entire cycle of bright to dim as it turns.

I was going to put an ON/OFF switch with another 3-prong POT when I couldn't get this 5 prong POT going, but this is great.

Now, since you have been so completely helpful, I am going ask one more favor - I want to find a source for a 5-prong pots like this online - but I want to make sure it is smaller and lighter than what I have, (which is about 1 inch high) - any suggestions?

Dunno. Wherabouts in the world are you ? If in the UK, Maplins do quite a range. Probably Farnell and RS as well. You can now order from them without being 'trade'. If in the US, Digikey or Mouser, perhaps ? I would suggest that Google is your friend here ... Look for "pot with switch" and you probably are looking for ones with a linear rather than logarithmic taper. (Google that for a better understanding). Wiki have some very good sections on basic electronics. Try typing into their search box for articles that you might understand ok. The 'prongs' are called tags, or pins if it's a printed circuit mounting component. Be careful with going any 'lighter' duty on the component, as its (relatively) delicate guts may not be able to stand the current that the LED draws at high brightness. These days, pots tend to all be of the 'Japanese' variety that you show in your pictures, so you will probably struggle a bit to get a smaller one with a switch, in any case. Anyway, glad you got it going in the end, and hope you learnt something along the way

(even if it is just about top and bottom posting conventions ... d;~} )

Arfa

Hi Smiddy, how goes it ? Well, gotta do ya bit, you know ? I guess we were all electronically 'dumb' at one time. Hopefully, by giving the guy this one fish supper, I'll have encouraged him to go out and buy a rod ...

I would like to think that he understands at least a bit about it now, and at least he seems appreciative of the help he's received, unlike some on here. Like the one that I took the trouble to send schematics to a couple of weeks or so ago, who hasn't even had the courtesy to acknowledge the effort, let alone offer any thanks ...

Misguided ? Yeah, I've been that all my life. That's why I've got me a GPS now ... :-)

Arfa

Sure, I will bite, if only for Arfa sake because he doesn't seem grumpy.

How does that sound?

Arfa and others are good teachers. ;)

And Victory ought to be immensely grateful that so many busy people spent so much time helping him with Electricity 101.

If he's genuinely grateful, he'll pick up a few books and teach himself some more.