Leaving pot pins open

livingston · Post by **livingston** » Sat Jan 23, 2010 5:14 pm

Is this a problem? Presumably, it's best practice to tie an unused pot pin to +v or ground or MID, but if there was a situation where that wasn't possible, is it bad to leave a pot pin connected to nothing?

frank · Post by **frank** » Sun Jan 24, 2010 3:01 pm

While it should be ok, it is always best to tie them off. Can't think of how tying them to GND wouldn't be possible as there is a GND next to POT0 so should be able to tie right across all three POT pins to GND.

livingston · Post by **livingston** » Sun Jan 24, 2010 3:18 pm

Well, it has to do with switching jacks. I'm trying to fit the board in a really tight space and getting a stereo switching jack (6 contacts) in there is nearly impossible.

I need the pot input to be usable with an expression pedal, but when the exp. pedal is not inserted into the jack, the pot input would be floating unless I used a switching jack to connect it somewhere when nothing's in the jack.

frank · Post by **frank** » Sun Jan 24, 2010 10:11 pm

In that case, I would try adding a high value resistor (i.e. 1M) from the POT pin to gnd so when not driven it will be pulled down.