hello,

Currently i am working on a project where i plan to place a potentiometer behind a clock face, so that turning the hands with control the playing of audio files.

Therefore i need the potentiometer to be able to turn 360degrees after this returning itself to 0vaule for another complete turn.

Does anyone know if this kind of potentiometer is available and where i would be able to get my hands on one.

Thanks

a standard dc hobby motor could work. You apply positive dc current to get it to rotate one way, negative the other, and the inverse is true as well. So you can turn the shaft of the motor and get a small voltage out. Hook that up to an arduino, or some other adc device, and rock out!

The best solution might be a rotary encoder. Sometimes called a shaft encoder. You can buy them at many surplus electronics websites, remove one from an old mouse, or DIY. The encoder will not reset itself to zero every turn, but instead will keep going forever, but you can wrap the count in software. Also, if you still want a pot; you can actually hack them so that they will do exactly what you want. This involves taking the pot apart and finding the bit that makes it 'stick' all the way to one side.

Oh, you can also use a stepper motor from a floppy drive...

Rotary encoder will give the best results.

I'm actually building one right now; plexi, threaded rods, a bearing, and enclosure from old test equipment. I've been in the basement breathing smoking plexi all day. You could use my method (cutting plexi with dremel) to build a custom encoder wheel which could be threaded onto the clock mechanism. All you need then is a hacked mouse, or a couple of slot detectors and some basic logic...

http://www.societyofrobots.com/sensors_encoder.shtml