Matching pots, encoders and knobs.

[Psi]

Hey, I'm having trouble finding a matching pot and encoder for the front panel of something i'm building.
I'm going to make the units in bulk, so dirty tricks of mounting things half off the pcb to compensate for size issues isn't practical.
They really have to match properly so they are easy to assemble

Are there any better places to look for pots/encoders than digikey?

eg
They need to match in terms of
- Shaft height from pcb if right angle (so both end up at matching height)  -or-  total height if vertical mount (so the top panel sits flat across both pot and encoder)
- Shaft length/diameter
- Shaft type, (slotted, rounded, flattend, knurled etc)
- Threaded section for typical mounting nut


I'm also having trouble finding a good selection of matching knobs to pick for the encoder and pot.
The pot knob needs an indicator arrow (or line) but the encoder knob should be blank on top.
About 90 percent of the knobs i find look really old fashioned.
Also the digikey knobs are mostly imperial sizes while the digikey encoders are mostly metric.

It all seems to be a lot harder than it really should be.

Does anyone have any tips for finding and buying pots, encoders + knobs for them?

Thanks

 

[slateraptor]

Indeed, it would be unrealistic and quite difficult to find a physically matching set between two different vendors of specialized components with non-standard packaging for self-evident reasons. Without going custom spec, your best bet it probably cross-referencing individual vendor websites directly. If you haven't already checked, Alps (www.alps.com) might be a good starting point as they manufacture both pots and encoders.

Nevertheless, it sounds like you're looking for a custom-spec solution without the custom-spec price tag...which is asymptotic to having your cake and eating it too.

[Psi]

Nevertheless, it sounds like you're looking for a custom-spec solution without the custom-spec price tag...which is asymptotic to having your cake and eating it too.

hehe yeah

[sonicj]

I'm also having trouble finding a good selection of matching knobs to pick for the encoder and pot.
The pot knob needs an indicator arrow (or line) but the encoder knob should be blank on top.
About 90 percent of the knobs i find look really old fashioned.
Also the digikey knobs are mostly imperial sizes while the digikey encoders are mostly metric.

browse through some of these
-sj