Slider Troubleshooting

Having physically checked your sliders with an ohm meter before installation and knowing they have the range of 0 to 10000 ohms you can check the Nodekit patches to see if they are picking up the correct values (0-255) in the Arduio node.

If you are having problems with your sliders you can look into the Nodekit to see what values are being generated. If you are in fullscreen drawing mode press Alt-F to reduce screen so you can pull up the Nodekit window. Look for the Arduino2 interface in the far west area of nodes.

Move all your sliders to one side. You should see values change on all sliders. The value should be 0 or 255. Move sliders to opposite side. The value should be 255 or 0.

If you are not getting the full range check that your screws holding the sliders in are not interfering with the range of travel. If screws are too tight they may be making contact with the potentiometer wires and preventing the value to change properly or less than full range.

If a value does not change at all you most likely have a break (or bad solder joint) in the voltage circuit wiring or the input wire into the Arduino has come loose or pulled out.

Move one slider at a time to notice value change. Make sure only 1 value changes. If more than one slider value changes it indicates a short between 2 sliders or input pins. A small hair of wire can make another slider vary if it connects 2 or more sliders.

Some people who followed the Tagtool Mini DIY tutorial experienced a problem where the Arduino node receives values, but they behave strangely: the values don't change much until the last part of the slider travel, after that they change very rapidly - and the values don't reach the minimum (0) and maximum (255). Also, when all sliders are moved to the maximum position, the Arduino stops working. This problem is because the connections with the two contacts on the slider potentiometer need to be swapped - different potentiometers have different contact layouts.