So my true Newbie side is beginning to show...

[Hal]

although I try to hide it usually...

OH GREAT GURUS!
How do you read the color code on a metal film resistor, that has 5 color bands?  I have a bunch ready to be soldered off...but...those are the little blue (maybe green?) ones, right ?

thanks for quenching my stupidity!

[william]

I always use the web to figure out what value the resistors are supposed to be at.  http://www.electrician.com/resist_calc/resist_calc.htm  Is a pretty good java based calculator.

[Hal]

thanks, but thats only for resistors with 4 bands, not 5....and there's no distinct tolerance band on these ones... :roll:  :roll:

[william]

Do they look like the little blue one all the way on the left like in this picture.  If they do then they may be capacitors.  I do believe small capacitors use more bands than resistors use to show their values.  Sorry about the size of the image.

William.

http://209.240.71.22/circuit/bass_Pre/bassPre_components.gif

[Kilby]

The calculators section at the link below covers the five band resistor values.

The link also has more useful calculators than you can shake a plastic daffodil at.


http://www.electronics2000.co.uk/

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

If in doubt.. MEASURE! saves time in the long run, I'm often suprised
When I'm doing a run of boards I work straight off a roll of resistors.. but, when they are loose, I give them a check. With a blue background, and fluro light, who can tell brown from red? and 10% of us here are

[bwanasonic]

although I try to hide it usually...

OH GREAT GURUS!
How do you read the color code on a metal film resistor, that has 5 color bands?  I have a bunch ready to be soldered off...but...those are the little blue (maybe green?) ones, right ?

No great guru am I, but I have the magic device called DMM! Cast all doubt aside! Even strange resistors with no stripes at all are no match for this mystical device!

Kerry M

[Hooch]

Hey I am a newbie too but I just finished up with an electronics class at work.  The first three bands are for value, the fourth is for tolerance, and the fifth is for reliablity or failure rate (usually .001 per 1000 hours) and is usually for military spec.

[Zero the hero]

the first second and third color are the figures, the fourth is the multiplier and the fifth is the tolerance.
for example a 150k resistor:
brown - green -yellow - "tolerance" on four stripes resistors
brown - green - black - orange - "tolerance" on five stripes resistors

When in doubt, use an ohm-meter!

[Neutral]

This Resistor decoder is a good one, it can handle all types and is very user friendly and informative:
http://www.tkb-4u.com/code/resist/resist.php

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

.....10% of members here are colorblind, is what I meant to say! so that's another vote for measuring. Though you can be lucky, I put a 150K resitor into a ckt instead of a 15K and got the wider sweep I was looking for!! maybe we should try doubling each resistor in the next box just in case!

[B Tremblay]

.....10% of members here are colorblind, is what I meant to say!

I was hoping you were going to say that only 10% of us are still sane.

[David]

That number is now below 9%.

They're coming to take me away, ha-ha, they're coming to take me...   :wink:

[petemoore]

Someone mentioned useing a DMM to test every resistor in a project, and I started doing just that.
 I did notice that I made fewer [none] mistakes compared to using the read colors method, plus I can now identify any [standard] resistor without having to look at the code by the colors.
 Now I mainly test resistors in voltage dividers [Seems like two closely mated ones would get closer to the 4.5v I'm often after [dont' know how critical this is but I decided to keep doing it].
 I have so many 'worn out' resistor rolls I'm building resistors from the remaining values once in a while and use the DMM for that.

[Hal]

Sorry it took so long to guide this....crazy busy..

So yea, here's a picture..
They're deff. resistors.  And I know I can use a AMM (mine's analog haha)but thats crazy and stuff





I know its hard to see, but the colors on the one to the left is:
green brown brown black brown.  Not too sure where to read from...
the next is brown red red orange yellow

and no, teh second color is not repeated on all of them.

Thanks![/img]

[Hal]

oops, that pic doesn't work...
The URL is:
http://www.geocities.com/bighandedbob/board.jpg

[Hal]

Bounce

[Ansil]

.....10% of members here are colorblind, is what I meant to say!

I was hoping you were going to say that only 10% of us are still sane.

isn't that a little high there...  aiming just a little high i would say

[computerjones]

im pretty sure the "brown" is the 1% tolerence code, or am i missing something?  if so, the reading starts from the other end.