Why I hate metal film resistors!

[plexi12000]

Why aren't they color coded the SAME as other resistors?!  Grrr- dang that's annoying.  hahahaha 

[Ben Lyman]

I was wondering what was up with that just last night! I've never used them before, just grabbed them out of my pre-labeled pile, then tried to read them later when I was cleaning up... could NOT figure out what they were! So... what is it? A couple color bands on the left and then a black+red bands= multiply by 3? Instead of just using an orange band? I'm confused

[amptramp]

In the good old days of 1930's radios, the resistor markings were simple.  Just remember BED = body, end, dot.  The body colour was the first digit, the end was the second digit and the dot in the middle was the multiplier.  Right now I am looking at a red body, green end and orange dot.  25K.  Most of the metal film resistors I have in my stock have the resistance printed as a number on the side so 1003 would be 100K and 6141 would be 6140 ohms.

[R.G.]

It's really simple. They **are** coded the same way as other resistors, at least the color-banded ones are.

It's the same BBROYGBVGW code. It's just that for 1%, you need one more band. The first **three** bands are numbers, the fourth band is the number of zeros.

Mother Nature (and the resistor manufacturers) are just offering you some light mental exercise.

A sneakier and quicker way is to leave your ohmmeter on and weight the probes down so you can just drop a resistor across the metal  ends and read the resistor directly.

Sometimes cheating is faster.   

[plexi12000]

just from memory.....i was looking at some 33k's last night.  i think it was orange-orange-black-black.  the 10k's i have are similair....black-yellow and more black.

others are the same.  the first band is usually "correct", maybe two....then the rest are ""different".

i like the carbon's...i have lots of those memorized and don't get them mixed up by accident! 

[bloxstompboxes]

You could be like me and be colorblind. I label everything from the start and I don't remove it from the package until it is needed. I then staple it closed or reseal it if it is a resealable bag type. Everything is labeled ahead of time. Even parts bins have the color coded parts still in the labeled bag. If one of my kids, or the wife, decided to knock over my parts bins, I'm ok and they don't get mixed up.

The things us handicapped people have to go through. I wonder if I could get a handicap sticker/tag for my truck?

[duck_arse]

the 1% that always gets me reads, from the right - brown - black - black - black - brown. I never know which end is which.

[Cozybuilder]

The 12K's too- brown red black red brown

[anotherjim]

The dark background colour messes them up for me, Purple/Violet sometimes seems brown. Then again I've had carbon resistors with orange looking like red or vice-versa.

BTW, having difficulty telling purples and browns apart is, I'm told, a sign of cataracts developing. I do!
Also, of course, we're told that men do not do colour shades. I suppose we should be glad we don't have to distinguish between malachite and teal - they're all green to me!

As I usually get them on tape bandoleer, I read & measure then write on the tape.

[J0K3RX]

Metal film really suck if you're color blind...  My meter is my friend!

[wavley]

I have an old meter on my bench that I leave on just for double checking resistors before I solder them in just in case I read a color wrong.  I'm a bit red green color blind so both brown and blue resistors give me a little trouble sometimes, so I actually do exactly what RG suggests, there are two probes on my bench just for dropping resistors on.

[plexi12000]

You could be like me and be colorblind. I label everything from the start and I don't remove it from the package until it is needed. I then staple it closed or reseal it if it is a resealable bag type. Everything is labeled ahead of time. Even parts bins have the color coded parts still in the labeled bag. If one of my kids, or the wife, decided to knock over my parts bins, I'm ok and they don't get mixed up.

The things us handicapped people have to go through. I wonder if I could get a handicap sticker/tag for my truck?

hahaha-- try it- it would be worth it to see the expression on the bureaucrats faces!

yeah....when i buy new ones now....i keep them 'catagorized'.  i have a few handfuls of older 'vintage' Iskra's in bags.....pain in the ass!  -lol

[Kipper4]

I too am colour blind. Which is why like the others I label stuff and use meter and componant tester to ensure correct values when needs be.
And yes I would much rather try reading the colour bands on carbon resistors if forced.
Although I think it's a great skill to have to be able to read the bands.

[bloxstompboxes]

I was so worried when I got this job that I was going to have to deal with color coded resistors, or anything for that matter. Luckily, the oldest product still made in the building is still mostly SMD with some through-hole transistors. It's funny, because my home theater system by the same parent company is loaded with through-hole resistors.

[Quackzed]

i hate em too. its like you spend years learning math, then they move over to the 'new' math. 
its sadistic!  and isn't a 100k resistor still 100k??!!? just less imprecise? why do you need another band? doesn't the tolerance band do that job?!? i dont get it... imho it's annoying and less intuitive and i don't like it!!!

[MrStab]

i'll test a sample or two from a strip then just depend on bag labelling, because like some of the other guys, i'm partly colourblind. and sometimes the lines wiggle, but i think that bit was my own fault.

breadboarding can be quite wasteful sometimes when you strip everything off it and it's far too much effort to measure each part, but i do make an effort to salvage & test resistors from circuit regions i recognise.

[Electric Warrior]

I'm not colorblind and still have troubles reading them. Much prefer carbon films or carbon comps.

[antonis]

I assume that you don't use your Ohm-meter when populating a board...

[Electric Warrior]

I do. 

[Vitrolin]

im not shure i understand the problem for those who dont have problems with colour blindness.
if you know the colour code its quite easy its almost the same...
theres added the tolerance and sometimes (6-bands) the temperature coeffecient.
you'll get used to it pretty fast,
remember the wider band is to be ignored if you just want the value, it also indicates last digit..


but yes i also use a multimeter when tired and/or lazy