The color code Some resistors have color bands that indicate their values and tolerances.

Youll see three, four, or five bands around carbon-composition resistors and film resistors. Other units are large enough so that the values can be printed on them in ordinary numerals. On resistors with axial leads, the bands (first, second, third, fourth, fifth) are arranged as shown in Fig. 6-12A. On resistors with radial leads, the bands are arranged as shown in Fig. 6-12B. The first two bands represent numbers 0 through 9; the third band represents a multiplier of 10 to some power. For the moment, dont worry about the fourth and fifth bands.

6-12 At A, location of color-code bands on a resistor with axial leads. At B,location of color codings on a resistor having radial leads. Refer to Table 6-1. The color code 113 Color of band Table 6-1 Resistor color code Numeral Multiplier (Bands no.1 and 2.) Band no.3 0 1 2 3 4 5 1 10 100 1K 10K 100K

Black Brown Red Orange Yellow Green

Blue 6 1M Violet 7 10M Gray 8 100M White 9 1000M See text for discussion of bands no. 4 and 5. Suppose you find a resistor whose first three bands are yellow, violet, and red, in that order. Then the resistance is 4,700 or 4.7 K. Read yellow _4, violet _7, red _ 100. As another example, suppose you stick your hand in a bag and pull out a unit with bands of blue, gray, orange. Refer to Table 6-1 and determine blue _6, gray _8, orange _ 1000. Therefore, the value is 68,000 = 68 K. After a few hundred real-life experiences with this color code, youll have it memorized. If you arent going to be using resistors that often, you can always keep a copy of Table 6-1 handy and use it when you need it. The fourth band, if there is one, indicates tolerance. If its silver, it means the resistor is rated at plus or minus 10 percent. If its gold, the resistor is rated at plus or minus 5 percent. If there is no fourth band, the resistor is rated at plus or minus 20 percent. The fifth band, if there is one, indicates the percentage that the value might change in 1,000 hours of use. A brown band indicates a maximum change of 1 percent of the rated value. A red band indicates 0.1 percent; an orange band indicates 0.01 percent; a yellow band indicates 0.001 percent. If there is no fifth band, it means that the resistor might deviate by more than 1 percent of the rated value after 1,000 hours of use. A good engineer always tests a resistor with an ohmmeter before installing it. If the unit happens to be labeled wrong, its easy to catch while assembling a complex electronic circuit. But once the circuit is all together, and it wont work because some resistor is mislabeled (and this happens), its a gigantic pain to find the problem.