Learning Aid - resistors

[Enzo]

I found this in Embedded Electronics Journal, and it may help you learn the resistor color codes.

Graphical Resistance Calculator

Set the colors on the resistor image and it tells you the resistance.

Very simple.

[Steve Conner]

There are dozens of mnemonics for remembering the colour code, most of them un-PC or even unprintable.

Electronic color code - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The one I remember ends "... But Virgins Go Without"

[mike_mccue]

thanks for the link.

Now if I could just tell what color the bands on the resistors really are? The bands mostly all look blurry and sort of mud colored to my eyes these days.

best,
mike

[Enzo]

Yep there are lots of memory aids. I Have hired and fired technicians over the years, and at interview, one of the first things I do is check the general knowledge, "Here, read this color code." I had a guy once looked at the resistor I handed him them started reciting aloud, "Our bad boys..."

When A was a kid, I just learned them, I never had a mnemonic. I remember yellow/purple was the first pair I managed to internalize. I knew that was 47 even when I couldn;t quite remember what blue/gray was. And it didn;t take long for the others to fill in, until one day I just knew them.

But I did have - aside from the chart in a book - a little cardboard resistor calculator things that worked just like this thing I have linked to above. You turned three little cardboard wheels so the right color appeared in an opening in a picture of a resistor. Then numbers appeared in other openings. I used to look up the ones I was not sure of. Like green. What is that darn green anyway?

[Old Tele man]

The one I remember ends "... But Virgins Go Without"

...ours (USN) ended with "...Violet Gives Willingly..." and the tolerances were: "...Get Some Now..." for Gold(5%), Silver(10%), None(20%).

...not PC, but VERY rememberable, for sure!

[Robert M. Martinelli]

...ours (USN) ended with "...Violet Gives Willingly..." and the tolerances were: "...Get Some Now..." for Gold(5%), Silver(10%), None(20%).

...not PC, but VERY rememberable, for sure!

Well, according to what you and Steve said, Sigmund Freud was definitely right !!

Cheers

Bob

[dumbassbob]

Resistor Guide

Thought I would bring this up to the top again. Great for a dumbass like me

[JHow]

Started out with a wheely thing like Enzo mentioned. Then just learned the codes, which was great until I got older and now can't read them very well, so I pretty much measure them all anyway before soldering.

[jrfrond]

Yep there are lots of memory aids. I Have hired and fired technicians over the years, and at interview, one of the first things I do is check the general knowledge, "Here, read this color code." I had a guy once looked at the resistor I handed him them started reciting aloud, "Our bad boys..."

When A was a kid, I just learned them, I never had a mnemonic. I remember yellow/purple was the first pair I managed to internalize. I knew that was 47 even when I couldn;t quite remember what blue/gray was. And it didn;t take long for the others to fill in, until one day I just knew them.

But I did have - aside from the chart in a book - a little cardboard resistor calculator things that worked just like this thing I have linked to above. You turned three little cardboard wheels so the right color appeared in an opening in a picture of a resistor. Then numbers appeared in other openings. I used to look up the ones I was not sure of. Like green. What is that darn green anyway?

LOL! Same here. I didn't have a funny mnemonic to recite either, though a couple of them ARE hysterical! Back then, you just kinda learned it verbatim. And I believe I STILL have that cardboard wheel thing from Radio Shack around somewhere. You know how techs are. We NEVER throw anything away!

Here is a cool site with a lot of Javascript calculators for electronics. It's always good to have them available:

Bowden's Hobby Circuits

[Enzo]

I am a sucker for all the various little cardboard sliderule sorts of things.

[CraigW]

I still have my original RS calculator with the 3 wheels, I bet it is close to 30 years old now.

[Sock Puppet]

now can't read them very well, so I pretty much measure them all anyway before soldering.

Ha Ha - me too.

Body Tip Spot.

[Ronsonic]

One of our counter wenches decided that this being the 21st Century and all there should be a more polite mnemonic, Beautiful Begonias Rise Over Your Garden But Violets Grow Wild. Which apparently I could remember. She never did cure us of some of our job titles.

I'm somewhat color vision impaired. Which is actually a bit more trouble reassembling mixers than dealing with resistors.

Solder Monkey

[Axtman]

I wish that I could find an online resistor color quiz...especially one with a timer. I know the code pretty good but still have to resort to the color code poster on the wall.

BTW As procedure I always check the reistor with a VOM before installing it. I find many resitors that are out of tolerance.....and I have no tolerance for that! ;-) Yesterday I check a 2 watt carbon comp that should have been 220 ohms (red red brown) it tested out at 458 ohms!

[jrfrond]

I wish that I could find an online resistor color quiz...especially one with a timer. I know the code pretty good but still have to resort to the color code poster on the wall.

BTW As procedure I always check the reistor with a VOM before installing it. I find many resitors that are out of tolerance.....and I have no tolerance for that! ;-) Yesterday I check a 2 watt carbon comp that should have been 220 ohms (red red brown) it tested out at 458 ohms!

That's not out-of-tolerance, that is plain mismarked. It was probably meant for the 470 ohm bin.

As far as fluency in the color code goes, just practice it yourself. Get out a bunch of resistors and blow through them, reading them as fast as you can. Eventually, it will become a second language to you. BTW- if you haven't noticed this yet, once you get past black and brown (0-1), you are roughly into the spectral (rainbow) colors (2-3-4-5-6-7), until you get to grey and white (8-9). Don't know if this helps.

My wife recently purchased this rainbow-themed set of Tupperware bowls. I think she wonders why, when I put them away, they are stacked in "order" every single time. Then again, I line up my shoes too.