Resistor Color Code

Calculation.
City &Guild Telecommunication and Electronic Engineering (T1)

By Wasantha Kumara C &G London

Another example for a Carbon 22000 Ohms or 22 Kilo-Ohms also known as

22K at 5% tolerance:

Band 1 = Red, 1st digit

Band 2 = Red, 2nd digit
Band 3 = Orange, 3rd digit, multiply with zeros, in this case 3 zero's
Band 4 = Gold, Tolerance, 5%

Example for a Precision Metal Film 19200 Ohms or 19.2 Kilo Ohms also
known as 19K2 at 1% tolerance:

Band 1 = Brown, 1st digit

Band 2 = White, 2nd digit
Band 3 = Red, 3rd digit
Band 4 = Red, 4th digit, multiply with zeros, in this case 2 zero's
Band 5 = Brown, Tolerance, 1%
Band 6 = Blue, Temperature Coefficient, 6

The same color code is used for everything else, like coils, capacitors, RF-
chokes, etc. Again, just the color code associated with a number, like:
black=0 brown=1 red=2, etc, etc.

Can you 'create' your own resistors and it is not difficult.

Here is how to do it: Draw a line on a piece of paper with a soft pencil, HB
or 2HB will do fine. Make the line thick and about 2 inches (5cm) long.
With your millimeters, measure the ohm's value of this line by putting a
probe on each side of the line, make sure the probes are touching the carbon
from the pencil. The value would probably be around the 800K to 1.5M
depending on your thickness of the line and what type of pencil lead is used.
If you double the line the resistance will drop considerably, if you erase
some of it (length-wise obviously) the resistance will increase. You can also
use carbon with silicon glue and when it dries measure the resistance. The
reason for mentioning these homebrew resistors is that this method was used
in World War II to fix equipment when no spare parts were available.

Step 1: Learn the colors.

The color 'Gold' is not featured in the above table. If the 3rd band is gold it
means multiplying by 0.1. Example, 1.2 ohm @ 5% would be brown-red-
gold-gold. 12 multiplied by 0.1 gives 1.2 Don't get confused by gold as a
resistance or a tolerance value. Just watch the location/position of the band.
Step 2: Learn the tolerances.

Step 3: Do the exercises below.

Colors I used for 'Gold, Orange, Gray, and Silver'

 1st band, denominator: Brown (1)

 2nd band, denominator: Black (0)
 3rd band, how many zeros (1)
 4th band, tolerance in %: gold (5)
 Answer: 1 0 1 = 100 ohm, 5% tolerance

To get familiarized with abbreviations in values, I used below 4700 or 4K7,

1000 or 1K, which is all the same. Every thousand (1000) is called a 'K'
which stands for 'Kilo'. The 'M' stands for 'Mega' (million). 1 Mega is 1000K
or 1000 000 ohms. So 4K7 means 4 thousand and 7 hundred or 4700 ohms.
6K8 means 6 thousand and 8 hundred or 6800 ohm.
1M2 means 1million and 200.000 or 1.200000 ohms. 1K92=1.92K=1920
ohms, 100E=100 ohms, 19K3=19.3K=19300 ohms, 1M8=1.8Metc. These
abbreviations you find everywhere in the industry, schematics, diagrams and
whatever. It is normal and takes a bit of time to get used to.

 Ohm's Law. R is Resistance, V is Volt, I is Current.

  

There are two resistor body colors which you should know what they are if
you are thinking of repairing electronic circuits. These body colors are
white, and are used to indicate non-flammable and/or fusible resistor types.
It is important to know not to replace these with ordinary type resistors. The
non-flammable types are there for a reason (they don't burn when
overheated) and just replacing it with a normal type resistor may create a
fire-hazard or worse. The fusible types are usually white with one black
band in the middle of the body. So if you are looking for the 'fuses' check
these out. They are less than 0.1 ohm, carbon.
In the case of surface mount resistors; since they are so tiny they feature the
same coding as on capacitors.
For example, if it says 103 this means 10 Kilo-ohm (10 + 3 zeros), 104
means 10 + 4 zeros (100K), 222 means 22 + 2 zeros (2K2).

E24 Standard Series Values (5%)

1.0 10 100 1.0K (1K0) 10K 100K 1.0M(1M0) 10M

1.1 11 110 1.1K (1K1) 11K 110K 1.1M(1M1) 11M
1.2 12 120 1.2K (1K2) 12K 120K 1.2M(1M2) 12M
1.3 13 130 1.3K (1K3) 13K 130K 1.3M(1M3) 13M
1.5 15 150 1.5K (1K5) 15K 150K 1.5M(1M5) 15M
1.6 16 160 1.6K (1K6) 16K 160K 1.6M(1M6) 16M
1.8 18 180 1.8K (1K8) 18K 180K 1.8M(1M8) 18M
2.0 20 200 2.0K (2K0) 20K 200K 2.0M(2M0) 20M
2.2 22 220 2.2K (2K2) 22K 220K 2.2M(2M2) 22M
2.4 24 240 2.4K (2K4) 24K 240K 2.4M(2M4)
2.7 27 270 2.7K (2K7) 27K 270K 2.7M(2M7)
3.0 30 300 3.0K (3K0) 30K 300K 3.0M(3M0)
3.3 33 330 3.3K (3K3) 33K 330K 3.3M(3M3)
3.6 36 360 3.6K (3K6) 36K 360K 3.6M(3M6)
3.9 39 390 3.9K (3K9) 39K 390K 3.9M(3M9)
4.3 43 430 4.3K (4K3) 43K 430K 4.3M(4M0)
4.7 47 470 4.7K (4K7) 47K 470K 4.7M(4M7)
5.1 51 510 5.1K (5K1) 51K 510K 5.1M(5M1)
5.6 56 560 5.6K (5K6) 56K 560K 5.6M(5M6)
6.2 62 620 6.2K (6K2) 62K 620K 6.2M(6M2)
6.8 68 680 6.8K (6K8) 68K 680K 6.8M(6M8)
7.5 75 750 7.5K (7K5) 75K 750K 7.5M(7M5)
8.2 82 820 8.2K (8K2) 82K 820K 8.2M(8M2)
9.1 91 910 9.1K (9K1) 91K 910K 9.1M(9M1)