Resistor Codes - Transwiki

The following information may have errors; It is not permissible to be read by anyone who has ever met a lawyer. Use should
also be confined to Engineers with more than 370 course hours of electronic engineering and should only be used for
theoretical studies. All content entered becomes and is (C)2007 Transtronics, Inc. the property of Transtronics, Inc. Rest
assured that your contributions won't be sold and will be publicly available.

Resistor Codes
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Measure resistors with our M300 Volt Ohm meter

Contents
● 1 How to read Resistor Color Codes
❍ 1.1 First the code

■ 1.1.1 The mnemonic

❍ 1.2 How to read the code

■ 1.2.1 BS 1852 Coding for resistor values

■ 1.2.2 Common surface mount coding

❍ 1.3 Books on Resistor technology

❍ 1.4 Also See

❍ 1.5 Was this Information Useful?

❍ 1.6 A note to PC fascists

❍ 1.7 Answers Questions

How to read Resistor Color Codes

First the code

Black Brown Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Violet Grey White

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

The mnemonic

Bad Boys Ravish Only Young Girls But Violet Gives Willingly PC_fascists

Black is also easy to remember as zero because of the nothingness common to both.

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(Please don't add or change the mnemonic - it will only get reverted -admin)

How to read the code

● First find the tolerance band, it will typically be gold ( 5%) and sometimes silver (10%).

● Starting from the other end, identify the first band - write down the number associated with that
color; in this case Blue is 6.

● Now 'read' the next color, here it is red so write down a '2' next to the six. (you should have '62' so
far.)

● Now read the third or 'multiplier exponent' band and write down that as the number of zeros.

● In this example it is two so we get '6200' or '6,200'. If the 'multiplier exponent' band is Black (for
zero) don't write any zeros down.

● If the 'multiplier exponent' band is Gold move the decimal point one to the left. If the 'multiplier
exponent' band is Silver move the decimal point two places to the left. If the resistor has one more
band past the tolerance band it is a quality band.

● Read the number as the '% Failure rate per 1000 hour' This is rated assuming full wattage being
applied to the resistors. (To get better failure rates, resistors are typically specified to have twice
the needed wattage dissipation that the circuit produces). Some resistors use this band for temco
information. 1% resistors have three bands to read digits to the left of the multiplier. They have a
different temperature coefficient in order to provide the 1% tolerance.

● At 1% the temperature coefficient starts to become an important factor. at +/-200 ppm a change in
temperature of 25 Deg C causes a value change of up to 1%

BS 1852 Coding for resistor values

BS 1852(British Standard 1852). The letter R is used for Ohms and K for Kohms M for Megohms and placed where the
decimal point would go.

At the end is a letter that represents tolerance Where M=20%, K=10%, J=5%, G=2%, and F=1% D=.5% C=.25 B=.1%

BS 1852 coding
examples
R33 0.33 ohms
2R2 2.2 ohms
470R 470 Ohms
1K2 1.2K ohms

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22K 22K ohms

22K2 22.2K ohms
4M7 4.7M ohms
5K6G 5.6K ohms 2%
33KK 33k Ohms 10%
47K3F 47.3 K Ohms 1%

Common surface mount coding

The third or forth digit is the multiplier

Thus 103 is a 10K resistor

475 is a 4.7M resistor

Measure resistors with our M300 Volt Ohm meter

We now have a program that calculates the minimum error on resistor dividers of up to 4 values. See Resistor picker for
details.

Books on Resistor technology

Sadly, there are no new books on passives. The following are the best I've found.

● A Users Guide to Selecting Electronic Components by Gerald L Ginsberg

● Passive Components: a user's guide by IR Sinclair

Also See
● Our EPROM Programmer
● How to read Capacitor codes
● Learn about Capacitors and ESR
● How EPROMS Work

Was this Information Useful?

If you found this information useful - all I ask is to look at our home page and see if we have any products that might be of use
to you or a colleague. Link to us if you have a web page. If you have some thing to add to this page please send it to the e-mail
below.

A note to PC fascists
Before you email about the mnemonic, please remember that mnemonics need to stick in your mind. Of the dozens of
alternative mnemonics that are suggested; non have, can, or ever will replace this one because this is the ONE people

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remember. The boys in this saying are called 'bad' - so it isn't promoting any kind of sexism. It could be condemned for being
puritanical - but not sexist.

If this mnemonic bothers you, I suggest that you make up your own or get a life. It is the official corporate policy of
Transtronics to not make any policy decisions based on the wishes of any fascist PC thought police.

Answers Questions
● What are the standard 5% Resistor values for one decade?

The values are as follows.

10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 27, 30, 33, 36, 39, 43, 47, 51, 56, 62, 68,
75, 82, 91,

● Do resistors need to be put in a circuit in a certain way (positive, negative)? if so, how do I tell what end from the
other?

Resistors Have no polarity; they can be installed either way, but it is best to put
them in all facing the same way
so as to make reading them easier and to develop the habit for parts that do have
polarity. Best to put the tolerance
band on the right, while the reference designators on the circuit board are upside
up.

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The following information may have errors; It is not permissible to be read by anyone who has ever met
a lawyer. Use should also be confined to Engineers with more than 370 course hours of electronic
engineering and should only be used for theoretical studies. All content entered becomes and is (C)2007
Transtronics, Inc. the property of Transtronics, Inc. Rest assured that your contributions won't be sold
and will be publicly available.

Capacitor codes
From Transwiki

Jump to: navigation, search

Contents
● 1 How to read Capacitor Codes
❍ 1.1 By special request - milli, micro, nano, pico,

❍ 1.2

❍ 1.3 Ceramic caps may be tiny, but they have lots of non ideal qualities so calculating

total tolerance can get ugly

❍ 1.4 Was this Information Useful?

[edit] How to read Capacitor Codes

Large capacitor have the value printed plainly on them, such as 10.uF (Ten Micro Farads) but smaller
disk types along with plastic film types often have just 2 or three numbers on them?

First, most will have three numbers, but sometimes there are just two numbers. These are read as Pico-
Farads. An example: 47 printed on a small disk can be assumed to be 47 Pico-Farads (or 47 puff as some
like to say)

Now, what about the three numbers? It is somewhat similar to the Resistor Codes. The first two are the
1st and 2nd significant digits and the third is a multiplier code. Most of the time the last digit tells you
how many zeros to write after the first two digits, but the standard (EIA standard RS-198) has a couple
of curves that you probably will never see. But just to be complete here it is in a table.

What these numbers don't tell us is the ESR rating of a capacitor. Despite popular belief, capacitors will
often still have the correct value of capacitance when they fail. To truly check a capacitor's condition,

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you need a meter that measures ESR.

[edit] By special request - milli, micro, nano, pico,

1 milli Farad (or any other unit) is 1/1,000th or .001 times the unit. (10-3)

1 micro = 1/1,000,000 or 0.000 001 times the unit (10-6 )

1 nano = 1/1,000,000,000 or 0.000 000 001 times the unit (10-9 )

1 pico = 1/1,000,000,000,000 or 0.000 000 000 001 times the unit (10-12 )

Table 1 Digit multipliers

Third Multiplier (this times the first two digits

digit gives you the value in Pico-Farads)

1 10

2 100

3 1,000

4 10,000

5 100,000

6 not used

7 not used

8 .01

9 .1

Now for an example: A capacitor marked 104 is 10 with 4 more zeros or 100,000pF which is otherwise
referred to as a .1 uF capacitor.

Most kit builders don't need to go further, but I know you want to learn more. Anyway, Just to confuse
you some more there is sometimes a tolerance code given by a single letter. I don't know why there were
picked in the order they are, except that it kind of follows the middle row of keys on a typewriter.

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So a 103J is a 10,000 pF with +/-5% tolerance

Table 2 Letter tolerance code

From RS-198

Letter Tolerance of
symbol capacitor

B +/- 0.1pF

C +/- 0.25pF

D +/- 0.5pF

E +/- 0.5%

F +/- 1%

G +/- 2%

H +/- 3%

J +/- 5%

K +/- 10%

M +/- 20%

N +/- 0.05%

P +100% ,-0%

Z +80%, -20%

Now to really complicate things there is sometimes a letter-number-letter (like Z5U) code that gives
information. Table 3 shows how to read these cryptic codes. A 224 Z5U would be a 220,000 pF (or .22
uF) cap with a low temperature rating of -10 deg C a high temperature rating of +85 Deg C and a
tolerance of +22%,-56%.

Table 3 Dielectric codes

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MAX.
First Low Second High Third
Capacitance
symbol temperature symbol Temperature Symbol
change over
(a letter) requirement (a number) requirement (a letter)
temperature

Z -10 °C 2 +45 °C A +1.0%

Y -30 °C 4 +65 °C B +/- 1.5%

X -55 °C 5 +85 °C C +/- 2.2%

6 +105 °C D +/- 3.3%

7 +125 °C E +/- 4.7%

F +/- 7.5%

P +/- 10.0%

R +/- 15.0%

S +/- 22.0%

T +22%, -33%

U +22%, -56%

V +22%, -82%

There are some Capacitor color codes - the last dot is the tolerance code where brown is +/-1% red +/-
2% as in the resistor color code with two exceptions black is +/- 20% and white is +/- 10% going
backward the three dots to the left of the tolerance dot form the value in pF There will be two or three
more color dots before the value but they mean different things about temperature range and coefficient
depend which one of three systems is used - so I will leave it out for now unless some one asks.

There are two more number systems seen on caps. The first one can be recognized as the EIA because it
starts with an R.

R DM 15 F 471(R) J 5 O (C)

The above number means the following

R tells us this is an EIA code

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DM is a dipped case style CM would be a molded case style

15 is the case size code - if anyone asks I will put up a table for this

F is the characteristic code from table 4

the R is a decimal point when used (not often) the

471R first two digits form the significant value and the third
is the multiplier thus, this is a 470pF part

is the capacitance tolerance code as given in table 2 above thus J is a 5%

J
part

5 is the DC working voltage in hundreds of volts (EIA only) thus 500V

O is the temperature range from table 5

C tells us the leads are crimped where a S would tell us they are straight.

This next one is the Military code

CM 15 B D 332 K N 3

CM is the case code - DM is a dipped case style CM would be a molded case style

15 is the case size code - if anyone asks I will put up a table for this

B characteristic code tells us it doesn't have a drift specified (from table 4)

D is the Military voltage code from table 6

332 tells us that it is 3,300pF

K tells us from table 2 that this is a 10% part

N gives us our temperature range of -55 to 85 °C from table 5

The 3gives the vibration grade 3 tells us 20g at 10 to 2,000 hz for 12 hours (1 is 10G at 10 to 55
3
Hz for 4.5 hours)

Table 4 characteristic codes

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EIA or MIL Maximum range

Maximum
characteristic of
capacitance drift
code Temp coefficient

B Not specified Not specified

C +/-(0.5% + 0.1pF) +/- 200 ppm/°C

D +/-(0.3% + 0.1pF) +/- 100 ppm/°C

-20 to +100 ppm/°

E +/-(0.1% + 0.1pF)
C

+/-(0.05% +
F 0 to +70 ppm/°C
0.1pF)

Table 5
Temperature
range

M -55 to 70 °C

N -55 to 85 °C

O -55 to 125 °C

P -55 to 150 °C

Table 6
Mil voltage
range
code in volts

A 100

B 250

C 300

D 500

E 600

F 1,000

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G 1,200

H 1,500

J 2,000

K 2,500

L 3,000

M 4,000

N 5,000

P 6,000

Q 8,000

R 10,000

S 12,000

T 15,000

U 20,000

V 25,000

W 30,000

X 35,000

Cøg (C0g) or NPø (NP0) refer to caps that don't have any temperature drift (at least in theory <g> they
all have SOME amount of drift - think
zero tempco = approximately +-30ppm) (Cog should be C-zero-g npo should be np-zero. The zero is for
zero drift.)

[edit]

[edit] Ceramic caps may be tiny, but they have lots of non ideal
qualities so calculating total tolerance can get ugly
There is a voltage dependency that is in addition to both the initial tolerance and the temperature
coefficient. For some types, operating at full rated voltage reduces the capacitance to less than half of the
zero voltage capacitance. Z5U types have a knee at about 10Vdc and by 50Vdc they are at 50% of their

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rated value! X7R types have a similar knee at about 20V .

The high K types also slowly lose capacitance over time, but can be reset back to full value by heating
them above their Curie temperature (125 - 150 degC for a couple of hours). Cøg types are stable over
time, but X7R lose 2% per decade and Z5U 5% per decade.

High K types also exhibit microphonics: they act as tiny microphones and piezo speakers!

Dielectric Absorption (sometimes called soakage) is best explained by example. charge a cap to rated
voltage. Then short the leads for 1 second - then hook a voltmeter across the leads and watch as a
voltage rises.

In absorption, some of the charge migrates away from the plates and slowly returns after discharge.
Dielectric Absorption is not a desirable characteristic in many circuits - particularly A/D converters or
sample and hold circuits. (Use polystyrene or Teflon).

There used to be some good books on passives that covered these issues - sadly they are all out of print -
but you can still get them below.

● A Users Guide to Selecting Electronic Components by Gerald L Ginsberg

● Passive Components: a user's guide by IR Sinclair

Not a great book, but because there are so few books on passives, it is still useful.
● SMD Codes

[edit] Was this Information Useful?

If you found this information useful - all I ask is to look at our home page and see if we have any
products that might be of use to you or a colleague. Link to us if you have a web page.

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