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EE2166-01-Resistor Color Code

The document explains the resistor color code which uses four colored bands to indicate a resistor's

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Ruth Mayled
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177 views3 pages

EE2166-01-Resistor Color Code

The document explains the resistor color code which uses four colored bands to indicate a resistor's

Uploaded by

Ruth Mayled
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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EE 2166

Experiment #1: Resistor Color Code

The resistor is perhaps the most fundamental of all electrical devices. Its fundamental
attribute is the restriction of electrical current flow: The greater the resistance, the greater
the restriction of current. Resistance is measured in ohms. The measurement of
resistance in unpowered circuits may be performed with a digital multimeter. Like all
components, resistors cannot be manufactured to perfection. That is, there will always be
some variance of the true value of the component when compared to its nameplate or
nominal value. For precision resistors, typically 1% tolerance or better, the nominal value
is usually printed directly on the component. Normally, general purpose components, i.e.,
those worse than 1%, usually use a color code to indicate their value.

The resistor color code typically uses 4 color bands. The first two bands indicate the
precision values (i.e., the mantissa) while the third band indicates the power of ten applied
(i.e., the number of zeroes to add). The fourth band indicates the tolerance. It is possible
to find resistors with five or six bands, but they will not be examined in this exercise.
Examples are shown below:

It is important to note that the physical size of the resistor indicates its power dissipation
rating, not its ohmic value.

Each color in the code represents a numeral. It starts with black and finishes with white,
going through the rainbow in between:

0 Black 5 Green
1 Brown 6 Blue
2 Red 7 Violet
3 Orange 8 Gray
4 Yellow 9 White

1: Resistor Color Code 1


For the fourth, or tolerance, band:

5% Gold
10% Silver
20% None

For example, a resistor with the color code brown-red-orange-silver would correspond to
1 2 followed by 3 zeroes, or 12,000 ohms (more conveniently, 12 k ohms). It would have
a tolerance of 10% of 12 k ohms or 1200 ohms. This means that the actual value of any
resistor with this code could be anywhere between 12,000 − 1200=10,800, to 12,000 +
1200=13,200. That is, 10.8 k to 13.2 k ohms. Note, the IEC standard replaces the decimal
point with the engineering prefix, thus 1.2 k is alternately written 1k2.

Similarly, a 470 k 5% resistor would have the color code yellow-violet-yellow-gold. To help
remember the color code many mnemonics have been created using the first letter of the
colors to create a sentence. One example is the picnic mnemonic Black Bears Robbed
Our Yummy Goodies Beating Various Gray Wolves.

Procedure:
1. Given the nominal values and tolerances in Table 1, determine and record the
corresponding color code bands.
2. Given the color codes in Table 2, determine and record the nominal value,
tolerance and the minimum and maximum acceptable values.

Table 1
Value Band 1 Band 2 Band 3 Band 4
27 @ 10%
56 @ 10%
180 @ 5%
390 @ 10%
390 @ 10%
1.5 k @ 20%
3.6 k @ 10%
7.5 k @ 5%
10 k @ 5%
47 k @ 10%
820 k @ 10%
2.2 M @ 20 %

Table 2
Colors Nominal Tolerance Minimum Maximum
red-red-black-silver
blue-gray-black-gold
brown-green-brown-gold
orange-orange-brown-silver
green-blue-brown –gold

1: Resistor Color Code 2


brown-red-red–silver
red-violet-red–silver
gray-red-red–gold
brown-black-orange–gold
orange-orange-orange–silver
blue-gray-yellow–none
green-black-green-silver

Question:
1. What could be the possible problem(s) when you measured a certain resistor and
found out that the reading from an ohmmeter is outside the stated tolerance?
2. What are the signs that a resistor is defective?

Conclusion:

1: Resistor Color Code 3

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